You are invited to dine at the Texas Governor’s Mansion, to be the guest of the first ladies and two women governors of the Lone Star State, as they offer (through author Carl McQueary) some of their finest recipes and favorite stories of life in the heart of Austin. The ingredients in Dining at the Governor’s Mansion include one part culinary history and one part social history, along with a generous helping of recipes cooked by Texas first ladies, or (in later years) their personal chefs, from the completion of the Austin mansion in 1856 down to the present. Carl McQueary’s folksy cookbook offers a look at food and its preparation, entertaining at the Mansion, and the challenges the women faced keeping the old home together. It includes brief biographical sketches of the first ladies, who usually orchestrated food service for both family meals and social or political events, and considerable background on the mansion’s infrastructure challenges, interior decoration, landscaping, and restoration. The book also provides an intimate portrait of Texas life during the last century and a half, since the trends in food enjoyed by the governors and their families, especially in their private lives, have been surprisingly similar to those enjoyed by even the humblest of Texas citizens. Most of all, it presents dozens of tasty, appetizing, historic recipes tested by McQueary in his own kitchen and annotated for the contemporary cook. No matter how you slice it up—as Texas history, food history, women’s hisory, or cookbook—Dining at the Governor’s Mansion offers a palate-pleasing smorgasbord for your reading, dining, or gift-giving pleasure.

Did you know that we’re battling an epidemic* . . . ? • Almost one-third of all high-school students fail to graduate with their class; among minorities, the dropout rate is almost 50 percent. • Dropouts are more likely than their peers to be unemployed, live in poverty, have poor health, depend upon social services, and go to jail. • The combined loss of income and revenue to the American economy from a single year’s dropouts is about $192 billion. *From The Silent Epidemic (Bridgeland, Dilulio, and Morrison, 2006) But there is a solution to the dropout crisis that is proven, effective, replicable, and sustainable! Communities In Schools (CIS) reaches more than one million at-risk students and their families annually in more than 3,000 American schools. These kids would fall far below the national average for every measure of student success. Yet 98 percent of CIS-tracked students stayed in school. Why? What makes the difference? The Last Dropout offers nine key principles that Communities In Schools has tested over three decades. Interwoven are the dramatic life stories of CIS founder Bill Milliken and his colleagues, a journey that began in the turbulent 1960s as youth workers with a spiritual mission struggled to turn around the lives of dropouts and addicts. It traces the evolution of the CIS movement from a handful of groundbreaking “street academies” to a national network of hundreds of local affiliates. The Last Dropout also features stories about how CIS leaders have adopted these principles in their own communities, with stunning results!

In recent years, Americans have become thoroughly disenchanted with political campaigns, especially with ads and speeches that bombard them with sensational images while avoiding significant issues. Now campaign analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson provides an eye-opening look at the tactics used by political advertisers. Photos and line drawings.

“While Catherine Cox and I were writing Apollo, Jerry Bostick was one of a handful of people who became our go-to sources—the men who made the Apollo days come alive again. What great news that Jerry is now telling his story in all the detail that it deserves. It will be an indispensable source for future generations who want to understand that historic era.” Charles Murray, co-author, Apollo When author Jerry Bostick was eight years old, his family had indoor plumbing installed in their home. He thought they were living in the lap of luxury. In The Kid from Golden, Bostick shares his life story beginning with his birth in June of 1939 in that house in Golden, Mississippi. This memoir narrates a chronological rendering of Bostick’s family and memories and tells about his many accomplishments. The Kid from Golden discusses his early years growing up in rural Mississippi; to serving as a page in the US House of Representatives; to attending college; and working at NASA Mission Control during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs, Grumman Aerospace and United Space Alliance. Offering an insightful encapsulation of his career and personal life and the lessons learned throughout, Bostick dedicates The Kid from Golden to his grandchildren. He documents his stories and memories for the benefit of future generations.

Provides citations to books, journal articles, manuscripts, oral histories, dissertations, and theses on Texas women's history.

From reviews of the newest, hippest restaurants in cities across Texas to stories about the comfort foods we all love, Texans have long relied on Texas Monthly to dish up some of the best writing about food in the Lone Star state. This anthology brings together twenty-eight classic articles about food in Texas and the culture that surrounds it—markets that purvey exotic and traditional foods, well-known chefs, tributes to the cooks and cookbooks of days gone by, and even a feature on how to open a restaurant. Many of the articles are by Patricia Sharpe, Texas Monthly's longtime restaurant critic and winner of the James Beard Journalism Award for Magazine Feature Writing without Recipes. Joining her are Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith and contributors Gary Cartwright, Jordan MacKay, Skip Hollandsworth, Pamela Colloff, Anne Dingus, Suzy Banks, Joe Nick Patoski, and Prudence Mackintosh.