In this delightful book Rhonda Cloos explores connections between the wine, food, and people of the Lone Star state. With recipes from wineries, Texas chefs, plus pairing guides, we get a lesson on what to serve with Texas wines.

"They had just crossed the bridge into the United States. Their feet were now firmly planted on the soil that was their promised land. They had made it! Blessed be the Virgin of Guadalupe! Now they had no reason to fear the villistas, the carrancistas, the government, or the revolutionaries! Here they could find peace, work, wealth and happiness!" And so begins the story of the Garcia family, who like many of their compatriots, fled their homeland during the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution in search of a better life in the United States. Originally published in 1926 in San Antonio, Texas as El sol de Texas, the novel chronicles the struggles of two Mexican immigrant families: the Garcias and the Quijanos. Their initial hopes--of returning to their homeland with enough money to buy their own piece of land--are worn away by the reality of immigrant life. Unable to speak English, they find themselves at the mercy of unscrupulous work contractors and foremen: forced to work at backbreaking labor picking cotton in the fields, building the burgeoning Southwest railroad system, and working in Gulf Coast oil refineries. Considered the first novel of Mexican immigration, El sol de Texas / Under the Texas Sun depicts the diverse experiences of Mexican immigrants, from those that return to Mexico beaten down by the discrimination and hardship they encounter, to those who persist in their adopted land in spite of the racism they face. The original Spanish-language text is accompanied by the first-ever English translation by Ethriam Cash Brammer and an introduction by John Pluecker. Publication of this fascinating historical novel will provide unique insight into the long history of Mexicanimmigration to the United States and its implications for cultural, historical, and literary studies.

Late in 1940, the young men of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment stepped off the trucks at Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas, ready to complete the training they would need for active duty in World War II. Many of them had grown up together in Jacksboro, Texas, and almost all of them were eager to face any challenge. Just over a year later, these carefree young Texans would be confronted by horrors they could never have imagined. The battalion was en route to bolster the Allied defense of the Philippines when they received news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Soon, they found themselves ashore on Java, with orders to assist the Dutch, British, and Australian defense of the island against imminent Japanese invasion. When war came to Java in March 1942, the Japanese forces overwhelmed the numerically inferior Allied defenders in little more than a week. For more than three years, the Texans, along with the sailors and marines who survived the sinking of the USS Houston, were prisoners of the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning in late 1942, these prisoners-of-war were shipped to Burma to accelerate completion of the Burma-Thailand railway. These men labored alongside other Allied prisoners and Asian conscript laborers to build more than 260 miles of railroad for their Japanese taskmasters. They suffered abscessed wounds, near-starvation, daily beatings, and debilitating disease, and 89 of the original 534 Texans taken prisoner died in the infested, malarial jungles. The survivors received a hero’s welcome from Gov. Coke Stevenson, who declared October 29, 1945, as “Lost Battalion Day” when they finally returned to Texas. Kelly E. Crager consulted official documentary sources of the National Archives and the U.S. Army and mined the personal memoirs and oral history interviews of the “Lost Battalion” members. He focuses on the treatment the men received in their captivity and surmises that a main factor in the battalion’s comparatively high survival rate (84 percent of the 2nd Battalion) was the comraderie of the Texans and their commitment to care for each other. This narrative is grueling, yet ultimately inspiring. Hell under the Rising Sun will be a valuable addition to the collections of World War II historians and interested general readers alike.

Malcolm Vernon's stories--delightfully and poignantly retold by his granddaughter--are of a fifteen-year-old boy heading west alone, working the range, recovering stolen stock, seeing men killed over card games and buckets of buttermilk, and, most of all, growing to manhood on the Texas frontier.

Finally, after 25 years of incubation, Peter Gorman's book is out. Ayahuasca in My Blood - 25 Years of Medicine Dreaming concerns his longstanding relationship with the Amazonian visionary medicine. Here's what people have said about it: "Unlike many writing about ayahuasca, Peter Gorman knows this plant and these forests long and well. Explorer, ethnobotanist, writer and raconteur - Gorman is uniquely qualified to tell this incredible tale. A wild mixture of adventure, horror, spirituality, tenderness, and insight, Ayahuasca in My Blood is most highly recommended!" -- Mark J. Plotkin, Ph.D, President, Amazon Conservation Team and author of Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice. "Long before ayahuasca tourism became a pastime for rich gringos, Peter Gorman was knocking around Iquitos and the Amazon. He's traveled the rivers and quaffed the brew with the best (and the worst) of them and been way, way beyond the chrysanthemum on many a dark jungle night. This is the intensely personal story of an old-school jungle rat for whom ayahuasca is not just a hobby, but a life-long quest." -- Dennis McKenna, Ph.D, noted ethnopharmacologist, co-author of The Invisible Landscape, co-founder of the Institute of Natural Products Research and founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute. "I have known and traveled with Peter for almost a decade and was present for a number of the events he included in this book as well as many others. Don Julio was the most powerful man I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Further, as a trained scientist I believe the plant medicine truly offers a doorway to a rich world that needs to be understood in our postmodern lives. This is destined to become a must read for anyone who is serious about understanding the world of the shaman." -- Lynn Chilson - CEO Chilson Enterprises, Inc.

A trio of summertime love stories based on the popular miniseries Long Tall Texans follows three strong-willed, tender-hearted inhabitants of Jacobsville, Texas--Tom Walker, Drew Morris, and Jobe Dodd--as they search for love under the hot Texas sun. Original.

Now a major motion picture! Erwin 'Harvard' Vandeer has run out of luck. After failing as an actor in Hollywood, he heads home for Boston, but when he loses all of his cash in a poker game, he finds himself stranded in dusty Abilene, Texas. However, all is not lost. Harvard meets rough and tumble oilman Merle Luskey who takes him in and puts him to work. Except working for Merle may not exactly be the stroke of luck he was hoping for. Merle, teetering on the precipice of foreclosure, pins all his hopes on a new oil discovery to save his skin and stave off the ruthless bank. The stage is set for Harvard and Merle to embark on a high-stakes, rib-tickling adventure through the Lone Star State. They say everything's bigger in Texas, and Accidental Texan proves it right. Bigger laughter, bigger action, and an even bigger story.