Alumni Authors

From fiction to non, how-to guides, plays and more - take a look at what Roo Authors have to offer.

Authors with the Miller Nichols Library link have books that can be checked out at our library.

Are you a Roo Author?  Submit your book!

Rhiannon Ally (BA '05) Humanities & Social Sciences
Mommy, Please Don't Go to Work! 
Rhiannon Ally has anchored the news in major cities across the country for more than 13 years. But for Rhiannon, her most important and favorite job is being a mom. Like so many working moms, Rhiannon struggles with "mommy guilt." Am I working too much? Do I spend enough time with my kids? How is this affecting them as they grow? When Rhiannon's four-year-old son begged her, "Mommy, please don't go to work!", she knew she had to write a children's book showing the struggle for working moms and explaining to kids why mom goes to work. This book is for young children feeling sad when mom leaves for work. Leo and his sister, Luci, try to get Mommy to stay home from work. But when a mishap at their school threatens to cancel a bake sale, Leo and Luci's Mommy jumps into action. Mommy is a TV reporter and she can rally the community to help. We meet other working moms who are a doctor, principal, baker, and more who help make the bake sale happen. Leo and Luci learn that even though moms work, they don't forget that family always comes first.
Published August 16, 2018, Ascend Books
Available at: Amazon.com

Gloria Thomas Anderson (MSW '06) Humanities & Social Sciences
Passion for Your Purpose: Discovering Peace, Direction and Balance in Your Life
This motivational nonfiction reveals those things in your life that help or hinder you from fulfilling your purpose and experiencing God's best. Because of belief systems, perceived realities and other’s expectations, many people find themselves sacrificing who they are and what they were created to do, settling for a boring, routine life and missing out on the greatness intended for their lives. The author asserts that everyone was created for a purpose and when your purpose is uncovered or discovered and you know who you really are, you can actually change the course of your destiny. 
Published June 2002, Heart Tones Press
Available at: Amazon.com
Miller Nichols Library

Patricia (Pat) Antonopoulos (BA '74, MA '82) Education
Four Ordinary Women: A Gathering At The Cedar Roe Library
Just as there are no normal families, so there are no ordinary women, and, despite its engaging title, this book proves that. Each of the four women who participated in this intriguing project is unique and each, thus, resists being labeled as ordinary or labeled as anything other than endlessly interesting. What these women show is that we all have our stories to tell because we all have been blessed and battered by life. Readers will find countless points of intersection with their thoughts and experiences because we all share a common humanity. But readers will not simply be looking in a mirror here at their own lives played out by another. Rather, they will find new insights into common experiences. Bill Tammeus, Faith Columnist, The Kansas City Star
Published June 2009, Seven Locks Press
Available at: Amazon.com

Rita Arens (MA '02) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Obvious Game
"Everyone trusted me back then. Good old, dependable Diana. Which is why most people didn't notice at first." Described as an important read on a complex and confusing mental illness, The Obvious Game is a journey into anorexia. Diana starts out 'normal' enough, but soon the spiraling reality of her mother's health and her growing relationship with a high school wrestler cutting weight, find her helpless against the new rules taking shape in her mind. This journey sheds light on the psychology of anorexia, and how one young person found her way back.
Published 2013, Inkspell Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Scott Alan Ast (BA '87, MPA '91) Humanities & Social Sciences, Bloch 
Managing Crisis Overseas 
This book examines crisis management for operations located outside of a corporation’s normal confines, particularly in regions which might be overtly threatening or hostile to multinational corporations and their people and assets overseas. Outlining proper operating procedures, planning, implementation, and drills, it demonstrates how proper planning and effective management systems in place prior to a crisis can mean the difference between life and death. The book helps organizations establish best practices in crisis management to ensure safety and security of personnel, assets, and properties overseas, even in potentially volatile environments. 
Published August 15, 2016, CRC Press
Available at: www.crcpress.com
Check out the author's additional book(s) at Miller Nichols Library

Stanley E. Banks (BA '79, MA '91) Humanities & Social Sciences
Blue Beat Syncopation 
Blue Beat Syncopation reveals Stanley E. Banks' status as a literary child of Langston Hughes. To the rhythm of a "drowsy syncopated tune" Banks tells us exactly "what happens to a dream deferred" in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. Written over a span of 25 years, Blue Beat Syncopation chronicles the despair, death, and decay of urban America in a manner reminiscent of Hughes's poem "Harlem." Lamenting lost love, lost loved ones, and the loss of hope in a world defined by harsh realities, Banks humanizes people dismissed as "pathological" by social commentators. Capturing the music and the misery of the modal black experience in written form, Blue Beat Syncopation is an extended blues elegy, a counterpoint to the American progress narrative. - Jeffrey R. Williams, University of Missouri-Columbia
Published February 14, 2003, BkMk Press
Available at: Amazon.com
Miller Nichols Library

Mark Baugher (BA '82) School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Orchard House: The Major Stresses and Minor Victories Accompanying Life in a Senior Retirement Community
The major stresses and minor victories accompanying life in a senior retirement community begin when new residents arrive at Orchard House and find they have a common problem.
Published November 23, 2022, Kindle Direct Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Brian Birdwell (MPA '96) Bloch School
Refined by Fire: A Family's Triumph of Love and Faith
On September 11, 2001, Brian was walking down the hall, a mere 20 yards away from his office at the Pentagon, when American Airlines Flight 77, under the control of terrorists, exploded into the building.  His entire body was immediately awash in flames.  He staggering down a debris laden hall but collapsed.  Just as he thought death was imminent, he felt cool water from an overhead sprinkler putting out the fire that consumed him.  He was the closest person to the plane’s point of impact to survive.  Burned over 60 percent of his body, his life would be forever changed.  Refined by Fire, co-written by his wife Mel, tells the story not only of his struggle to survive, but also of the power of love and faith during the darkest moments of life.
Published June 7, 2004, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Available at: Amazon.com

Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum (BA '43) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Future Has an Ancient Heart: Legacy of Caring, Sharing, Healing and Vision From the Primordial African Mediterranean to Occupy Everywhere
Feminist cultural historian Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, PhD, caps her previous work with The Future has an Ancient Heart; a scholarly study of the transformative legacy of African origins and values of caring; sharing; healing; and vision carried by African migrants throughout the world.  Birnbaum focuses on the long endurance of these values from the first human communities in south and central Africa; ones that Africans manifested in the region of the African Mediterranean landmass that later separated Africa from Europe and Asia when the ice melted and waters rose.  These migrants reached every continent and later became spiritual as well as geographical migrations back to Africa; from ancient times to the transformative present.    
Published August 16, 2012, iUniverse
Available at: Amazon.com

Robert L. Bloch (BA '79) Humanities & Social Sciences
My Best Friend, Abe Lincoln: A Tale of Two Boys From Indiana
My Best Friend, Abe Lincoln is a children's book told from the unique perspective of Abraham Lincoln's fictional best friend, Sam Harding.  In 1820, Sam and Abe forge a strong friendship based on their love of learning and of the outdoors.  With very little historical information on Lincoln during the years 1820 - 1823, the author has created a wonderful, close imaginary relationship between the two boys, the experiences they shared growing up in early America and how one of the boys eventually became the sixteenth president of the United States.  
Published June 1, 2011, Castlebridge
Available at: Amazon.com

J.R. Boles aka Jenifer (Lindahl) Boles (BA '06) Humanities & Social Sciences
Bringer of Light: Book One of the Bringer Trilogy
For generations, the kingdom of Arten has stood alone against the ancient dark mage Mercer, a man no longer bound by time.  But when King Wern is kidnapped, Queen Arin will risk everything to get him back.  Lynden Trenadin is chosen to join the ranks of the elite Queen's Champions both for her prowess as a warrior and her remarkable resemblance to the queen.  She has spent her life battling at Arten's borders, but now she must defend the queen with her life as they journey to their enemy's castle.  When the tide of battle goes against them, Lynden unleashes a magical power she didn't know she possessed.  Even though she saved hundreds of warriors, Lynden is forced to flee in shame for her use of forbidden magic.  Now on the run, Lynden must raise a rebellion to free her country from the tyranny of the enemy she thought she'd destroyed.
Published October 3, 2014, Iuniverse
Available at: Amazon.com

F. Travis Boley (BA '95) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Little Book of Bowling
From the satisfying smack of a solid strike to the good-natured competition of a local bowling league, this once-kitschy sport is now getting the attention it deserves and this fun and fact-filled Miniature EditionTM features fascinating bowling trivia and photographs of bowling memorabilia, is here to celebrate.
Published March 6, 2002, Running Press Miniature Editions
Available at: Amazon.com

Ben Bongers (BME '89) Conservatory
The Saint Nicholas Society
Fred went from having it all-the girl, the car, the mansion-to being on the street. After being taken in by a kindly priest, he is diagnosed with cancer and begins to question what's left for him to live for. Nearly falling off the wagon, he is shocked and inspired while watching a modern-day Secret Santa on a TV news broadcast in the bar. Soon he begins to emulate the real Saint by secretly giving to those in need. Along the way he teams up with a band of "misfit-toy" compatriots who each question what life has in store for them. Fred's story parallels the historic Saint Nikolas of Myra. Told in first person, we learn of then Nicholas's friendship with an avowed pagan, the loss of his parents at an early age, and his being taken in by an ordained uncle. We follow his life and rise in an outlawed Church, the hardships and fears he had to endure, the communities he created, and his eventual service to the emperor, Constantine. Woven together like a fine tapestry, Fred and Nikolas's stories inspire everyone to remember that the best ways to live are through kindness, community, and good deeds.
Published April 24, 2022, Enroute Books and Media
Available at: Amazon.com

B.K. Bradshaw, (BA '91, MA '94, PhD '00) School of Education, School of Graduate Studies  
Crystal Brave: Treasures of the Current
One year after the earthquake at the Taum Sauk, Crystal is finally allowed to go on an archaeological dig with her parents, who are excavating a mysterious gravesite in the Ozark Mountains.  Her friends, Joseph, Will and Robin, join her to go trail riding near the site when the region is suddenly threatened by a devastating wildfire.  Crystal must call upon her courage to help find Robin's lost horse, Shotgun, as well as help save the treasures of the Current, ancient and new.
Published November 2014, Goldminds Publishing, LLC
Available at: Amazon.com
Check out the author's additional book(s) at Miller Nichols Library

Benton Brockliss (BS '86) Computing and Engineering
Jolly Nice Angriness
In the worst economy of the last 80 years, one man is about to lose his life's savings, his house and put his family at risk.  As he considers his limited options, he takes the only job available to him... in a war zone where his life will be at risk on a daily basis.  Death, carnage and intrigue surround him.  Another man, also surrounded by death and intrigue, must fight his own battles for survival.  In the high stakes world of international espionage, this man learns that the only people you can trust, are the ones you can't.  These two different lives will be saved and redeemed by courage, chivalry and tenacity.
Published August 2011, Badger and Canary Press
Available at: Amazon.com

Travis Nathan Brown (BA '03) Humanities & Social Sciences
In the Village That is Not Burning
In this collection, a sort of lyrical documentary unfolds amidst a background of Midwestern decline. We reckon with a lineage that is rooted in losses and failures, heavily tinged with the absurd. Here, falling is a kind of flying. A cough is a precursor to song, and the local myths are sacred and carved into the bathroom stalls. The County Fair is the Times Square of a teenager's fever dream. Love is both a difficult industry and a lingering question. So, what does it mean to come from that place? How does one walk through it, treading the thin line between resignation and yearning? In Travis Brown's In the Village that Is Not Burning Down, these are the questions that spring up after flame cuts clear the overgrown plain. A hot spot remains: it is what we touch when we reach out and hope again.
Published August 20, 2021, Atmosphere Press
Available at: www.travisnathanbrown.com

B.J. Burton (BA '73) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Philadelphia Connection: Conversations With Playwrights
Philadelphia is one of America’s most interesting and innovative cities for theater, rich in new theaters, new plays, and rising playwrights. This book paints a picture of the city’s burgeoning scene through interviews with some of Philadelphia’s most influential and successful playwrights. Featuring interviews with Bruce Graham, Michael Hollinger, Thomas Gibbons, Seth Rozin, Louis Lippa, Jules Tasca, Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, Ed Shockley, Larry Loebell, Arden Kass, Nicholas Wardigo, Alex Dremann, Katharine Clark Gray, and Jacqueline Goldfinger, the book will be a source of inspiration for playwrights in Philadelphia and far beyond.
Published September 2015, Intellect, The University of Chicago Press
Available at: The University of Chicago Press
Miller Nichols Library

Steven J. Byers (MPA '84) Bloch School
What Was Lost: The Chronicles of Japheth
Noah's prediction that the world is about to end poses a terrible dilemma for Japheth: either his father is a madman, or he is the prophet of a future that is too awful to contemplate.  What was Lost is the epic story of Japheth's adventures as he faces the worst catastrophe in the history of the world - a time when taking a stand means risking everything and failure could spell the doom of mankind.
Published June 30, 2005, Infinity Publishing
Available at: www.buybooksontheweb.com

Cathy Cartwright (MS '79) School of Nursing
Nursing Care of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Patient 
Nursing Care serves as a detailed reference for all nurses caring for children with neurosurgical problems.  The target audience for this book includes staff nurses (and student nurses) working in clinics, PICU, pediatrics, operating rooms, post-anesthesia care units, emergency departments and radiology.  Cartwright, along with Donna Wallace, presents explanations of pathophysiology, anatomy, radiodiagnostic testing and treatment options for each neurosurgical diagnosis, helping the reader understand the rationale behind the nursing care.  Also included are symptoms and findings on neurological examination and history that will enable nurses to identify normal signs, plus guidelines on patient and family education.
Published 2007, Springer (Softcover reprint November 23, 2010)
Available at: Amazon.com

Suman Chaudhary (MS '12) School of Medicine 
Sequencing, Fishing, Analysis in the Future
Recently, next-generation DNA sequencing has emerged as a new and powerful technology allowing a much more comprehensive view of biological systems at the genetic level and thus more medical discoveries. The Sanger method for DNA sequencing, considered as first-generation DNA sequencing, was the workhorse in the completion of the human genome project. However, the high cost and low speed of the Sanger method presented a hurdle to sequence large numbers of bases as needed in the era of personalized medicine. Many companies and researchers have successfully developed "next-generation DNA sequencing" methods, i.e., any new sequencing method with lower cost and higher speed. This book will introduce next generation DNA sequencing technology and synopsize its application into medical discoveries. The objective is to pitch readers to be acquainted with next generation DNA sequencing technology and help scientists and clinical-scientists to realize the potential of next-generation sequencing technology and its application to medical delivery and discovery.
Published March 2023, Lambert Academic Publishing (Co-authors: Anjana Singh and Peixin Haung)
Available at: More Books

Shelley Cochran (BA '76) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Pastor's Underground Guide To The Revised Common Lectionary
Awarded with the Anderson Prize (given by the Presbyterian Writers Guild) for best Presbyterian book, Pastor's Underground Guide is a three volume reference work for pastors that details issues of social justice in the decisions behind the Revised Common Lectionary, which gives Bible readings for each Sunday and holy day and is used by mainline Protestant denominations.
Published August 1995, Chalice Press
Available at: Amazon.com

George S. Corey (BA '85) Humanities & Social Sciences
Presidential Conversations for Kids
Presidential Conversations for Kids follows the adventures of ten-year-old BFFs Georgie and GiGi and their magical skateboard. The deeply immersive, wildly imaginative story travels back and forth in time as the two G's meet U.S. presidents throughout history, learning a lesson in leadership from each. This richly illustrated young readers edition of the acclaimed political satire Presidential Conversations is primarily geared towards middle grade readers, ages 8 to 12.
Published November 8, 2022, Cinergistik
Available at: Amazon.com

 
Sharice Davids (BBA '07) Bloch School of Management
Nancy Mays (MFA '17) Humanities & Social Sciences
Sharice's Big Voice
This picture book autobiography tells the triumphant story of Sharice Davids, one of the first Native American women elected to Congress, and the first LGBTQ congressperson to represent Kansas. When Sharice was young, she never thought she’d be in Congress. And she never thought she’d be one of the first Native American women in Congress. During her campaign, she heard from a lot of doubters. They said she couldn’t win because of how she looked, who she loved, and where she came from. But here’s the thing: Everyone’s path looks different and everyone’s path has obstacles. Co-written by fellow alum Nancy Mays, this is the remarkable story of Sharice Davids’ path to Congress. Beautifully illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, an Ojibwe Woodland artist, this powerful autobiographical picture book teaches readers to use their big voice and that everyone deserves to be seen—and heard! The back matter includes information about the Ho-Chunk written by former Ho-Chunk President Jon Greendeer, an artist note, and an inspiring letter to children from Sharice.
Published June 1, 2021, HarperCollins
Available at: HarperCollins

Jill DeBok (BA '93) Humanities & Social Sciences
Fitting In & Standing Out: A Smart Woman's Guide To Business Success
Author Jill DeBok shares the strategies that allowed her to navigate from an entry level position to a Fortune 50 female executive in a male dominated industry.  While the feminist movement has accomplished many things, reaching the higher levels of business is still a struggle for women today.  Young women need to develop unique skills to work alongside men successfully which will insure their careers have a chance to progress. This book is not a discussion about topics discussed in MBA programs or training classes your Human Resources department will hold. This book validates the differences between the sexes in the workplace, discusses the tricky topics about women in business and teaches young women how to progress into their professional futures.
Published May 2, 2016, Talonia Bookworks
Available at: Amazon.com

Charles DeMotte ('70) School of Education
Bat, Ball & Bible: Baseball And Sunday Observance In New York
“Charles DeMotte’s Bat, Ball, & Bible significantly enlarges our understanding of the watershed battle between the national pastime and Sunday blue laws during the early decades of the last century. Deftly contextualizing the social and cultural divisions punctuating the debate over playing baseball on the Christian Sabbath, DeMotte brilliantly illuminates the grassroots struggle in New York State between traditional and emergent values.”—William M. Simons, professor of history, SUNY Oneonta, and director/editor, Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture
Published December 1012, Potomac Books, Inc.
Available at: Amazon.com

Marchel Denise aka Marchel Alverson (MA '00) Humanities & Social Sciences
Kissed By Madness
Kissed by Madness chronicles the cost of domestic violence. The Ellis women live in pain. They face emotional traumas and fistfuls of hurt.  Honor Ellis, the prodigal daughter of the South, is trapped in her marriage nightmare. With frayed nerves and a broken spirit, she is inches away from insanity-completely unraveling after the birth of her son, Day.  Sasha Ellis is trapped in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. Barely six-years-old at the time of her mother's incarceration, she is a drug addict who will do anything for a hit, and to keep from being hit.  Carmen Ellis, the born-again mother, shares her words of wisdom from behind prison bars. Through her letters to her children, she seeks their forgiveness, the one thing she wants most. But she may be too late as another Ellis woman faces prison time for doing the unspeakable.  At the center of their struggles is Ranford “RJ” Ellis, Jr., who witnesses his mother, Carmen, shoot and kill his abusive father at age eleven. The memory of that fateful day haunts him as he takes his anger out on those he loves the most.
Published August 17, 2013, Abner Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Marie deYoung (BM '81) Conservatory
This Woman's Army: The Dynamics of Sex And Violence
In The Military Written by Marie deYoung, the first woman chaplain to serve in four combat units, This Woman's Army provides an account of numerous professional clinical experiences that will provide insight into the string of sexual harassment and family murder cases that continue to plague the United States Army.
Published November 1999, PSI Research
Available at: Amazon.com

Terry W. Drake (BBA '72, MBA '76) Bloch School
Restitution
Father Damien is a Catholic priest at Santa Maria Maggiorie in Bergamo, Italy during World War II. He has assumed the leadership role in the underground after the death of his best friend Matthew Gillespi. The Americans have enlisted his support in the demolition of the Bergamo airfields supply headquarters held by the German occupation force. They also seek his support in destroying the German supply routes into the region. The allies have agreed to assist in the recovery of stolen art believed to have been hidden in caves in Switzerland by the renegade German force that raided Clusone and surrounding communities. The priest seeks Restitution in exchange for his assistance with the underground. This novel takes the reader on one action packed adventure after another as they unravel the mystery of the hidden treasure.
Published March 2012, Xibris Publishing
Available at: www.terrywdrake.com

Julie Dunlap (BS '79) Humanities & Social Sciences
Coming Of Age At The End Of Nature: A Generation Faces Living On A Changed Planet
What happens to individuals and societies when their most fundamental cultural, historical, and ecological bonds weaken or snap? In Coming of Age at the End of Nature, insightful millennials express their anger and love, dreams and fears, and sources of resilience for living and thriving on our shifting planet. Julie Dunlap and Susan A. Cohen present twenty-two essays exploring wide-ranging themes that are paramount to young generations but that resonate with everyone, including redefining materialism and environmental justice, assessing the risk and promise of technology, and celebrating place anywhere from a wild Atlantic island to the Arizona desert, from Baltimore to Bangkok. (Description edited from Publisher's page.)
Publish Date: October 2016, Trinity University Press
Available at: Trinity University Press
Check out the author's additional books at Miller Nichols Library

Patrick W. Emmett (BS '69) Humanities & Social Sciences
A Second Chance, Surviving Sudden Cardiac Death
On a cold January morning in an airplane 30,000 miles above Minnesota, Patrick Emmett felt a discomfort in his chest, numbness in his hands and pain in his right shoulder. Collapsing due to sudden cardiac arrest, he died on the spot.  Through the quick thinking of airline personnel and two passengers on the plane he was administered CPR, and eventually delivered a shock from an Automatic External Defibrillator. A Second Chance looks at that dramatic event and encourages lifestyle chances for readers in addition to public awareness, testing, and placement of AEDs in all public places.
Published June 15, 2008, Bascom Hill Publishing Group
Available at: Amazon.com
Miller Nichols Library

Pat Dunlap Evans (formerly Pat Livingston) (BA '78, MA '80) Humanities & Social Sciences
To Leave A Memory
To Leave a Memory is the heartwarming story of a Georgia family's victory over a devastating tragedy. When history professor Andrew Ward ignores his wife Lizzy's premonition that something will happen if he allows their son to go out one stormy night, the teen dies on a rain-slick highway. Andrew is too anguished to admit he was wrong, and over the years he and Lizzy drift into avoidance.  Decades later, Lizzy decides to leave. Their daughter Jane, urges her mother to repair her marriage. Oblivious to the women's plans, Andrew hides in his office, trying to write a grand apologia that will finally atone for his heartbreaking error. But when a second tragedy strikes, each family member faces a difficult choice that no one wants to make.
Published December 11, 2015, A.M. Chai Literary
Available at: Amazon.com

Stephen J. Farnsworth (BA '90) Humanities & Social Sciences
Presidential Communication And Character: White House News Management From Clinton And Cable To Twitter And Trump
This book traces the evolution of White House news management during America's changing media environment over the past two decades. Comparing and contrasting the communication strategies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, it demonstrates the difficulty that all presidents have in controlling their messages despite a seemingly endless array of new media outlets and the great advantages of the office. That difficulty is compounded by new media's amplification of presidential character traits for good or ill.  Facebook, Twitter and YouTube notwithstanding, presidential power still resides in the "power to persuade," and that task remains a steep challenge.
Published 2018, Routledge
Available at: www.routledge.com

Patrick Fasl (BA '80) Humanities & Social Sciences
John the Yegg: The 1947 Ballot Theft from the Jackson County Courthouse
In July 1946 President Harry Truman ordered Jimmy Pendergast, nephew of Tom Pendergast, to fully support the removal of the current Missouri 5th District Congressman Roger Slaughter. Following the August 1946 primary election the Kansas City Star stated there had been a vote fraud involving the removal of Slaughter. Fast forward to May 1947–a Jackson County Grand Jury indicted over 70 individuals for their involvement in the vote fraud. In late May 1947 someone entered the Jackson County courthouse, blew open the safe containing the ballots and subsequently stole them. Not only did this act negate prosecution of most of the indicted individuals; no one was ever charged with the ballot theft. By way of the official FBI report, obtained via a Freedom of Information request, this book examines the individuals involved in the ballot theft.
Published December 2018, Kindle Direct Publishing
Available at: Amazon

José Faus (B.A. '87) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Life And Times Of Jose Calderon
If you would have met José Calderon on the street, you might have wondered if he was all there — not because the man lacked substance but because he blended well with shadows and light. Though tall and imposing, his gait was easy and slight, as if a breeze could carry him away like a scent or a leaf. One friend said of him: "He suffered his life silently to the point of indifference." That is until he found inspiration from an old gypsy woman with a young girl's smile and set out to chronicle his life, motivated by "a question life had begun to ask of him." The Life and Times of José Calderon — compiled from papers he left behind and the cryptic asides he made to the few acquaintances he let into his musty house on Independence Avenue in Anytown, USA, where he lived with a rambunctious cat and a majestic harp — follows This Town Like That, the debut book of poetry by José Faus.
Published May 13, 2017, 39 West Press
Available at: 39 West Press

Sally Ellis Fletcher (M.S.N. '89) School of Nursing
Cultural Sensibility In Healthcare: A Personal And Professional Guidebook
Today's diverse healthcare landscape presents providers and patients alike with cultural experiences, challenges, and barriers. Subconscious beliefs and biases have the potential to undermine what should be positive interactions and outcomes. Healthcare providers must practice cultural sensibility, applying thoughtful reasoning to their own cultural awareness. This allows providers to be responsive and discreet in their patient interactions and to proactively acknowledge the cultural inheritances that might surface. In this practical guidebook, the author encourages healthcare providers to consider their own cultural attitudes, biases, beliefs, and prejudices through exercises and self-reflection and challenges readers to go beyond theory and explore culture as it affects their professional roles.
Published 2015, Sigma Theta Tau International
Available at: Google Play

Maria Finn (BA '91) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Whole Fish: How Adventurous Eating Of Seafood Can Make You Healthier, Sexier And Help Save The Ocean
The “gill to adipose fin” trend means buying fish whole and using the entire animal. Make fish head soup, broil the collars, brine the eggs, bake the skins for “fish bacon” dry the bones and grind them into a “salt” or smoke them for stock. Learn to love sardines, mackerel and herring for all their wonderful oiliness. You'll get mega doses of omega 3's, serotonin highs, increased stamina and all sorts of other benefits to ramp up your sex life and vastly improve your health. Research has shown that experiencing new things triggers the chemicals, dopamine and norepinephrine - the same ones released when you're newly in love. So make this as simple as an adventurous dinner.
Published 2012, TED Books
Available at: www.ted.com

Michael G. Gerken (MBA '71) Bloch School of Management
Creating A Culture Of Valued Leadership: Engaging And Retaining Talented People In Your Organization
This book is about you and the organizations where you contribute your time and talent. It explores a simple, impactful leadership concept along with specific tactics you can use to enable your organizations to be more interesting, innovative, and effective.  Author Michael Gerken focuses on helping the reader influence their organizations, whether they are for-profit or not-for-profit, small or large, to become cultures where all associates are encouraged to contribute leadership.
Published 2016, Mission Point Press
Available at: www.michaelgerken.com

Sue L. Hall, M.D. ('83) School of Medicine
For The Love Of Babies: One Doctor's Stories About Life In The NeoNatal ICU
This book invites readers into the NICU an area in the hospital that's unfamiliar and frightening to most people and demystifies this place where extraordinary things transpire. Accompany babies with a range of medical concerns as they journey through the NICU, seeing the challenges each one must surmount, all the while getting a sense of life-and-death urgency that permeates NICU care. The all-important needs for parents to maintain hope, and for healthcare professionals to support them, are the transcendent messages. This is the book for anyone who's ever wondered how parents whose babies are critically ill cope with the enormous emotional pressures facing them, and what the daily rhythms of life are like in a NICU.
Published June 1, 2011, WorldMaker Media
Available at: Amazon.com
Check out the author's additional works at Miller Nichols Library

Lois Hamon (MA '89) Humanities & Social Sciences
My Dad Wears Prison Blues
This young adult novel tells the story of high school student Joshua, whose father is in prison. Josh's mother is in nursing school, his sister Reeb has her own problems. And the shooting of his best friend makes him long for revenge. But Joshua's father begins writing him letters about the harsh realities of prison life and he soon understands that he has to make the right decisions, or he will end up in the same place. This book includes letters from real prisoners who struggled to make it clear to their children that good choices can make a difference in their lives. And bad choices can cause them to end up in jail themselves. These handwritten letters, given to counselor L.J. Hamon (the author) are an invaluable resource which can be used to help council the roughly five million kids whose parents are currently in prison.
Published January 2016, Createspace
Available at: Amazon.com

Kitty (Price) Hanson (BA '76, JD '79)
Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Law
Gay Fad: Fran Taylor's Extraordinary Legacy Volume I And II
Fran Taylor (1915-1996) was a woman well ahead of her time. A talented artist, designer, and early female entrepreneur, she founded Gay Fad Studios, Inc., the premier glass decorating company of the mid-20th century, and single handedly built it into a million dollar enterprise. This two-volume encyclopedia chronicles Fran's fascinating life and documents over 900 designs, ranging from the whimsical to the exquisite, via 1,549 full-color photographs of Gay Fad glassware from co-author Donna McGrady's personal collection. Additional chapters on Gay Fad catalogs, price lists, advertisements, invoices, period newspaper and magazine articles, Gay Fad identification and what's not Gay Fad, provide a complete reference guide for researchers and collectors alike.  Photography by Rick Hanson (JD '79) School of Law.
Published August, 2011, Santa Fe Trading Post
Available at www.santafetradingpost.com

K. David Hanzlick (Ph.D. '13) Humanities & Social Sciences, Grad Studies
Benevolence, Moral Reform, Equality: Women’s Activism in Kansas City, 1870 to 1940
David Hanzlick traces the rise and evolution of women’s activism in a rapidly growing, Midwestern border city, one deeply scarred by the Civil War and struggling to determine its meaning. Over the course of 70 years, women in Kansas City emerged from the domestic sphere by forming and working in female-led organizations to provide charitable relief, reform society’s ills, and ultimately claim space for themselves as full participants in the American polity. Focusing on the social construction of gender, class, and race, and the influence of political philosophy in shaping responses to poverty, Hanzlick also considers the ways in which city politics shaped the interactions of local activist women with national women’s groups and male-led organizations.
Published: August 13, 2018, University of Missouri Press
Available at: University of Missouri Press

Ramanda Hicks (BA '11) Humanities & Social Sciences
Peaces: Poetry & Prose
How does God relate to us in our humanity and our struggles, whether it's daily insecurities or life-altering, "I'm-about-to-be-on-the-evening-news" disasters? This collection of poetry and poetic prose offers a complex perspective of God’s presence in the midst of these struggles and affirms our Heavenly Father’s love for us, which breaks forth and brings us “peaces”—mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical—beyond our understanding. Peaces acknowledges the often-gritty lens we may see ourselves through and offers hope for those who have felt lost, disappointed, betrayed, misunderstood, forgotten, doubtful, fearful, lonely, frustrated, or broken. With raw transparency and hopeful honesty, Ramanda reminds us that no matter where we are in life or how bad things get, we are not too far gone for God to understand our pain. He sees, knows, and loves us anyway. Hope does indeed exist in His peace.
Published July 9, 2020, High Bridge Books
Available at: www.iamramanda.com

Kathleen Marie Higgins (BA '77) Conservatory
The Music Between Us: Is Music A Universal Language
From our first social bonding as infants to the funeral rites that mark our passing, music plays an important role in our lives, bringing us closer to one another.  Philosopher Kathleen Marie Higgins investigates this role, examining the features of human perception that enable music's uncanny ability to provoke, despite its myriad forms across continents and throughout centuries, the sense of a shared human experience. Higgins asserts that music situates itself as one of the most fundamental bridges between people, a truly cross-cultural form of communication that can create solidarity across political new understanding of what it means to be musical and, in turn, human.
Published May 1, 2012, The University of Chicago Press
Available at: Amazon.com
Miller Nichols Library

Nancy Peterson Hill (MA '09) Humanities & Social Sciences
A Very Private Public Citizen: The Life of Grenville Clark
Grenville Clark, born to wealth and privilege in Manhattan, became a lawyer, civil rights activist, traveler, advisor and world citizen at large. Clark grew up on a first-name basis with both Presidents Roosevelt, and his close friends included Supreme Court justices. Hill gives life to the unsung account of this great and largely anonymous American hero and reveals how the scope of Clark's life and career reflected his selfless passion for progress, equality, and peace.  Clark wrote a still-relevant treatise on academic freedom, fought a successful public battle with his good friend President Franklin Roosevelt over FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court in 1937, refused pay while serving as a private advisor for the Secretary of War of the United States during the Second World War and worked closely with the NAACP to uphold civil rights for African Americans during the tumultuous 1950s and 60's. Clark devoted his last decades to a quest for world peace through limited but enforceable world law, rewriting the charter of the United Nations and traveling the globe to lobby the world's leaders.
Published April 29, 2014, University of Missouri Press
Available at: University of Missouri Press

Thomas Hubbell (M.D. '75) School of Medicine
Sailboat Racing With Greg Fisher
Greg Fisher knows one-design boat racing. He has won over 34 National, North American, or Midwinter Championships in nine different one-design classes. How does he consistently achieve superior boat speed? What's the fuss about boat balance? Why do conservative racing tactics work? Greg's lessons apply to virtually every kind of sailboat. Learn strategies for enjoyment of the regatta experience.
Published December 1, 2000, Hathaway-Jones Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Andrew Johnson (MFA '13) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Thread
The Thread is Andrew Johnson's most recent collection of prose and poetry. The new book includes some of the essays and poems that have previously appeared in his weekly newsletter The Thread, essays and poems published in literary journals, and new work. Designed as two-books-in-one, you can hold the book in one direction to read poetry, and then flip it over and read prose in the other direction.
Published October 11, 2022, AEO Studio
Available at: Wise Blood Booksellers

Doug Jones (BA '70) Humanities & Social Sciences
Travelogue: Forty Years Filming The World
This is the story of a by-gone era of entertainment. Before cable television and video, people packed auditoriums to see travelogue films hoping to learn about places they wanted to visit or relive. At its peak, there were thousands of live-lecture travelogue film series in the United States and Kansas City native Doug Jones was one of the stars. He gave over six thousand travelogue lectures and he got to his shows by flying his own twin-engine Cessna. His film The Great Canadian Train Ride drew sell-out crowds in auditoriums and theaters. He has lived his life openly as a gay man and was a part of the LGBT rights movement from Stonewall, through the AIDS crisis, to his own marriage in 2008. This new memoir is told with honesty and humor: a life well lived. The quality of the Doug Jones Travelogues is first rate.The Los Angeles Times
Published February 28, 2017, International Travel Films Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Sara Kincaid (BA '06, MA '08) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Green Lady
Estate lawyer John Remington Edgar once lived a cautious life, a life plagued by disappointment until a chance encounter with Joseph Lewis, Sr. leaves him managing the estate of the wealthiest and most influential man in town. After witnessing the murder of his most important client's son, John becomes the prime suspect. He takes matters into his own hands to preserve his good name, prove his innocence and unravel the mystery.
Published July 30, 2016, Amazon Digital Services LLC
Available at: Amazon.com

Anne Kniggendorf (MFA '14) Humanities & Social Sciences
Secret Kansas City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure
Most visitors know all about Kansas City’s barbecue, jazz, and football success, but there are hidden gems and wild pieces of trivia around every turn in Missouri’s largest city. Is the giant Hereford bull anatomically correct? Can a seed that’s been to outer space still grow into a normal tree? And who really killed President William Henry Harrison? You’ll find answers to the questions you didn’t know you had in this book. Learn why three completely unrelated groups have chosen Kansas City as the center of the world and the place you want to be when the world ends. Between these covers, you’ll also find castles, a horse buried in a cul-de-sac, a ghost who likes a good laugh, and the world’s longest snake. This is not a tour guide for outsiders, it’s a scavenger hunt—insiders only, please. 
Published September 1, 2020, by Ready Press 
Available at: Amazon.com

Paul Lamble (MA '91) Humanities & Social Sciences
One-Match Fire
One-Match Fire is a quiet, literary novel about the love given and withheld among a grandfather, a father, and a son, and the Ozark cabin where they can find peace with each other. It is set in Kansas City and St. Louis, but the heart of the story is at a cabin in the Missouri Ozarks. The novel features one-match fires, skinny-dipping, clandestine acts of love, running, mistakes, forgiveness, acceptance, and love in its many forms. It is about ordinary men living ordinary lives, but to the man living his life, nothing ever feels ordinary.
Published October 19, 2022, Blue Cedar Press of Wichita
Available at: Blue Cedar Press

Vicki Landes (BA '99) Conservatory
Europe For The Senses: A Photographic Journal
Europe for the Senses is a collection of photography and creative writing meant to transport the reader to each respective destination with stimulating sensory imagery.  Experience the sights, smells, sounds, and touch that make Europe so remarkable. Whether you've traveled to Europe many times or hope to visit there someday, this wonderful gift book will invoke a craving for these far-away countries and all the small and remarkable details waiting to be discovered.
Published January 17, 2006, BookSurge Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Shawn P. Lang (BLA '04) Humanities & Social Sciences
Heart Condition: From Religiosity To Relationship With The Creator
Described as her journey and personal experience in developing intimacy with the Lord, Shawn P. Lang's Heart Condition: From Religiosity to Relationship with the Creator is a collection of journal entries inspired by the Holy Spirit during a time of deep reflection, introspection, and quest for certainty. Through her book, Lang encourages a closer, more intimate relationship with the Creator and to break the bonds of religion, traditions of men, and self-righteousness in the Christian community. Heart Condition suggests that the church has come between God and his people (unwittingly), and that now is a great time for self-examination to see whether or not we are truly of faith.
Published by WestBow Press, an affiliate of Thomas Nelson Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

The Honorable Robert Larsen (JD '73) School of Law
Navigating The Federal Trial
This comprehensive practice guide offers practical advice from a federal judge. It's an ideal guide for any attorney who wants to practice in federal court, but does not have extensive trial experience. With a focus on skill building, it covers each of the relevant phases of trial practice including: voir dire, opening statements, direct and cross-examination, evidentiary foundations for exhibits, expert and lay opinion testimony, and closing statements. Hypotheticals explain the points made in the text and each one carries a story line throughout the book.
Published (2010 ed.) June 16, 2010, Thomson West
Available at: west.thomson.com

Steven Law (BBA '92) Bloch School
Yuma Gold
Named best breakout author by Amazon.com, Steven Law presents his latest work. After serving an eight year sentence, for a crime he didn't commit, Ben Ruby is paroled from Yuma Territorial Prison. Along with detailed knowledge of a 300 year-old Spanish Galleon buried in the dunes of Imperial Valley, Ben uses a treasure map, in the form of trinkets, to set out to find the ship. If following up on an old tale wasn't difficult enough, Ben has to outrun the man that put him in prison, as well as a breach in a Colorado River dam that threatens to flood the entire valley.
Published November 1, 2011, Berkley
Available at: Amazon.com

Cheryl Leutjen (MS '89) Humanities & Social Sciences
Love Earth Now: The Power of Doing One Thing Every Day
Do you find yourself wondering what on Earth you can do about the dire environmental challenges of our time? Do you wish you could do something to make a difference, but doubt you have the time, energy, money or power? Love Earth Now is your go-to guide for discovering what you can do to effect meaningful change, starting right now. This award-winning book of planetary self-help is a deeply thoughtful, often neurotic, and sometimes comedic exploration of the author’s own efforts to make an eco-contribution. Through personal observation that she records in stunningly beautiful prose, Leutjen’s ode to our planet is one of the most distinctive ecological books to come along in a generation. Each chapter concludes with a “Love Earth Invitation,” a simple and immediate exercise to prompt you to explore your own feelings and calls to action. (Mango Publishing)
Published January 15, 2018, Mango Publishing
Available at: Amazon

Lee Levin (MA '78) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Day The World Trembled
Lee Levin's latest book is described as a riveting tale of the most important few minutes in the history of the world. Rome has been invaded by the redoubtable Hannibal, at whose hands its heretofore unbeatable armies have been utterly crushed in a series of devastating defeats, each the consequence of Hannibal's superb generalship. Now, Hannibal has called from Spain a second Carthaginian army under the command of his brother Hasdrubal, considered by Rome to be every bit as fearful a foe as Hannibal. Never having been able to beat even one Punic army, a weakened Rome, now faces two powerful armies on Italian soil. The fate of Rome, and hence the fate of all future Western civilization, rests on the outcome of the most decisive battle in all human history.
Published November 1, 2012, Royal Heritage Press
Available at: Barnes and Noble

Sunie Levin (BA '51, MA '68) Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Education
Make New Friends, Live Longer: A Guide For Seniors
If you want to live longer and better, friends are essential. For everyone. But particularly for seniors. Old friends die, seniors move to be near children, or to find better climate, and it is exceptionally hard to break into new social circles which can already be set in concrete and rarely welcoming. Sunie Levin, a lifelong educator and author, found herself facing this exact problem. How do you make new friends from scratch, especially when everyone else is comfortable in their own tight circles? Her breezy, warm-hearted book, winner of a 2012 national Indie Excellence Award, tackles this exact problem, with specific ideas for seniors, boomers - and everyone else, for that matter - regarding how to develop meaningful new friendships, whether you are active or home bound.
Published September 27, 2010, Today's Young Grandparent
Available at: Amazon.com

Amber A. Logan (BA '03) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn
An adult retelling of the classic children’s book The Secret Garden. Grieving her mother’s death, Mari Lennox travels to Kyoto, Japan to take photographs of Yanagi Inn for a client. As she explores the inn and its grounds, her camera captures striking images, uncovering layers of mystery shrouding the old resort—including an overgrown, secret garden on a forbidden island. But then eerie weeping no one else in the inn seems to hear starts keeping her awake at night. Despite the warnings of the staff, Mari searches the deep recesses of the old building to discover the source of the ghostly sound, only to realize that her own family’s history is tied to the inn, its mysterious, forlorn garden . . . and the secrets it holds.
Published November 15, 2022, CamCat Books
Available at: Amazon.com

Dion Lucas (BA & BS '04, MA '06) School of Education, Humanities & Social Sciences
Stop Running Away: Ten Tips to Help You Bloom Where You Are Planted
Sometimes managing stress and achieving a healthy balance in life isn't as simple as the familiar adage wants us to think: “If life throws you lemons, make lemonade.” Everyone needs a cache of tools at their disposal to combat those times when life becomes overwhelming. This new wellness book from Dion Lucas does just that. Learn how time for yourself, adequate rest, and even having someone to talk to can help you live better, live happier, and to Stop Running Away from challenges and stress. Hopefully, after reading this book, you will have the tools to be able to enjoy life more fully and to Bloom Where You Are Planted.
Published June 19, 2018, TEACH Services, Inc.
Available at: Amazon.com

Vera Sonja Maass (PhD '78) School of Education
Coping With Control And Manipulation: Making The Difference Between Being A Target And Becoming A Victim
Who is pushing your buttons - and what can you do about it? Coping with Control and Manipulation examines the various spheres in which people encounter control and manipulation and shows how avoiding such victimization is absolutely possible.  Knowing the players, understanding what motivates them, identifying their goals, and learning the techniques they use can help potential victims avoid, or at least survive, control and manipulation attempts.
Published September 16, 2010, Praeger Publishers
Available at: Amazon.com

Lindsey Martin-Bowen (BA, MA '88, JD '00) Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Law
Where The Water Meets The Rock
Author Lindsey Martin-Bowen explores loss and recuperation in three sections. "Erosion" - laments a trinity of tragic Greek personas: Pasiphaë, Psyche and Antigone. "Frenzies" - a series of zany poems, emulates the ensuing topsy-turvy world that follows deep loss. And finally, "On the Shore" - concluding that by re-seeing and re-building life, one can heal the psyche and spirit.
Published July 18, 2017, 39 West Press
Available at: 39westpress.com

Debra McArthur (BA '80, MA '86) Humanities & Social Sciences
A Voice For Kanzas
Kansas Territory in 1855 is a difficult place to settle, particularly for a thirteen-year-old poet like Lucy Thomkins, the plucky and determined heroine of A Voice for Kanzas. Between the pro-slavery Border Ruffians and Insiders like her father who are determined to make Kansas a free state, it's hard to be heard, no matter your age.  But after Lucy makes two new friends a local Indian boy and a girl whose family helps runaway slaves, she makes choices to prove to herself (and others) that words and poems are meaningless without action behind them. Through their struggle to help a slave girl to freedom, Lucy ultimately finds her voice: A voice for Kanzas.
Published March 1, 2012, Kane Miller Books
Available at: Amazon.com

Carlton Dubois McClain (BA '14) Humanities & Social Sciences
Mulattoes in the Postbellum South and Beyond:
The Invisible Legacy of an Afro-European People, Custom and Class in America's Binary and Three-Tier Societies
This original historiographical book puts author Carlton Dubois McClain’s ancestral pedigree into perspective within the context of the historical circumstances relevant to those various unions that occurred between Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans in his lineage. Implementing the knowledge acquired through his studies, the author builds a historical framework of the predispositions pitted against historically mixed-race persons and people of color, and goes on to elaborate on the roots of the socio-economic status of contemporary Americans of black African descent, and how the historically Eurocentric-based power and prejudice of some came to adversely impact both the legacy and current-day condition of an entire community of people. The author examines and analyzes the historical place that his mulatto-identified ancestors held in society showing the reader the plight, condition, and legacy of mixed-race people in the Postbellum South (or the Southern United States after the American Civil War).
Published March 24, 2014, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Available at: Amazon.com

Bert McClary (BSP '66) Pharmacy
Fifty Years of Hospital Pharmacy: The Missouri Society of Health-System Pharmacists 1970-2020
A history of the practice of hospital pharmacy in Missouri, with emphasis on the Missouri Society of Health-System Pharmacists, founded in 1970, by a founding member of the organization. Commentary includes the early history of pharmacy and hospital pharmacy, the development and progression of hospital pharmacy professional standards of practice, the development and progression of hospital pharmacy regulatory standards, relationships with healthcare professional and regulatory organizations, the history and organizational activities of the Missouri Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and a timeline of events. Softbound, 158 pages.
Published January 2022, Self-published
Available at: www.bertthebard.com

Lise McClendon (MA '81) Humanities & Social Sciences
All Your Pretty Dreams
In the spirit of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, small town life in All Your Pretty Dreams provides a rich milieu of confrontation, betrayal, humiliation, laughter and redemption. Lured back for the summer by his drama-ridden family, Jonny Knobel, whose life so far hasn't worked out, plays the music of Bruce Springsteen, James Brown, and the 'She Likes Kielbasa' polka on his grandfather's accordion. What does this draftsman from Minneapolis, born into a cheesy polka band, have in common with Isabel Yancey, a prickly, rude, ambitious city girl scientist who studies wild bees... and how badly does she want him to breach her defenses?  Romance, humor and heartache abound for these young adults searching for the keys to happiness.
Published August 12, 2012, Thalia Press
Available at: Amazon.com
Some of Lise's additional works can be found at the Miller Nichols Library.

Kristin McKee (BA '04) Humanities & Social Sciences
Be Cents-able: How To Cut Your Household Budget In Half
Now more than ever, people are desperate to save money. Kristin McKee along with co-author Chrissy Pate, developed a system that allowed them to drop their household expenses by more than half - from spending $800 each per month to less than $350. Only a few years after developing their "be centsable" system, McKee and Pate have helped thousands of subscribers save money without spending hours finding and cutting coupons, or giving up "extras" like travel and entertainment. In this prescriptive guide, these authors show how anyone can save thousands of dollars on cleaning supplies, pet care, toys, travel, and most importantly - groceries, without giving up healthy foods, favorite products, or the occasional splurge.
Published March 29, 2010 by Plume (a division of Penguin Group)
Available at: Amazon.com

Corey Mertes (JD '06) School of Law
Self-Defense, Stories
A morally dubious chef reacts unconventionally when he comes to believe that his prized dog has killed the pet rabbit of the middle-school girl next door; an angry, second-rate actor seeks a life-affirming path in a place that offers only oddities and dreams; two gamblers descend into chaos and despair; and a love affair between an aging Texas wildcatter and a mercurial art teacher at his son’s school goes tragically awry. Crackling with raw truths and lyrical prose, the twelve stories in Corey Mertes’ Self-Defense follow their down-on-their luck protagonists through life’s narrow passes to its isolated valleys below.
Published February 1, 2023, Cornerstone Press
Available at: Barnes and Noble

Lynn Michelle Miller (BA '77) Humanities & Social Sciences
Kids Have A Purpose
Would you like to have meaningful conversations with the kids in your life? Do you want to understand how they think? Are you interested in hearing about what they are saying about life's challenges, and for them to really hear your views? Kids Have a Purpose is designed to help you have these great conversations with the kids in your life. Whether your relationship is estranged, frustrated, questionable, great, exciting or new, author Lynn Miller invites you to learn how to enhance those relationships.
Published October 16, 2015, Westbow Press
Available at: Amazon.com

Kevin M. Mitchell (BA '87) Conservatory
Jazz Songs for the Student Violinist 
Inspired by the realization that those studying Suzuki Violin could benefit from an exposure to jazz, Kevin Mitchell teamed up with his son’s Suzuki teacher, Joanne Keefe, to create this book. “Jazz Songs for the Student” is designed to introduce jazz to violin students starting their first year – including a jazzy take on ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ – and continues with at least one piece for all levels up to five. The book includes standards such as “Ain’t Misbehavin',” jazz classics such as Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father,” and “Orange Colored Sky” which Nat King Cole made famous. The violin instruction for each song is compatible with popular classical violin methods. Piano accompaniment-only tracks are also included for students to practice with.
Published August 1, 2018, Sher Music Co
Available at: Sher Music Co.

Ryan Murray (BA '04) School of Education
When The Fireflies Come Again
They met in preschool and from then on, people said Joe and Katie more than they said just one name or the other. But after a terrible accident on Joe's sixteenth birthday, his life changed forever. Then there's Joe's troublemaking hippie sister Christina and her quirky new friend Evelyn, Joe's former second-best friend Bryan living out of town and drifting away, and the long-impending divorce of Katie's parents. Everything is coming undone. So how is Joe supposed to learn to live again when the best part of his life is gone forever? Ryan Murray describes When the Fireflies Come Again as a novel for teens; a story of heartache, struggle, friendship, and the journey toward hope and healing in the midst of devastating loss.
Published March 16, 2013
Available at: Amazon.com

Chiluba J. Musonda (BBA '09, MPA '12) Bloch School
Home Away From Home: The Story Of An International Student's Journey From Africa To America
Home Away From Home is a beautifully crafted, thoughtful and candid story about Chiluba Musonda’s journey from Africa to the United States. As an international student from the nation of Zambia, Chiluba has to leave everything that is known and comfortable behind to embark on a journey to study abroad. In this personal and fascinating memoir, the author chronicles his life coming to America to pursue a college education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. This autobiography includes stories such as his plane being delayed because there wasn’t enough fuel at the Zambian airport to make the flight, forcing the plane to land in the next country to fully fuel; and the moment when he arrived from his native tropical country just in time for a snow storm - something read about but never experienced - while wearing only a t-shirt. The author also explains how he mastered the American scholarship and grant systems, as well as how he discovered himself and a purpose in life.
Published May 29, 2015, Light a Candle Publishing
Available at: www.chiluba.com

Dora Nadolski (PhD '00) Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Graduate Studies
The Etatist Turkish Republic And Its Political And Socio-Economic Performance From 1980-1999: A Developing State Impacted By International Organizations and Interdependence
Providing the reader with an understanding of the theoretical perspective of interdependence among nations, Nadolski applies the requisites imposed by external organizations to Turkey's internal infrastructures. This book discerns how a nation transformed itself from a Muslim state into a republic, is a major contribution to scholarship, and discusses the current context of Turkey's geographical proximity to surrounding Islamic nations.
Published May 20, 2008, University Press of America
Available at: Amazon.com

Dennis Okerstrom (MA '79, PhD '03) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Final Mission Of Bottoms Up: A World War II Pilot's Story
On November 18, 1944, American co-pilot Lieutenant Lee Lamar struggled alongside Pilot Randall Darden to keep Bottoms Up, their B-24J Liberator, in the air. On their 21st and final mission, Bottoms Up was staggered by an anti-aircraft shell that sent it plunging three miles earthward. With two engines out, and hit by more German fire, the focus quickly became getting out of the doomed bomber. Unable to extricate himself, Lamar all but surrendered to death before fortuitously bailing out.  He was captured and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in horrific conditions at a Stalag on the Baltic Sea. In 2006, more than sixty years after these life-changing experiences, Lamar received an email from Croatian archaeologist Luka Bekic who had discovered the wreckage of Bottoms Up.  Lamar visited the site, hoping to gain closure, and met the Croatian Partisans who had helped some members of his crew escape.
Published October 1, 2011, University of Missouri Press
Available at: Amazon.com

JoAnn Oppenheimer (BA '58) School of Education
Potpourri For And About Women
JoAnn Oppenheimer has worn many hats during her life including widow, mother, grandmother, realtor and 'Single Again' coach. While she is now living her life to the fullest, she admits to making poor choices throughout her life. Hoping to help other women as they deal with life's twists and turns, Oppenheimer collected the stories of 41 women age 50+ and compiled them in the anthology Potpourri For and About Women. While all 41 women have experienced tragedy in some way - from divorce, death of children and/or husbands, cancer, crime or financial devastation - they all share one thing in common: they survived and are living productive lives today.
Published May 27, 2010, Authorhouse
Available at: Barnes and Noble

William O'Rourke (BA '68) Humanities & Social Sciences
Politics and the American Language: Reviews, Rants, and Commentary, 2011-2018
This new collection is O'Rourke's third volume of a diverse mixture of long and short articles and it extends his reputation as a brilliant social historian and curmudgeonly contrarian. More political than his previous two volumes (Signs of the Literary Times, 1993; Confessions of a Guilty Freelancer, 2012), it additionally serves as an illuminating memoir of his literary generation. These provocative pieces analyze the contemporary turbulent period, from the Obama years to the dawn of the Trump era.
Published March 3, 2020, Welcome Rain Publishers
Available at: Amazon.com

Patrick R. Osborn (BA '93, MA '94) Humanities & Social Sciences
A Companion To The Meuse-Argonne Campaign
Edited by well-known historian, Ed Lengel, this book contains 29 original essays written by American, British and German scholars addressing the single-largest battle in American military history. Osborn contributes: "French Armored Support during the First Phase of the Campaign," exploring the role that French armored units played in supporting 79th Division's efforts to capture Montfaucon and other objectives in the very middle of General John J. Pershing's First Army. He uses original documents from French Army archival holdings in Paris and provides details about the colorful but forgotten Col. Daniel D. Pullen, whose untimely death contributed to his overshadowing by fellow tank brigade commander, future general George S. Patton, Jr.
Published May 2014, Wiley-Blackwell
Available at: Amazon.com
Check out Patrick's additional work "Operation Pike" at the Miller Nichols Library.

Wes Parham, Ph.D. (BA '05, MBA '10) Humanities & Social Sciences, Bloch
Be A Hater
What do Taylor Swift, Cognitive Psychology, Gucci Mane, Dissent, and The Most Dangerous Person Alive have in common? The answer is the “Hater Mindset”. In “Be A Hater” Dr. Parham examines the emergence of the “Hater Mindset” in contemporary culture. This book delves into a subtle and subconscious cultural shift in the concept of a “hater”. The shift from viewing a “hater” as someone trying to hold you back or stop you from succeeding, to viewing a “hater” as anyone who disagrees or dissents from your opinion. This shift while subtle has strong implications for critical thinking, the value of relationships, an individual’s happiness, cognitive entitlement, and more. In “Be A Hater” Dr. Parham brings this subconscious shift to the surface and equips the reader to counter its effects by challenging them to “Be A Hater!”
Published January 1, 2018, WEEW
Available at: Amazon.com

Steve Paul (BA '74) Humanities & Social Sciences
Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell
Evan S. Connell (1924–2013) emerged from the American Midwest determined to become a writer. He eventually made his mark with attention-getting fiction and deep explorations into history. His linked novels Mrs. Bridge (1959) and Mr. Bridge (1969) paint a devastating portrait of the lives of a prosperous suburban family not unlike his own that, more than a half century later, continue to haunt readers with their minimalist elegance and muted satire. As an essayist and historian, Connell produced a wide range of work, including a sumptuous body of travel writing, a bestselling epic account of Custer at the Little Bighorn, and a singular series of meditations on history and the human tragedy. This first portrait and appraisal of an under-recognized American writer is based on personal accounts by friends, relatives, writers, and others who knew him; extensive correspondence in library archives; and insightful literary and cultural analysis of Connell's work and its context.
Published December 15, 2021, University of Missouri Press
Available at: University of Missouri Press
Check out Steve's additional work Architecture A to Z at: Miller Nichols Library

Tim Pingelton (BA '94) Humanities & Social Sciences
A Student's Guide To Ernest Hemingway
Profiling Ernest Hemingway, perhaps the most important writer in American literature of the twentieth century, this book examines his extraordinary life and work, offering accessible insight for high school and middle school researchers. Published July 1, 2005; reprint March 1, 2018, Enslow
Publishing, New York
Available at: Amazon.com

Knial Piper (JD '15) School of Law
Freedom Blues & American Soul
Freedom Blues and American Soul is a fascinating first novel - a millennial's take on Catcher in the Rye by a twenty-three-year-old writer. Set in Florida, it is a mercilessly disturbing and thought-provoking portrait of Twenty First Century America. A law student, Milo, hitches a ride with Virgil, a mysterious man of questionable origins. As Milo seeks answers to questions of purpose in his life, he meets a manic-depressive movie star, a hopeless one-eyed guitarist, and 'the most beautiful woman on earth.' Milo's trip quickly dives into a hurricane of supernatural woes. Through mansions, ghettos, and a satanic ritual, Milo begins to consider the fate of his own soul. A relentless snapshot of religion and the American dream in an age of debt and greed, the author takes the reader on a nihilistic ride through the past, present, and future.
Published June, 15, 2017, Fulton Books
Available at: Barnes and Noble

Neosho C. Ponder (B.A. '03) Humanities & Social Sciences
God's Got Jokes 
In God’s Got Jokes, author Neosho C. Ponder, Ph.D. allows the reader into the most personal and vulnerable parts of her life. As she battled the hardships of cancer, she discovered the true humor in God’s work. Dr. Ponder also learned that some of those who supported her journey succumbed to their own battles in life, and she decided to share herself in a memoir that provides a space for all readers to see themselves in her journey. God’s Got Jokes provides many of her personal stories, such as: being evicted during chemotherapy, the financial burden placed on cancer patients out of work, the loss of several loved ones in such a short amount of time, and building a deeper connection to faith, family, and self, despite mental health struggles. Dr. Ponder’s resilience is astonishing, as she never let her diagnosis keep her from traveling, learning, writing, and taking care of others who needed her. God's Got Jokes is a long-awaited companion read to those fighting cancer, who have faced their own difficult journey, or just appreciate winning.
Published Februrary 1, 2022, New Degree Press
Available at: www.neoshocponder.com/contact   

William H. Powell (BA '68, MA '76) Humanities & Social Sciences
Raising Money For Mighty Missions
How did one youth services organization exceed its fundraising goal in the middle of a recession? Why did another triple its annual donations? How do you work with volunteers who say "I don't want to be a fundraiser"? In Raising Money for Mighty Missions, two veteran fundraisers tell you step-by-step how to: assess your organization's readiness to raise funds, develop a comprehensive fundraising plan, maintain strong relationships with donors and have the right person make ask for the right amount. Their strategies and tools take the mystery out of raising funds for the causes that matter most.
Published October 21, 2011, Powell Publications
Available at: Amazon.com

Verla Lacy Powers (PhD '91) School of Education
Child of Desire
As a child, Amanda always knew that she wanted to be a mother. Growing up through the twenties and into the Great Depression, Amanda is a headstrong woman in a world that doesn't want to accept her. Now she is trapped in a loveless marriage far away from the family who cares about her. While her husband, Sam, is paying more attention than Amanda likes to another woman, his brother, Luke, is the only one who makes Amanda feel like she's loved. Dreaming of a way to bring joy into her life, Amanda dares to enter into a conspiracy that sinks her and Sam even further into deceit and lies. Will Amanda be able to make something out of her life and find true happiness? Or is she already too far down a path that will lead to nothing but destruction for her and her family?
Published November 8,2011, Tate Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Annie Presley (MPA '95) Bloch School
Read This When I'm Dead: A Guide To Getting Your Stuff Together For Your Loved Ones
For most of us, end of life discussions will always be difficult conversations to have with loved ones. There is a way to easily and concisely tell your heirs about yourself, your belongings and your final wishes. In Read This... When I'm Dead, co-authors Annie Presley and Christy Howard created a fill-in-the-blank guide to help organize and manage your key information, thoughts and wishes to pass along to your heirs. You can record everything from noting where cash is hidden in your house, to what your pets like to eat and even the code to your garage door key pad! It's not a replacement for a legal will, rather, a guide for your family and friends, walking them through the details of your life.
Published 2014, ACE Publishing
Available at: www.booksbyace.com

Heather Remoff (MA '73) Humanities & Social Sciences
What's Sex Got to Do With It?
What’s Sex Got To Do With It? is a reexamination of Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Darwin’s book, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex was published in 1871. Remoff’s update expands our understanding of the power of sexual selection by including recent genetic discoveries and viewing reproductive choices through a female lens. Although her Ph.D. is in anthropology, she does her writing and thinking in the space between biology, economics, linguistics, and anthropology. In the final chapters of her book, she argues that the search for solutions to our immediate existential problems of climate change and inequality will succeed only if grounded in an accurate understanding of our evolved species-specific traits.
Published January 2022, Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers
Available at: Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers

Jim Reynolds (BA '91) Humanities & Social Sciences
Our Victorious Heart, A Journal of Grace
Written for those in any trouble, authors Jim and Deanna Reynolds tell the true story of their daughter, born with Trisomy 18, sharing the comfort they received from the God of all comfort. Told through e-mails of gut-level honesty, written before and after she was born, narrative material and later reflections, the couple chronicle God's immense faithfulness in the midst of struggle. It is a testimony of beauty for ashes in a different light, having nothing to do with sin, but everything to do with the reality of life's hardships and heartbreaks here on Earth. Readers can find encouragement through their story of how God's grace and ever present mercy can lead anyone in trouble far beyond "coping" and well into a victorious heart.
Published November 2012, RMS1437 Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Linda Rodriguez (BA '88, MA '92) Humanities & Social Sciences
Every Last Secret
Half-Cherokee Marquitta “Skeet” Bannion fled a city police force and family entanglements for a Missouri college town as chief of campus police. Now, the on-campus murder of the student newspaper editor puts Skeet on the trail of a killer who will do anything to keep a dangerous secret from being exposed, and everywhere she turns she uncovers hidden sins. Time is running out as Skeet struggles to catch the murderer and prevent more deaths by unraveling every last secret. “Every Last Secret” is the winner of the 2011 St. Martin’s/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition.
Published April 24, 2012, St. Martin's/Minotaur Books
Available at: Amazon.com

Dianne Romain (BA '68) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Trumpet Lesson: A Novel
Fascinated by a young woman’s performance of “The Lost Child” in Guanajuato’s central plaza, painfully shy Callie Quinn asks the woman for a trumpet lesson—and ends up confronting her longing to know her own lost child, the biracial daughter she gave up for adoption more than thirty years before. "The Trumpet Lesson is a beautiful literary novel focused on healing and the families that are forged abroad.” -Foreword Clarion Reviews
Published September 24, 2019, She Writes Press
Available at: www.indiebound.org

Jay Macey Rosenblum (JD '51) School of Law
The French Lieutenant and The King of Rome
In The French Lieutenant and the King of Rome, Jay Rosenblum has penned an historical romantic novel set during the German occupation of France during WWII. Through a series of flashbacks, the author weaves real historical personalities such as General Henri-Phillipe Petain, a cautious but successful French army commander, with imagined fictional characters who take the plot from mystery and violence to romance and constant suprise - climaxing in the spectacle of the 'return of the casket of the King of Rome'.
Published June 11, 2014, CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Toni Runkle (BA '84) Humanities & Social Sciences, & Steve Webb
The Pirate's Curse: Brigands of the Compass Rose
Abandoned as an infant, 15-year-old Bonnie Hartwright doesn't know who she really is. And that just might get her killed. After her latest scrape with the law, foster girl Bonnie is abruptly carted off to a "reform sailing camp" on the Carolina coast. There, she discovers the camp is actually the training compound of the Brigands of the Compass Rose, a centuries-old secret society, all of whose members are descendants of a notorious pirate. Bonnie and her fellow teen internees, denizens of the digital age, must now master the old ways of sword and sail as they prepare to battle a mysterious, unnamed enemy. During weeks of training, Bonnie finds herself drawn to both Wilder, a charismatic thief, and Reed, the grandson of the group's leader, a boy who carries the weight of a family legacy on his shoulders. But a secret is being withheld from Bonnie, one that could end up proving lethal. Before it's too late, she must uncover the truth about herself or face certain death in a watery grave.
Published Sept. 28, 2023, Black Rose Writing
Available at: Amazon.com

Vladimir Sainte (BA '07, MSW '10) Humanities & Social Sciences
Just Like a Hero
Just Like a Hero, was created to help teach personal values, challenge negative thoughts, provide activities to promote stronger self-esteem, and effective coping mechanisms. The genesis of the book comes from the author's own experiences. While working with a Black boy who was struggling with his identity, Vladimir wanted to give the child a book that might help, but couldn’t find anything, so he decided to write one himself. Just Like a Hero is a story about Will, a Black boy who is coping with daily struggles – to highlight the importance of personal value. This story, along with the author's other books, are designed as a reminder of how important we all are.  Vladimir says: "I wanted to reach diverse backgrounds through boys or girls who look like me."
Published August 1, 2018, Content X Design
Available at: Amazon.com

Andrés Salguero (G.R.C.T. '11, D.M.A. '11) Conservatory
Hello, Friend / Hello, Amigo
This fun, bouncy bilingual song from 123 Andrés' Grammy Award-winning album is brought to life in a whole new way that's perfect for storytime sharing! Sara Palacios animates this popular song with vibrant, fresh illustrations that will engage little ones and their parents.
¡Esta canción divertida y vivaz de 123 Andrés, incluida en su album ganador de un Grammy, cobra vida de un modo totalmente nuevo, perfecto para la hora del cuento! Por su parte, Sara Palacios anima esta popular canción con ilustraciones frescas y vibrantes que involucrarán a los pequeños y a sus padres.
Coming soon: Published Aug 4, 2020, Scholastic Inc.
Available at: Amazon.com

Jason L. Sharp (MBA '20) Bloch School
Eyes Wide Open: Learning to Suffer
Eyes Wide Open: Learning to Suffer, is a heart-wrenching story of perseverance and triumph over unimaginable adversity. Growing up in extreme poverty in Chicago, Jason L. Sharp faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles at every turn. He found hope in humanity itself which led him to join the Army. He developed an unshakable resilience, grit, and mental toughness that propelled him forward through some of life's toughest challenges. From battling cancer to enduring the rigors of Ranger School, Sharp shares his hard-won wisdom and insights into what it takes to develop the mental fortitude needed to overcome life's many obstacles. He has carefully penned a book whose applicability extends to aspiring entrepreneurs, business leaders, military service members, and anyone looking to make massive changes in their lives and push the envelope in several domains. By drawing on his personal experiences and lessons learned, Sharp’s inspiring message is one of hope, perseverance, and the power of the human spirit to overcome even the most difficult circumstances.
Published May 21, 2023, Elite Books
Available at: www.learntosuffer.com

Bambi Nancy Shen (MA '76) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Uncrushable Rose
The Uncrushable Rose is a moving and heart-rending memoir - the story of a girl born in 1939 to a Chinese diplomat in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) Vietnam. Shen offers vivid memories of the concentration camps she lived in during the five-year Japanese occupation of then Indochina, in World War II. Her memoir also paints a clear picture of the mother/daughter conflict predictable in a culturally patriarchal society and male-dominated family system. It is a story of challenge and survival, and of the struggle to be freed from the limitations of centuries-old tradition and cultural boundaries. (Manouchehr "Manny" Pedram, Ph.D.)
Published 2011, How High The Moon Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

William P. Smith, Jr., D.D.S. (DDS '65) School of Dentistry
Growing A Healthy Child: Secrets From A Wise Old Doc
Raising a child is a parent's most important job. But there's a lot to learn and know. It is the author's desire to help parents better understand how a growing child's general health can be improved by dental care. Growing a Healthy Child offers a step-by-step reference guide from a dental perspective. Smith discusses a wealth of information about a variety of topics, including how to grow a: healthy parent-child relationship, healthy TMJ system, positive sense of self-worth and self-esteem, and a mouth with no cavities or fillings. In addition, Smith shares his knowledge about: dental emergencies, new orthodontic treatments for overall health, the airway and sleep, healthy jaw joints, posture, Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, dental insurance, and more.
Published November 22, 2016, Archway Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com

Grant Snider (DDS '11) School of Dentistry
What Color is the Night?
This beautiful debut picture book explores the wonders—and colors—of nighttime. For night is not just black and white. Ending in colors yet unseen, and a night of sweet dreams, this lilting lullaby is sure to comfort those drifting off to sleep. With luminous art as spare and glowing as the moon, and lyrical text that reads like a friend leading the way through the wilderness, What Color Is Night? is a rich and timeless look at a topic of endless fascination, and a perfect bedtime read-aloud.
Published November 5, 2019, Chronicle Books
Available at: Amazon.com

Michael D. Sollars (MA '82, PhD '01) Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Graduate Studies
Falling Into Starry Night
A review by Dr. Santosh Kumar applauds this special new collection of poems for the unique authors perspective found in the book: "Michael D. Sollars' poetry collection Falling into Starry Night reveals that the poet is endowed with impressive depths and heights of feelings, the marvelously spontaneous power, impressive precision of style enriched with sublime thought, and an unrivalled gift of song. Sollars' eye of an artist avoids the obsolete or worn-out words."
Published May 20, 2013, Cyberwit.net
Available at: Amazon.com

Blanche E. Sosland (MA '77, PhD '83) School of Education
Banishing Bullying Behavior: A Call to Action from Early Childhood Through Senior Adulthood
This book is a call for each of us to take much needed action to stop the growing epidemic of bullying by people of all ages. It is an in-depth exploration of the various types of bullying: physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, cyber bullying, electronic and the devastating lifelong effect they have on their victims. In order to give the reader a clear understanding of the continuum of bullying behavior, Sosland presents the experiences shared by individuals of all ages in all stages of their lives. Many of those individuals came to the author with their stories while she was writing the book “to spare others the enormous pain bullying had caused them”. The book also addresses workplace bullying in general, as well as in the fields of medicine, law, academia and leadership, plus the power of kindness and paths for action.
Published March 7, 2019, Kindle Direct Publishing and Amazon Kindle eBook
Available at: Amazon.com

Richard A. Stack (JD '77) School of Law
Grave Injustice: Unearthing Wrongful Executions
In Grave Injustice Richard A. Stack seeks to advance the anti-death penalty argument by examining the cases of individuals who have been executed but are likely innocent. Although polls indicate Americans favor death sentences approximately three to one, many respondents change their position when presented with the facts about capital punishment. Stack aims to put a human face on the irrevocable tragedy of capital punishment. His compelling descriptions of 19 wrongful executions illustrate the flaws of the death penalty, which, he argues, is ineffective in deterring crime and costs more than sentences of life without parole and that racial disparities in implementation, procedural errors, incompetent defense attorneys, and mistaken eyewitness identification lead to an alarming number of wrongful convictions.
Published April 2013, Potomac Books, Inc.
Available at: Amazon.com
Some of Rick's additional work can be found at the Miller Nichols Library.

Dennis Stauffer (BA '75) Humanities & Social Sciences
Thinking Clockwise: A Field Guide For The Innovative Leader
Winner of the 2006 Fresh Voices Award, Thinking Clockwise is about innovation - what fuels it, what drains it and how to inspire it. Stauffer provides a unique and powerful strategy for changing the way employees think and managers lead. In this book he offers an imaginative yet brutally pragmatic approach to doing business, exploring innovation as a business necessity, not an option, and presenting solutions in an easy-to-implement field guide format.
Published July 2004, MinneApplePress
Available at: Barnes and Noble

James Steele (BA '67, HD '04) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Betrayal of The American Dream
In their book America: What Went Wrong? authors Jim Steele and Don Barlett warned that federal policies were dismantling the middle class. But they feel they vastly underestimated how quickly the nation's economic elite would consolidate their power and undermine the economic lives of virtually everyone else. Their new book explains how trade policies bought and paid for by major corporations have wiped out millions of good-paying jobs; how Congress allowed companies to kill 85,000 pension plans in the last generation; and how the rich went from paying 51 percent of their income in federal taxes in the 1950s to 16 percent in our time. What is on the horizon for most Americans if the economic elite continue to have their way?
Published July 31, 2012, PublicAffairs
Available at: Amazon.com

Linda Sturrup (DDS '00) School of Dentistry
A Sugar Bug On My Tooth
It's Natalie Jean's first dental appointment, and she's afraid. She has no idea what to expect. A little girl crying in the waiting room frightens her about this visit to the dentist. "Natalie Jean McDonald!" calls the dental assistant. Find out what happens when the dentist tells Natalie Jean she has a Sugar Bug! A Sugar Bug on My Tooth is a story about a little girl's first dental appointment. Young children who are fearful of going to the dentist will find this story helpful in understanding the importance of seeing a dentist and calming as they realize, it can be fun! There is also a Spanish version available, Un Bichito en Mi Diente. 
Published September 24, 2013, AuthorHouse
Available at: Authorhouse.com

Daniel Robert Sullivan (MFA '06) Humanities & Social Sciences
Braving the Bronx River: A 23-Mile Kayak from Westchester to Rikers Island
No one has ever paddled the entire length of the Bronx River – until now. Two under-qualified adventurers explore history and disparity when they launch in Westchester's richest neighborhood and come ashore in the nation's poorest, the South Bronx. New York City's only freshwater river coalesces from brooks and streams in Westchester County and dumps itself twenty-three miles south in the face of Rikers Island. The river is witness to more of our country’s income inequality than its surrounding residents, stumbling and tumbling from its tributaries in one of New York’s wealthiest districts to its mouth in the single poorest district in the entire United States. The Bronx River begins in prosperity and ends in America’s most extreme poverty, and this is the first documented journey down its entire length.
Published November 26, 2021, Boogie Down Projects
Available at: Amazon.com

Lauren Taylor (MA '03) Humanities & Social Sciences
Stricken
Ramsey Wolfe just met the man of her dreams. Her brother just found a mutilated dead body. Could the poor murdered girl have anything to do with that random physical attack on Ramsey - years ago? Or is the increasing string of murders the work of someone - or something - more sinister?
Published June 15, 2010, lulu.com
Available at: Amazon.com

Nancy Thayer (BA '66, MA '69) Humanities & Social Sciences
Surfside Sisters
Keely Green always dreamed of leaving the beautiful shores of Nantucket to become a writer. Now she’s a bestselling novelist living in New York City. When her personal and professional lives are suddenly in shambles, Keely longs for the soothing island way of life. Growing up, Keely and her best friend, Isabelle, were inseparable. Nothing could come between them—except, as it turned out, Keely’s high school boyfriend, Tommy. Returning home would mean facing Isabelle’s bitter betrayal and seeing for herself the family Tommy and Isabelle have created, the life that might have been Keely’s. But when Keely’s mother falls into a deep depression, Keely knows what she must do, even though she is reluctant to face her estranged friend. And encountering Isabelle’s older brother, Sebastian—Keely’s longtime crush—only complicates things. In one incredible summer, Keely must confront the mistakes of the past if she has any chance of finding true happiness in this uplifting tale of forgiveness and self-discovery.
Published July 2, 2019, Ballatine Books
Available at: Amazon.com
Some of Nancy's additional works can also be found at the Miller Nichols Library.

Robert Thornhill (BA '73, MA '74) Humanities & Social Sciences
Lady Justice and The Cruise Ship Murders
Ox and Judy are off to Alaska on a honeymoon cruise and invite Walt and Maggie to tag along. Their peaceful plans are soon shipwrecked by the murder of two fellow passengers. The murders appear to be linked to a century-old legend involving a cache of gold stolen from a prospector and buried by two thieves. Their seven day cruise is spent hunting for the gold and eluding the modern day thieves' intent on possessing it at any cost. This eleventh volume in the Lady Justice series is another nail-biting mystery that will have you on the edge of your seat one minute and laughing out loud the next.
Published October, 2012, Createspace
Available at: Amazon.com

Lori Lee Triplett (MA '88, JD '95) Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Law
Indigo Quilts
The beauty of Indigo Quilts is undeniable. Explore the origins of the fiber and fabric presented by two members of the American Quilt Study Group.  Step inside the Poos Collection of quilts, one of the largest privately held collections in the world.  Featuring stunning quilts circa 1750 to 1890. Get inspired and make one of the gorgeous quilt projects using present day Indigo or reproduction fabrics.
Published October 2016, C&T Publishing
Available at: Amazon.com
Some of Lori's additional works can also be found at the Miller Nichols Library.

Hans & "Tom" Tuch (BA '47, HD '86) Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Law
Arias, Cabalettas and Foreign Affairs: A Public Diplomat's Quasi-Musical Memoir
Arias is a memoir of Tuch's 35 years in the United States Foreign Service.  This book recalls his devoted engagement with music, especially opera, in the context of that career.  It spans from his Cold War service in Moscow, including Vice President Nixon’s 1959 visit to the Soviet Union, the U-2 disaster, and the U.S. - Soviet crisis, to his time as an assistant to the U.S. Information Agency Director Edward R. Murrow and as deputy director of the Voice of America, ending his Foreign Service career in Germany.
Published September 8, 2008, Vellum
Available at: Amazon.com

Janet Vaughan (MA '81) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Kansas City Monarchs: Champions of Black Baseball
Charter members of the Negro National League, stepping stone for Jackie Robinson, home base for Satchel Paige, and training ground for more than twenty blacks sent to the major leagues, the Kansas City Monarchs survived the entire thirty-five-year span of black baseball (from 1920 to mid 1950) and were widely regarded as the dominant black professional team, "the New York Yankees of the Negro leagues." Rich in anecdote and illustrated with more than ninety photographs of Monarchs players and scenes, this book is both a tribute to and a celebration of the top all-black team of all time.
Published August 1987, University Press of Kansas
Available at: www.amazon.com
Janet's works are held at Miller Nichols Library's "Special Collections" under author name, Janet Bruce.

Maryfrances Wagner (BA '64) Humanities & Social Sciences
The Immigrants' New Camera: A Family Collection
This book is a cultural memoir in poems of growing up in an Italian family with four immigrant grandparents. Around plates of rigatoni and biscotti, the author’s aunts provide a rich history of their past. Aunt Rosie tells about going to open air school, watching her father die, and trying to get her mother to learn English. On the other side of the family, Aunt Mary, in monologues that charm and entertain, talks about her husband, her relatives, her parents, but also reveals much about herself. The poems span most of Wagner’s life going from the family history to how living Italian has its joy and its sorrows in suffering the prejudices of the time. The author takes us through what it means to be and live Italian across the decades.
Published November 2018, Spartan Press
Available at: Amazon

Don Wallace (LLM '78) School of Law
Climate Change, Policy and Security: State and Human Impacts (Routledge Studies in Human Security)
This book examines the multiple strategies proposed by the international community for addressing global climate change (GCC) from both human and state-security perspectives. It examines what is needed from major states working within the UN framework to engage with the multiple dimensions of a strategy that addresses GCC and its impacts, where such engagement promotes both human and state security. Two broad frameworks for approaching these issues provide the basis of discussion for the individual chapters, which discuss the strategies being undertaken by major state powers (the US, the EU, China, India, Japan, and Russia). The first framework considers the multiple strategies, mitigation, adaptation, and capacity-building required of the international community to address the effects of GCC. The second framework considers the differentiation of GCC policies in terms of security and how the efficacy of these strategies could be impacted by whether priority is given to state security over human security concerns. (Co-writer: Daniel Silander)
Published 2018, Routledge
Publishing Available at: Amazon.com

Phil Watlington (BBA '68, MBA '70) Bloch School
The Rise of Powerful & Caring Women
"The Age of Women is here!" As women move into higher levels of leadership, influence and power, they also continue as loving mothers and nurturing caregivers.  Their collaborative and inclusive relationship styles are redefining organizational leadership and communications. In this, the great age of globalization and communications, where relationships seem more impersonal and distant than ever before, who better can we turn to for leadership than caring, influential, and powerful women?  This book is the first to focus on the trend and analyze its impact.
Published December 31, 2009, Infinity
Publishing Available at: Amazon.com
Phil's additional works can also be found at the Miller Nichols Library.

Grantham West aka Bill Tautphaeus (BS '71) Humanities & Social Sciences
AD2040: Clear and Present Danger, Triumph of The Religious Right
The year is 2039, and over the past fifteen years, the U.S. has gone through the bankruptcy and collapse of its governments, a second Great Depression, establishment of a harsh, provisional government, and martial law.  Economic recovery has taken place, but HIV/AIDS, long neglected, is now ravaging the country and religious-right conservatives in the government have a solution that could plunge the U.S. into a second Civil War.  In this surreal, alternate reality police state, the Reverend Gerald Fall finds himself on a dangerous journey of discovery, revelation and survival.
Published, November 14, 2011, Xlibris
Available at: AbeBooks.com

Robert Willoughby (PhD '97) Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Graduate Studies
The Brothers of Robidoux and The Opening of The American West
Meet Joseph, Francois, Antoine, Louis, Michel, and Isadore Robidoux, six brothers who helped shape the American trans-Mississippi West during the first five decades of the nineteenth century. Their lives are the framework for stories about the American frontier. Written in a unique biographical format, Robert Willoughby interweaves the family stories from their migration from French Canada to St. Louis; following their father into the fur business and American Indian trade; to an expedition up the Missouri River and difficult journey out west. Settling in different parts of the country, the brothers would ultimately pass on their prosperous legacy of ranging, exploring, trading, and town-building to a new generation of settlers. Their practices made each of them wealthy; however, they all died poor. To understand the opening of the American West, one must first know about men like the brothers Robidoux.
Published November 20, 2012, University of Missouri Press
Available at: Barnes and Noble

Ronald Winters (BA '69) Humanities & Social Sciences
An Angel For Maxey
Reese Maxey is a modestly successful industrial market researcher and executive interviewer. When a new international religion explodes on the world scene with the goal of unifying all faiths into one body, Reese Maxey is recruited to bring his skills to the movement. But as he becomes more involved in the rapidly expanding worldwide church, he discovers not all is as it seems in the new faith. His discoveries bring to light his own inner spiritual struggles, and more disturbing, he finds there are human forces around him determined to make him, break him, or kill him.  From the lofty powers who meet annually in Davos, Switzerland, to the streets and corporate corridors of Midwestern cities comes a story about one man's spiritual struggle and the intrigue of spiritual wickedness in high places.
Published July 2, 2010, WestBow Press
Available at: Amazon.com

Gwendolyn Woods (BA '89) Humanities & Social Sciences
Everyone is Gifted!: Allow The Gifts Within You To Be Released Despite Yourself
Who am I? Where am I going? Why am I here? Have you found yourself asking any of these questions at some point in your life? Are you still unsure about your purpose for being here? The author's goal is to help you discover your life's calling, your gifts and your potential.  In this book, you will learn how to break through fears and other barriers that stifle your gifts, and focus on often overlooked details that put the use of your gifts into perspective.
Published December 13, 2010, Xlibris
Available at: Amazon.com

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