January|February 2016 Good Reads

By Alcalde Staff in 40 Acres, Good Reads, Jan | Feb 2016 on January 4, 2016 at 9:54 am | No Comments

New books of interest to the Longhorn Universe

Girl Waits with Gun

by Amy Stewart, BA ’90, MS ’92

Born in Brooklyn in 1878, Constance Kopp stood out in a crowd both for her size—she was six feet tall—and for the fact that she was one of America’s first female deputy sheriffs. In her first foray into fiction, The Drunken Botanist author Amy Stewart has created a high-energy historical romp centered around the larger-than-life Kopp, her two sisters, and a car accident that altered the course of their lives.

 

 

 

Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto

by Eric Tang

In the 1980s and ’90s, the Khmer Rouge genocide took more than 1 million Cambodian lives. For those who survived by fleeing the country, the trial of establishing a new life was just beginning. As many as 10,000 of these refugees settled in the Bronx, and UT’s Eric Tang—who holds joint appointments in the Center for Asian American Studies, the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, and the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement—follows one refugee family as they find their way.

 

Indelible Austin: Selected Histories

by Michael Barnes, MA ’87, PhD ’93

For 26 years, Austin American-Statesman columnist Michael Barnes has delighted readers with snappy commentary on the people and places to know in the city. Now he’s gathered four years’ worth of columns on Austin history in this readable volume. The construction of the Capitol, the history of Germans in Central Texas, and the stories behind places like Zilker Park and the city’s long-gone Spanish missions are just a few of the topics to which Barnes applies his wit.

 

 

Queer Rock Love

by Paige Schilt, MA ’96, PhD ’00

Being queer in Texas comes with its own set of challenges, and for writer Paige Schilt and her wife, Katy—a psychotherapist by day and rock musician by night—those challenges have included parenting, living with hepatitis C, and balancing work and life. At turns funny and heartbreaking, Schilt’s memoir shows how a sense of humor and an unshakeable partnership have helped her family survive the tough situations we all face, such as career changes and illness.

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