Alumni Authors
Note: The Alumni Authors are under development. We're adding in hundreds of great books and great U-M alumni authors. Soon, you'll be able to search for books by genre and author and get reading.
Patriots of Foxboro is a story about the Vietnam War and the deep divisions it caused within our society. The hero, a returned veteran who grew up in Milan, Michigan, suffers post traumatic stress war trauma and finds his life again in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The novel underscores very different and conflicting perceptions of patriotism, with surprising outcomes revealing what patriotism can mean. Patriots of Foxboro is a thought-provoking and romantic story.
In this story, "Jacob creates sharp images and telling phrases, but there's no self-conscious poetry here. His tine is unemotional, detached, and spare," according to the Village Voice.
"Mr. Jacob’s writing is terse and vivid." – New York Times Book Review
Beecher White, a young archivist, spends his days working with the most important documents of the U.S. government. When Clementine Kaye, Beecher’s first childhood crush, shows up at the National Archives, Beecher tries to impress her by showing her the secret vault where the President of the United States privately reviews classified documents. After they accidentally happen upon a priceless artifact hidden underneath a desk chair, Beecher and Clementine find themselves entangled in a web of deception, conspiracy, and murder. Beecher’s search will lead him to discover a coded and ingenious puzzle that conceals a disturbing secret from the founding of our nation.
Ever since the death of Rosalind’s brother, Edward, Rosalind’s mother hasn’t been the same. Rosalind’s father is away at war, and his wish is for Rosalind to live in England and get a proper British education. England is home to Rosalind, but she has never been there. As an English girl in India in 1918, Rosalind is alone. Rosalind awaits the return of her father from the war, and more and more she ventures out into the streets. It is there she learns of a man named Gandhi and hears talk of how India must be free to rule itself.
Marissa Rogers never wanted to be an alpha; beta suited her just fine. Taking charge without taking credit had always paid off: vaulting her to senior editor at a glossy magazine; keeping the peace with her critical, weight-obsessed mother; and enjoying the benefits of being best friends with gorgeous, charismatic, absolutely alpha Julia Ferrar. And then Julia gets hit by a cab. She survives with minor obvious injuries, but brain damage steals her memory and alters her personality, possibly forever. Suddenly, Marissa is thrown into the role of alpha friend and her own equilibrium is shaken.
Washington, D.C., 1861: As the United States teeters on the brink of civil war, Colonel Charles P. Rook organizes security in the nation’s capital and monitors the death threats pouring into the White House. He surrounds Abraham Lincoln with bodyguards, covers rooftops with sharpshooters, and investigates rumors of conspiracy fomented by secessionists. Yet amid the chaos and confusion, a mysterious killer slips into the teeming city. Hired by a wealthy Southern planter to eliminate President Lincoln and destroy the Union once and for all, the assassin catches Rook’s attention by cutting down anyone who gets in his way.
In this thriller, ex-Navy SEAL Nolan Kilkenny is caught in an adventure that races from the Vatican across Asia. In a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, Kilkenny learns of an unreported atrocity committed against the underground church in China and its link to the long-imprisoned bishop of Shanghai. The pope wants the bishop free and asks Kilkenny to devise a plan to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. Kilkenny assembles a team that will use some of the most advanced weapons, aircraft and computer technology to execute this extraordinary mission.
On Christmas night, Clara has a strange dream in which she accompanies her godfather on a tour of the countryside where she overhears the evil mice plotting war. The ferrets have burned a major cheese-producing barn of the mice, but the mouse king insists on invading (do not ask why) the squirrels. The mouse king and his chamberlains pursue losing skirmishes against both ferrets and squirrels.
Post-Civil War New York City is the battleground of the American dream. In an era of free love, emerging rights of women and brutal sexual repression, Freydeh, a spirited young Jewish immigrant, toils at different jobs to earn passage to America for her family. Learning that her younger sister is adrift somewhere in the city, she begins a determined search that carries her from tenement to brothel to prison as her story interweaves with those of some of the epoch's most notorious figures. This story re-creates a turbulent period in American history and explores changing attitudes in a land of sacrifice, suffering, promise and reward.
When a respected older man clings to the values and mores of the liberated 1970s - when he pursues sex relentlessly and his reputation suffers - chaos ensues. Edmund White explores different aspects of aging, romance and sex, inviting his readers to come with him to Florida, the Greek Isles and Turkey - and into the chaotic gay demimonde of contemporary New York.
