Tales of Texas

On this day in 1836, Texas declared it’s independence from Mexico while Travis and Bowie and the other defenders were besieged at the Alamo, which would fall 4 days later. They were less than 2 months from securing the independence they declared. While Texans tend to talk slow (well, depending on the region), the story of Texas is rather fast paced.

Texans love a good yarn, especially one about themselves. And so, in honor of our Independence Day, I give you tales of Texas.

My favorite college class was a folklore class, and in my research for my final paper I stumbled upon this this gem by Charlie Eckhart, Texas Tales Your Teacher Never Told You, a collection of exciting stories including the true number of flags flown over Texas (far more than 6!) to buried treasure, ghost stories and tales of Indian raids.

Tomie dePaola, a favorite children’s author, has written The Legend of the Bluebonnet (and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, which I did not know about.)

Of course there’s Texas a novel by James Michener. Which I haven’t read. *hangs head in shame*

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. While I’ve not read the novel, I’ve seen the miniseries (or parts of it) and read other McMurtry books.

True Women by Janice Woods Windle, historical fiction of some great Texas ladies (whom you do not want to mess with.)

And… man my library of Texas literature is sadly lacking. So help me out. What are some great books about Texas or Texans? Add you recommendations in the comments.

Then kick back with some pecan pie and a tall glass of ice tea and enjoy some great Texas Tales.

This entry was posted by April on Saturday, March 2nd, 2013 at 7:30 am and is filed under books, Texas . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.