Year End Round Up of Best Books

End of year best-of lists are everywhere this month. We've had a great year and are very proud of the lists our books have landed on thus far. Help us celebrate another great year in publishing!

Holiday shopping note: Order by next Thursday, December 17, to guarantee domestic delivery by December 25.

End of Year Round Up

“Best Of” or “Gifts” Lists

New York Times Sunday Book Review Holiday issue

The Jemima Code
Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks
By Toni Tipton-Martin

"The Jemima Code is no ordinary book. It’s a heaping helping, a long overdue acknowledgment of African-Americans who have toiled in this field since the country’s beginnings. With eloquence and urgency, Tipton-Martin makes the case that without the people of the African diaspora not only would America’s food be different, so would its culinary conversation." 

—The New York Times Book Review

Variations on a Rectangle
Thirty Years of Graphic Design from Texas Monthly to Pentagram
By DJ Stout

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The best photography books of 2015

Frame
A Retrospective
By Mark Cohen 

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NPR, Best Books 2015

The Jemima Code
Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks
By Toni Tipton-Martin

"[The Jemima Code is] that rare coffee table book that serves up important history and compelling imagery in digestible, bite-size chunks that still stick to your ribs." 

—Michel Martin, NPR's Best Books of 2015

Don’t Suck Don’t Die
Giving Up Vic Chesnutt
By Kristin Hersh

"Don't Suck, Don't Die is not only one of the best books of the year, it's one of the most beautiful rock memoirs ever written. Hersh is as stunningly talented an author as she is a musician, and her portrayal of Chesnutt is perfectly done." 

—NPR's Best Books of 2015

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Wall Street Journal, Best Books for Photography Lovers 2015

Frame
A Retrospective
By Mark Cohen 

"Mr. Cohen’s pictures are remarkable." 

—The Wall Street Journal

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American Photo, Best Books 2015

Frame
A Retrospective
By Mark Cohen

Political Abstraction
By Ralph Gibson

Publicity Round Up

It’s still hot here in Texas, and media coverage of our books doesn’t show any signs of cooling any time soon. This summer’s food books are still appetizing:

• The Splendid Table talked with Lucinda Hutson about ¡Viva Tequila!. Listen to the interview on splendidtable.org>>
• The Austin Chronicle’s ‘Drink, Drank, Drunk’ issue featured Lucinda's love for Mexico and reviewed the book: “Hutson and her publisher pull out all the stops to create a gorgeous and informative book which will be every bit as much at home on an upscale cocktail table as it will be in the bar area.” Read the article and the book review at Austinchronicle.com>> 
• While perusing your Sunday paper last week, you may have noticed that Barbecue Crossroads was mentioned in an article by John T. Edge on the golden age of barbecue. Read it on parade.com>>

Our spring photography books maintain our good image:

• Cathy Langer of Denver’s Tattered Cover bookstore talked to Photo District News about the quality of our photography books. In the August ‘Photo Book’ issue, Cathy says that she prefers to order from “university presses like Yale or the University of Texas Press, in part because she trusts the production quality of their books.” Pick up a copy of the magazine at your local independent bookstore>> 
• Photos from Bruce Jackson’s Inside the Wire were featured on the website for the Italian magazine Internazionale. View the slideshow on internazionale.it>> 
• The Boston Globe’s Ideas blog wrote about Bruce’s work in southern prisons. Read the post on boston.com>> 
• Photography critic Vince Aletti reviewed Michael Kamber’s Photojournalists on War: “The book—required reading for anyone interested in the way news is gathered and disseminated these days—collects Kamber’s interviews with 39 colleagues who covered the war…confidences shared among friends that we’re privileged to be listening in on.” Pick up a copy of Photograph magazine at your local independent bookstore>>

And finally, the buzz over our forthcoming fall titles has begun!

• James McWilliams, author of The Pecan: A History of America’s Native Nut, had an amusing essay in the July 7th issue of the New York Times Book Review. Read the essay on nytimes.com>> 
• Kirkus Reviews says of David Cantwell’s Merle Haggard: The Running Kind: “An incisive, critical analysis of one of the most complicated and misunderstood artists in country music...Both the Haggard fanatic and the casual country music fan will find their appreciation enriched.” Read the full review on kirkusreviews.com>> 
• Sam Shephard and Johnny Dark’s collection of letters (Two Prospectors) captivated Kirkus: “A bright pathway directly into the hearts and minds of two compelling men.” Read the review on kirkusreviews.com>> 
• Publishers Weekly listed Waltercio Caldas as one of the Top 10 books in Art, Architecture, and Photography for fall. See more fall art titles at publishersweekly.com>>

Publicity Round Up

With the heat of summer upon us, Robb Walsh and O. Rufus Lovett's barbecue joint adventure is catching fire. Check out the attention that Barbecue Crossroads — and other UT Press books — are getting this season.

• Publishers Weekly listed Barbecue Crossroads as a 'Standout Barbecue Book.' See the list at publishersweekly.com>> 
• Booklist gave the book a starred review. Read it on booklistonline.com>>
• Robb Walsh was pegged as "The Steinbeck of the South" in the Dallas Morning News. Read the article on dallasnews.com>>
• Houston Chronicle's Greg Morago says of the book, "Throughout this smoked-meat hegira Walsh lavishes Southern barbecue lore and history like he’s building an especially luscious pulled-pork sandwich. The stories and recipes he coaxes from these keepers of the flame are what make “Barbecue Crossroads” such a tasty journey.” Read the rest on houstonchronicle.com>>
• Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times on reading Barbecue Crossroads: "In the end, you feel privileged to have been invited along and a whole lot smarter about not only smoked meat in all of its many guises, but this lovely and confounding part of the country.” More on latimes.com>>
• A prominent mention in a list of new cookbooks from the New York Times. See the list on nytimes.com>>

Photojournalists and authors Michael Kamber and Donna De Cesare continue to garner widespread attention for their projects:

• The BBC interviewed Michael Kamber about his book Photojournalists on War. Watch on bbc.co.uk>> 
• Kamber talks to the Washington Post's 'The Fold' about the stories behind the images. Watch the video on washingtonpost.com>>
•  Austin Merrell of Vanity Fair says of the book, "Kamber's interviews with his colleagues cover the war as they saw it—their passion for the story, their fears and daily complications, and the trauma they live with still today. Some of their images are among the most iconic of the war, some are previously unpublished..." View the slideshow and article on vanityfair.com>>
• Michael Kamber appeared on the Leonard Lopate Show to promote the book. Listen to the interview on wnyc.org>> 
• CBSnews.com featured a slideshow with interview excerpts from contributing photographers. See it on cbsnews.com>>
• Mike Sacks on HuffPost Live digs deeper into the photojournalist's experience in Iraq with Michael Kamber. Watch it on live.huffingtonpost.com>> 
• KPCC Radio, NPR's affiliate station in Pasadena, CA, interviewed Donna De Cesare about her book Unsettled/Desasosiego. Listen to the interview on scpr.org>>

 

Publisher's Weekly :: Conspiracy Theory in America

Conspiracy Theory in America

by Lance deHaven-Smith

Buy It Now

Publisher's Weekly reviewed Lance deHaven Smith's forthcoming book Conspiracy Theory in America:

DeHaven-Smith (The Hidden Teachings of Jesus) offers an intriguing take on the origins and implications of conspiracy theories and the paranoid mindset itself in this accessible academic study. The author, a professor of public administration and policy at Florida State University, provocatively argues that conspiracy theories, far from being merely the stuff of outlier fantasy, have played a major role in the formation of U.S. history; the Founding Fathers, he insists, developed a kind of protoconspiracy theory as a means to justify revolution, citing the abuses of King George as "proof he was plotting to subject the colonies to ‘an absolute tyranny.’” And of course no talk of conspiracy theories would be complete without mention of the J.F.K. assassination. Indeed, DeHaven-Smith shows that it was in the aftermath of the killing that the phrase “conspiracy theory” entered American parlance, a phenomenon he chalks up to government efforts to discredit skeptics of the Warren Commission’s findings (which scheme he dubs “the Conspiracy-Theory Conspiracy”). DeHaven-Smith ultimately suggests that we “apply the same forensic protocols to elite crimes” (i.e. crimes involving political figures and celebrities) as are used in solving “ordinary cases” involving citizens. Confronted with these compelling arguments, even the most incredulous readers will find themselves questioning their own preconceived notions of paranoia, governmental transparency, and conspiracy theorists. ―Publisher’s Weekly

Read the full review at publishersweekly.com>>

Publisher's Weekly :: The Fight to Save Juarez

The Fight to Save Juarez

by Ricardo C. Ainslie

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Publisher's Weekly reviewed Ricardo Ainslie's forthcoming book The Fight to Save Juarez, "an unrelenting look" at the drug war and its epicenter, Ciudad Juarez.

"Psychologist and U.T.-Austin instructor Ainslie (Long Dark Road) presents an unrelenting look at the drug cartel battles of Ciudad Juarez, just over the Rio Grande from El Paso, Tex. Juarez’s mayor, José Reyes Ferriz, first learned of the coming war between the established Juarez cartel and the Sinaloa cartel shortly after he was elected in late 2007 and he spent his entire three-year term trying to curtail the killings, which in some months “surpassed those in war-torn cities like Baghdad.” Corruption was so endemic in the municipal police force that Reyes invited in the army, with 5,000 federal troops arriving in March 2009. The municipal police force was officially disbanded, then re-formed later that year as the “new police.” Two facts stand out among the continual descriptions of assassinations. The first, often repeated, is that the violence is driven by American drug consumption, and the second is that the vast majority of assault weapons used by the cartels are from the U.S. Despite a wide-ranging intervention ordered by the Mexican president, following a massacre of innocent youths in the Villas de Salvárcar neighborhood in January 2010, there is no Hollywood ending to this report—only a continuation of the violence. Although not easy to read, this is an important work for any reader concerned about Mexico. Agent: James D. Hornfischer, Hornfischer Literary Management. (Apr.)"

Read the full review at publishersweekly.com>>

Publisher's Weekly :: Border Junkies

Border Junkies

By Scott Comar
Buy It Now

Review:

In this eye-opening account, former heroin addict and current doctoral student Comar chronicles his five years as a junkie, during which he panhandled to support his drug habit and repeatedly completed rehabilitation only to quickly fall back into drug use. Readers will continue waiting for the announcement of the low point of his life: is it the withdrawal pain, going to jail, learning a friend has died from overdose, or lying to his family to get money for drugs? While following Comar's trail between Juárez, Mexico, where he lived for most of these years, and El Paso, Tex., where he was often able to find employment or panhandle, readers will learn about the facilities available for detoxification and where Comar finds them lacking; life on the streets; and survival with, and without, the bare necessities. As Comar writes, "The food was good, and the showers had hot water. I had a small pocket radio and a bottom bunk. What more could someone want out of life?" Clean since 2003, Comar uses these pages to reflect on the processes of addiction, detoxification, and recovery, while questioning how drug treatment centers could better assist recovering addicts. (Oct.)

Read the original review »

Publisher's Weekly :: West of 98

West of 98

Edited by Lynn Stegner
and Russell Rowland

Buy It Now

Editors Stegner (Because a Fire Was in My Head) and Rowland (Open Spaces), and the writers they've gathered, ask what it means to be a Westerner. Many of the stories, poems, and essays in this enjoyable collection touch on widely recognized images--cowboys, cattle, the Great Plains--while others present frank, forthright arguments about race and politics specific to the states west of the 98th meridian, which runs from Texas to North Dakota. Understanding the beauty and aridity of this inhospitable land proves as essential as understanding its people. While pastoral reminiscences by Louise Erdrich and Larry McMurtry are memorable, the book's strongest voices take a critical stance. In Stephen Graham Jones's terrifying "Two Illustrations of the West," he explores the dark sub-culture of road-side violence. In "A Dark Light in the West: Racism and Reconciliation," Barry Lopez tackles the history of racism in Oregon and "the deep wounds engendered by Manifest Destiny." This comprehensive and sometimes contradictory collection offers as much pleasure as scholarly merit.

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Publisher's Weekly :: The Trials of Eroy Brown

The Trials of Elroy Brown

by Michael Berryhill

Buy It Now

Review:
The Trials of Eroy Brown: The Murder Case That Shook the Texas Prison System

Well documented and unsentimental, Berryhill's account of this infamous 30- year-old murder case that pitted one man's innocent plea against Texas's political might provides a jarring portrait of a once-medieval state prison. Berryhill, chair of the journalism program at Texas Southern University, retells how Eroy Brown, a hapless criminal, was serving 25 years in prison for aiding in a convenience store robbery, stealing $12 and two candy bars. Witnesses tell several versions of how in 1981, while Brown was at the Ellis prison farm near Huntsville, two white Texas prison guards were killed by Brown, who was also shot, but it was claimed that after being threatened, he grabbed one guard's weapon and drowned the other guard, leaving the question of how Brown could have been shot. Brown was charged, and he pleaded self-defense. A court had earlier ruled that Texas inmates were treated with unusual cruelty, supporting Brown's plea, but he faced aggressive prosecutorial maneuvers and willing inmate testimony. After three trials ending finally in acquittal, Brown, now 59, remains in prison for his earlier conviction. Berryhill documents how the old prison rules are no longer in effect, with federal watchdogs looking out for trouble. 16 b&w photos; 3 maps. (Oct.)

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Publishers Weekly :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

McGee, Kennedy, Hesser, Hamilton Win at Beard Awards
Foundation honors cookbook authors, chefs
By Lynn Andriani


On May 6, the James Beard Foundation announced the winners of its annual book awards at a ceremony in New York City, and this year, the Foundation seemed to favor some of the country’s most well-established cookbook authors. Science of cooking expert Harold McGee was inducted into the JBF’s Cookbook Hall of Fame for his On Food and Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. Meanwhile, Mexican cooking authority Diana Kennedy took the cookbook of the year prize for her Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy (Univ. of Texas).
read more »

The Washington Post :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

2011 Beard Award winners
Published: May 10

Washington chef-restaurateur Jose Andres was the only local culinary star to come home with a medal at the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards for restaurants and chefs, held Monday night at Lincoln Center.

Andres was honored as outstanding chef, for a career that “has set national industry standards” and has inspired other food professionals. The owner of Jaleo, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel, Minibar, Zaytina, China Poblano and the Bazaar was also the subject of a “60 Minutes” profile that won for best television segment in Friday night’s book, broadcast and journalism awards ceremony, held at Espace in New York.

Eleven Madison Park in New York was named outstanding restaurant, and ABC Kitchen in New York was named best new restaurant.

Michael Solomonov of Zahav in Philadelphia was named best chef in the mid-Atlantic.

At the event Friday, Tim Carman, now a Washington Post Food section writer, received a medal for his food-related columns and commentary in the Washington City Paper.

Other major awards presented that evening included:

Cookbook of the year: “Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy,” by Diana Kennedy (University of Texas Press). Read more »

Publisher's Weekly :: Trillin on Texas

Trillin on Texas

by Calvin Trillin

Buy It Now

Trillin on Texas
Reviewed on: 03/28/2011

These 18 previously-published articles, many seen originally in The New Yorker, deal with the state to which Trillin's paternal grandparents emigrated only a few years into the 20th century, and tackle food, politics, crime, literature, and several other subjects. "By Meat Alone" deals with barbecue in general and Snow's BBQ in Lexington in particular, named the Lone Star state's top barbecue joint in 2008 by Texas Monthly. "In central Texas," Trillin writes, "you don't hear a lot of people talking about the piquancy of a restaurant's sauce or the tastiness of its beans; discussions are what a scholar of the culture might call meat-driven." Pieces on Texas politicians continue to carry weight: "The Dynasticks," "If the Boot Fits…" and "Presidential Ups and Downs," about former presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, will arguably be relevant forever. The same can not be said of "Mystery Money," about two teen-age boys who find half a million dollars, which fizzles despite promise; written in 1984, it now feels slight. The disappointments are rare, however, and these essays will impress Texans and non-Texans alike.

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