Books by Alums

Becoming a Brave Actor of Change

Julia Maclean — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 17:57:08 +0000

Becoming a Brave Actor of Change Julia Maclean Mon, 01/26/2026 - 10:57

By Abel Laeke (Kines'00)

(Independently published; 128 pages; 2025)

What does it take to rise above your circumstances, shape your own destiny, and become a force for transformation in your life and community? Becoming a Brave Actor of Change is a powerful guide for anyone ready to unlock their potential, develop unshakeable courage, and embrace the mindset that fuels lasting success.

Drawing from timeless principles of resilience, ambition, and personal growth, this book shows you how to win—not just once, but again and again. You’ll discover how to build the life you want with intention, keep your spirits high in challenging times, and tap into the abundant successes already within your reach. From mastering self-care and ambition to cultivating fortitude, hope, and positivity, each chapter equips you with the tools to thrive.

Whether you’re pursuing big dreams, rebuilding after setbacks, or striving to become a more empowered version of yourself, this book offers clear, motivating guidance to help you stay grounded, grow stronger, and rise higher.

Your journey toward bold transformation begins here.

Become the brave actor of change your life—and the world—has been waiting for.

What does it take to rise above your circumstances, shape your own destiny, and become a force for transformation in your life and community?

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The Theatre Artist's Guide to Consent-Based Pedagogy

Julia Maclean — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 17:52:01 +0000

The Theatre Artist's Guide to Consent-Based Pedagogy Julia Maclean Mon, 01/12/2026 - 10:52

By Amanda Rose Villarreal (PhDThtr'21) and Kim Shively (Art'01; MA'16)

(Routledge; 156 pages; 2025)

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The Theatre Artist’s Guide to Consent-Based Pedagogy introduces a Consent-Based Pedagogy designed to fuel young students’ cognitive, emotional, and artistic growth by promoting students’ agency and creating an environment in which boundaries are clearly communicated and needs are acknowledged and respected.

Building on the philosophy and practice of Theatrical Intimacy Education and expanding upon the Working with Minors Theatrical Intimacy Education workshop, this text examines the impact of cognitive development on learning and creativity and provides a pedagogical framework that prioritizes student agency and growth while encouraging creative risk-taking. This book draws on cognitive science to identify how students’ brains change during different developmental stages and when faced with modern challenges, such as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, early screen exposure, and chronic stress, and provides theatre educators with teaching tools, lesson plans, and practical approaches to effectively and ethically work with today’s youth. It also addresses the history of trauma, emotional manipulation, and exploitation in theatrical productions and classrooms, analyzing how these inherited practices have limited students’ learning capacity. Offering shifts in facilitation techniques that align with students’ cognitive, social, emotional, and artistic needs, this text suggests ways for teachers to adapt their teaching methodologies to better support students at their most vulnerable.

With over 20 lesson plans and activities rooted in anti-oppressive pedagogies, Universal Design for Learning, and culturally sustaining teaching strategies, this guide equips theatre artists and educators with actionable strategies for supporting students and young artists. These lessons model a shift towards transparent teaching and consent-based facilitation of creative spaces to establish theatrical learning and production processes that empower students through the use of developmentally appropriate pedagogy.

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Way of the Product Management Warrior

Julia Maclean — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 17:49:45 +0000

Way of the Product Management Warrior Julia Maclean Mon, 01/12/2026 - 10:49

By Christopher Michailov-Lee (Bio'98)

(Amazon Publishing; 243 pages; 2026)

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This book reads like the field manual product managers have been waiting for—clear, strategic, and unapologetically practical. Framing modern product management through the timeless lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, it translates ancient strategic principles into concrete, day-to-day moves for navigating stakeholders, customers, markets, and internal politics with confidence.

Rather than offering another abstract tour of frameworks, the author walks systematically through the real battlefield of a product manager’s world: defining a compelling vision, aligning cross-functional teams, running meaningful discovery, making trade-offs under pressure, launching and iterating at pace, and managing a career that can easily spiral into reactive firefighting. Each chapter is anchored to a carefully curated Sun Tzu quote, then unpacked into modern tools, examples, and rituals that readers can apply immediately—whether they work in startups or global enterprises.

A key strength of the book is its honesty about the role. It doesn’t romanticize product management as endless ideation sessions; it shows the complexity, the competing agendas, and the emotional labor of leading without formal authority. Yet it remains fundamentally optimistic: by understanding the “terrain” (organization, market, and technology), knowing themselves, and mastering a small set of repeatable practices, product managers can regain control of their calendars, their roadmaps, and ultimately their careers.

For those outside the role—executives, engineers, designers, or simply curious readers—the book offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at what effective product managers actually do all day. It clarifies why the best PMs operate like strategic generals rather than feature clerks, and why their decisions so profoundly influence team performance and product outcomes.

Strategic without being academic, tactical without being trivial, this is the book that both demystifies product management and raises the bar for it. Anyone serious about succeeding in the discipline—or about understanding the people who quietly shape the products they depend on—will find in these pages a comprehensive, battle-tested guide to winning in the product arena.

This book reads like the field manual product managers have been waiting for—clear, strategic, and unapologetically practical.

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Two Minutes Before

Julia Maclean — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:30:53 +0000

Two Minutes Before Julia Maclean Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:30

By Sarah Kanter (Psych'88)

(Independently published; 223 pages; 2025)

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What do you do when everything you believed is shattered by a truth you never saw coming? Theresa's life is built on routines that help her navigate uncertainties. But everything changes when a stranger appears at her office carrying a box of some of her husband's belongings left behind at a former job. Theresa embraces the future, unexpected connections emerge. The past she thought she understood shifts, revealing truths that challenge her understanding and help her find new meaning in life. Poignant, heartfelt, and beautifully written, Two Minutes Before is a deeply human story about the power of memory, the mystery of connection, and the quiet courage it takes to let go-and begin again.

What do you do when everything you believed is shattered by a truth you never saw coming? Theresa's life is built on routines that help her navigate uncertainties.

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Beyond the Bataan Death March: The Life and Times of K. L. Berry

Julia Maclean — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:26:12 +0000

Beyond the Bataan Death March: The Life and Times of K. L. Berry Julia Maclean Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:26

By Dana Berry Frazee (Ger'69)

(Texas A&M �Թ�� Press; 352 pages; 2025)

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K. L. (Kearie Lee) Berry was a star athlete at the �Թ�� of Texas at Austin from 1912 to 1916, playing on the undefeated national championship football team of 1914. He began his military career with postings along the Mexican border. Berry served as an officer and advisor overseas, including an assignment in Siberia just after the Bolshevik Revolution, where he was a member of the 27th Infantry “Wolfhounds” of the American Expeditionary Force. Prior to and during World War II, he was stationed in China and the Philippines, where he was captured by the Japanese army on Bataan in 1942. He survived the infamous Bataan Death March and was incarcerated in various POW camps over a period of forty months until his liberation in August 1945.

Upon returning to his home state, Berry was promoted to brigadier general, serving one more year as an active-duty officer before retiring in 1947. He didn’t stay retired for long; he was appointed as Adjutant General of the Texas Military Department just five days after leaving the military, and it was a post he went on to hold for fourteen years. Upon his “second retirement” in 1961, he served as president of the �Թ�� of Texas’s Forty Acres Club (now Forty Acres Society). He remained active with various alumni activities of the �Թ�� of Texas until his death in 1965.

Dana Berry Frazee, granddaughter of K. L. Berry, has prepared this biography with the aid of her grandfather’s POW journal and considerable outside research. What unfolds in the pages of Beyond the Bataan Death March: The Life and Times of K. L. Berry is a story of honor, courage, and dedicated service over a lifetime and often under the most difficult of conditions.

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Notions of Grace: A Memoir of Climbing, Cancer and Family

Julia Maclean — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:18:32 +0000

Notions of Grace: A Memoir of Climbing, Cancer and Family Julia Maclean Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:18

By Jason Kolaczkowski (PolSci'99)

(Di Angelo Publications; 2026)

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If you were to leave the story of your life behind for those you love the most, what would you say? What lessons would you learn in the telling?

On a train ride towards a downtown job, Jason Kolaczkowski was staring at a screen, his computer folded open in his lap while the cursor blinked at him, pleading for him to type just a few honest words. He was still shaken to his core. He had recently returned from leading an attempt at an unclimbed peak in the Himalaya, a climb that was supposed to be to be his magnum opus - the ultimate object lesson for his young, twin sons on the power and necessity of dreams, even when dreamt in the face of the uncertainty and fear and heartbreak of his recent leukemia diagnosis. But it turns out that is not what the climb had delivered. It brought more questions than answers.

A life of youthful possibility and the inevitable traumas and triumphs of an imperfect reality, a life balancing climbing and responsibilities, a life of personal goals and intertwined relationships was too complicated to be summed up so neatly. What did he want to tell his sons, now too young to understand but who someday would not be? What did he want to tell his wife, his brother, his parents, and his friends?

If you were to leave the story of your life behind for those you love the most, what would you say? What lessons would you learn in the telling?

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Burn: From Struggle to Strength, A Woman’s Guide to Reclaiming Herself

Julia Maclean — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:12:50 +0000

Burn: From Struggle to Strength, A Woman’s Guide to Reclaiming Herself Julia Maclean Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:12

By Michelle Kooi (Jour'88)

(Next Page Publishing Inc; 221 pages; 2025)

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Dive into the pages of Burn and embark on a soul-stirring journey through the fires of life. In this gripping memoir, Michelle Kooi bares her heart and soul, recounting a life shaped by the relentless flames of adversity and the beauty of life, and the profound metamorphosis that ensued. From the scorching depths of despair to the radiant heights of self-discovery, each chapter illuminates the transformative power of embracing life's trials.

In Burn, Michelle Kooi invites you on an intimate journey through the transformative power of fire. This memoir chronicles her personal odyssey from darkness to light, tracing a path illuminated by the embers of adversity and resilience. Through vivid prose and poignant reflections, in this debut, Kooi explores how confronting life's infernos can forge strength, wisdom, and profound personal growth.

From childhood trials to adult challenges, Kooi candidly shares pivotal moments where fire—both literal and metaphorical—shaped her identity and destiny. Whether facing the blaze of loss, the crucible of self-discovery, or the warmth of newfound love, each chapter reveals a new facet of the power of fire as a tool for metamorphosis. Through it all, fire emerges not just as a destructive force, but as a catalyst for renewal and rebirth.

Burn is more than a memoir; it is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. With each turn of the page, readers will find themselves drawn into a narrative that transcends individual experience to resonate with universal truths about courage, hope, and the enduring power of transformation.

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Everybody Needs Something

Julia Maclean — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:05:25 +0000

Everybody Needs Something Julia Maclean Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:05

By Melanie Pappadis Faranello (Engl'95)

(�Թ�� of Georgia Press; 189 pages; 2026)

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Melanie Faranello’s debut collection, Everybody Needs Something, delves into the interior lives of characters longing for connection, revealing the deep human desire to reach one another. A poignant exploration of the complexities of love, loss, and what is often left unsaid, the stories center on the space between us—couples, families, aging parents, children, and evolving selves that are shaped over time.

A newly widowed construction worker travels to a debris-filled healing pool to ease his grief; a retired couple relocates across the globe hoping to escape their troubles only to discover a new problematic infestation; a father places an ad inviting strangers to his first solo Thanksgiving dinner; a couple on the brink endures a wildlife lecture at the elementary school between hospital visiting hours for their daughter; a young divorcee has an unexpected encounter with her long-dead father during a Latin Ballroom dance class.

Quietly powerful and carefully observed, these fourteen stories resonate with emotional landscapes and hidden heartbreaks as characters meet their breaking points before somehow finding the courage to keep going.

Melanie Faranello’s debut collection, Everybody Needs Something, delves into the interior lives of characters longing for connection, revealing the deep human desire to reach one another.

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Finding Amal

Julia Maclean — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 17:42:48 +0000

Finding Amal Julia Maclean Mon, 11/03/2025 - 10:42

By Firyal Alshalabi (MEdu'77; PhDEdu'82)

(Green Place Books; 340 pages; 2025)

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Finding Amal is a literary novel that seeks to empower young Muslim women grappling with societal conventions to a new stimulating intellectual level. It is a unique coming-of-age story that reveals the relationship between Islam and the West throughout the last few centuries in an entertaining, yet thought-provoking way. Hadeel, a young devout Muslim woman from Kuwait, embarks on a secret journey to America to save her Aunt Amal’s soul from Hell. In Boulder, Colorado, she meets Jonathan, her aunt’s grieving husband for the first time. Jonathan, who asked Hadeel to visit, is hoping she’d clear her aunt’s name from defamation, and reclaim the copyright to a literary discovery related to Washington Irving, Percy Shelley, and the nineteenth-century British Poet Laureate Robert Southey.

Finding Amal is a literary novel that seeks to empower young Muslim women grappling with societal conventions to a new stimulating intellectual level.

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All the Wisdom and None of the Junk: Secrets of Applying for College Admission and Scholarships

Julia Maclean — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 18:53:15 +0000

All the Wisdom and None of the Junk: Secrets of Applying for College Admission and Scholarships Julia Maclean Thu, 10/30/2025 - 12:53

Contributions by Maria Alsubhi (Bio'22; MEdu'23), Tiffany Anderson (Psych'02), Curtis Esquibel (Jour'99; MPubAd'16), Katie Kramer (Mgmt'97), Holly McCollough (Mktg'24) and Vanessa Roman (Psych'07; MEdu'10)

(Boettcher Foundation; 86 pages; 2025)

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Applying to college and scholarships can feel overwhelming, for students and their families. That’s why the Boettcher Foundation created this no-nonsense playbook to help cut through the chaos and bring some clarity (and even a little humor) to the journey.

For students, this book is:

A writing coach, mentor, and cheerleader in one.
Packed with practical tools, real examples, and bite-sized advice.
Designed to help young people shine authentically, not artificially.

For parents, this book is:

A trusted roadmap to support your student through every phase of the process.
A guide to knowing when to step in and when to step back.
Reassurance that you don’t have to have all the answers—just the right questions.

For high school counselors and college access advisors, this book is:

A ready-to-go resource you can hand to students with total confidence.
A practical tool to reinforce what you're already teaching, without repeating yourself.
A flexible guide you can use in classrooms, workshops, or one-on-one meetings.

Written by two seasoned experts and updated by the Boettcher Foundation, this guide has helped thousands of students win scholarships and enroll at their first-choice colleges nationally.

Applying to college and scholarships can feel overwhelming, for students and their families.

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