It’s safe to say that 2020 hasn’t exactly been a year of “business as usual.” In business, in education, in entertainment, in socializing, in what we wear, where we go, how we interact, the expected has given way to the unexpected, the way things have always been done has given way to new ways of doing things. So why should the Mayor’s Book Club be any different?
You know how the Mayor’s Book Club has always chosen one book, one single book, for the city to read and talk about all year long? Well, because it’s 2020, that literary tradition is getting shaken up. The Library Foundation, along with the Austin Public Library and the Mayor’s Office, has announced that the Mayor’s Book Club for this year won’t be about one book; it’ll be about 38 books.
It’s part of a campaign called “Read Local” that aims to spotlight books by Austin authors that have been released in 2020 and perhaps not received the attention they deserve because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The three dozen-plus titles cover adult fiction and nonfiction, YA fiction, middle-grade chapter books, children’s books and picture books, and poetry collections. The full list was released July 1, but additional information regarding readings, panel discussions, and author conversations scheduled for this fall are forthcoming.For more information, visit the Library Foundation website.
Here are the “Read Local” books that have been announced:
ADULT FICTION
Evan Narcisse and Austin Walker, WWE: The New Day: Power of Positivity
Sajni Patel, The Trouble With Hating You
Richard Z. Santos, Trust Me
Deb Olin Unferth, Barn 8
James Wade, All Things Left Wild
Amanda Eyre Ward, The Jetsetters
Lawrence Wright, The End of October
ADULT NONFICTION
Robert Bryce, A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations
Lisa Olstein, Pain Studies
Kathy Valentine, All I Ever Wanted: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir
Amanda Eyre Ward and Jardine Libaire, The Sober Lush: A Hedonist’s Guide to Living a Decadent, Adventurous, Soulful Life – Alcohol Free
PICTURE BOOKS/CHILDREN
Chris Barton, Fire Truck vs. Dragon
Chris Barton, All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing After the Oklahoma City Bombing
Bethany Hegedus, Hard Work, But It’s Worth It: The Life of Jimmy Carter
Bethany Hegedus, Huddle Up! Cuddle Up!
Katie Jaffe, Fly, Fly Again
Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey, The Old Truck
Christina Soontornvat, Simon at the Art Museum
Don Tate, William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad
CHAPTER BOOKS/MIDDLE GRADE
Adrianna Cuevas, The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez
K.A. Holt, Benbee and the Teacher Griefer
Varian Johnson, Twins
Louis Sachar, Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom
Christina Soontornvat, A Wish in the Dark
YA/TEEN
Jenny Elder Moke, Hood
Lilah Sturges, Ryan Ferrier, and Tini Howard, Rick and Morty Presents: Vol. 2
Natalia Sylvester, Running
Amy Tintera, All These Monsters
Ngozi Ukazu, Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks and Scones
Marit Weisenberg, The Insomniacs
Don Zolidis, War and Speech
POETRY
Chad Bennett, Your New Feeling Is the Artifact of a Bygone Era
Claire Bowman, Schandra Madha, and Annar Veröld, editors, I Scream Social: A Feminist Anthology, Vol. 2
H. W. Brands, Haiku History: The American Saga Three Lines at a Time
Jane Marshall Fleming, Violence/Joy/Chaos
Taisia Kitaiskaia, The Nightgown and Other Poems
Tiffany Austin, Sequoia Maner, Emily Ruth Rutter, and darlene anita scott, editors, Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era
Sean Petrie, Listen to the Trees
