
"As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride" by Cary Elwes ’84
Memoir / Touchstone, 2014
A first-person account of the making of the cult classic film by actor Cary Elwes.

"North Philadelphia" by Daniel Traub '94
Photography / Kehrer Verlag, 2014
A photographic portrait of a neighborhood in prolonged crisis, emblematic of the many regions throughout the US that hover between decay and possibility.

"Blue Yodel" by Ansel Elkins '05
Poetry / Yale University, 2015
Elkins depicts violence, poverty, and loneliness in the Deep South, but also the compassion, generosity, and hope that aid those condemned by their “otherness.”

"The Book of Stone" by Jon Papernick MFA '00
Novel / Fig Tree, 2015
A psychological thriller set in pre-9/11 Brooklyn in which a family’s dark history and an estranged son’s attempt to find meaning converge.

"The Visionist" by Rachel Urquhart '99
Novel / Little, Brown and Company, 2014
After 15-year-old Polly sets fire to the family farm, she and her brother find shelter in an 1840s Shaker community. Life takes an even bigger turn when she is unexpectedly exalted as their mystical “Visionist.”

"Best Bones" by Sarah Rose Nordgren ’04
Poetry / University of Pittsburgh, 2014
In this house, Mother has a reset button and servants blend into the furniture. The body is examined as a machine, a repository of childhood myth, and a window to the spiritual world.

"Behold! A Baby" by Stephanie Watson '01
Children’s / Bloomsbury USA Children’s, 2015
A loving father reveals his baby’s fantastic feats (smiling, babbling, eating a banana), bringing adults joy and awe. Who remains unimpressed? Baby’s big brother.

"American Warlord" by Johnny Dwyer '98
Biography / Knopf, 2015
An investigation into the crimes of Chucky Taylor, the American son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, and the first person to be convicted by a US court under the Convention Against Torture.

"The Wind in the Bamboo: A Journey in Search of Asia’s “Negrito” Indigenous Peoples" by Edith Mirante '74
Anthropology / Orchid, 2014
Sold into slavery and nearly wiped out by disease and volcanoes, the extraordinary tribal Asian people known as “Negrito” were once considered doomed. Mirante journeys into their remaining lands and reveals their story.

"Safekeeping" by Jessamyn Hope MFA '03
Novel / Fig Tree, 2015
Over the summer of 1994, six damaged lives become entangled and changed forever on an Israeli kibbutz.

"Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis" by Alexis Coe '09
History / Pulp/Zest, 2014
At the turn of the 20th century, 19-year-old Alice plans to pass as a man to marry her 17-year-old fiancée. But when their love letters are discovered, Victorian America finds itself riveted by a tragic murder mystery.

"The World of Stephanie St. Clair: An Entrepreneur, Race Woman, and Outlaw in Early 20th-Century Harlem" by Shirley Stewart MA '10
History / Peter Lang, 2014
Based on Stewart’s thesis in SLC’s Women’s History Program, a Caribbean immigrant founds a successful gambling operation, champions black pride, and speaks up for Harlem residents.

"Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, Reaching for the Stars" by Al-Ling Louie '71
Children’s Nonfiction / Dragoneagle, 2014
Kalpana Chawla left India to study aerospace engineering and became the first Asian American woman in space.
"Pocket Guide to Chicago Architecture" by Judith Paine McBrien '72
Travel Guide / W. W. Norton & Company, 2014
Updated and expanded, the third edition of this handbook is the perfect companion for self-guided walking tours and an excellent source of information on the internationally acclaimed architecture of Chicago.

"It Looks Worse Than I Am" by Laurie Blauner '75
Poetry / What Books, 2014
Deft and fearless, playful and savage, Blauner’s surreal poems depict forlorn dreamers utterly alone in their worlds.

"Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death" by Katy Butler '71
Memoir / Scribner, 2014
A New York Times bestseller, this memoir recounts the six years Butler spent caring for her declining parents, her struggle to give them “good deaths,” and the health care forces that stood in the way.

"Bromley Girls" by Martha (Neustadter) Mendelsohn ’64
Young Adult / Texas Tech University, 2015
In 1950s Manhattan, two middle school friends search for their identities and triumph over popular prejudice.