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Top literary recommendations from former AW cover women. By Jasmina Kuenzli When we interview cover women for Austin Woman, the conversation often veers toward books: books they are reading with their book groups, books that have made a difference in their lives, books that have informed them and books that have inspired them. In celebration of our 13th anniversary, we asked former cover women to share their favorite books and their reasons for recommending each selection. MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
Fiction to Inspire
The Amado Women
Abundance
Olga Campos, former KVUE morning news co-anchor, December 2007 AW cover woman and aspiring novelist, recommends Désirée Zamorano’s The Amado Women. “This heart-warming novel explores the dynamics and challenges faced by a mother raising three fierce, strong-willed, beautiful but very different daughters,” Campos says.
Sarah Evans, founder and executive director of clean water nonprofit Well Aware and December 2013 cover woman, recommends Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler for a positive outlook on the world’s most harrowing issues. “Abundance imparts an intelligent, easily digestible overview of the world’s biggest challenges and offers data-driven solutions for positive change,” Evans says.
Life After Life
Ruth Pennebaker, author, blogger, ageless source of wisdom and June 2012 AW cover woman, recommends Life After Life by Kate Atkinson “for its vivid characters and the ways it makes you think about the vicissitudes of a life, anyone’s life.”
The Road Less Traveled Caroline Boudreaux, founder of The Miracle Foundation and July 2008 cover woman, re-reads M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled about every five years. “I started with the chapter on love when I first started The Miracle Foundation because I wanted a better understanding of what it was going to take to get people invested in the children,” Boudreaux says. “The book deals with how to lead a life full of purpose and grace.”
Monday, Monday Valerie Davis, EnviroMedia founder and April 2013 cover woman, recommends the most recent novel from Elizabeth Crook (who also happens to be a former AW cover woman), Monday, Monday. “Monday, Monday is based on the real events of the Charles Whitman shooting at UT in the ‘60s,” Davis says. “I’m a Texas Ex and worked at UT for seven years, so, though this book is based on a tragic event, it’s interesting seeing familiar places woven into a good love story that takes place over the span of decades.”
Go Set a Watchman Sarah Bird, award-winning author and May 2005 AW cover woman, recommends a book she’s still itching to get her hands on, Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. “What I love about this book I haven’t even seen a word of is how it is forcing our national conversation about race to mature and shuck off the comforting fairy tale that To Kill a Mockingbird was for so many of us,” Bird says.
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The Generosity Network Maria Hernandez, founder of Growing Roots and AW July 2014 cover woman, recommends The Generosity Network by Jeffrey C. Walker and Jennifer McCrea. “This book redefines generosity,” Hernandez says. “As a nonprofit leader, it was incredibly refreshing and ignited a new way of talking about the opportunity to do great work as a community.”
The New Jim Crow Christy Pipkin is a filmmaker and executive director and co-founder of The Nobelity Project, and graced the AW cover in October 2009. While she enjoyed reading many biographies this year, such as Wangari Maathai’s inspiring Unbowed and Keith Richards’ “surprisingly insightful” Life, it was Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness that placed as her top pick, “a sobering and brutally honest book about mass incarceration, how we got to this point, and how, hopefully, we can address this inequity in the U.S.”