Six of the best Texas books that aren't about cowboys

René Steinke’s most recent novel is Friendswood (Riverhead). She is the author of Holy Skirts (a National Book Award Finalist) and The Fires. She is the Director of the MFA Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Editor-at-Large at The Literary Review. She lives in Brooklyn.

One of Steinke’s top six Texas books that aren't about cowboys, as shared at The Huffington Post:

Mary Karr, The Liars' Club

Mary Karr has a perfect ear for Texas speech. The Liars' Club, the memoir of her turbulent childhood in the small, fictional oil town of Leechfield, Texas, an industrial area near Port Arthur, has become practically iconic, for its seering, dramatic scenes, its poetic insights, and especially for its portrait of Karr's mercurial, despairing, painter mother.

Read about another book on the list.

The Liars’ Club is among Julie Buntin's top twelve memoirs by women that will get you through anything, Calvin Trillin's five favorite memoirs, and Rebecca Ford's favorite five non-fiction books.

--Marshal Zeringue