Holiday Offer: Signed Texas Books at 40% off, free shipping!

Through midnight on Monday, December 11, the University of Texas Press is proud to offer signed copies of select Texas books delivered in time for the holidays at 40% off, with free standard domestic shipping.

To order your signed, personalized copy:

• Place any book below (scroll to view selections) in your shopping cart.
• Enter the discount code GIFTBOOKS before checkout.
• In the comments field during checkout, write your personalized message: What should the author write in the book? Click to view an example inscription.
• Complete checkout.

Books will ship on Thursday, December 14. No rush shipping. Not valid for orders outside the United States. If you have questions or concerns about your order, or would like assistance, please call 512-232-7637. 

Armadillo World Headquarters A Memoir By Eddie Wilson, with Jesse Sublett The founder of Armadillo World Headquarters recalls the lively history of this legendary music venue and its role in launching cosmic cowboy/redneck rock and making Austin, Texas, the live music capital of the world. Hardcover, $20.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1382-4 Buy Now Surf Texas By Kenny Braun Evocative and nostalgic, this extended photo essay presents an insider’s portrait of the surf culture of Texas, one of the top six surfing states in America, as well as the singular and sometimes unexpected beauty of the Texas coast. Hardcover, $33.00 (40% off) ISBN: 978-0-292-75770-7 Buy Now Republic of Football Legends of the Texas High School Game By Chad S. Conine With interviews and stories of celebrated players, including past and present NFL stars, as well as legendary coaches and dynastic teams from across Texas, The Republic of Football captures the standout moments in Friday night lights. Hardcover, $14.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-0371-9 Buy Now Under Surveillance Being Watched in Modern America By Randolph Lewis Tackling one of today’s most timely issues from a broad, humanistic perspective, this book explores the emotional, ethical, and aesthetic challenges of living under constant surveillance in post-9/11 American society. Hardcover, $16.77 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1243-8 Buy Now They Came from the Sky The Spanish Arrive in Texas By Stephen Harrigan This signed edition presents a spellbinding preview of the inaugural volume of the Texas Bookshelf—a major new history of Texas by the New York Times best-selling author Stephen Harrigan. Hardcover, $11.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1294-0 Buy Now

A Love Letter to Texas Women By Sarah Bird The acclaimed author of Above the East China Sea and The Yokota Officers Club celebrates the uniqueness of Texas women in this beautifully designed gift book Hardcover, $10.17 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-0949-0 Buy Now The Face of Texas Photographs by Michael O'Brien. With stories by Elizabeth O'Brien With twenty-three new portraits, including John Graves, Richard Linklater, Joel Osteen, and Cat Osterman, as well as updated profiles of all of the subjects, here is the face of Texas captured in the faces of noteworthy Texans by one of America’s premier portrait photographers. Paperback, $14.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-0-292-76313-5 Buy Now Texas Sports Unforgettable Stories for Every Day of the Year By Chad S. Conine With a stirring story for every day of the year, this book celebrates the athletes and teams in more than twenty-five sports that have made Texas a dynamo in the world of sports across more than a century. Paperback, $11.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1273-5 Buy Now Texas BBQ By Wyatt McSpadden Destined to become a classic like Smokestack Lightning and Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook, Wyatt McSpadden's Texas BBQ is the only large format, full-color photographic odyssey into the world of traditional barbecue. Hardcover, $23.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-0-292-71858-6 Buy Now The Making of Gone With The Wind By Steve Wilson More than 600 rarely seen items from the David O. Selznick archive, this exhibition catalog that celebrates the 75th anniversary of Gone with the Wind offer fans and film historians alike a must-have behind-the-camera view of the production of this classic movie on its seventy-fifth anniversary. Hardcover, $30.00 (40% off) ISBN: 978-0-292-76126-1 Buy Now One More Warbler A Life with Birds By Victor Emanuel, with S. Kirk Walsh With stories of sighting rare birds ranging from an Eskimo Curlew to the cranes of Asia, one of America’s foremost birders recalls a lifetime of birding adventures, including friendships with luminaries Roger Tory Peterson, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. Hardcover, $17.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1238-4 Buy Now

Tacos of Texas By Mando Rayo and Jarod Neece With authentic recipes, behind-the-scenes stories, and recommendations of where the locals eat, this is the indispensable guide to Texas’s appetizingly diverse tacos and taco culture by the authors of Austin Breakfast Tacos. Paperback, $11.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1043-4 Buy Now Thursday Night Lights The Story of Black High School Football in Texas By Michael Hurd Telling an inspiring, largely unknown story, Thursday Night Lights recounts how African American high school football programs produced championship teams and outstanding players during the Jim Crow era. Hardcover, $14.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1034-2 Buy Now The Swimming Holes of Texas By Julie Wernersbach and Carolyn Tracy; photography by Carolyn Tracy Full of practical information to help plan your visits and enticing color photos of one hundred freshwater swimming holes, here is the first-ever guide to the best places to swim in Texas. Paperback, $13.17 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1237-7 Buy Now The Texanist Fine Advice on Living in Texas By David Courtney and Jack Unruh The first collection of acclaimed illustrator Jack Unruh’s work, this book gathers the best of the illustrations he created for The Texanist, Texas Monthly’s back-page column, along with the serious and not-so-serious questions that inspired them. Hardcover, $14.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-1-4773-1297-1 Buy Now ¡Viva Tequila!  Cocktails, Cooking, and Other Agave Adventures By Lucinda Hutson With a festive blend of inspired recipes for fabulous drinks and dishes, lively personal anecdotes, spicy cultural history, and colorful agave folk art, proverbs, and lore, America’s premier tequila expert shows us how to savor the most Mexican of all libations. Hardcover, $20.97 (40% off) ISBN: 978-0-292-72294-1  Buy Now

UT Press at the 2017 Texas Book Festival

This weekend, the University of Texas Press and many of our authors will enjoy the 22nd annual Texas Book Festival on the Capitol grounds in downtown Austin and environs.

We'll have a booth on Colorado Street with tons of titles for sale at a great discount, so please stop by. There are a lot of wonderful authors in attendance this year, so we’ve distilled our authors' appearances into a single UT Press schedule (browse the full schedule here):

Saturday

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Texas Institute Of Letters Award Winners

Author: Stephen Harrigan

Moderator: Steve Davis
Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.036
Booksigning: Main Book Signing Tent (Congress near 10th Street)

Enjoy seeing some of the top writers in Texas at this lively panel discussion featuring winners of the Texas Institute of Letters’ 2017 Literary Awards. The TIL was founded in 1936 and has been a leading force in Texas literature for more than 80 years.

Where to find the author online: @stephenharrigan | Website 

11:00 AM - 11:45 AM

Thursday Night Lights

Author: Michael Hurd

Location: C-SPAN2/ Book TV Tent

Booksigning: Main Book Signing Tent (Congress near 10th Street)

Michael Hurd, sportswriter and director of Prairie View A&M University's Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture, and journalist Bobby Hawthorne discuss the inspiring, largely unknown story of African American high school football in Texas, showing how football offered a potent source of pride and ambition in the black community. While "Friday night lights" shone on white high school football games, African American teams across Texas burned up the gridiron on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Thursday Night Lights is their story.

Chad Conine Hits the Texas Football Trifecta

When it comes to sports, Texas more than earns its bragging rights. The Lone Star State has produced championship teams and legendary athletes not only in football, baseball, and basketball, but in dozens of other sports as well. Chad Conine has covered Texas sports for twenty years—everything from Tuesday night high school volleyball matches to

More info

Thanksgiving Day Dallas Cowboys games. His new book, Texas Sports: Unforgettable Stories for Every Day of the Year, celebrates more than a century of achievements in a day-by-day record of the people and events—both unforgettable and little-known—that have made Texas a powerhouse in the world of sports.

Chad recently braved an exhausting road trip around Texas in one weekend to cover the three pillars of football: high school Friday night lights, college game day, and the NFL. We asked him to report from the field. 

Chad Conine will be speaking and signing Texas Sports at BookPeople this Sunday, October 15th at 2 p.m. Don't miss it!

Dispatches from the Texas Football Trifecta Road Trip

The first thing I want you to know, dear reader, is that I didn’t decide to cover three different levels of football in three far-flung cities all in the same weekend as a publicity stunt. That would have been fun, possibly. Like a football version of “Amazing Race.”

But no, it wasn’t like that.

It was just the way the schedule worked out and I could see it coming a mile away, so I decided to make the most of it.

When I noticed Texas Tech was hosting an Oklahoma State team that was sure to be ranked on September 30, and the Dallas Cowboys, whom I’m covering full-time for the first time this season, was playing at noon on October 1, I knew it would be an active weekend. I figured The Sports Xchange, my usual freelancing gig for top 25 college football, would like me to cover the Red Raiders versus Oklahoma State and I consider Lubbock my territory and want to keep it. There was simply no reason to duck out of covering a high school game on Friday night, since the college game started at 7 on Saturday night, giving me plenty of time to make it from the Waco area to Lubbock. The real trick would be leaving Texas Tech’s Jones Stadium after midnight and arriving at Jerry World in Arlington, ideally by 11 a.m., while still finding time to sleep a little.

If anything, this trip was a good indication that I’m addicted to writing about football. I clearly can't say, “no.”

But luckily, my friend and fellow creative professional Jacob Robinson, couldn’t turn down the chance to go to three football games in a weekend either, so I had a good traveling buddy.

FRIDAY

5:30 p.m. – As I packed for the weekend, I looked into my closet and instead of picking out shirts to wear to the Saturday and Sunday games, I couldn’t help but ask myself “Am I crazy for doing this?”

I like to work long days and I like being up against a deadline. But when I finish doing those things, I like to wind down by drinking a beer and then having a good long sleep. That’s not how this weekend set up, though. But sometimes the fear of sleep deprivation is worse than sleep deprivation itself. So I gave myself a pep talk.

“Just give me 48 hours,” I told my psyche, “and then we can recover on Monday.”

8:05 p.m. – Tweeted: “Fairfield RB (Kadarrius) Walker kept his feet through the hole and sprung for a 41-yard TD. Eagles 14, China Spring 0. 10:08 2Q. #TribFridayNight.”

On the drive home on Sunday, as Jacob and I discussed our favorite plays from the weekend, I picked this one. I liked the combination of Walker finding his balance and realizing he had open field in front of him, plus the fact that it gave underdog Fairfield a two-touchdown lead early in the second quarter.

8:30 p.m. – It was homecoming at China Spring, which meant I had a couple of extra minutes during halftime to write up the first-half action. This is a unique function of my job on Friday nights. High school football halftime lasts 28 minutes, longer than college or the NFL. So I use that time by writing as much about the first half as possible. I think I could teach a journalism class on how well this works.

Also, if you think about it, covering high school football is the last real opportunity for sportswriters to be the ones to tell the reading audience what happened in a football game. Once you go up a level to college, every game is televised and all the highlights are available in the palms of our hands. So the men and women covering college and the NFL are trying to tell you more about a game you’ve already seen and digested, probably even by the time a game story hits the internet. But if you like high school football, then reading the Saturday morning paper is fun because you actually get to learn something about what happened on Friday night.