REVIEWS
Looking for your next great read? Our editorial reviews spotlight Texas-connected books with honest, thoughtful, and professionally written evaluations from the Lone Star Lit team. Whether you’re in the mood for a gripping novel, a heartfelt memoir, or a fascinating nonfiction deep dive, our reviews offer insight into what makes each book stand out—without giving away any spoilers. Dive in and discover your next favorite story.
Lone Star Review: SPYING ON THE SOUTH by Tony Horwitz
Lone Star Review of Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz.
Lone Star Review: WHERE WE COME FROM by Oscar Cásares
A review of Where We Come From, the second novel by Brownsville native and Austin professor Oscar Cásares.
Lone Star Review: HOUSTON NOIR
Chris Manno reviews Houston Noir, a collection of short stories edited by the 2013 Poet Laureate of Houston, Gwendolyn Zepeda.
Lone Star Review: AMON CARTER: A LONE STAR LIFE
Austin’s Si Dunn reviews a biography of Amon G. Carter, Fort Worth businessman and philanthropist.
Lone Star Review: HOUSE OF STONE by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
House of Stone is quickly and evenly paced until it begins coursing toward the denouement, flinging jaw-dropping twists amidst the factional, fractional, bloody birth of Zimbabwe, with mordant wit and keen characterization.
Lone Star Review: A Wise Collection Honoring a Brave Journalist
Natalia Trevin᷃o reviews San Antonio poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s newest poetry collection, The Tiny Journalist.
Lone Star Review: Turning the Pages of Texas with a Master Storyteller
Si Dunn reviews historian and writer Lonn Taylor’s newest book, Turning the Pages of Texas.
Lone Star Review: Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington
If you like an edge to the books you read, and if you like a disturbing yet truthful glimpse into a harsh reality, Lot offers that and so much more.
LONE STAR REVIEW: Recent Studies Indicate: The Best of Sarah Bird
It’s often tricky to be a woman and a Texan. Sarah Bird, who frequently addresses the endless push-pull of being a woman in the Lone Star State, will make you glad to be both—simultaneously.
Lone Star Review: THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR by Susan Meissner
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner is a passionate study on humankind’s ability to endure and hope and dream during times of uncertainty, loss, and deprivation.
LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE by Valeria Luiselli
A family — a man and a woman, both documentarians working with sound (“We accumulated hours of tape of people speaking, telling stories, pausing, telling lies, praying, hesitating, confessing, breathing.”), and a boy, ten, and a girl, five — leave their New York apartment on a cross-country road trip.
Lone Star Review: My Years With Townes Van Zandt
“The narrative is smoothly written, a stark contrast to the peaks of outlandish behavior and the depths of despair the story chronicles.”
