ourdive summer reading in! list

about the list

Relaxation is key in maintaining good physical and mental health. One great way to unwind is to become immersed in an engaging book. And what better way to spend the most relaxing time of year than by enjoying recommendations from some notable Texans? The Okay to Say Summer Reading List offers selections that give you a break from day-to-day stressors by offering a fun getaway or a retreat to another world. As you plan your summer escape, make sure to check out these great recommendations.

Empire of the Summer Moon The Clifton Chronicles S.C. Gwynne Jeffery Archer

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon chronicles two The Clifton Chronicles is ’s No. 1 bestselling series, astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the which brings to life the key historical and political events of the 20th Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The century over the course of one family’s story of triumphs and second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come tragedies. In this thrilling episodic saga of love, loss, betrayal and out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia ambition, you will be taken on an exhilarating journey from the back Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last alleys of Bristol to the teeming streets of New York City and the and greatest chief of the Comanches. S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is Gulags of Stalinist Russia. Its memorable cast of characters has captured the meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. imaginations of readers across the globe. Meet the Clifton family today and start your journey with Only Time Will Tell. The story continues in the subsequent novels The Sins of the Father, , Be Careful What You Wish For, Mightier Selected by than the Sword, , and concludes in the compelling final volume, This Was A Man. Rep. Four Price Chairman, House Committee on Public Health, Texas House of Representatives Selected by "It's non-fiction, but a very interesting read about the Comanches' battles on the High Sharon Butterworth Plains and in Texas. If you are a Texan from the Panhandle area, you'll find the story Board Member, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute particularly interesting, especially the accounts involving Quanah Parker. This book puts you in the heart of the historical action and is hard to put down." "The Clifton Chronicles is a great escape. They are quick reads. You can binge-read all seven books at once or string them out over a longer period of time. Each ends with a cliffhanger making you anxious to read the next. Archer is a master storyteller who mixes power, politics and profit into fiction. You will feel like you are a member of this English family as they go through the twists and turns of good and bad together." Essentialism: The Disciplined Bossypants Pursuit of Less Tina Fey Greg McKeown Bossypants is a heartwarming memoir about growth and acceptance by comedian Tina Fey. The memoir recounts Fey’s In his book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, childhood with clever insight and her trademark humor. Fey shows McKeown, a writer, speaker and Harvard Business Review blogger, readers how she first started out in the industry and what lessons offers both a manifesto and a manual on how to deliberately focus she has learned along the way. From her youthful days as a nerd to on the vital priorities that really count, and how to dispense with the her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey reveals all, and rest. This is the age of the Nonessentialist, McKeown writes: over-busy and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy. over-committed, we continue to say yes to even more commitments and deadlines without asking ourselves, “Is this truly essential? Is this very important to me? Is this really how I want to choose to spend my time?” These are the questions, McKeown Selected by argues, that Essentialists ask and answer before accepting any task, commitment or responsibility. Karen Ranus Executive Director, NAMI Austin

Selected by "You don't have to be a 30 Rock or Saturday Night Live fan to enjoy this wonderful Jennifer Sampson poolside, ‘sipping on lemonade with my toes in the water’ book. It's a fast, easy and hilarious read (which means you can brag at the office that you read a whole book President & CEO, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas over the holiday!) In addition to giving you a sneak peek at backstage antics, Fey's "I love this book. It's about learning how to say 'no' and embracing the essentials in book is also a lovely glimpse of her personal journey where humor is a constant life. We get way too distracted by the furor of the frenzied world and the demands put companion as she navigates life's challenges. It's a refreshingly funny and inspiring on us. Time is the currency of life. We must be careful how we spend that currency. book, so be prepared to find yourself smiling and laughing the whole way through." Essentialism argues how you should only pursue things that are important, and eliminate everything else."

The Boys in the Boat The Last Days of Night Daniel James Brown Graham Moore

It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the means to turn night into day will make history—and a vast fortune. A elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own to power the country? The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society—the journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest. opponent with vast resources at his disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it? Selected by Jim Moroney Selected by Publisher, The Dallas Morning News Bob Bowlsby Commissioner, Big 12 Conference "There's lots of wonderful fictional literature about a person who strives or group of people who strive to achieve dreams against great odds. Boys in the Boat is a "The book is a page-turner of a novel that follows the development of direct current story of such a group of young men. But in this case, it's a true story that takes and alternating current in the United States. Westinghouse, Edison and Tesla you from the western shores of the United States to Nazi Germany. And it's not a compete in a race to refine and establish the electric light and the power source that war story. Read and enjoy." makes it all work. Graham expertly develops the characters and brings the reader into the ultra-competitive environment in which some of the world’s greatest inventors and entrepreneurs operated."

The Leopard Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa Love in the Time of Cholera David Gilmour's biography of Giuseppe di Lampedusa unearths the life story of the creator of The Leopard, one of the great novels of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez twentieth century. A book whose imagery, once tasted, haunts the In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in reader forever, The Leopard describes the golden era of nineteenth- love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born century Sicily: its sensual, fading, aristocratic glory and its corruption, doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in brutality, and inequality lurking beneath the surface. Who wrote this his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he masterpiece, this work of art? The answer is as unlikely as one might reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and hope. A fascinating meditation on what it is that makes a writer. Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again. Selected by Steven Weinberg Nobel Prize (Physics), 1979 Jack S. Josey-Welch Foundation Chair in Science and Selected by Regental Professor; Director, Theory Research Group, University of Texas at Austin Bill W. Meadows Chairman Emeritus, Hub International Insurance Services "This is the finest book I have ever read. It tells how a Sicilian nobleman in 1860 copes with change: the merger of Sicily with the Kingdom of Italy, and the merger of "There is no finer example of the genre "magical realism" and the power of the his family with the bourgeoisie. It’s not light fiction, but it’s sad and ironic tone makes it passion contained in these pages is awesome. The depth and richness of the memorable and moving." characters are complex and compelling, and the unbridled power and pain of love is beautifully explored. I’d read the book again tomorrow and may do just that!" Tattoos on the Heart: The Power The Secret Life of Bees of Boundless Compassion Sue Monk Kidd Fr. Greg Boyle Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story For twenty years, Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, a gang- of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred intervention program located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce- Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world. In Tattoos on the Heart, hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the he distills his experience working in the ghetto into a breathtaking deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They series of parables inspired by faith. Arranged by theme and filled with escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping lives could be if we could find the joy in loving others and in being loved unconditionally. sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black From giant, tattooed Cesar, shopping at JCPenney fresh out of prison, we learn how to Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will feel worthy of God's love. From ten-year-old Lula we learn the importance of being known share and pass on to their daughters for years to come. and acknowledged. From Pedro we understand the kind of patience necessary to rescue someone from the darkness. In each chapter we benefit from Boyle’s gentle, hard-earned wisdom. Selected by Carrie Barron Director of Creativity for Resilience Program, Dell Medical School, Selected by University of Texas at Austin Regina Rogers "This is a wonderful and imaginative novel about loss and resilience with lovable Attorney and Community Activist, Beaumont, Texas characters." "Fr. Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest who is the founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program in a neighborhood of LA, the gang capital of the world. Fr. Boyle relates his experiences with hundreds of youth through a series of essays that convey the power of unconditional love and the importance of fighting suffering and despair to save all lives, for no life is less valuable than another. I have had the Corelli's Mandolin privilege of meeting and v‎ isiting with the inspirational Fr. Boyle on two notable Louis de Bernieres occasions while he was still recovering from cancer." Extravagant, inventive, emotionally sweeping, Corelli's Mandolin is the story of a timeless place that one day wakes up to find itself in the jaws of history. The place is the Greek island of Cephallonia, where gods once dabbled in the affairs of men and the local saint periodically rises from his sarcophagus to cure the mad. Then the tide The Fire Next Time of World War II rolls onto the island's shores in the form of the conquering Italian army. Caught in the occupation are Pelagia, a James Baldwin willful, beautiful young woman, and the two suitors vying for her love: Mandras, a gentle fisherman turned ruthless guerilla, and the charming, mandolin-playing Captain Corelli, a A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next reluctant officer of the Italian garrison on the island. Rich with loyalties and betrayals, and Time galvanized the nation and gave a passionate voice to the set against a landscape where the factual blends seamlessly with the fantastic, Corelli's emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of Mandolin is a passionate novel as rich in ideas as it is genuinely moving. James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on the Selected by occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhorts Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Adelaide Leavens Director, The Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation

Selected by "This is the author’s most recognized title due to a 2001 movie based on the book. Dr. Jacqualene Stephens Although not well-received, I do like to have the visual of Nicolas Cage and Penelope Senior Director of Systems Transformation, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute Cruz in my mind as the main characters. de Bernieres has the enviable ability to teach you history while immersed in a page-turner fictional story. Corelli’s Mandolin is a love "Baldwin was an author and social activist who spoke of the pain and struggle of story set on a Greek island in the time just before and during World War II. The idyllic racism and discrimination in the U.S. during the 50's and the 60's when the country island becomes a staging ground for the war with the arrival of the Italian army. The was going through a radical and profound change. His thoughts and observations pages of my paperback copy are warped and water-stained, the binding filled with appear relevant for today as we grapple still with diversity and accepting differences sand from the beaches of Puerto Vallarta. Add to that more than a few instances of without disdain and exclusion. If you are old enough to remember the times in which tear-stains from sobbing behind the shield of big, round sunglasses. The sunburn he wrote or young enough to need context to how we got where we are, Baldwin's you’ll get is well worth it as every single emotional button is pushed." eloquent and powerful social critique can be a bit uncomfortable, but always thought provoking."

The Monuments Men Robert Morse Edsel

The Three-Body Problem At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western Cixin Liu world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloging the art Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: military project sends signals into space to establish contact with "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible scope and vision. mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.

Selected by Selected by Dr. Andy Keller Jennifer Ransom Rice President and CEO, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute Former Executive Director, Texas Cultural Trust

"I always try out the sci-fi recommendations from the owner of my favorite bookstore "A historical non-fiction and amazing tale of how a group of artists, museum curators back in Northern Michigan (Mclean and Eakin Booksellers – check them out at and everyday men were commissioned during WWII to rescue the great works of art mcleanandeakin.com). Matt never steers me wrong, but he got it very right with this that had been pillaged and stolen by Nazi forces. These heroes stepped outside their one. This is the first book of the trilogy by China’s foremost sci-fi writer, Cixin Liu. The daily lives to preserve our history and our heritage by capturing great masterpieces story is fantastic, but it is just as interesting to see how a hard science fiction author and returning them for generations to enjoy beyond. I’m sure many have seen the who grew up with no knowledge of the staple sci-fi authors of the West (Heinlein, movie based on this story, but I encourage folks to read the full tale and immerse Asimov, Clarke) weaves together a galactic tale of catastrophic threats to humanity. themselves in WWII Europe to truly appreciate the profound mission these men Mold-breaking, mind-bending, and beautifully lyrical in unexpected ways." embarked upon." Traveling Mercies The Prophet Anne Lamott Kahlil Gibran

Brutally honest, sometimes funny vignettes about affirming faith and Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved community in the midst of drug-induced angst. Novelist Lamott’s third classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into autobiographical book (Operating Instructions, 1993; Bird by Bird, more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have 1994) follows her usual pattern of cutting wit and wretched frankness. sold more than nine million copies. The Prophet is a collection of This memoir, though, is more spiritual than religious: Like many in her boomer generation, Lamott doesn’t hold much truck with churches but poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, has found a meaningful congregation all the same. It is a small, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters interracial community which lovingly incorporates pariah elements. Lamott circuitously covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, chronicles finding the church (for months, she stayed only for the music, leaving before eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and the sermon) just as she approached a crossroads in her life, finally admitting her punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, alcoholism and other addictions, and starting out on the long road to sobriety. friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

Selected by Selected by Gail Utter Judy Maggio Investment Advisor and Community Mental Health Advocate, Sherman, Texas Editorial Director, News & Public Affairs, KLRU-TV

"Although the ups and downs of a faith journey don't generally bubble to the top when "My go-to book to chill out! Though it’s an ancient book, there are so many wise words one thinks about light summer reading, Anne Lamott makes it easy to keep this book between those pages. It’s very inspiring!" in our hands with her often wacky and deeply personal confessional. She effortlessly streams between humor, exuberance, irreverence and life-affirming wisdom as she drives us through her bouts with alcoholism and drug abuse, eating disorders, love encounters, raising her son Sam, down-to-the-bone grief and humbling grace. Traveling Mercies fulfills this generation's yearning for authenticity and experiential Seven Women learning as the reader vividly lives through Lamott's riveting ride, delivering us far from Eric Metaxas daily stress." Each of the world-changing figures who stride across these pages— Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, Sister Maria of Paris, Corrie ten Boom, Rosa Parks, and Mother Teresa—is an exemplary model of true womanhood. Teenaged Joan of Arc followed God’s call and liberated her country, dying a heroic martyr’s death. Susanna Wesley had nineteen children and gave the world its most significant Last Hope Island evangelist and its greatest hymn writer, her sons John and Charles. Lynne Olson Corrie ten Boom, arrested for hiding Dutch Jews from the Nazis, survived the horrors of a concentration camp to astonish the world by forgiving her tormentors. And Rosa Parks’ In this epic, character-driven narrative, acclaimed historian Lynne deep sense of justice and unshakable dignity and faith helped launch the twentieth- Olson takes us back to those perilous days when the British and their century’s greatest social movement. European guests joined forces to combat the mightiest military force in history. Here we meet the courageous King Haakon of Norway, whose distinctive “H7” monogram became a symbol of his country’s Selected by resistance to Nazi rule, and his fiery Dutch counterpart, Queen Wilhelmina, whose antifascist radio broadcasts rallied the spirits of her Michelle Lemming defeated people. Here, too, is the Earl of Suffolk, a swashbuckling British aristocrat President and CEO, Texoma Health Foundation whose rescue of two nuclear physicists from France helped make the Manhattan Project possible. "Seven Women is a book of short stories highlighting female leaders who have impacted our world. I love that it is easy to pick up and read in the morning with Selected by hot tea or in a favorite relaxing spot. It brings moments of surprise, smiles and awe. Enjoy!" Tom Luce Board Member, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute

"Great writing and a fresh perspective on WWII." The Photograph Penelope Lively

Man Booker Prize–winning novelist Penelope Lively’s masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an Middlemarch unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her George Eliot husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked “DON’T OPEN— DESTROY.” But Kath’s husband does not heed the warning, George Eliot’s novel, Middlemarch, explores a fictional embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of modern changes. secrets—within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an The proposed Reform Bill promises political change; the building of affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the railroads alters both the physical and cultural landscape; new memories of everyone who knew her—and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life scientific approaches to medicine incite public division; and scandal cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched. lurks behind respectability. The quiet drama of ordinary lives and flawed choices are played out in the complexly portrayed central characters of the novel—the idealistic Dorothea Brooke; the ambitious Dr. Lydgate; the spendthrift Fred Selected by Vincy; and the steadfast Mary Garth. The appearance of two outsiders further disrupts Francisco Fernandez, M.D. the town’s equilibrium—Will Ladislaw, the spirited nephew of Dorothea’s husband, the Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosciences, University of Rev. Edward Casaubon, and the sinister John Raffles, who threatens to expose the Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine hidden past of one of the town’s elite. "This book makes you ponder ‘do you really know those you love?’ Intrigue at its best – Selected by would you have opened an envelope with the “advertencia” Don’t open – DESTROY?... Randy Diehl What follows is an adventure in humanity. A thrilling read." Dean, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin

"It’s George Eliot’s greatest novel and it explores fundamental issues of the human condition: love and marriage, loyalty, intellectual curiosity, human conflict, and a lot of other things as well. Beautifully written!" The World According to Garp John Irving

This is the life and time of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes--even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow," yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries-- with more than ten million copies in print--this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.”

Selected by Daphne Willis Singer-Songwriter, San Antonio native

"This book will give you perspective on childhood issues and bring humor to family dynamics we all face growing up."