What was it like to be a young woman in the era depicted in The Last Picture Show? That question is answered in this memoir by Ceil Cleveland, the woman long-rumored to be the model for the Jacy Farrow character in the well-known McMurtry novel and Bogdanovich movie. Cleveland notes that as a teenager in the 1950s in the tiny Texas town of Archer City, she learned from movies how to act, walk, dress, speak, and attract or dismiss men. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

*Pulitzer Prize Finalist* A biography of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry from New York Times bestselling author Tracy Daugherty. In over forty books, in a career that spanned over sixty years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West, and as the Great Plains’ keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner. Larry McMurtry: A Life traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country’s pioneer traditions. It follows his astonishing career as bestselling novelist, Pulitzer-Prize winner, author of the beloved Lonesome Dove, Academy-Award winning screenwriter, public intellectual, and passionate bookseller. A sweeping and insightful look at a versatile, one-of-a-kind American writer, this book is a must-read for every Larry McMurtry fan.

Turning the Pages of Texas is a collection of sixty essays about Texas books, authors, book collectors, libraries, and bookstores. It is a book for booklovers and bookish readers. Lonn Taylor writes from the point of view of a historian who has been reading books about Texas for seventy years, since he was seven years old, and who has known many of the authors he writes about. He presents his reflections about well-known figures such as John Graves, J. Frank Dobie, and Larry McMurtry. He also introduces readers to people like folklorist C. L. Sonnichsen, who wrote about Texas feuds; Julia Lee Sinks, who interviewed early settlers of Fayette County in the 1870s; Karen Olsson, who wrote a fine novel about the mystique of Austin; and David Dorado Romo, who describes himself as the “psychogeographer of El Paso” and is the grandnephew of a saint. Some of the authors Taylor writes about are truly obscure, like Gertrude Beasley, who published her autobiography in Paris in 1924 and died in a New York insane asylum, or Tony Cano, whose self-published autobiographical novel describes what it was like to be poor and Mexican in West Texas in the 1950s. Taylor also teases out the Texas connections of writers as diverse as William Sydney Porter, Hervey Allen, and H. Allen Smith, and he writes about tracking down Texas books in London and Washington, DC, as well as at Barber’s in Fort Worth, the Brick Row Book Shop in Austin, and Rosengren’s and Brock’s in San Antonio. This is a booklover’s book.

The new edition of this successful text gives advanced writers and reporters a thorough look at newspaper, magazine, and newsletter feature writing. It includes computer-based research tools and a discussion of online publications and resources. This edition emphasizes three primary aspects of feature writing: *introduction and writing skills--the basics, *article types, and *the collegiate and professional writing life. Readers learn from the narrative, from the advice of professionals, and by example. Each chapter contains excerpts and complete articles from some of the nation's leading publications to illustrate points made in the text.

Who cares about commas, semicolons, dashes, and hyphens? Well, you should. A misplaced punctuation mark can confuse physicians and surgeons, cause thousands of dollars in legal fees, misinform judges, puzzle bankers, misguide stockbrokers and create lumps in your pudding. You dont need a teacher with a mouthful of jargon to help you understand how to make yourself clearly understood. Better Punctuation in 30 Minutes a Day will help you teach yourself.

"I've always enjoyed Dorothy Weil's novels with their salty depictions of midwestern life. LOVE AND TERROR is Weil's best to date, gritty, suspenseful, humorous and wise." --Stephen Birmingham, author of OUR CROWD and over twenty best-selling novels and social histories. "In LOVE AND TERROR a family battles with illness, war, and tumultous cultural changes. Every reader will recognize incidents and attitudes in their own lives. The novel is infused with sharp insight, sharp repartee, sharp humor, and beautifully developed characters. Read it! You will be reminded and rewarded in ways you never contemplated." --Ceil Cleveland, author of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JACY FARROW? THE BLUEBOOK SOLUTION and SHORT STORIES UNZIPPED. Founding editor of COLUMBIA MAGAZINE.