Texas Country Legacy

Dreaming of a Lone Star Christmas A Texas Holiday Miracle by Linda Warren Becoming guardian of her half sister has been rewarding for Lacey Carroll. But raising a six-year-old has its challenges. Lacey longs to bring holiday wonder back into the child’s life, which isn’t going to be easy with a grinch like Gabe Garrison next door. After losing his son, Gabe shut out the world. Will Lacey’s unique brand of healing magic make this a season of second chances—for all of them? The Texas Christmas Gift by Cathy Gillen Thacker With Christmas only a few weeks away, single father Derek McCabe is determined that real estate agent Eve Loughlin find a house for him and his young daughter. But being with Eve makes him aware of everything else he’s missing in life. Eve is all business, but there’s no denying the attraction between them. Can Derek get past that cool exterior and make her his own Christmas Eve? Previously published as A Texas Holiday Miracle and The Texas Christmas Gift

She didn’t bargain on love The Texas Wildcatter’s Baby by Cathy Gillen Thacker Wildcatter Ginger Rollins and environmental cowboy Rand McCabe are on opposite sides when it comes to the Texas land they both love. But now that Ginger’s pregnant, they have only one option. Rand is all for getting married. Too bad the independent Ginger sees their union as a nonnegotiable deal. How long can he keep his feelings—and their baby—a secret? The Cowboy’s Surprise Baby by Ali Olson Amy McNeal has two reasons to return to Spring Valley, Texas. One is her brother’s wedding. The other is to set things straight with a handsome cowboy. Jack Stuart has never forgiven Amy for walking out on him years ago. Yet while their lives are worlds apart, they still just fit together. Now Jack must show Amy that she belongs in Spring Valley with him. But life can be full of surprises… Previously published as The Texas Wildcatter’s Baby and The Cowboy’s Surprise Baby

His second-chance Christmas The Cowboy’s Christmas Surprise by Marie Ferrarella Since the first grade, Holly Johnson has known that Ramon Rodriguez is the only man for her. But the carefree, determinedly single Texas cowboy with the killer smile doesn’t have a clue. Until they share a dance and a kiss, and Ray finally sees his best friend for the woman she is. Now that he realizes what he’s been missing, Ray plans to make up for lost time… A Texas Soldier’s Christmas by Cathy Gillen Thacker As tempting as it is for nurse Nora Caldwell to fall into the finely sculpted arms—again—of United States army lieutenant Zane Lockhart, she’s got her baby boy to think of now. Zane’s dedication has meant saying goodbye to Nora far too often. He can’t blame her for doubting that he’s finally ready to put her and Liam first. Can the Christmas gift of a lifetime convince her? USA TODAY Bestselling Author Marie Ferrarella Previously published as The Cowboy’s Christmas Surprise and A Texas Soldier’s Christmas

The musical voice of Texas presents itself as vast and diverse as the Lone Star State’s landscape. According to Casey Monahan, “To travel Texas with music as your guide is a year-round opportunity to experience first-hand this amazing cultural force….Texas music offers a vibrant and enjoyable experience through which to understand and enjoy Texas culture.” Building on the work of The Handbook of Texas Music that was published in 2003 and in partnership with the Texas Music Office and the Center for Texas Music History (Texas State University-San Marcos), The Handbook of Texas Music, Second Edition, offers completely updated entries and features new and expanded coverage of the musicians, ensembles, dance halls, festivals, businesses, orchestras, organizations, and genres that have helped define the state’s musical legacy. · More than 850 articles, including almost 400 new entries· 255 images, including more than 170 new photos, sheet music art, and posters that lavishly illustrate the text· Appendix with a stage name listing for musicians Supported by an outstanding team of music advisors from across the state, The Handbook of Texas Music, Second Edition, furnishes new articles on the music festivals, museums, and halls of fame in Texas, as well as the many honky-tonks, concert halls, and clubs big and small, that invite readers to explore their own musical journeys. Scholarship on many of the state’s pioneering groups and the recording industry and professionals who helped produce and promote their music provides fresh insight into the history of Texas music and its influence far beyond the state’s borders. Celebrate the musical tapestry of Texas from A to Z!

"The richly diverse ethnic heritage of the Lone Star State has brought to the Southwest a remarkable array of rhythms, instruments, and musical styles that have blended here in unique ways and, in turn, have helped shape the music of the nation and the world." "Historian Gary Hartman writes knowingly and lovingly of the Lone Star State's musical traditions. In the first thorough survey of the vast and complex cultural mosaic that has produced what we know today as "Texas music," he paints a broad, panoramic view, offers analysis of the origins of and influences on specific genres, profiles key musicians, and provides guidance to additional sources for further information." "A musician himself, Hartman draws on both academic and non-academic sources to give a more complete understanding of the state's remarkable musical heritage. He combines scholarly training in music history and ethnic community studies with his first-hand knowledge of how important music is as a cultural medium through which human beings communicate information, ideas, emotions, values, and beliefs, and bond together as friends, families, and communities." "The History of Texas Music incorporates a selection of well-chosen photographs of both prominent and less-well-known artists and describes not only the ethnic origins of much of Texas music but also the cross-pollination among various genres. Today, the music of Texas - which includes Native American music, gospel, blues, ragtime, swing, jazz, rhythm and blues, conjunto, Tejano, cajun, zydeco, western swing, honky tonk, polkas, schottisches, rock & roll, rap, hip hop, and more - reflects the unique cultural dynamics of the Southwest."--Jacket

Where more poignantly than in a small country graveyard can a traveler fathom the flow of history and tradition? During the past twenty years, Terry G. Jordan has traveled the back roads and hidden trails of rural Texas in search of such cemeteries. With camera in hand, he has visited more than one thousand cemeteries created and maintained by the Anglo-American, black, Indian, Mexican, and German settlers of Texas. His discoveries of sculptured stones and mounds, hex signs and epitaphs, intricate landscapes and unusual decorations represent a previously unstudied and unappreciated wealth of Texas folk art and tradition. Texas Graveyards not only marks the distinct ethnic and racial traditions in burial practices but also preserves a Texas legacy endangered by changing customs, rural depopulation, vandalism, and the erosion of time.

The Encyclopedia of Leadership brings together for the first time everything that is known and truly matters about leadership as part of the human experience. Developed by the award-winning editorial team at Berkshire Publishing Group, the Encyclopedia includes hundreds of articles, written by 280 leading scholars and experts from 17 countries, exploring leadership theories and leadership practice. Entries and sidebars show leadership in action - in corporations and state houses, schools, churches, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations.

“The convertors would spew it out,” employee Arturo Hernandez recalled, referring to molten metal. “You’d see the ground, the dirt, catch on fire. . . . If you slip, you’d be like a little pat of butter, melting away.” Hernandez was describing work at ASARCO El Paso, a smelter and onetime economic powerhouse situated in the city’s heart just a few yards north of the Mexican border. For more than a century the smelter produced vast quantities of copper—along with millions of tons of toxins. During six of those years, the smelter also burned highly toxic industrial waste under the guise of processing copper, with dire consequences for worker and community health. Copper Stain is a history of environmental injustice, corporate malfeasance, political treachery, and a community fighting for its life. The book gives voice to nearly one hundred Mexican Americans directly affected by these events. Their frank and often heartrending stories, published here for the first time, evoke the grim reality of laboring under giant machines and lava-spewing furnaces while turning mountains of rock into copper ingots, all in service to an employer largely indifferent to workers’ welfare. With horror and humor, anger, courage, and sorrow, the authors and their interviewees reveal how ASARCO subjected its employees and an unsuspecting public to pollution, diseases, and early death—with little in the way of compensation. Elaine Hampton and Cynthia C. Ontiveros weave this eloquent testimony into a cautionary tale of toxic exposure, community activism, and a corporate employer’s dubious relationship with ethics—set against the political tug-of-war between industry’s demands and government’s obligation to protect the health of its people and the environment.