Call it Round Two of a studied contemplation about Texas. When Gail Collins of The New York Times published “As Texas Goes” and spoke to a World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth event last year, many native Texans saw the book as unduly critical of the Texas way of doing things in government, education and business.

Now comes Texas Monthly Senior Writer Erica Grieder to the Council with a newly published book whose title promises a different perspective: Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas.

In the land of both Cowboys and cowboys and Longhorns and longhorns, the politicians, business leaders and policymakers wrangle a state with a history of triumph and perseverance in challenging times.

Author Grieder says her book is not a direct response to the Collins book but, instead, is “a response to the general phenomenon where people who aren't from Texas, or who haven't spent much time here, are too suspicious of us.” She’s a military brat who calls San Antonio “my hometown” and lives in Austin. Her personal history as a longtime observer of the state led her to write the book “to explain why Texas is the way it is. I don’t think we’re perfect, but I certainly don’t think we’re out of our minds.”

Also appearing in Fort Worth

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