Best-selling author S. C. Gwynne will be the featured author for the 2015 LAKE TRAVIS READS, the “One Book, One Community” program now in its eighth year.  Co-sponsored by Bee Cave Public Library, Lake Travis Community Library, and Spicewood Community Library, LAKE TRAVIS READS encourages the community to read from the acclaimed author’s body of work and then meet the author at a special evening event in February. 

Sam Gwynne is the author of the prizewinning New York Times bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon, which traced the rise and fall of the Comanche tribe and the remarkable saga of pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who grew up to become the last and greatest chief of the Comanche tribe.

Gwynne’s new book, Rebel Yell:  The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, is a thrilling account of how Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic American hero.  Considered a brilliant strategist whose innovations were ahead of his time, Jackson engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history.  Rebel Yell’s swiftly-moving narrative is rich in battle detail and conflict between historical figures, and explores Jackson’s private life including the loss of his beloved young first wife.  Gwynne traces Jackson’s rise from obscurity to fame and his tragic death, mourned as a true American hero in both the North and the South.

 “One Book, One Community” is a national program created by the Center for the Book in Washington, D.C., and adopted by communities around the nation.  As part of LAKE TRAVIS READS S. C. GWYNNE, copies of both Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon will be available at the libraries for checkout in a variety of formats including print, audio, and digital.  “An Evening with S. C. Gwynne” will conclude the 2015 LAKE TRAVIS READS program with an appearance by the author at Lake Travis Community Library on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 7 p.m.  The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.laketravisreads.org, or any of the participating libraries.