New Reads for Spring 2023 From the Longhorn Universe

By Alcalde Staff in 40 Acres, Good Reads, March | April 2023 on March 1, 2023 at 7:00 am | 1 Comment

TEXAS TEXTURES 

Photographs and Tales from the Backroads 

BY KAY SWANSEY 

Lonely towns and dilapidated structures form the core of Texas Textures, a book that highlights the forgotten yet intriguing corners of Texas. Swansey is an Austin-based photographer and social media specialist with Expedia and VRBO who captures the diverse landscape and natural wonders of the state in a series of vibrant 35 mm film styles. Raised in small-town Texas, she has dedicated her work to photographing rural communities and accompanies the hundreds of rustic photos with travel stories. 

HARD LUCK & HEAVY RAIN 

The Ecology of Stories in Southeast Texas  

BY JOSEPH C. RUSSO, PhD ’18  

Russo is a visiting assistant anthropology professor at Wesleyan University who mines the Golden Triangle and Big Thicket areas of Texas for a series of hard luck stories. He explores a paradoxical region where the wealth of a thriving industrial zone obscures feelings of suffering and “stuckness.” Published by Duke University Press and written over the last five years, politics and identity are central themes in the lives of the many riveting characters. 

CIVIL WAR BY OTHER MEANS

America’s Long & Unfinished Fight for Democracy 

BY JEREMI SURI  

Suri—who holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs—finds recent shocks to American democracy are rooted in the decades immediately following the Civil War. Dreams of a multiracial nation were rejected through segregation, vigilantism, and a denial of voting rights that remain terrifyingly present. Weaving it together are the threads of the Confederate flag, the symbol of a failed regime that was on full display at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

THE HERO OF THIS BOOK 

by Elizabeth McCracken 

Blurring the line between a novel and memoir, McCracken reflects on her mother’s death through a trip to her favorite city. Wandering the streets of London, she examines their relationship as well as the very nature of the art she creates. At once both comic and heartbreaking, the book was hailed as one of 2022’s best by a variety of outlets, including Time, People, NPR, and The Washington Post. McCracken is the Michener Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at the UT Department of English and the Michener Center for Writers.