Finished: Giant (Ferber) A very good book about a Texas cattle rancher who falls in love with an educated girl from Virginia, marries her, and brings her back to the vast, ranching world of 1920's Texas. The book was the inspiration for the movie Giant with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, which I haven't seen in many years. I can't be sure how true to the book the movie stayed, but I know for a fact that the way Jett Rink, the crass, chip-on-his-shoulder cowhand, from the book was certainly not as swoon-worthy as James Dean. :-) Anyway, the cattle rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict owns the 2.5 million acre ranch, Reata, and it is his life. He's the third Jordan Benedict and was born and raised riding horses and raising livestock. His parents died when he was young, and he was practically raised by his older, no-nonsense, "old maid", very opinionated sister, Luz. When Bick brings his equally opinionated, but beautiful, smart, compassionate bride, Leslie Lynnton, back to the ranch, Luz is immediately threatened by their closeness and doesn't do anything to make Leslie welcome. The entire book tackles Texas politics, cattle breeding, the plight of the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who barely scraped by working on the ranch, the rich versus the poor, the weather, the heat, the oil boom (that Bick wants no part of on his ranch), and the ongoing, underlying tension between Bick and his fired ranch hand, Jett. It's a grand book, with flawed characters...but characters who do stick together through thick and thin. I like that Leslie and Bick remain married, always love one another, even though they disagree on so many basic tenets, and that Leslie comes to think of Texas as her home. Leslie and Bick have two children of their own, who are grown by the end of the book, Jordan the 4th, called Jordy and daughter, Claire, who Bick insists on calling Luz, even though that's nothing like her name, lol. Of course, Bick expects Jordy to follow in the footsteps of him, his father and his grandfather, but Jordy wants nothing to do with ranching. He wants to be a doctor. Luz is the one who takes to the ranch and has Bick wishing that his son and his daughter had switched personalities. Bick never really lets up on Jordy about this, showing how set in his ways he can be. The only disconcerting thing is that the book starts in the 1950's when Bick, Leslie, friends and children are all headed to the huge opening of the Jett Rink airport and hotel. Yes, Jett did go on to strike oil on his tiny piece of land, and he ended up buying up all the oil rights on most of the land around him, and now he's a billionaire...still a crass, unlikable, drunkard of a man, though. The Benedicts and all the other powerful guests are up on the dais for a special dinner as Jett enters with his bodyguards. Just then, Jordy hops up on the dais and punches Jett in the face!! It seems that Jordy's wife, who is Mexican, was not allowed in the hotel beauty shop to get her nails done that morning because she was Mexican. Of course, Jett lays into Jordy and injures him pretty badly. With that opening, we flash back to Leslie and Bick meeting and marrying and going home to Texas to live on Reata. We meet Jett, and all of Bick's friends and family. We watch Leslie grow accustomed to Texas, and make friends. We go through Luz (the sister's) death. We enjoy a visit by Leslie's family out to this foreign "country" of Texas. All this, and at the end of the book, we get right up to the week before they're all going to go to the big Jett Rink airport opening, and the book ends. It's just rather abrupt, and never goes back to the event that opened the book. I think that's my only problem with the book. :-) A lot of really nice prose describing both Texas and the different cities they visit in Texas and the politics and mindset of the time.