Permian Historical Society members and friends appreciate books — fiction and non-fiction — about the Permian Basin, Texas, the West, and the United States. Many of our members write books and all of us enjoy reading, discussing, and reviewing them.

Our Book Review Editor is Charlena Chandler. Any author or press may contact Editor Chandler at CVargasPrada@aol.com for information about submitting a book for review.

Other Permian Historical Reviewers are Janice Bond, Lane Bond, James Collett, Glenn Dromgoole, James Humphrey, Peggy Kelton, Ross McSwain, Mary Lou Midkiff, J. Tillapaugh, and Julia Cauble Smith.

News of Recent Books

Patrick Dearen, author of more than a dozen books, has two new books that appeal to all who appreciate the hard edge of life in earlier times. One is an oral history of cowboy life and the other is a novel set in the desperate days of the Great Depression. Each proves Dearen’s skill in storytelling. Both are entered in competition for the Wrangler award at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

• The oral history is Saddling Up Anyway: The Dangerous Lives of Old-Time Cowboys (New York: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2006. Pp. 177. Contents, glossary of cowboy terms, photographs, bibliography, index. $22.95, cloth with dust jacket). It is based on interviews with pre-1932 cowboys of Texas and New Mexico, interviews from both the Federal Writers’ Project and U. S. Works Administration, and interviews from Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library in Midland, Texas.The writer considers every possible hazard the cowboy of early times encountered — runaway horses, the cattle herd, wild animals, the elements, swollen rivers, and mean men. Our reviewer, James Collett, writes, “As Dearen demonstrates in detail, most of the dangers materialized so unexpectedly that there was time for little but trying to survive.” Many did not.
• Dearen’s second work is Perseverance, a Novel (Austin: Sunbelt Eakin Press, 2006. Pp. 132. $17.95, paper) and it is a fictionalized version of his father’s experiences during hard times. Our reviewer, Mary Lou Midkiff, writes, “The story of Perseverance brings the reader right into the story on the first page and keeps one embedded until the very end. It contains all the crucial elements of a good yarn — a hero who is truly heroic, a villain, a damsel in distress, and all interspersed with a good moral message.” She describes Dearen as “an exceptionally good writer of western history “who “spins a pretty good story.”

Mike Cox of Austin, who began his journalism career as a reporter for the San Angelo Standard-Times in 1967, has a new book released and one to be out in the fall of 2007.

• Texas Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival (Globe Pequot Press, $13.95). The book covers disasters from the first major one in Texas — the wreck of a Spanish fleet off Padre Island in 1554 — to Hurricane Rita. It includes a chapter on the Ben Ficklin flood and the one at Sanderson. An appendix features the first-ever listing of all Texas disasters — from train derailments to tornadoes that claimed more than a dozen lives.
• The first volume of Cox’s next book, a two-volume, 250,000-word history of the Texas Rangers, is scheduled for publication by Forge Books in New York in October 2007.

Suzanne O’Bryan has gained a following in the basin for her three-book reminiscences that read as novels. Our reviewer, Mary Lou Midkiff, wrote, “I just could not put it down until the last page turned. I resented the time taken away from my reading…”

• The first book that our reviewer rated is Sauntering (Georgetown, TX: Chengalera Press. Pp. 249. ISBN 0962166723, $15.95 paper). The setting is a Reagan County, Texas, ranch, where the author took time to reflect on a disappointing life she left behind in California.
• In the second book, The Kitchen Tree (Georgetown, TX: Chengalera Press. Pp. 262. ISBN 0962166731, $15.95 paper), O’Bryan deals with a drought that forced the selling of her livestock and possibly the loss of the ranch.
• Thoughts Along the River (Georgetown, TX: Chengalera Press. Pp. 304. ISBN 096216674X. $19.95 paper) brings the reader into the author’s former life in San Francisco as she makes peace with the past and embraces life at her new home along the Pecos River.