Bryan Burrough: As Big Rich fade, something here is lost
I hoped you've enjoyed The Big Rich. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Among other things, as someone who hasn't lived in Texas for going on 25 years, it made me nostalgic and a bit homesick. But nostalgic for what? That's something I've been pondering.

William McKenzie: Big Rich made it in a different Texas
Ever since oil prices collapsed in the early '80s, we have placed a premium on diversifying the state's economy, an emphasis on brains over brawn. You are more likely to see MBAs, doctors and techno-wizards in Texas today than independent oilmen.

Larry Allums: The mythic proportions of Texas Oil's Big Four
Bryan Burrough's account of Texas oil is fine history, but the way he weaves together the exploits of the Texas-sized Big Four – Roy Cullen, H.L. Hunt, Sid Richardson and Clint Murchison – results in a seamless narrative that is indeed mythic.

George Getschow: I'm a wannabe Texan
I've lived in Texas for 30 years. My wife is a Texan. My kids are Texan. But my wife and kids like to remind me that I'm "not Texan." They're like a lot of people in Texas who feel that if you're not born in Texas, you'll never be a Texan.

Keven Ann Willey: We're all products of our landscape
A friend once asked me how growing up in the arid, wide-open spaces of the West shaped my thinking. This occurred to me several times as I was reading The Big Rich. We are products of our landscape, perhaps more than we realize.

Nicole Stockdale: Recapturing the grit of Texas' past
Texas is filled with grit. It rises in the air off the wind-swept plains. It sticks to the skin after beach retreats. It covers the old cars on caliche roads. So it means something to say that in this grit-coated state, the Big Rich oilmen were some of the grittiest.

Excerpts from the Points Summer Book Club blog
Throughout the week, book club participants made incisive observations about The Big Rich as they learned more about their state's history and the role the Big Four played in shaping it. A sampling from the blog: