Reading List: New Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry by BU Alums
Alumni books that caught our eye
Reading List
New poetry, fiction, and a techno-thriller about battling cybercrime
The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plants
Belle Point Press, 2023
By Renee Emerson (GRS’09)
Poet Emerson’s chapbook looks at grief and nurturing through the lens of roadside shrubs and garden flowers and the difficulty of maintaining life.
Every Other Weekend
She Writes Press, 2023
By Margaret Klaw (CAS’80)
A family lawyer and founding partner of an all-women’s law firm, Klaw writes a courtroom drama that looks at divorce through the eyes of the lawyer, judge, children, and even the family dog.
The Fun Widow’s Book Tour
William Morrow Paperbacks, 2023
By Zoe Fishman (CAS’98)
A novel by the author of Inheriting Edith, about Mia (also a BU alum, a writer, and unexpectedly a widow), who has to go on a book tour for her memoir, three years after the death of her husband.
Mattress Makers
Mawenzi House Publishers, 2023
By Sasenarine Persaud (GRS’06)
Echoes from Calypso to Bollywood and raga to reggae as this Indo-Caribbean poet continues to explore his roots as a Canadian resident in Florida.
MoMA Goes to Paris in 1938: Building and Politicizing American Art
University of California Press, 2023
By Caroline M. Riley (CGS’02, CAS’04, GRS’16)
Time and place are key to this study of the most comprehensive display of American art in Europe until that time; the US State Department was involved.
The Ransomware Hunting Team
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022
By Renee Dudley (CAS’07, COM’07)
Cowritten with Daniel Golden, a real-life techno-thriller about an elite but eccentric group of misfits who battle the headline-making cybercrime.
The Ruins of Woodman’s Village
Level Best Books, 2023
By Albert Waitt (GRS’99)
An atmospheric mystery set in 1986 in a fictionalized Kennebunkport, Maine, examining the gentrification of New England’s fishing villages and the dark secrets they hide.
Secret of the Storm: Land of Dragons
Simon & Schuster/Aladdin, 2023
By Beth McMullen (CAS’91)
The second novel in a paranormal adventure series for middle grade readers, about a girl whose lost little kitten is a dragon in disguise. McMullen says she was first inspired by a BU Creative Writing Program class with novelist George V. Higgins.
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