Gillespie County Fair by Marc Hess
Always held during the hottest part of the summer, the Gillespie County Fair is the oldest, continuously running fair in Texas. Maintaining the strong, traditionally rural roots of the German farming community around Fredericksburg in the Hill Country of Texas, the fair features live horse races, professional bull riding, produce and craft judging, mutton busting, carnival rides, a boisterous midway, and live country music.
The Gillespie County Fair is also, in many ways, a microcosm of the Fredericksburg community as it undergoes the transition from a rock-rimmed agricultural community to a charming, new age tourist destination. The Gillespie County Fair provides the seething backdrop for two intermarried families and a land development scheme that exposes the vicious underbelly of this pastoral community, leads to the demise of two pioneer families, and culminates the triumph of one hard-headed young girl.
Amazon Best Seller in Southern Fiction.
My family is from Bandera where I was born and raised and I, too, have seen Fredericksburg change the way it is described in this book. But what I found most outstanding was how real and down-to-earth these characters are.
(Full disclosure: I know Marc Hess personally).