Texas Observer: Just how Texan is it on books?

The Texas Observer has a flub-filled list of Top 20 Texas-related books of the year. Two biggest errors? Listing Jeff Guinn's Koresh/Waco book (good) and a much lesser one by Kevin Cook, while omitting Stephan Talty's is No. 1. No. 2 is omitting the new Larry McMurtry bio by Tracy Daugherty, profiled by the NYT. It's just one more sign of slippage from the Observer, which semi-sadly apparently raised just enough money late last year to save itself from a self-inflicted wrecking ball. 

I did a Tweet, compressed, of the third sentence of the paragraph above a few days ago. No response. Nor any updates to the list. Since this is called "must-read," nope, it's a failure. On Waco, Guinn is indeed a must-read. I'd argue Talty, with a different angle than Guinn is, as well. At minimum, he should have gotten a mention. Cook's book IS much lesser and little more than half the length.

And, how, how, how can you not list a McMurtry bio and one by a fellow Texan, no less? HUGE fail there.

Speaking of, while apparently not going under, they're still not paywalled and still not accepting advertising. And, as I've also said before, they're just not doing anything for me on half of their other stories. 

==

OTOH, for all its advance praise, maybe the Observer and its Austin bookstore flunky were right not to list the McMurtry bio, by fellow Texan Daugherty. Already on page 11, there's a big old geographic error, putting Fort Richardson in the Panhandle, instead of Jacksboro, just down the road southeast from Archer City. That follows seemingly putting the home of grandparents, Benton County, Missouri, NORTH of the Missouri River when it's actually south.

On page 18, no, New World horses didn't go extinct, or "extinct" in this claim, by going across the Bering land bridge. Rather, the American Indian invaders most likely killed them off.