As a native bleeding-heart liberal Texan, there weren't any surprises in this book for me. Some of our classic lore is in this book (Clayton Williams, anyone?), but the focus is on Texas-izing the nation. The state's ridiculous approach to sex education, or any education for that matter as in the No Child Left Behind program, is one focus. Our ridiculous State Board of Education ninnies who don't believe in evolution OR public education, coming to your textbooks! My favorite was her coverage of the (lack of) environmental regulation. She also covers our ridiculous tax structure, with no state income tax but property taxes that drive people out of their homes and high sales taxes. Anyway, I love Gail Collins's NY Times columns and this book has a lot of the same humor. It is, overall, a bummer. Texas sucks and we're dragging you down with us! Somehow I still feel both proud and embarrassed to say I'm from Texas. One more thing, the book is really up-to-date, she covers the 2012 presidential election and the decline of Slick Rick in the primaries. A good political read with not too much nitty gritty. It did make me miss Molly Ivins. Nobody writes about Texas politics like Molly Ivins, and Collins does give her some mention in the book.

I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. My opinions are my own.