The votes are in, and the winner is...
You, the readers of the Texas Gulf Coast have spoken, and today we are excited to announce your selection for Gulf Coast Reads
2022. This October book lovers across the region will be reading and discussing Lone Stars by Houston-native Justin Deabler.
Lone Stars is a story as big as Texas. It follows the arc of four generations of a Texan family in a changing America. Julian Warner, a father, at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: what will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term. And in these answers lies a hope: that by uncloseting ourselves—as immigrants, smart women, gay people—we find power in empathy.
Lone Stars is Justin Deabler's first novel. Deabler grew up in Houston. He dropped out of high school when he was fifteen, went to Simon's Rock College, and graduated from Harvard Law School. He is the General Counsel for the Queens Public Library. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, son, and two cats.
What is Gulf Coast Reads?
Each October since 2011, Harris County Public Library has teamed with dozens of public and academic libraries, as well as other public
and private partners for Gulf Coast Reads: On the Same Page. Gulf Coast Reads is a regional reading initiative focused on promoting the simultaneous reading of a selected title by those living along the upper Texas Gulf Coast.
Each year, a representative committee of librarians selects titles that have broad appeal to adults in our communities, are recognized in authoritative and professional journals, are available in multiple formats from print to downloadable content, and preferably, are available in multiple languages. The title should also lend itself to related programming about the themes or subjects within. Starting in 2021, the tenth year of its existence, the Gulf Coast Reads' Selection Committee narrowed the field of titles down to three finalists and put it to a public vote.
This year, in a very close vote, Lone Stars edged out On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed and Forget the Alamo: The Rise & Fall of an American Myth by Brian Burrough and Chris Tomlinson
Gulf Coast Read's goal is to encourage our communities to read the same title during the month of October in order to encourage readers to come together in discussions with neighbors, co-workers, friends and their families, as well as in classrooms and in libraries throughout the region.
But wait! There's more!
As always, there is a lot more to Gulf Coast Reads than reading and discussing. It's also about engaging with the text and the community of readers. HCPL and partner libraries and organizations will be hosting special programs relating to themes in the book, including an in-person appearance by the author himself.
Justin Deabler at West University Community Center (next to West U. Branch Library).
Tuesday, October 25, 6:30 PM.
FREE Admission
SAVE THE DATE!!!
Visit www.gulfcoastreads.org for updates and events near you
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