Meetings start at 6:30 p.m. on the 3rd Thursday of each month at the Fielder Museum, 1616 W. Abram St. Arlington Texas, 76016
Club coordinators: O.K. Carter and Mark Dellenbaugh 

In an exciting collaboration between the library and the Arlington Historical Society, the new Texas Author Book Club will alternate between the best of nonfiction and fiction writers, from J. Frank Dobie and Larry McMurtry to John Graves and Cormac McCarthy, and will include some classic material as well as exploring more contemporary books - some old authors and some new ones.

To borrow from Larry McMurtry's In a Narrow Grave, the books under review by the club "...are native in the most obvious sense: set here, centered here, and, for the most part, written here."  

Many of the books are available through the Arlington Library but in very limited supply. All of them are, however, available at a reasonable price (particularly used editions) from online entities such as Amazon or Thrift Books. Many can also be purchased as eBooks. 
 

SCHEDULE

September 17, 2026 — Rena Pederson, The King of Diamonds

The thrilling story of a brazen, uncatchable jewel thief who roamed the homes of Dallas high society—and a window into the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of the Swinging Sixties. As a string of high-profile jewel thefts went unsolved during the Swinging Sixties, the press dubbed the elusive thief "the King of Diamonds" because he eluded police and the FBI for more than a decade. Like Cary Grant in "To Catch a Thief," the King was so bold that he tip-toed into the homes of millionaires while they were watching television, or hosting parties. He hid in their closets. And dared to smoke a cigarette while they were sleeping not far away. Rena Pederson, then a young reporter with UPI, started following the elusive thief while she managed the night desk.

October 15, 2026 — Rudy Ruiz, The Border Between Us

A poignant coming-of-age novel from one of the most exciting voices in fiction. Ramón López was born along the US-Mexico border but is determined to get out and embrace the American dream--and he's not sure whether his complicated family is a help or a hindrance. As the son of immigrants, as Ramón grows, his admiration for his entrepreneurial father sours as he watches his dad's dreams of success wither on the vine. Ramón's mother is constantly preoccupied with his younger brother, who struggles with intellectual disabilities. And the outside world is rife with danger and temptations threatening to distract Ramón from his dreams of making it to New York and succeeding as an artist.

November 19, 2026 — Marquis James, The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston

A Biography of Sam Houston (1930 Pulitzer Prize nonfiction winner) is a sweeping account of one of America’s most extraordinary leaders. Sam Houston's life mirrors the tumultuous and ambitious spirit of 19th-century America.

December 17, 2026 — Bowie Ibarra, Alamo Rising

At the climax of the battle of the Alamo, two defenders place a curse on the scene. Renegades of a secret society, their curse lay buried by the Alamo for centuries, waiting for their vengeance to be unleashed. In 2010, Toribio Jimenez and Kim Hawkins are college friends who form an amateur ghost hunting group in San Antonio. They travel around the city to the various haunted locations in the 2nd most haunted city in the US. But the two friends quickly get in over their heads when they become involved in a power struggle between two local aristocrats locked in a dispute over property around the Riverwalk. When one of them sets in motion to unleash the curse set down a century before, Tory and Kim will not only have to fight for their lives, but find a way to stop the curse before it destroys downtown San Antonio.

January 21, 2027 — Larry McMurtry, Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen

In a lucid, brilliant work of nonfiction, Larry McMurtry has written a family portrait that also serves as a larger portrait of Texas itself, as it was and as it has become. McMurtry examines the small-town way of life that big oil and big ranching have nearly destroyed. He praises the virtues of everything from a lime Dr. Pepper to the lost art of oral storytelling. He describes the brutal effect of the sheer vastness and emptiness of the Texas landscape on Texans, the decline of the cowboy, and the reality and the myth of the frontier.​

February 18, 2027 — Lawrence Wright, The Human Scale

In this sweeping, timely thriller, a Palestinian American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower and The End of October.

March 18, 2027 — Daniel A. Edwards, Billy the Kid: An Autobiography: The Story of Brushy Bill Roberts

In 1882, a notorious outlaw and a childhood friend of Billy the Kid was released from prison, where he had been serving time for killing a Texas Ranger. His freedom finally secured, the outlaw disappeared and was never heard from again. Never, that is, until 1948, when he came out of hiding after almost 70 years. In the course of proving his identity to a court of law the outlaw revealed that his friend Billy the Kid was not killed by Pat Garrett but was still alive even to that day. After a period of research and persistence, the young lawyer was finally led to a destitute old man in Texas who was named not William H. Bonney but William H. Roberts, although Bonney had been an alias that he had used. Roberts agreed to reveal himself as Billy the Kid if the lawyer would help him obtain a pardon so he could die a free man. You see, the Kid was still wanted for murder.

April 15, 2027 — Seraphina Nova Glass, The Vacancy in Room 10: A Thrilling Mystery Unraveling Secrets and Dangerous Lies in a Sinister Apartment Complex

The Paris Apartment meets The Wrong Family in this thrilling tale of crime, passion, and murder set in a run-down apartment complex packed with shady characters willing to go to deadly lengths to keep their darkest secrets from the stranger in their midst. (Dallas author.)

May 20, 2027 — Mark Dixon, Enemy at the Helm

The United States is in crisis. All the major US ports have been rendered inoperable by the simultaneous sinking of large vessels in their choke points, thus halting the bulk of global trade. At first, the president thinks he has been given a gift. He always thought the United States got the raw end of the deal in international trade because of the spineless behavior of his predecessors. But with the resulting shortages of everything, he soon realizes that people in extreme situations behave irrationally, and he struggles to stay afloat himself. 2026 PenCraft Seasonal Book Award Winner for Fiction