KWF Authors: Current Releases by Knight-Wallace Fellows
Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football
By John U. Bacon '06
John U. Bacon’s ’06 upcoming release “Three and Out” tells the story of how college football’s most influential coach took over the nation’s most successful program, only to produce three of the worst seasons in the histories of both Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan. Shortly after his controversial move from West Virginia, where he had just taken his alma mater to the #1 ranking for the first time in school history, Coach Rich Rodriguez granted Bacon unrestricted access to Michigan’s program. Bacon saw it all, from the meals and the meetings, to the practices and the games, to the sidelines and the locker rooms. Nothing and no one was off limits. John U. Bacon’s "Three and Out" is the definitive account of a football marriage seemingly made in heaven that broke up after just three years, and lifts the lid on the best and the worst of college football.
High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America’s Gambling Addiction
By Sam Skolnik ’08
Prompted by his year as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, Sam Skolnik ’08 authored his first book, “High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America’s Gambling Addiction.” Skolnik examines the explosive growth of legalized gambling in the U.S., the rise of addicted gamblers and what it all means. In “High Stakes,” we meet politicians eager to promote legalized gambling as an economic cure-all, scientists wrestling with the meaning of gambling addiction, and ensnared players so caught up in the chase that they’ve lost their livelihoods and their minds. Throughout it all, Skolnik—an avid poker player—never loses sight of the human side of these struggles.
High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time
By Tim Wendel ’96
Tim Wendel ’96 has published his sixth book, “High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time.” Wendel takes the reader through Cooperstown’s archives, an aerodynamic testing lab in Birmingham, Alabama and America’s ballparks in an examination of fastball mechanics and his quest to determine baseball’s fastest hurler. Featuring interviews with baseball greats and stories of the men who threw the ball, “High Heat” is a fast-paced journey through the past and present of our national pastime. “High Heat" was named an editor's selection by New York Times Review of Books.
The News from Ireland: Foreign Correspondents and the Irish Revolution
By Maurice Walshl ’02
“The News from Ireland” by Maurice Walsh ’02 has been released in paperback. The Anglo-Irish war of 1919-1921 was a historical landmark: The first successful revolution against British rule and the beginning of the end of the British Empire. However, the Irish revolutionaries did not win their struggle on the battlefield – their key victory was in mobilizing public opinion in Britain and the rest of the world. In his book, Walsh recounts the work of British and American correspondents in Ireland and offers a persuasive assessment of the revolution’s place in world history as well as the role of the press and journalism in the conflict.
Painter in a Savage Land and The Island of Lost Maps
Two books by Miles Harvey ‘09
In his latest book, Miles Harvey '08 tells the story of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, the first European artist to journey to what is now the continental United States with the express purpose of recording its wonders in pencil and paint. "Painter in a Savage Land" received a 2008 Editors’ Choice award from Booklist and a best-books citation from The Chicago Tribune.
Harvey’s previous book, "The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime," explores a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada. A national and international bestseller, it was selected by USA Today as one of the top ten books of 2000.
The Other Side of Mercy: A Killer’s Journey across the Great Divide
By Jonathan Martin ’09
Jonathan Martin ’09 co-authored “The Other Side of Mercy: A Killer’s Journey across the Great Divide.” The book is based on the Seattle Times series that won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the ambush slayings of four Lakewood police officers. Martin was a reporter on the award-winning team. In this book, the Martin and co-author Ken Armstrong go deeper to tell a story of our nation’s racial divide, the political risks of mercy, and missed opportunities to stop a man going mad.
Mirage and Blue Revolution
Two Books By Cynhtia Barnett '05
Cynthia Barnett ’05 spent her Knight-Wallace Fellowship studying America’s freshwater supply, leading to not one but two books. The first, “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.,” blends investigative reporting and environmental history to tell the strange tale of vanishing water in one of our wettest states. “Mirage” won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards and was named by The St. Petersburg Times as one of the top 10 books every Floridian should read.
Barnett’s new book, “Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis” is the first to call for a water ethic for America. From backyard waterfalls and grottoes in California to sinkholes swallowing chunks of Florida, “Blue Revolution” exposes how the nation’s green craze largely missed water – the No. 1 environmental concern of most Americans. But the book is big on inspiration, too. “Blue Revolution” combines investigative reporting with solutions from around the nation and the globe. From San Antonio to Singapore, Barnett shows how local communities and entire nations have come together in a shared ethic to dramatically reduce consumption and live within their water means.
In another bit of Wallace House book magic, Charles Eisendrath introduced Barnett to her first publisher, University of Michigan Press Director Phil Pochoda, who signed “Mirage” and two years later connected her to the agent who found just the right trade press, Beacon Press of Boston, for “Blue Revolution.”
Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity
By Nick Perry '11
Congratulations to Nick Perry ’11 and his co-author Ken Armstrong. Their book, “Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity,” was named the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe award for Best Fact Crime book of 2010. Perry and Armstrong chronicle the University of Washington’s march to the 2001 Rose Bowl and answer one of sports’ most enduring questions: If winning is everything, what are we left with? “Scoreboard, Baby” exposes the rot beneath a celebrated season and the ruins left behind, showing how a community’s blind embrace of a football team compromised judges, prosecutors, police agencies, a proud university and the media.
The Last Kestrel and Far From My Father’s House
Two Novels By Jill McGivering '10
Jill McGivering ’10 has written two novels. Her first release, “The Last Kestrel,” which has been compared to “The Kite Runner,” is available in paperback. Her second book, “Far From My Father’s House,” was recently released. Both novels follow war correspondent Ellen Thomas and traditional, rural women through the hostilities and struggles in South Asia, a region McGivering has covered for 25 years as a BBC correspondent. The first book is set in Afghanistan, the second in Pakistan. The books examine the nature of news, the ethical dilemmas and tough choices reporters make when covering wars. McGivering is now writing her third novel, which takes her to new territory: Asia’s past.
Rogue Island
By Bruce DeSilva ’81
Bruce DeSilva ’81 was awarded the Edgar Award for best first novel 2011, for his book, “Rogue Island.” The book also won the Macarity Award for best debut crime novel, was shortlisted for the Anthony and Barry award and listed as one of the 10 most notable first novels of the year by Publishers Weekly. DeSilva tells the story of a working class neighborhood that is systematically burning to the ground. Liam Mulligan, an old-school reporter at a dying newspaper, thinks the Providence, R.I., police are looking in all the wrong places and people he knows and loves are vanishing in the flames. As the neighborhood burns, Mulligan must find the hand that strikes the match. The novel, published by Forge, is at once an authentic evocation of life in a 21st-century American city and a lyrical tribute to the dying newspaper business. The sequel, "Cliff Walk," will be published in early 2012, and DeSilva is working on the third book in the series.
Firepower
By Gerard Ryle '06
Gerald Ryle ’06 exposes the greatest fraud ever committed in Australia in his book “Firepower.” Tim Johnston’s company, Firepower, promised a magic pill that cut fuel consumption and reduced emissions. Everyone believed him, including prime ministers and presidents, doctors and diplomats, business leaders and sporting heroes, until Ryle wrote an article for The Sydney Morning Herald raising questions about the validity of this mysterious company that had become the biggest sporting sponsor in Australia. Ryle’s story had tentacles that spread around the world from the Australian government to the KGB, from diplomats to arms dealers. In “Firepower,” Ryle demolishes the myth, exposing a wobbly financial pyramid and Australia’s greatest fraud.
Green Wedding: Plannning your Eco-friendly Celebratioin
By Mia Narvaro '88
Inspired by the overwhelming response to her New York Times article, Mia Narvaro ’88 published “Green Wedding: Plannning your Eco-friendly Celebration.” The book is an authoritative guide to how couples can minimize the environmental impact of their weddings while still ensuring a joyous and elegant celebration. Filled with gorgeous photographs, “Green Wedding” presents ideas on everything from planning the ceremony and reception to ecotourism honeymoons.
Extreme Barbecue: Smokin Rigs and Real Good Recipes
By Dan Huntley '03 and Lisa Grace Lednicer '03
“Extreme Barbecue” takes outdoor cooking to a new place, revealing a collection of rigged-up grills made from everything from 55-gallon barrels to a metal-lined, wooden coffin. Huntley ’03 and Lednicer ’03 traveled from the San Juan Islands in Washington to the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, searching backyards and alleys to find cooking rigs that turn out whole-hog barbecues, lamb rotisseries, and steaming seaweed clam bakes. The authors uncover a smoky slice of Americana passed over by the Food Network. The book features photos of the rigs, the story of the cooks behind these "odd, iron fire boxes" and more than 65 recipes. “Extreme Barbecue” earned a starred review in Publishers' Weekly and was featured on NPR's "Talk of the Nation.”
Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood
By John Fountain '00
John Fountain ’00 released “Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood.” Inspired by his essay for National Public Radio’s “This I Believe Series,” the book is an anthology of essays, poetry and prose written by some of the nation’s finest journalists and writers in celebration and examination of fatherhood. It is the first publication from WestSide Press, an independent publishing house founded by Fountain in 2009.
On the Grid and No-Mans' Land
Two Books By Scott Huler '03
Wires, pipes, roads, and water support the lives we lead, but the average person doesn't know where they go or even how they work. Our systems of infrastructure are not only shrouded in mystery, many are woefully out of date. In “On the Grid,” his sixth book, Scott Huler, '03, takes the time to understand the systems that sustain our way of life, starting from his own quarter of an acre in North Carolina and traveling as far as Ancient Rome.
Each chapter follows one element of infrastructure to its source -- or to its outlet. Huler visits power plants, watches new asphalt pavement being laid, and traces a drop of water backward from his faucet to the Gulf of Mexico and then a drop of his wastewater out to the Atlantic. Huler reaches out to guides along the way, both the workers who operate these systems and the people who plan them.
In 2001, NPR contributor Scott Huler ('03) read an essay on the radio show "All Things Considered" in which he made a simple claim: that he would forever give up trying to read James Joyce's Ulysses. Little did he know that his public claim not only would land him exactly where he had promised never to be - in a reading group slogging through Joyce's impenetrable modern masterpiece - but would launch an obsession with the book's inspiration: the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey, and with the lonely homebound journey of its Everyman hero, Odysseus. At the time of The Odyssey, its hero is in his mid-forties; so was Huler. Negotiating the complex shoals of midlife, Huler turned to the Odyssey and found much more than he had expected: in its well-known adventures with monsters and goddesses, the Odyssey became something of a guidebook for a person facing the challenges we all face in adulthood. Before long Huler wanted to do more than just read his hero. Odysseus made a long journey, and for millennia people have speculated on the Mediterranean sites where those adventures occurred. Seeking such heroic adventure, Huler stuffed a backpack with clothes, guidebooks, and the Odyssey. And he headed for the wine-dark sea.
Married to Africa: A Love Story and The Diversity Advantage
By G. Pascal Zachary '89
G. Pascal Zachary ‘89 recently published the memoir, “Married to Africa: A Love Story.” While a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Zachary met his future wife, Chizo Okao, at the zoo in Accra, Ghana. The book is a tender and charming account of a marriage and a look at how two people get to know each other across culture and race.
Zachary’s earlier book, “The Diversity Advantage,” provides a provacative roadmap to the new civilization arising out of sweeping shifts in the world economy. He reveals that the key new determinants for any nation’s economic, political and cultural success are, surprisingly, a diverse population and a mongrel sense of self. Roaming the globe, Zachary shows how the rise of new forms of identity and migration are helping to determine who will win and who will lose in the next century.
How to Clone the Perfect Blonde
By Sue Nelson '02 and Richar Hollingham
Following her fellowship, Sue Nelson ’02 wrote “How to Clone the Perfect Blonde” with her science journalist husband Richard Hollingham. A popular science book with a deliberately light touch, it covers subjects ranging from cloning and time travel to teleportation. The book was long-listed for the prestigious UK Science Book prize in 2004.
Biografia De Mi Cancer (Biography of my Cancer)
By Patricia Koesnicov '09
When she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 33, Patricia Kolesnicov ’09 had a flourishing career as a newspaper columnist and writer for Argentina's Clarín. This book is a somber and realistic account of her breast cancer experience, from diagnosis to treatment to her return to work. Kolesnicov chronicles her reactions to treatment, which included chemotherapy, radiation, and even special diets, her dependency on those around her, and her frustration and anger at the betrayal of her own body.
Sobrevida (Survival)
By Josiane Motta '09S
Josiane Motta ‘09S is the author a “Sobrevida," a Brazilian novel about professional and personal renewal. Motta brings us Daniel, a discontent American doctor who travels to Brazil in pursuit of his lover. He instead finds love in the wildlife and beauty of the Amazon. Daniel returns to the U.S. with a new purpose and a new job: treating the underserved in an emergency room. Motta, a doctor herself, fills the story with medical cases and details.
Hamas
By Bora Bayraktar '06
Bora Bayraktar ’05 published his second book, “Hamas.” In January 2006, an Islamist organization linked with deadly attacks to civilians won a decisive majority in the Palestinian Parliament. This was a blow to the peace process. Hamas, an organization classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, Israel and the United States, is a "democratic force" for the Palestinian people. Bora Bayraktar, a journalist covering the region for the last two decades, puts light on this dilemma. He details the Islamist movement's roots, social structure and institutions and interviews Hamas and Israeli leaders to understand if Hamas can transform itself to an organization prepared to make peace with Israel.