End of Days: The Assissination of John F. Kennedy

James L. Swanson, AB’81 Author

Released just before the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, End of Days offers a minute-by-minute narrative that “attempts to re-create a moment when time stopped.” Author of two acclaimed books on President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, James Swanson skips the conspiracy theories—umbrella men, magic bullets, and government cover-ups—sticking to the facts as he recounts the events and emotions that gripped the nation on the afternoon of November 22, 1963.

Invest Like an Institution: Professional Strategies for Funding a Successful Retirement

Michael C. Schlachter, MBA’99; Author

As a former Goldman Sachs equity analyst and trader who now advises clients with more than $300 billion in assets, Michael Schlachter holds a store of knowledge about investing. His book translates this expertise into advice for retirement saving, whatever your income. Schlachter shows how individual workers can save as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars by building a diversified, risk-controlled investment portfolio of stocks and bonds.

From German Prisoner of War to American Citizen: A Social History with 35 Interviews

Barbara Schmitter Heisler, AM’76, PhD’79 Author

Growing up in post–WW II Germany, Barbara Schmitter Heisler heard horror stories about German prisoners held in Russia, including the ones her father told. Later, after moving to the United States, she was struck by tales of German prisoners in America who “enjoyed their stay” so much, they moved there after the war. These stories inspired her book. Drawing on interviews with POWs of varied backgrounds, she explores the phenomenon of their immigration, the hurdles confronting Germans who sought to leave, and the broader relationship between captivity and migration.

Deer Hunting in Paris: A Memoir of God, Guns, and Game Meat

Paula Young Lee, AM’89, PhD’99 Author

Paula Young Lee’s commentary on life, death, food, and sex—in the guise of this memoir—recounts her journey from Paris, France, to Paris, Maine. Along the way, the Korean American preacher’s daughter abandoned vegetarianism, discovered love, and found herself. In her pursuit to understand the human condition, Lee invites the reader to “hope and despair, rejoice and revile, celebrate and curse the profane absurdity of being apes rigged up in angel’s wings.”

This Song Will Save Your Life

Leila Sales, AB’06 Author

Young adult novelist Leila Sales takes on bullying and suicide in the story of 16-year-old Elise, a misfit who is the butt of classmates’ jokes and the victim of their pranks. After one last attempt at popularity fails, she attempts suicide. A call to 911 saves her life, but it is a discovery a few months later that provides true salvation. Sneaking out for a nighttime walk with her iPod, Elise stumbles upon a recurring underground dance party, where she finds friendship, kinship, and a passion and a talent for deejaying. Along the way, she also finds the freedom to be herself.

Gendering Global Conflict: Toward a Feminist Theory of War

Laura Sjoberg, AB’01 Author

Many current theoretical approaches to war are reductive, argues Laura Sjoberg. Realism, for instance, boils war down to a product of the state’s rational self-interest and military force. Sjoberg advances a new paradigm that examines international relations through a gendered lens to address factors including gender inequality, gendered violence, and the influence of emotion in politics. Gendering Global Conflict sheds light on the theory of war and offers practical insights for mitigating conflict in global politics.

Everybody In, Nobody Out: Memoirs of a Rebel without a Pause

Quentin Young, X’44 Author

In his new book, Quentin Young—a frequent contributor to Chicago public radio station WBEZ and an advocate for a national single-payer health-care system—looks back on his six decades working at the intersection of social justice and public health. Young was working as Martin Luther King Jr.’s physician during the 1966 housing protests in Chicago; he served as a frontline medical responder at the 1968 Democratic convention; and he was chair of medicine at Cook County Hospital from 1972 to 1981. Today Young runs a private practice in Hyde Park.