We are lucky to have a couple of really good new Texas books. Andy Hall's new steamboat book is out and it is really outstanding. Called "The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou," the book has some good material on Civil War steamboats in Texas as well as the commercial trade around the Texas Coast. I also recommend James Schmidt's new book "Galveston and the Civil War: An Island City in the Maelstrom." Jim did a great job of putting together a lot of really interesting first person original accounts of what it was like to live in a city in the middle of wartime.Both books are published by The History Press and contain a lot of good maps, photos and illustrations. By the way, Andy Hall's blog (deadconfederates.com) and Jim Schmidt's blog (civilwarmed.blogspot.com) are both really good reading.