The Autobiography of James T. Kirk: The Story of Starfleet’s Greatest Captain

David A. Goodman, AB’84
Author

Star Trek: Enterprise writer David A. Goodman presents an in-world memoir of one of the show’s most famous characters, chronicling Captain Kirk’s life from his childhood on Tarsus IV to his rise to the helm of the Enterprise. By filling in Kirk’s backstory and including snippets of his personal correspondence and captain’s logs, Goodman presents a detailed, nuanced portrait of the Starfleet captain.

Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World

Linda Hirshman, JD’69
Author

As the first and second women appointed to the nation’s highest court, justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg overcame political and cultural differences to forge a strong friendship and worked together to promote women’s equality. Attorney and historian Linda Hirshman chronicles the distinct paths that O’Connor and Ginsburg traveled to the Supreme Court and how they changed America’s legal and cultural landscape.

The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Companion for the 21st Century

Richard Polt, AM’89, PhD’91
Author

From typewritten blogs to letter-writing socials to street poetry, the typewriter is enjoying a 21st-century revival. Xavier University philosophy professor and typewriter enthusiast Richard Polt chronicles the machine’s resurgence and provides practical information on how to select and care for a typewriter. Fully illustrated with vintage photographs, postcards, and manuals, The Typewriter Revolution is both a how-to and an inspiration for those who want to return to a world of carriage returns.

Privilege and Prejudice: The Life of a Black Pioneer

Clifton R. Wharton, AM’56, PhD’58
Author

In 1958 Clifton R. Wharton became the first African American to receive a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. His memoir details a trailblazing life—as the first black president of a major US university and the first black CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and as deputy secretary of state under president Bill Clinton—as well as the obstacles he faced along the way, including negative stereotypes and low expectations.

Consent

Nancy Ohlin, AB’83
Author

In Nancy Ohlin’s third novel for young adults, high school piano prodigy Bea falls for her music teacher, Dane. He encourages Bea to apply to Juilliard, and their relationship becomes intimate after a campus visit in New York. An unflinching look at a student-teacher relationship and its repercussions, Consent explores issues surrounding love and morality.

The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives

Theresa Brown, AB’87, PhD’94
Author

Practicing nurse and New York Times contributor Theresa Brown offers an honest, detailed account of a typical shift in the oncology ward of a teaching hospital. Her descriptions of caring for four very different patients showcase the skill, sensitivity, and sense of humor that nursing requires and illuminate the dysfunction of the modern health care industry.

$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America

Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, AM’05, PhD’08
Coauthors

About 1.5 million US families live on less than $2.00 per day, per person. Edin and University of Michigan associate professor and census data expert H. Luke Shaefer profile some of these Americans who have virtually no income, showing how welfare reform and an increasingly competitive and unpredictable low-wage labor market have quietly left millions destitute, and describing what these families have to do to survive.

The City at Three P.M.: Writing, Reading, and Traveling

Peter LaSalle, AM’72
Author

Fiction writer Peter LaSalle has walked around the UChicago campus with Saul Bellow, EX’39; followed Gustave Flaubert’s footsteps through Carthage; and sat in Jorge Luis Borges’s preferred spot in a Buenos Aires library. In 11 personal essays, LaSalle shares stories from his bookish travels and meditates on the life of a writer and the power of literature.