UNP staff members are always reading new books, both within our list and outside of what we publish. Here are some of the titles where our noses have been buried.

“This month I’ve picked up another of Emily Henry’s books, Funny Story, which follows Daphne and Miles, whose exes are dating each other, as they form their own relationship. One of my bookish resolutions this year is to read more university press books!” -Sarah Kee

“I committed the somewhat forgivable Christmas crime of giving a family member the gift I wanted to receive (and in my defense, it wasn’t a new shotgun, so I’ve got that going for me!): Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Margaret Atwood’s autobiography, Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts. The former is a modern retelling of David Copperfield set in rural Appalachia. The protagonist and narrator, Demon, is the son of a single-mother living in a trailer, and he manages to make the reader love a place and situations that many people fear will become their fate. As for Atwood’s autobiography, I’m looking to get a sense of how prescient she now feels  about the fictional dystopian world she described in The Handmaid’s Tale when looking south across the border at our beloved but troubled country.” -Clark Whitehorn

“I’m reading Ordinary People by Judith Guest that was gifted to me by my mother-in-law. It’s a novel that follows the Jarret family through what appears to be a “normal” American life but is strained by death, trauma, and ultimately healing. I don’t read enough literary fiction and am glad to be out of my comfort zone with this one.” -Taylor Gilreath

“I recently finished Wellness by Nathan Hill. I’m awed by the seamless feat of combining storyline and science in this novel. It’s a story about a marriage, but also, so much more than a marriage. It’s honest examinations of adulthood, parenthood, and relationships are sprinkled with related scientific studies in health and psychology, so much so that I often forgot the book is a work of fiction. The book contains a bibliography of the research included alongside the narrative.” -Lacey Losh

“This month I read Heart the Lover by Lily King. It follows a young woman studying English in college, who ends up in a strange and charged love triangle of sorts. The perspective eventually shifts well into her adulthood, as she’s processing the fallout of decisions she made in college. I can’t adequately describe how I feel about this book, except to say that I loved it and cried a lot at the end.” -Madison Wigley

“I’m currently reading Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, a Writer’s Life by Todd Goddard (Blackstone Publishing, 2025). If you were to line up the great American writers of the twentieth century, Jim Harrison would stand out. He was a gregarious man who loved food and wine as much as wild landscapes and language. Behind his rough, bohemian exterior was a man who possessed a deep attention to language and an uncanny ability to translate experience into words. Goddard’s new biography of Harrison traces the author’s life from his upbringing in Michigan to his travels around America and the globe. Goddard pays deft attention to the natural landscapes that meant a great deal to this iconoclastic American writer and makes the author’s relationships with other American writers like Thomas McGuane and Denise Leretov come alive. This is a great read for anyone interested in the exceptional life of this uniquely American author and poet.” -Jacob Northcutt

“I’m currently about halfway through True Grit by Charles Portis, which was recommended to me by Kayla. Mattie, a teen girl so bent on getting justice for her murdered father that she convinces a US Marshal of dubious morality to accompany her after his murderer, is so clever and fun to watch as she gives every adult in her path the run-around. Emily also recently lent me Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy, which I’m excited to get into. What more needs to be said besides ‘restoration of the Scottish wolf population’ and ‘mysterious murder’?” -Taylor Martin

“I recently finished Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy. Although this novel includes some bouts of violence and some heartbreaking scenes of domestic violence, it also shows a passion for environmental sustainability and the love of nature. I enjoyed this novel more than I thought and passed it along to a colleague to read and discuss.” -Emily Casillas

“This month I finished reading We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad and Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. I thought the former was a well-rounded sequel; I enjoyed revisiting my favorite literary cohort in their autumnal university town. Both funny and poignant about the fictions we tell and make of ourselves, I’ll be thinking about themes of creation and writing as I keep to my own new year’s resolution to write more. I started the latter on a whim (thank the library for Libby’s always available section) but have found the nuanced explorations of humanity through anonymized versions of others’ therapy sessions to be informative and authentic. Gottlieb keeps the shop talk light, but relevant; it was a balanced read overall.” -Rebecca Jefferson