October 9, 2008 

Coming Soon!

Mildred MacGregor, author of World War II Front Line Nurse

Along with so many others who signed up to support the war effort, thirty-year-old Mildred Radawiec left a comfortable job at the University of Michigan Hospital to volunteer as a surgical nurse in the major battle theaters of the war.

Throughout her story—and despite the horrors of the war—Radawiec recounts uplifting tales of heroism and courage, and intersperses the narrative with poignant letters from her family and fiancé.

This stirring personal account will fascinate anyone interested in World War II history and women's too-often-overlooked role in it.

16.1 MB | 17:36 minutes

September 9, 2008 

Cynthia Baron, co-author of Reframing Screen Performance

Are screen actors just playing themselves? Can film acting be considered "true" acting? Are there ways to describe the acting choices we see in films? These are some of the questions Cynthia Baron and Sharon Carnicke address in their new book, Reframing Screen Performance.

19.4 MB | 21:14 minutes

August 8, 2008 

Herbert Gans, author of Imagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together after Bush

Herbert Gans is one of the most influential and prolific sociologists and social commentators of our time. He is the author of Imagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together after Bush.

Part utopia, part realism, Imagining America is set mostly in the second and third decades of the century. It offers a set of progressive yet practical guidelines for restoring sanity and intelligence to nearly every aspect of life post-Bush.

In Gans's imagined future, elected officials, policymakers, activists, and citizens have transformed America into a much more humane and effective democracy. The book features three Democratic presidents; the major new domestic, foreign, and social policies their administrations pursue; and the political battles they fight.

14 MB | 15:07 minutes

July 9, 2008 

Mardi Link, author of When Evil Came to Good Hart

In the summer of 1968, in a sleepy northern Michigan resort town, a suburban-Detroit family was found shot dead in their cabin. Forty years later, the murders remain unsolved and the case has grown cold.

The search for who killed the Robison family stretched from Michigan to Florida, Alabama, and Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. Dozens of investigators took up the case. The murders even inspired a novel.

Yet few have gotten as close to the story as Mardi Link, author of When Evil Came to Good Hart.

Link's page-turning tale collects 40 years of evidence into a riveting true-crime story. She crafts her book around police and court documents as well as statements and interviews, and explores the impact of the case on the community of Good Hart.

11 MB | 11:43 minutes

June 9, 2008 

Jim Rossignol, author of This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities

Part personal history, part travel narrative, part philosophical reflection on the meaning of games, This Gaming Life describes Rossignol's encounters with gamers in three unique gaming cities: London, Seoul, and Reykjavik. From his days as a Quake genius in London's increasingly corporate gaming culture, to his encounters with Korea's high stakes, televised professional gaming milieu to his adventures in Iceland, the national home of his ultimate obsession, the idiosyncratic and beguiling Eve Online, Rossignol introduces us to a still-emerging and largely undocumented world of gaming lives.

13 MB | 22:19 minutes

May 6, 2008 

Dave Dempsey, author of Great Lakes for Sale: From Whitecaps to Bottlecaps

Renowned environmental writer Dave Dempsey is the author of Great Lakes for Sale: From Whitecaps to Bottlecaps, a must-read book about water, one of the most—perhaps the most—precious natural resources.

This is a book for anyone interested in saving the Great Lakes, a huge fresh-water system that contains about 25 percent of the world's fresh surface water. The book asks—and answers—important questions about the export and diversion of Great Lakes water. Not only does Great Lakes for Sale examine past and present water-diversion practices; it also shows readers what they can do to save this natural resource.

6 MB | 15:34 minutes

April 17, 2008

Michael S. Lewis-Beck, co-author of The American Voter Revisited

Recreates the outstanding 1960 classic The American Voter—which was based on the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956—following the same format, theory, and mode of analysis as the original. In this new volume, the authors test the ideas and methods of the original against presidential election surveys from 2000 and 2004. Surprisingly, the contemporary American voter is found to behave politically much like voters of the 1950s.

7 MB | 18:10 minutes

March 18, 2008

Michael Musheno and Susan M. Ross, authors of Deployed: How Reservists Bear the Burden of Iraq

The stories of the citizen soldiers of an Army Reserve unit who were among the first wave of reservists mobilized after September 11.

36 MB | 38:58 minutes

February 18, 2008

Nancy Goldstein, author of Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist

A richly illustrated biography of a pioneering woman artist and the characters she created.

36 MB | 38:49 minutes