Reading List: New Books by Alums Christopher Castellani, Jasper Craven, and Jessica Keener
Reading List: New Books by Alums Christopher Castellani, Jasper Craven, and Jessica Keener
Plus, a tiny excerpt from a debut novel, Double Happiness, by COM alum Heather Eng
Books Good Enough for You: The Storied Life of Ursula Nordstrom, Editor of Extraordinary Children’s Books
Abrams Books, 2026
By Nancy Hudgins (CAS’75)
A biography of the editor of Goodnight Moon, Charlotte’s Web, Where the Wild Things Are, and Harold and the Purple Crayon, among many others, describes a fierce defender of a child’s right to read.
Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield
Wiley, 2026
By Allie Mellen (ENG’15)
Forget the rogue hackers you see in movies. Mellen’s nonfiction book reveals how nation-states, including Russia, China, and the US, use cyberattacks to achieve their geopolitical goals.
Evening Begins the Day
Koehler Books, 2026
By Jessica Keener (CAS’79)
Discovering her husband’s infidelity, Rachel escapes to a rental house in a Boston suburb and becomes entwined in the family life of her colleague and now neighbor Cynthia. But Cynthia’s family life is not as perfect as it looks.
God Forgives, Brothers Don’t: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood
Simon & Schuster, 2026
By Jasper Craven (COM’16)
Craven’s work of nonfiction examines how the American military education system, from West Point to the Boy Scouts, has shaped American masculinity—and not for the better.
Last Seen
Penguin Random House, 2026
By Christopher Castellani (GRS’99)
Four young men disappear from separate locations on a winter’s night and turn up dead in local rivers. What’s happened to them? Among those who try to explain are the dead men themselves. Last Seen is a novel from the author of Leading Men (Viking, 2019).
Names Have Been Changed
Tiny Reparations Books/Penguin Random House, 2026
By Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (GRS’20)
Ophir tells her story, which begins with a petty crime in Singapore—leading to years on the run across the globe—and ends with a podcast about the cost of freedom and the pull of home.
The Vatican and Women DeaconsOrbis Books, 2026
By Phyllis Zagano (COM’70)
Zagano is a scholarly authority on—and an advocate for—women deacons. Her book provides an examination of the future of the female diaconate.
Witch SeasonSt. Martin’s Press/Macmillan, 2026
By Julia Bianco (COM’19)
Bianco’s debut novel follows Katherine, a member of a Los Angeles–based coven, who falls for Silas, her enemy from another coven, as an even greater threat rises in their world.