Reading Recommendations: The O'Briens, a novel, Peter BehrensThe O'Briens is a family story unlike any told before, a tale that pours straight from the heart of a splendid, tragic, ambitious clan. In Joe O'Brien, grandson of a potato famine emigrant, and a back woods boy, railroad magnate, patriarch, brooding soul, Peter Behrens gives us a fiercely compelling man who exchanges isolation and poverty in the Canadian wilds for a share in the dazzling riches and consuming sorrows of the twentieth century.When Joe meets Iseult Wilkins in Venice, California, the story of their courtship, told in Brhren's gorgeous, honed style, becomes the first movement of a symphony of the generations. Husband and wife, brothers, sisters in law, children and grandchildren , the O'Briens engage unself-consciously with their century, and we experience their times not as a historical tableaux but as lives passionately lived. At the heart of this clan, at the heart of the novel, is mystery and madness grounded in the history of Irish sorrow. A story of a man , a marriage, and a family, told with epic precision and wondrous imagination.And, Gangster Tour of Texas, T. Lindsay Baker"T. Lindsey Baker, preeminent authority on Texas ghost towns, has compiled a captivating new collection of historic sites, from the sordid world of Bonnie and Clyde, the bank robbing Newton boys, Machine Gun Kelly, Galveston's high rolling Maceo brothers, and a colorful host of other Lone Star Rogues. In addition to an enticing photo collection and narrative, the precise directions to the crime scenes will make this travel guide an indispensable companion."Bill O'Neal, author, Ghost Towns of the American West"Baker knows how to spin a yarn that keeps his readers engrossed. Folks will enjoy the many illustrations, maps, and pictures of outlaws, lawmen, victims, witnesses, and crime scenes that accompany each story."Bill Neal, author, Getting Away with Murder on the Texas FrontierTexas A&M University Press, College Station And, Edge of Dark Water, Joe R. LansdaleMay Lynn is a pretty girl who dreams of becoming a Hollywood star, until her body is dredged up from the Sabine River.Sue Ellen, May Lynn's strong willed teenage friend, and her pals Terry and Jinx set out to dig up May Lynn's body, burn it to ash, and take those ashes to Hollywood. If May Lynn can't become a star, then at least her remains can be spread in the land of her dreams.All they need is some money and a raft; while the raft is easily available, stealing the money requires some gumption, but they manage it. Then they head down river together with Sue Ellen's agoraphobic mother; a motley crew on a mission.Pursued by Uncle Gene and Constable Sy, who are after the money, and Skunk, an all too real legendary killer who's after their lives, they begin to understand that when you set out to make the dreams of a friend your own, your worst nightmares may come along for the ride."Joe R. Lansdale has a folklorist eye for telling detail and a front porch raconteur's sense of pace."New York Times Book Review Joe R. Lansdale resides with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.See you at Rylander