Discover New Summer Reads From the Longhorn Universe

By Alcalde Staff in 40 Acres, Good Reads, May | June 2022 on May 1, 2022 at 7:00 am | 1 Comment

MY SUMMER DARLINGS  

By May Cobb, BA ’96 

Cobb swept up readers with 2021’s sensational The Hunting Wives, which told the twisted story of an elite, women’s-only gun club. Raised on ’80s horror films, Cobb again channels her roots in the Piney Woods with another salacious thriller that would make the cliques in Heathers or The Real Housewives blush. Her follow-up is also set in East Texas and finds three lifelong friends each obsessing over a new man in town. Romance, tension, humor, and naturally, murder, ensues.  

BARBARA JORDAN  

Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder 

Edited by Max Sherman, LLB ’60, Life Member  

A collection of the most stirring speeches from the late Barbara Jordan are presented by Sherman, her former Texas Senate colleague and a professor emeritus of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Jordan burst into national prominence after delivering the opening statement of the Watergate hearing and was the first woman and first African American keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. Both speeches are transcribed, along with other landmark orations from Congresswoman Jordan, who taught for 17 years at UT and whose statue on campus stands amid the grove of venerable Battle Oaks.  

LAST GANGSTER IN AUSTIN  

Frank Smith, Ronnie Earle, and the End of a Junkyard Mafia 

by Jesse Sublett 

A longtime Austin musician and frequent chronicler of Texas history, Sublett recounts the extraordinary true showdown between district attorney Ronnie Earle and underworld mastermind Frank Smith. When a rival in the auto salvage business threatens Smith’s criminal empire, he hires hitmen who ultimately botch the job. With his legendary decades-long career as district attorney yet to unfold, Earle must work to secure a conviction in the weird and wild Austin of the 1970s.  

THE LEOPARD IS LOOSE 

By Stephen Harrigan, BA ’70, Life Member  

For three days in 1950, an escaped leopard held Oklahoma City captive and caught the nation’s attention. The event is fictionalized by Harrigan, who taught at UT’s Michener Center for more than 20 years. Like main character Grady McClarty, Harrigan was just a child at the time, struggling with his place in the tranquil postwar community. That sense of normalcy was shattered as veterans and civilians alike were thrown into action.