Reading Recommendations: Big Thicket People.

Living off the land-hunting, fishing, and farming, along with a range of specialized crafts that provided barter or cash income, was a way of life that persisted well into the twentieth century in the Big Thicket of Southeast Texas. Before this way of life ended with World War II, professional photographer Larry Jene Fisher spent a decade between the 1930's and 1940's photographing Big Thicket people living and working in the old ways. His photographs, the only known collection on this subject, constitute an irreplaceable record of lifeways that first took root in the Southeastern Woodlands of the Colonial United States and eventually spread all across the Southern Frontier.

Big Thicket People presents Fishers photographs in suites that document a wide slice of Big Thicket life, people, dogs, camps, deer hunts, farming, syrup mills, rooter hogs, and stock raising, railroad tie making, barrel stave making, chimney building, peckerwood saw mills, logging, turpentining, town life, church services, and picnics, funerals and golden weddings, and dances and other amusements. Accompanying each suite of images is a cultural essay by Thad Sitton, who also introduces the book with a historical overview of life in The Big Thicket. C.E. Hunt provides an informative biography of Larry Jene Fisher with a foreword by Maxine Johnston.

While focused on a particular place, Big Thicket People captures a way of life that once was common across the entire South. The photos by Larry Jene Fisher make it extra special!

And, The Heretic Queen, Heiress of Misfortune, Pharaoh's Beloved, a Novel, Michelle Moran.

"In Ancient Egypt, a forgotten Princess must overcome her family's past and remake history."

The winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the Eightieth Dynasty's Royal Family, all with the exception of Nefertani, the niece of the reviled former Queen, Nefertiti. The girls deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. A relic of a previous reign, Nefertani is pushed aside, an unimportant princess left to run wild in the palace. But this changes when she is taken under the wing of the Pharaoh's aunt, then brought to the Temple of Hathor, when she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen.

Soon Nefertani catches the eye of the Crown Prince, and despite her family's history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertani becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful Pharaoh in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history.

Sweeping in scope and meticulous in detail, a novel of passion and power, heartbreak and redemption.

And, The Essential Best Foods Cookbook, 225 Irresistible Recipes Featuring the Healthiest and Most Delicious Foods, Dana Jacobi.

Using the foods that matter most to our health, all the basics are here, like salmon, broccoli, beans, and whole grains, along with a wealth of other ingredients, like avocados, pomegranates, chili peppers, and quinoa, all to enjoy more often. With each ingredient, Jacobi highlights the new science behind the headlines and provides dozens of fresh, original ways to enjoy the benefits. These bold recipes "feed the senses proving once again that the best foods and our best health go hand in hand.

See you at Rylander!