By Faris Cassell, MS ’90 (journalism)
 

Stefan and Marion Hess’s happy childhood was shattered in 1943. Torn from their home in Amsterdam, the six-year-old twins and their parents were deported to a place their mother called “this dying hell”—the infamous concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. Inseparable is the vivid account of one family’s struggle to survive the Holocaust. In the camp, the children ran from SS soldiers, making it a game to see who could get closest to the guard towers before being warned they would be shot. Stefan and Marion witnessed their father beaten beyond recognition, dodged strafing warplanes, and somehow survived in a place where “the children were looking for bread between the corpses.” Above all, this is the unforgettable story of a young mother and father who were willing to sacrifice everything for their children.
 

By Doug Matheson, MS ’84 (health education)

The thought-provoking and deeply personal autobiographies shared in this book are intended for both those who are midstream in the often confusing and lonely process of reevaluating the faith that they were raised in, and for members of the public who are sometimes puzzled with what drives those who leave, and are perhaps willing to understand them better.
 

By William Dean Brewer, BA ’65 (Clark Honors College, chemistry)

This is a scientific biography of Kurt Gödel, who was relatively unknown during his lifetime but became famous later, especially due to the book Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979) by alumnus Douglas Hofstadter, MS ’72, PhD ’75 (physics). The book deals with Gödel’s various achievements, his rather strange life, and the origin of his health problems (revised edition May 2023, German edition September/October 2023).

By Steve Anderson, BA ’89 (history)

Former actor Max Kaspar suffered greatly in the Second World War. Now he owns a nightclub in Munich—and occasionally lends a hand to the newly formed CIA. Meanwhile, his brother Harry has ventured beyond the Iron Curtain to rescue an American scientist. When Harry is also taken captive, Max resolves to locate his brother at all costs. The last thing he expects is for Harry to go rogue.

Max’s treacherous quest takes him to Vienna and Prague to Soviet East Germany and Communist Poland. Along the way, dangerous operators from Harry’s past join the pursuit: his former lover Katarina, who’s working for the Israelis, and former Nazi Hartmut Dietz, now an agent of East German intelligence. But can anyone be trusted? Even the American scientist Stanley Samaras may not be the hero Harry had believed him to be . . .
 

By Kari Wergeland, BA ’85 (Clark Honors College, English)

Sadie Taube, the daughter of a deceased heroin addict, has been forced to live with her aunt and uncle in Bainbridge Island, Washington, where she’s found work at a local diner. On her eighteenth birthday, Sadie’s boss, Bev, celebrates with her after work. Bev doesn’t know Sadie has a plan brewing to take the Coast Starlight south to California.

By Lee Mossel, BS ’65, MS ’67 (geological sciences)

Kat Perry’s golf scholarship to the UO comes with some strings. She’s actually being recruited by a secretive US counterintelligence agency charged with protecting the country from foreign bad actors. Her golfing successes provide her with cover to travel the world. Her assignments become increasingly dangerous and her private life increasingly complex.
 

By Chris Glatte, BA ’92 (English)
 

The fourth installment of the A Time to Serve series weaves together the stories of the Cooper family, showcasing their resilience, determination, and unwavering spirit amidst the chaos of war. In this WWII saga, Clyde Cooper and his comrades face a perilous mission on Nooemfor Island. Meanwhile, Clyde's brother Frank escapes a brutal Japanese POW camp, Cousin Shawn fights alongside the Kachin Rangers in Burma, and Abby Cooper navigates the dangers of her role as a WASP pilot, collectively embodying the sacrifices and challenges of wartime.
 

By Louise Keenan, MS ’98 (public affairs)
 

A UO freshman coed takes a job as a fire watcher in Oregon’s Siuslaw National Forest to escape spending another summer working in the EMU Student Union. Through the eyes of one student, we move away from the politically charged university community into a national forest. For the first few weeks, she finds the peace and serenity in nature that she was seeking. Then the situation takes a sudden shift that will challenge her to the core and change the direction of her life forever.
 

By Jarold Ramsey, BA ’59 (English)
 

Rushing in as a welcome surprise, these “new late poems” were mostly composed both late in the year and late in the author’s years. In Jump Straight Up, Jarold Ramsey versifies and pokes at an odd knot of themes: encroaching age overtaking a long wonderful marriage; the delights of grandparenthood; awareness of our “interspecies” situation in the everyday natural order; the blessings and challenges of Central Oregon’s canyons, summits, and rangelands; and the intriguing ways the mostly horizontal left-to-right axis of our lives seems to shift in old age toward the vertical—“way down” (and out) but also “jump straight up” (in the imagination).

By Steve Dodge, BS ’79 (journalism)
 

A man loses his bionic head. The new neighbors appear to have no bodies. A shape-shifting boss. Vast herds of cats. This eclectic mix of short stories, flash fiction, humor, and satire is designed to tickle the funny bone and provide a bit of food for thought.