San Antonio College Library

Limestone hills, cold spring-fed streams, live oaks and cedar, old German towns--the Texas Hill Country may well be the most beloved region of the state. Unlike West Texas with its dramatic expanses of plains and sky, or the eastern Piney Woods in their lush fecundity, the Hill Country never overwhelms. Its intimate landscapes of rolling hills, fields of wildflowers, and cypress-shaded rivers impart a peace and serenity that draws the urban-weary...

Elroy Bode's books on nature and life have made him a favorite of readers and critics. Here he explores his home city of El Paso, the land and people of Central Texas, and his roles as teacher, father, and writer. These sharply observed, beautifully written pieces find the universal in the particular a young boy in a barbershop, plaza life, a young couple in Smokey's Barbecue. Like the work of Wendell Berry and John Graves, Bode's writing is rooted...