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A unique book of different ethnic groups that have come to Texas. This book shows how Texans have celebrated Christmas for over 4 centuries, during good and bad times.
The Gift Of Love A home for the holidays—that's a pretty tall order, with Christmas only a few weeks away. But venture capitalist and single father Derek McCabe never takes no for an answer. And he's certain that Eve Loughlin is just the Realtor to find a house for him and his young daughter. Derek needs more than shelter, though. Being with Eve makes him aware of all he's missing: love, companionship and a beautiful woman to share his life. Eve is all business, but there's no denying the attraction that keeps bringing them together long after the contract is signed. Derek knows just what he wants. Can he get past that cool exterior and make her his own Christmas Eve?
One night can change everything Boat captain Gabe Randolph is a man who’s always been sure of what he wants and has worked hard to get it. He loves his work being out on the ocean and has no plans to ever do anything else. Until an accident one terrible night changes his entire future. Dr. Lana McCoy knows too well one night can change a person forever. When she comes to Redfish, Texas, to start over, she has no intention of including a man in her life. Then she meets Gabe Randolph, a man who seems to be her complete opposite. Yet they have more in common than either could have ever imagined. Each has been burned, and each is still working through life-altering events. These two wary survivors try to ignore the attraction pulling them together. But can a passion too strong to be denied teach them both that they don’t have to let one night—no matter how traumatic—define the rest of their lives?
Second chance romance? Five years ago Dr. Jay Kincaid hit it off with fascinating single mom Gail Summers at his brother's wedding in Redfish, Texas. Now he's moved to town and Gail is even more alluring now than she was when they first met. Having had to work hard to support herself and her two daughters after her husband walked out on them, Gail is wary—but tempted by the handsome doctor. Still, a no-strings-attached affair with charming, smoking-hot Jay is just the treat she deserves...isn't it? It is...until an unexpected pregnancy brings their red-hot liaison to a halt. Determined to be there for Gail and their unborn child, Jay proposes, and reluctantly, Gail accepts. But can he convince her she can depend on this former free-wheeling bachelor to love and cherish her and her children...for always?
In a dazzling tribute to the Texas coast, conservationist and lawyer Jim Blackburn has teamed with photographer Jim Olive to give us the most intimate and important portrait yet of Texas bays and of those who work for their wise use and preservation. While giving life and sustenance to plants, animals, and people, the bays and estuaries of Texas have other stories to tell—about freshwater inflows, deep port construction, disappearing oyster beds, beach resorts, industrial pollution, and more. At a certain point, each story brings opposing forces into the courtroom for vigorous debates on the future of some of our most valuable and irreplaceable resources. The Book of Texas Bays is a personal account of legal battles won and lost, but it is also a fine work of natural history by someone who has a deep spiritual connection to the Texas coast and all it has to offer. Jim Olive’s stunning photographs present us with a dramatic perspective of our relationship with the Gulf and remind us of both the grandness and the fragility of our coastal treasures.
The Hartleys live on Texas land an ancestor received in a grant from the king of Spain, and they value their trees only slightly less than the members of their family. Beau Hartley continually has run-ins with Gaitor Morfew, youngest of a clan of troublemakers, who accuses Beau's brother Andy of being the timber pirate troubling the area. Beau joins Andy in searching for an illegal logging crew, but when Andy disappears in the same swamp that claimed the life of their Dad, Beau is left with a series of unanswered questions. Who’s pirating the timber on their land, and how can he clear Andy's name of the crime? It takes a devastating forest fire to resolve his dilemma.
In a collection of essays about Texas gathered from his West Texas newspaper column, Lonn Taylor traverses the very best of Texas geography, Texas history, and Texas personalities. In a state so famous for its pride, Taylor manages to write a very honest, witty, and wise book about Texas past and Texas present. Texas, My Texas: Musings of the Rambling Boy is a story of legacies, of men and women, times, and places that have made this state what it is today. From a history of Taylor’s hometown, Fort Davis, to stories about the first man wounded in the Texas Revolution, (who was an African American), to accounts of outlaw Sam Bass and an explanation of Hill Country Christmases, Taylor has searched every corner of the state for untold histories.Taylor’s background as a former curator at the Smithsonian National Museum becomes apparent in his attention to detail: Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, artists, architects, criminals, the founder of Neiman Marcus, and the famous horned frog “Old Rip” all make appearances as quintessential Texans. Lonn Taylor’s unique narrative voice is personal. As he points out in the foreword, it is the stories of Texans themselves, of their grit and eccentricities, that have “brought the past into the present . . . the two seem to me to be bound together by stories.” People—real Texans—are the focus of the essays, making Texas, My Texas a rite of passage for anyone who claims Texan heritage. There are just a few things every good Texan “knows,” like the fact that it is illegal to pick bluebonnets along the highway, or that the Menger Hotel bar is modeled after the one in the House of Lords in London. Taylor points out with his usual wit that it is not, in fact, illegal to pick any of the six varieties of bluebonnets that grow throughout our state, and that few Texans would know that the bar is modeled after the one in the House of Lords, as few Texans are Lords. These are just a few examples of Taylor’s knowledge of Texas and his passion for its citizens.
