Reading Recommendations: Georgette Heyer, The groundbreaking biography of one of the world's best-loved and best selling authors, Jennifer Kloester

"Who was the Real Georgette Heyer?"

Georgette Heyer Famously said, "I am to be found in my work." Who was this amazing writer who was so secretive about her personal life that she never gave an interview? Where did she get her ideas? Were there real life models for her ultra-manly heroes, independent-minded heroines, irascible guardians, and clever villains? What motivated her to build a Regency world so intricately researched that readers want to escape there again and again?

Heyer's Regency Romances, historical novels, and mysteries have surprised and delighted millions of readers for decades, while the woman behind the stories has stayed hidden until now!

With unprecedented, exclusive access to Heyer's notebooks, papers, and early letters, Jennifer Kloester uncovers both the complex life of a private woman and a masterful writer's craft that will forever resonate in literature and beyond.

And, Ashenden, a novel, Elizabeth Wilhide

When brother and sister Charlie and Rose discover that they have inherited their aunt's grand English country home, they must decide if they should sell it. As they survey the effects of time on the estate's architectural treasures, a narrative spanning two and a half centuries unfolds. We meet those who built the house, lived in it and loved it, worked on it, and those who would subvert it to their own ends. Each chapter is skillfully woven into the others so that the story lines of the upstairs and downstairs characters and their relatives and descendants intertwine to make a rich tapestry. A beautifully written novel. An evocative portrait of a house that becomes a character as compelling as the people who inhabit it. I love it!

And, Bob Bullock, God Bless Texas, Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson

Renowned for his fierce devotion to the people of Texas, as well as his equally fierce rages and unpredictable temper, Bob Bullock was the most powerful political figure in Texas at the end of the twentieth century. First elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1956, Bullock held several key statewide posts before capturing the lieutenant governor's office in 1990. Though nominally the state's number two official, Bullock in fact became Texas's top power broker, wielding tremendous influence over the legislative agenda and state budget through the 1990's while also mentoring and supporting a future president, George W. Bush.

In this lively, thoroughly researched biography, award winning journalists Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson craft a well rounded portrait of Bob Bullock, underscoring both his political adroitness and his personal demons. They trace Bullock's rise through state government us Assistant Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Comptroller, and Lieutenant Governor, showing how he increased the power of each office he held. The authors spotlight Bullock's substantial achievements, which included hiring an unprecedented number of women and minorities, instituting a performance review to increase the efficiency of state agencies, restructuring the public school funding system, and creating the state's first water conservation and management plan.

A man whose legend and legacy live on in Texas, Bob Bullock well deserves a full biography. And as McNeely and Henderson follow Bullock's political evolution from segregationist Democrat to liberal populist reformer to supporter of conservative Republican George W. Bush, they effectively tell the story of Texas politics and government across the latter half of the twentieth century.

From the Texas Bookshelves–See you at Rylander.