On the eve of its centennial, Carol Dawson and Roger Allen Polson present almost 100 years of history and never-before-seen photographs that track the development of the Texas Highway Department. An agency originally created “to get the farmer out of the mud,” it has gone on to build the vast network of roads that now connects every corner of the state. When the Texas Highway Department (now called the Texas Department of Transportation or TxDOT) was created in 1917, there were only about 200,000 cars in Texas traveling on fewer than a thousand miles of paved roads. Today, after 100 years of the Texas Highway Department, the state boasts over 80,000 miles of paved, state-maintained roads that accommodate more than 25 million vehicles. Sure to interest history enthusiasts and casual readers alike, decades of progress and turmoil, development and disaster, and politics and corruption come together once more in these pages, which tell the remarkable story of an infrastructure 100 years in the making.

“Reflects the great ethnic diversity of the contemporary Texas table, offering everything from Sauerbraten . . . to Crawfish Etouffee.” —The Austin Chronicle Whether you’re hungry for down-home barbecue and Tex-Mex, or you want to try more exotic dishes such as Paella Valenciana and Thai Pesto, Texas Highways has long been a trusted source for delicious recipes that reflect wide-ranging Lone Star tastes. The state’s official travel magazine published its first Texas Highways Cookbook in 1986. Responding to the public’s demand for a new collection of the magazine’s recipes, the editors compiled Cooking with Texas Highways, a collection of more than 250 recipes that are as richly diverse and flavorful as Texas itself. Cooking with Texas Highways samples all the major ethnic cuisines of the state with recipes from home cooks, well-known chefs, and popular restaurants. It offers a varied and intriguing selection of snacks and beverages, breads, soups and salads, main dishes, vegetables and sides, sauces and spreads, desserts, and more. A special feature of this cookbook is a chapter on Dutch-oven cooking, which covers all the basics for cooking outdoors with live coals, including seventeen mouthwatering recipes. In addition, you’ll find dozens of the lovely color photographs that have long made Texas Highways such a feast for the eyes, along with tips on cooking techniques and sources for ingredients and stories about some of the folks who created the recipes. If you want to sample all the tastes of Texas, there’s no better place to start than Cooking with Texas Highways. “Texas culture in all its multi-ethnic variety is well represented.” —Texas Cooking

Following his bestselling memoir, It’s a Long Story, Willie Nelson now delivers his most intimate thoughts and stories in Willie Nelson's Letters to America. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller! From his opening letter “Dear America” to his “Dear Willie” epilogue, Willie digs deep into his heart and soul--and his music catalog--to lift us up in difficult times, and to remind us of the endless promise and continuous obligations of all Americans--to themselves, to one another, and to their nation. In a series of letters straight from the heart, Willie sends his thanks and his thoughts to: Americans past, present, and future, his closest family members, andhis parents, sister, and children, his other family members his guitar “Trigger”, his hero Gene Autry, the US founding fathers, his personal heroes, from our founding fathers to the leaders of future generations and to young songwriters as well as leaders of our future generations. Willie’s letters are rounded out with the moving lyrics to some of his most famous and insightful songs, including “Let Me Be a Man,” “Family Bible,” “Summer of Roses,” “Me and Paul,” “A Horse called Music,” “Healing Hands of Time,” and “Yesterday's Wine.”

In a short line of Texas Highways distinguished photo editors, J. Griffis Smith has been described by a fellow photographer as a “galactic force,” reveling in taking pictures of everything Texas wherever the magazine’s assignments took him, all with the goal of inspiring “folks to travel.” Celebrating the roaming life of a professional magazine photographer, Texas Highways has joined with Smith to assemble a collection of signature images from three decades of work, including memorable pictures of Texas icons, landscapes, people, and historical and cultural destinations. An essay by E. Dan Klepper conveys a sense of how photo editors have worked at Texas Highways and how Griff Smith’s quirky, creative nature has helped to shape the magazine's style and message.

Texans will decorate almost anything with their state flag, and E. Joe Deering has the pictures to prove it. In Lovin’ That Lone Star Flag, photographer Deering has collected more than a hundred of his favorite images, showing state-flag-adorned pickup trucks, belt buckles, hang gliders, rooftops, and more. Starting when he was a staff photographer for the Houston Chronicle, Deering began noticing, as he toured the state on various assignments, how often he saw the image of the Texas flag painted on buildings, vehicles, barn doors, and other places. His curiosity led to an idea for a photographic essay, published by the Chronicle, and this in turn resulted in an exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station of his “flagotography.” Paired with Deering’s lively captions recording the circumstances and locations of these uniquely Texan creations as well as former Chronicle colleague Ruth Rendon’s introduction of Deering and his work, these striking photographs capture Texans’ infectious enjoyment of their state symbol on land, on water, and in the air. Lovin’ That Lone Star Flag will bring a smile to your face. It might even get you in the mood for a little Texas Two-Step. . . .

A collection of Courtney's columns from the Texas Monthly, curing the curious, exorcizing bedevilment, and orienting the disoriented, advising "on such things as: Is it wrong to wear your football team's jersey to church? When out at a dancehall, do you need to stick with the one that brung ya? Is it real Tex-Mex if it's served with a side of black beans? Can one have too many Texas-themed tattoos?"--Amazon.com.