General Books

Weird Texas (Weird)

Wesley Treat, Heather Shades, Rob Riggs

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Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> Mythology -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> Mythology -> General AAS
Subjects -> Reference -> Fun Facts -> Curiosities & Wonders

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Fun But Lacking 3 out of 5 stars.
14 of 18 people found this review helpful.

This was a fun read and had a lot of info in the Personalized Properties and Roadside Oddities chapters that was new to me.
The Local Legends and Ancient Mysteries sections were very thorough for what was covered but did not make an effort to cover a lot of other interesting forlklore or sites in Texas.
Portions of the Unexplained Phenomena and Bizarre Beasts are previously published verbatim by Rob Riggs in his book 'In the Big Thicket'. I was hoping he had contributed something new for these sections since I have already purchased his book, but was, however, disappointed. The Haunted Places section was sadly lacking. The places that were covered were entertaining, but some of Texas' well known haunted locations (for example: La Bahia Blanca)were totally overlooked and I can only assume poor research caused this absence.
Worth the price, but don't expect a whole lot if you have already researched the areas of knowledge covered in the book.

Fun, but needs more info 3 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This was a fun read but sorely lacking in details. With the words "travel guide" on the cover, I expected to be able to find where these places were. At best, they gave us vague details or just a city name. This book was more ghost stories and Texas tales than travel guide.

The Ultimate Food Lover's Guide to Houston

Editors of My Table magazine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

You may have heard the statistic: According to the Zagat Survey, Houstonians eat out more often than do residents of any other major American city. And it's true! Houston is a city that loves its restaurants. Now, with the August 2008 publication of The Ultimate Food Lover's Guide to Houston, brought to you by the editors and writers of My Table magazine, dining around Houston is about to become an even more delicious adventure. Capitalizing on My Table's 14 years of covering everything food in Houston and our reputation as Houston's only editorially independent magazine devoted solely to dining in Houston, this is not a traditional restaurant guidebook so much as -- as the title promises -- a food-lover's guide. Our overriding editorial guideline: Where would we send our best foodie friend? The 5x8 book -- easy to slip into a handbag or briefcase -- is divided into three chapters: Local Flavors has more than 100 bakeries, ethnic markets, farmers' markets, butchers, gelato shops, fishmongers, chocolate shops, coffeehouses, tea rooms, and much more; Spirited Houston lists more than 95 wine bars, wine and spirits retailers, brewpubs, hotel bars and dives; and Restaurants & Cafes covers everything else, from fine-dining establishments to quirky ethnic eateries off the beaten path. Besides the main listings -- nearly 550 in all -- The Ultimate Food Lover's Guide to Houston features dozens of color photos, a fold-out map, sidebars and boxes with everything from a list of our favorite boiled-crawfish spots to the town's best sports bars (as chosen by Houston Dynamo star Brian Ching), from a round-up of pick-your-own orchards to the best annual food festivals, from a list of local cooking schools to a chocolatier's secret sources for chocolate-making supplies, from our favorite BYOB restaurants to five spots that serve English-style afternoon tea. The book even has a dozen recipes from Houston's best-known restaurants, including Cafe Annie, Mark's American Cuisine, Brennan's and Ouisie's Table. In other words, this book is richer, deeper and more varied than the traditional restaurant directory-style guidebook. We don't pretend to list everything in town -- only those places that are worthy, beloved, compelling, irresistible or simply cannot be ignored.

The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover's Paradise

Terry Thompson-Anderson

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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Drinks & Beverages -> Wine -> Food & Wine
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> Southwest

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Texas Hill County: A Food and Wine Lover's Paradise takes readers on a gustatory tour of this picturesque Central Texas region of rolling hills, spring-fed streams, and good eats. One of the state's most popular travel destinations, the Hill Country is fast becoming a magnet for agricultural tourism. Visitors come here to follow the lavender trails, pick peaches and apples, buy fresh-pressed olive oil, sample the offerings at award-winning wineries, and have a meal in the unique eateries--from chic restaurants with world-class dishes on the menu to back-country roadhouses famous for barbecue and hamburgers. Professional chef and cookbook author Terry Thompson-Anderson has explored every corner of the eighteen-county region, with its quaint communities and specialty farms, and discovered more than one hundred establishments that are sure to please the palate. More than a travel guide, the book is also filled with recipes that she has gathered from proprietors or developed using local food products. Sandy Wilson's stunning full-color photographs capture the diversity of the Hill Country eating experience, with its berry patches and orchards, roadside stands, artisan bakeries, boutique wineries, and vast array of restaurants serving both traditional and haute cuisine. Welcome to the rich bounty of the Hill Country, where you're in for some remarkable food finds. If this is your first visit, we bet it won't be your last!

Backroads of the Texas Hill Country: Your Guide to the Most Scenic Adventures (Backroads of ...)

Gary Clark

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Subjects -> Travel -> United States -> Regions -> South -> West South Central

Editorial Review:

Texas has hill country? Who knew? Well, the Lonely Planet guide to Texas, which calls the Hill Country “rightfully one of the state’s biggest tourist draws . . . an area of gently rolling hills and valleys freckled with cacti and cattle ranches, lined with rivers and dotted with peaceful, picturesque little towns.” And any self-respecting Texan might know as much. Forty miles west of Austin and fifty north of San Antonio, the Hill Country is within an easy drive of two of the state’s biggest cities, putting back-country quiet and beauty within reach of countless urban dwellers seeking respite.

This book brings the remarkable Hill Country of Texas home to the back roads traveler. Whether it’s wildflowers you’re drawn to, or dude ranches, natural areas, historic sites, or quaint Texas towns redolent of history, this is your passport to an experience like no other. Backroads of the Texas Hill Country introduces travelers and armchair tourists alike to the emerging wine country of the Lone Star State, the meticulously preserved culture of East European immigrants, the “cowboy capital of the world” (Bandera), and the childhood home of LBJ at Johnson City. Follow this irresistible guide into the Hill Country, and find yourself deep in the heart of Texas.

Follow the Smoke: 14,783 Miles of Great Texas Barbecue

John DeMers

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Smell The Smoke 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Follow the Smoke: 14,783 Miles of Great Texas Barbecue
Being a native Texan and living in Tx all my life I have found this book to be a trasure for a true barbecue lover. Now you don't have to be a Texan to enjoy this wonderful book. If you have ever ventured down to Tx and experience some Texas barbecue then you will also get a kick out of this book.

Editorial Review:

The product of a 14,000-mile road trip and 111 different meals, this delicious guidebook to Texas barbecue is just the thing for any aficionado with a little gas money and a large appetite. The restaurants profiled range from very plain (a shack with an ordering window) to fancy, from Port Arthur to Abilene, McAllen to Texarkana, and Austin to El Paso. Expressing an absolute reverence for Texas barbecue, this guide celebrates the work and time required to produce meat that is perfectly smoky, tender, and juicy.

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: San Antonio and Austin: Includes the Hill Country (60 Hikes within 60 Miles)

Tom Taylor, Johnny Molloy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

More Austin than San Antonio 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book, very descriptive but there are more Austin trails than SA trails. Some of the trails in this book have become our faves and we would never have found them without the book.

Hiking in Austin 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This is a good basic book for finding the public hiking trails that are on the beaten path. It is very useful to find what is publically available. It isn't for finding those paths that are hard to find.

I do recommend it.

Editorial Review:

This practical guide takes readers to the best trails found in the Texas Hill Country, all within easy reach of San Antonio and Austin. Destinations include secluded, low-traffic areas for quiet hikes as well more popular and heavily used paths. The former LBJ Ranch, the Guadalupe River, the Highland Lakes Chain, and the Lost Pines area are a few of the spectacular treks featured.

Fixin' To Be Texan

Helen Bryant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wish I'd read this 23 years ago 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Helen Bryant has summed up everything you need to make the transition from being "from someplace else" to being a Texan, all in a compact and witty book. I lived in Houston and San Antonio for 17 years and I'm fixin to go back (from California) so I thought I'd better brush up. I feel ready, now.

After I finished the book I wrapped it up and gave it to friends, native Southern Californians who are soon to make Fort Worth their home. If you are bound for Texas, read this book first!

I loved this book!! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

We are thinking about making a move to Texas from California, and I wanted to learn a little about the culture. This book teaches you everything you will need to know. I couldn't put it down. It was hilarious!

Highly recommended 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book for my mom, a proud Texan who hasn't lived there since shortly after she got married, some 50 years ago. But she related to everything in this book and laughed so hard she couldn't talk. Over the years, I've bought my fussy mom countless presents, but this is the first one I felt she really liked.

Even as a non-Texan, I found the book to be hilarious (my mom called me up and read the whole thing to me over a few nights). I don't even like Texas (too hot and buggy for my taste), but after hearing this book, it kind of made me want to move there! This would be a GREAT present (or gift to yourself) for anyone who loves Texas, anyone from Texas, and anyone about to move there (fixin' to be Texan).

Editorial Review:

Delightfully witty, this book takes readers through the gamut of facts about Texans, how to understand the conversations, why and how Texans dress the way they do, why pickup trucks are a way of life, and how they, too, can acquire big hair. Illustrated with clever cartoons.

Roads of Texas - 5th Edition

Mapsco, Inc

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good, but local distances are NOT always accurate, and local maps NOT up to date! 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

:-/ The main roads are correctly depicted...BUT, this 5th Edition is NOT current! Many public roads, and roads in the gated communities of my new neighborhood (76049 Zip) are simply not depicted in this MAPSCO volume!

The streets in my old Silver Creek Addition in San Antonio (78250 Zip)WERE CONSTRUCTED IN 1979/80, BUT NOT COMPLETELY DEPICTED IN THIS 2005/2008 EDITION! :-/

Aside from that, it is still full of large maps with easy to see and interpret symbols. But the down side is this lack of currency limits usefulness for us.

Bad Note: Some of the mileages depicted between points in my 76049 neighboorhood are way off.

Editorial Review:

Whether you need to find a particular county road, country road, cattle guard or point-of-interest such as an oil well or landmark giant oak tree, all thoroughfare types imaginable -- even including county roads -- are labeled too! With extra fine detail and even easier-to-read than ever before… The Roads of Texas Atlas is ideal for cyclists, sportsmen, hunters, road-trippers, delivery, real estate professionals, bikers and more! Click below to order now. The Roads of Texas Atlases make great gifts too! Features: -All the roads of Texas from the interstates to the back roads -Comprehensive index listing over 4,000 cities, towns and communities -Overview map of Texas -Listings for Texas state & national parks and forests, roadside attractions, ghost towns and much more -All-inclusive legend -Vivid colors enhance the cartography within

The Biker's Guide to Texas: 25 Great Motorcycle Rides in the Lone Star State

Dorothy Waldman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the book Texas bikers have been waiting for. There’s plenty about what to see and do along the way, but the focus is on the rides: Where to go, what signs to look for, how far the next turnoff is, when to be especially alert for what’s around a sharp bend, when you can expect to relax a bit and just cruise. These 25 great rides have been scouted by Dorothy Waldman, who became a Biker Babe in her fifties when she finally mustered the courage to get on a motorcycle. She quickly discovered the thrills of riding the back roads of the Lone Star state, from the North Texas woodlands and lakes—“bliss on a bike”—to the pastoral Gulf Coast to the tricky ride in Big Bend country along the Rio Grande—“The most desolate, the most adventurous, and the most memorable sixty-seven miles of pure riding ecstasy or pure terror,” a ride to be attempted, she warns, only after you’ve fully mastered your bike. Such pithy appraisals pepper the directions and route descriptions in The Biker’s Guide to Texas. All rides are carefully mapped. They come with hints on what to see, where to eat and where to stay.

Roadside Geology of Texas (Roadside Geology Series) (Roadside Geology Series)

Darwin Spearing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A must for roadcut rockhounds! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This is the best book of the Roadside Geology series. Spearing explains not just the location and character of the rock formations one encounters on TX roadways, but the processes which made them. Best of all, he specifically provides the name and formative time period of almost every formation mentioned (e.g., "Triassic Trujillo sandstone") -- avoiding the overgeneralized naming (e.g., "Mesozoic sediment layer") of a few other Roadside Geology volumes. This is certainly a time saver for the rock collector who catalogs his specimens! This book is a must-get for all rock enthusiasts -- even those who have never been to Texas. Now if someone would just write a Roadside Geology of Oklahoma volume...

Editorial Review:

The geologic panorama of Texas is as wide as the state is big, sweeping from volcanic mesas and thrusting mountains in the west to the red canyons of the Panhandle, along tropical sand barriers of the Gulf Coast, and across central limestone plateaus to the hard granitic terrain of central Texas. Learn about the rocks as you come to them--what they are, when they formed, what they mean, and how they fit into the big picture of the geology of Texas.