All these books should be available at any bookstore near you, although you might have to ask the store to order Addison from Ingram, the national wholesaler. You can also order them directly from the distributor, with a simple phone call. To Order directly: call Texas A&M University Press Consortium (1-800-826-8911) or online through www.winedalebooks.com.

Here Leon Hale reaffirms his reputation as a master of the short personal essay. Once again, these are stories of common experience transformed into little treasures of human observation told in the graceful conversational prose that has become Hale's hallmark.

As a special treat, readers will also find several favorites from books that are no longer in print -- including "The Chamber of Commerce Bull," probably the most requested of all Hale columns.

The stories gathered here offer the delight and amusement we have come to expect from this celebrated author, but most of all they remind us of the enduring value that comes from understanding with the heart the small beauties of life--a characteristic that Leon Hale has refined and transformed into art.

Leon Hale's warm and witty recollections of a life loving food and the people who cooked it, winner of the Best of Houston Award for best local cookbook from the Houston Press. A regional bestseller.

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Turn South chronicles a world that abounds with surprises--for example, the alligator that slept by the stove at Scheller's Place; the ghost of Fiddler's Island; or the billboard newspaper of Tillie Roome. Check out Virge Whitfield, who combined wisdom with a limitless love of dogs; and Pat Craddock, whose skill at cooking whisky cost him a leg.

Many of the places and most of the people encountered in this delightful Texas classic have vanished by now, and we are the poorer for it. Fortunately, however, Hale has captured with warm affection the language and spirit of this memorable part of our state in the shape of stories and characters you won't forget.

Paper Hero is Leon Hale's award winning memoir that has been compared with classics of the genre such as Russell Baker's Growing Up.

In Paper Hero, we see a Leon Hale we have never seen before: A loving son puzzled and hurt by his father's long absences; a sensitive boy's tenderness for his mother, whose longing for a permanent home would never be realized; a growing boy dealing with the effects of a strange illness; a young man experiencing love and war.

Leon Hale's deceptively simple prose flows as smoothly as a stream, with frequent ripples of humor and deep eddies of feeling.

Paper Hero makes us laugh and makes us cry. It is Leon Hale at his very best.

Narratives of ordinary experience filtered through an extraordinary sensibility – kind, tolerant, funny, always delightful. And told in the graceful conversational prose that has long been Leon Hale's hallmark.

Praise for Home Spun
From Kirkus Review, John Graves and Molly Ivins.

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This enduringly popular novel recounts the tale of a missing inheritance, of bums and not-so-loose women, free spenders and freeloaders, and above all, the many manifestations of love.
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Hale's second, award-winning novel that tells the story of a flawed hero and the love of his life.
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The last collection of columns from his days at the Houston Post, full of the charm and wit for which he is known.
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