Hot Type

Alan Gordon ’81
Where Werewolves Fear to Tread
Thurston Howl Publications

A wave of day-walking lycanthropes don’t stand a chance against an elite guard-dog trainer and his team of powerful pups—including a mystic Weimaraner and a ticked-off dachshund—in this funny, fast-paced suspense novel. Celebrated for his law career, stage musicals, and eight-volume medieval Fools’ Guild Mysteries, Gordon is as endlessly, effortlessly clever and creative as always. “A new alpha has joined the pack of paranormal writers,” raves author Leigh Perry.

Matthew Warshawsky ’92
The Perils of Living the Good and True Law
Juan de la Cuesta

Based on original archival records and published transcriptions of mid-1600s Spanish Inquisition testimonies during the “Great Conspiracy” trials in Lima and Mexico City, Warshawsky’s text examines the complex lives and clandestine practices of individuals who risked their lives—and sometimes lost them—to secretly maintain their Jewish identities despite converting to Catholicism. “Inquisition procedure created a space of genuine expression for the most determined of these individuals,” he finds.

Kathy Goss ’63
Darwoon Dyreez
Lonesome Burro Press

“Although I received my degrees in English,” writes Goss about her fictional memoir, “I have gleefully broken all the rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation in this book, utilizing an invented dialect I call Darwoonish.” A modern-day Mark Twain/poet/spoken-word artist/musician, she guides readers through life in a quirky California desert mining town, population 35, where Saturday fun involves gluing a broken plaster lawn burro back together. Remarkably warm, wise, and one-of-a-kind.

Neil Gershenfeld ’81, H’06; Alan Gershenfeld ’84; and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
Designing Reality
Basic Books

Exploring the promise and the perils of the third digital revolution, where after computing and communication comes fabrication, the authors lay out a plan for humankind to prepare—personally and as a society—to harness our growing ability to turn data into objects without simply reacting to it or perpetuating inequality. “To paraphrase Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart,” they write, “we are not passengers on the third digital revolution roadmap. We are the crew.”