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From Rylander Memorial Library...
Thursday, April 15, 2010 • Posted April 15, 2010

Reading recommendations: 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 normally 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 1990s 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, showing how he increased the power of every 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.

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.

The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Fleming

With his usual story telling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming examines the women who were at the center of the lives of the founding fathers. From hot tempered Mary Ball Washington to promiscuous Rachel Lavien Hamilton, the founding fathers' mothers powerfully shaped their sons' visions of domestic life. But lovers and wives played more critical roles as friends and often partners in fame. We learn of the youthful Washington's tortured love for Sarah Fairfax, wife of his close friend; of Franklin's two "wives," one in London and one in Philadelphia; of Adams's long absences, which required a lonely, deeply unhappy Abigail to keep home and family together for years on end; of Hamilton's betrayal of his wife and their reconciliation; of how the brilliant Madison was jilted and went on to marry Dolly, who helped to make this shy man into a popular president.

Fleming nimbly takes us through a great deal of early American history, as his founding fathers strove to reconcile the private and public, often beset by a media every bit as gossip seeking and inflammatory as today. He offers a powerful look at the challenges women faced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While often brilliant and articulate, the wives of founding fathers all struggled with the distractions and dangers of frequent childbearing and searing anxiety about infant mortality. Jefferson's wife, Martha, died from complications following labor, as did his daughter. All the more remarkable, then, that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbands, and in some cases, their country.

The Migraine Brain, Your Breakthrough Guide to Fewer Headaches, Better Health, Carolyn Bernstein, M.D.

- Prevent migraines

- Find your triggers

-Reduce pain and duration

- Underrstand your unique brain

The Migraine Brain presents the latest science on migraine headaches and offers a comprehensive treatment program. It may change the lives of migraine sufferers forever.

See you at Rylander!

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