Texas Pages

Here's the opening of The Likeness by Tana French, reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from Telex From Cuba, by Rachel Kushner. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from Oxygen, by former Dallasite Carol Wiley Cassella. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from Beijing Coma by Ma Jian. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

If you're still looking for great beach reads (or just great "curled up in a chair, in front of a fan, clutching a lemonade" reads), consider Anne Cushman's Enlightenment for Idiots and/or Megan Chance's The Spiritualist.

Ms. Cushman's beautifully written, remarkably assured debut novel Enlightenment for Idiots (Shaye Areheart Books, $24) follows Amanda, a young wanna-be yoga teacher who gets sent to India to write a guide book to finding the titular "enlightenment." But at every "peace center" -- ashram, Buddhist temple, yoga/spa -- she visits, things go horribly, hilariously awry, from ripped knee cartilage to verboten guru love. Amanda's biggest hurdle, literally and physically, comes when she discovers she's pregnant and must choose: enlightenment? motherhood? are both possible?

Here's an excerpt from Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from Made in the USA, by Billie Letts. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from The Fruit Hunters, by Adam Leith Gollner.

It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's the opening chapter of A Patent Lie by Paul Goldstein, which is reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from How Perfect Is That, the Austin-based novel by Sarah Bird.

It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from Jonathan Miles' Dear American Airlines, which is reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from "Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from "So Brave, Young and Handsome," by Leif Enger. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's an excerpt from The Forgery of Venus, by Michael Gruber. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

Here's part of the first chapter from "Child 44," by Tom Rob Smith. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

And let me offer the personal seal of approval on this one: Call it a literary thriller or a thrilling, literate novel, it works on many levels. Watch for a movie and multiple sequels in years to come, I predict.

The excerpt is provided courtesy of Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group USA.

Our interview with Louise Erdrich appears today in GuideLive. Here's an excerpt from her new novel, The Plague of Doves.

(Update: And don't forget -- you can see her tomorrow when she appears with Arts & Letters Live and The Writers Studio.)

We had an excerpt from Infected (reviewed today in GuideLive) planned for this morning. But as Tom Dodge's review suggests, it had an awful lot of limb-severing and blood-gushing for a blog that is sponsored by a family newspaper.

But have no fear. Scott Sigler has an extensive site of his own that can provide you with sample chapters and more about his work.

Here's an excerpt from "The Girl With No Shadow," by Joanne Harris.

You can read the review in today's GuideLive; you can also see her Tuesday at Arts & Letters Live. (And there's more about her at her publisher's site as well.)

Here's an extensive, exclusive excerpt from "Willie Nelson: An Epic Life," by Joe Nick Patoski, telling how Willie's Classic "Red Headed Stranger" came to be recorded in Garland.

You can read Mario Tarradell's review today in GuideLive as well.

As noted in the print editions of today's excerpt and review of Joe Nick Patoski's book:

Musicians seeking to capture some Willie Nelson magic can do so at what is now Audio Dallas, the Garland recording studio where he recorded his groundbreaking album in January 1975. "We still have a photo in the hallway of Willie sitting back in that room making Red Headed Stranger," said Paul Osborn, who bought the studio in 1996. And Glen Pace, the engineer who built the studio months before Mr. Nelson's recording, "still comes around," according to Mr. Osborn. Audio Dallas is at 3810 Cavalier Drive in West Garland. Call 972-276-3896.

Thanks to staff writer Ray Leszcynski for checking that out, and for providing the following 2004 story about the studio.

Have any Willie stories of your own to share? Don't be a stranger, hit that comments button.

Here's an excerpt from "All the Sad Young Literary Men," reviewed in today's GuideLive. It's reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2008 by Keith Gessen.

Here is the opening of "The Story of Forgetting," by Stefan Merrill Block, which is reviewed today in GuideLive.

Mr. Block will appear 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Barnes & Noble, 801 West 15th St., Plano.

You can also see his Web site here.

Here's an excerpt from "The Sum of Our Days" by Isabel Allende. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

The excerpt is provided courtesy of HarperCollins. The illustration is by Guilermo Munro/Special Contributor.

Here's an excerpt from "Lush Life" by Richard Price, which is reviewed today in GuideLive.

The excerpt is Copyright © 2008 by Richard Price. Published in March 2008 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Here is an excerpt from "Tarnished Beauty," reviewed today in GuideLive. The excerpt is Copyright © 2008 by Cecilia Samartin and provided courtesy of Atria/Simon and Schuster.