The Playlist: A Brand New Book

In her forthcoming memoir, state Sen. Wendy Davis talks about the difficulties of her childhood, her two failed marriages and her political career, among other things. This inspired us to start this week's playlist with "A Brand New Book" by Graham Parker.

The easiest way to enjoy the playlist is to download Spotify, a free program. But even without it, you can still follow along. Here are the other selections for the week:

Texas lost out to Nevada in a bid to be the home of Tesla Motors' $5 billion lithium-ion battery plant, so we added "Welcome to Nevada" by Jerry Reed. That's followed by "Welcome to Japan" by The Strokes, because that's where Gov. Rick Perry will soon be visiting with Central Japan Railway Company president Koei Tsugi about high-speed rail.

University of Texas System Regent Wallace Hall said he was "comfortable" despite a case against him being bound for a grand jury, so we have "I'm Not Worried At All" by Moby.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Greg Abbott laid out his higher education policy proposals this week, so we added "The Plan" by Built to Spill. Then there's "Left Out" by Shinedown, because students at the University of Texas at Dallas, where Abbott unveiled his plan, said they were not allowed to attend the event.

A major West Texas solar plant recently came online, so "The Sun" by Portugal made the list. A recent study by the comptroller's office demonstrated how much difficulty individuals in that office have had predicting the future, so we added "Unpredictable" by Jamie Foxx and Ludacris.

Dallas construction workers lobbied for breaks from the heat, inspiring the addition of "Give Us A Break" by John Sebastian. And because the University of Texas at Austin announced this week that it had reached its $3 billion goal for its capital campaign, we close with Barry Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It."

Enjoy!