Seen Read Heard: August 2026

I find it really special to share three books by FWCD faculty and staff. Erin Elswood joined us last year as our new Middle School Health and Wellness Counselor. She published her memoir, Four Lives by Forty, last spring. Bill Arnold ’86 retired from the School in 2022 in part to put in the hours to write A Teacher’s War, his memoir of time leading troops in Fallujah, Iraq after September 11. Jon Shipley is in his 50th year of teaching at FWCD. Many of those years have included him writing science fiction. For the first time, last week, Mr. Shipley offered a significant excerpt from one of his unpublished manuscripts, Reichsblood, as a summer reading. 

Four Lives by Forty by Erin Elswood
Erin’s story reads like a novel. She is a master of alliteration, but she also manages to take a series of incredibly challenging life experiences and calmly recount them. In what feels like it must have been a cathartic experience for her, Erin likely serves herself quite well by trying to make sense of and analyze her decisions and her experiences. Still, the reader benefits from Erin’s catharsis. We understand a woman’s strengths and weaknesses; we are drawn to her candor about mistakes and her commitment to moving forward, particularly on behalf of her children. Four Lives by Forty is a very smooth but very difficult read: You don’t want anyone to go through many of the experiences Erin had. That said, we can all be so happy for her having hit that 40th birthday milestone on such a wonderful path, right here in her role as our Middle School Health and Wellness Counselor. 

A Teacher’s War by Bill Arnold ’86
Bill was Upper School Head when I arrived at Fort Worth Country Day in 2015. As powerful as his leadership of that division was, some of his biggest impact on the community came through his “blog entries” shared with the FWCD community. He is an unusually gifted observer and writer. All of those skills went into A Teacher’s War. We like to tell veterans, “Thank you for your service.” Bill’s book makes you want to say those words with the highest level of sincerity and impact. We thank him for his service two times over: first, for bravely leading troops with humility and grace, then, for chronicling that experience in memorable descriptions and profound observations. We are lucky that Bill will be discussing his book as part of our Homecoming activities on Saturday, September 26, at 9 a.m. in the Lou and Nick Martin Campus Center. All are invited. Please RSVP to [email protected].

Reichsblood by Jon Shipley
Jon’s book, the excerpt that he made into a summer reading option, was absolutely compelling. He creates characters and circumstances that are engaging and memorable. The plot of Reichsblood is complex but woven skillfully. The placement of the story around the 1936 Berlin Olympics is flush with viable twists and turns from the historical record. Given the nature of my own conversations with Jon over many lunches in our 12 years as colleagues, I am not surprised that he involves fascinating linguistic and historic tidbits alongside his wild science fiction creations. 

I do not imagine getting to read three books by FWCD colleagues in any summer in the foreseeable future. These three gave us such great modeling of lifelong learning, through experience and through writing, that characterizes our faculty and staff at their best.