Also of interest...in odes to Texas

Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right

by Erica Grieder (PublicAffairs, $27)

Discussion of the Lone Star State too often devolves into ridicule or blind praise, said Bryan Burrough in The New York Times. Journalist Erica Grieder’s “refreshing” book ignores blowhards on both sides as it seeks to explain how the state became an economic powerhouse. Grieder credits above all a resolutely independent people who, contrary to stereotype, tend to be tolerant and results-oriented. Alas, “it’s probably a lot easier to understand the successes of Texas than it would be to duplicate them.”

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Rhapsody in Black

by John Kruth (Backbeat, $28)

When John Kruth compares Roy Orbison to Job, “he is not stretching too far to make a point,” said Jim Higgins in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Tragedies including the untimely deaths of a wife and two sons plagued the Texas singer’s life even as his operatic trill was making a lasting imprint on pop. Kruth, a recording artist himself, proves to be “the rare musician who writes well about music for a popular audience.” His portrait of Orbison is both clear-eyed and sympathetic.

The Eye of the Mammoth

by Stephen Harrigan (Univ. of Texas, $30)

Stephen Harrigan “really scoots around,” said Jane Sumner in The Dallas Morning News. This book of 32 essays takes the novelist and Texas Monthly contributor as far afield as Monte Carlo and Alaska. Yet Harrigan writes best about his home state. Among the gems here: a “haunting” description of touring Texas’s fossil sites and an ode to a Texas dawn that’s “so heartwarming, so sparkling and deep, you can feel the sun’s rays spread like liquid gold across the state.”

The Prophets of Smoked Meat

by Daniel Vaughn (Ecco, $30)

“Texans take being Texan seriously, and there is nothing more Texan than barbecue,” said Travis Waddington in The Wall Street Journal. No one knows this better than food journalist Daniel Vaughn, who here chronicles a 10,343-mile journey he made to visit 186 of the state’s barbecue joints. Not all were up to snuff: “Some of Vaughn’s most evocative writing occurs in the negative reviews.” But when he finds and describes a winner in mouth-watering detail, “it’s hard not to drop everything and hit the road.”