• Melinda French Gates, 1982 Ursuline valedictorian: “The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.” Ursuline alumna Gates, wife of Microsoft Corporation founder Bill Gates, released a book that emphasizes the power of empowering women to create change. In it, she shares both her story and stories of women who Gates has met around the world. In a Facebook promotion video, Melissa Gates says she hopes the book creates conversations about how to create more moments of lift and empowerment for women.
  • Laura Wilson: “That Day: Pictures in the American West.” Renowned photographer Wilson published a book with subjects ranging from West Texas cattle ranches and impoverished Plains Indian reservations to lavish border-town cotillions.
  • Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush, former Hockaday students: “Sisters First.” This book celebrates the bond between sisters. Hager also wrote “Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss” featuring moving, funny stories about her grandparents and the wisdom they passed on that has shaped her life.
  • Eric Nadel: “Lim-Eric!: Whimsical Rhymes from the Voice of the Texas Rangers and his Friends.” In his 40th season calling play-by-play for the Texas Rangers in 2018, Eric Nadel started reading limericks during the eighth inning. The “eighth inning limerick of the day” became so popular that fans started writing in with their own poems. In the off-season, he worked with Preston Hollow-based artist Arthur James to compile a book, “LIM-ERIC!” All book proceeds go toward The Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation, which builds baseball and softball fields in disadvantaged areas. Nadel and wife, Jeannie, live in Preston Hollow and Durango, Colorado.
  • Anné Kouri Hughes: “My Life with Tom Hughes.” Hughes, director of fine arts at the Shelton School,  released a book about her husband, who died in 1994. For more than three decades, Tom Hughes helped elevate the Dallas musical theater scene to national prominence. Often referred to as the “Musicals Man of Dallas,” Tom Hughes was producer and managing director of Dallas Summer Musicals, hosting such stars as Carol Burnett, Katharine Hepburn, Carol Channing, Sandy Duncan and Gene Kelly.
  • George W. Bush: “Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors” (Crown Publishers, $35). This book is a collection of tBush’s illustrations and profiles of soldiers. The book’s profits will be donated to the George W. Bush Presidential Center and its Military Service Initiative, a non-profit organization that helps post-9/11 veterans and their families transition to civilian life.
  • Tracy Walder: “The Unexpected Spy.” This memoir includes tales of going from a sorority girl to CIA and the FBI. She recently taught history at Hockaday.