books

James Mikel Wilson ’66 GHOSTS OF PRESIDENTS PAST:

A Reckoning

Paperback Fiction, 434 pages Gatekeeper Press

What would his White House predecessors have advised President

Donald Trump? In this allegorical novel, released just prior to the November election, James Mikel Wilson employs a Dickensian formula in which 23 former U.S. presidents in ghostly forms visit a sitting president loosely based on Trump. A presidential historian, Wilson imagines encounters featuring both well-known presidents such as Andrew Jackson and lesser-known chief executives such as James Garfield. While he had originally been set to release the book last March, he is glad his publisher advised him to wait, as it allowed him to weave a viral pandemic into the plot. SCOT STORYTELLERS

Melissa Scholes Young ’97 THE HIVE

Hardcover Fiction, 320 pages Turner Publishing Release Date: June 8, 2021 Preorder on Amazon

In her second novel, to be re-

leased in June, Melissa Scholes Young explores feminism from her personal rural Missouri roots, as four sisters struggle to keep their family-owned business afloat. Facing an economic recession amidst the backdrop of growing Midwestern fear and resentment, the sisters unite in their struggle to save their fourth-generation pest control company’s finances and the family’s future. To survive, they must overcome a political chasm that threatens a new civil war as the values that once united them now divide the very foundation they’ve built. Through alternating points of view, grief and regret gracefully give way to the enduring strength of the hive.

Gregory W. Young ’68 THE FREEMASONS WHO WON AMERICA’S WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE:

Washington, Franklin & Their Brothers

Paperback Nonfiction, 277 pages Available on Amazon

The past master of a Masonic lodge,

Young tells the intriguing story of how Freemasons helped launch the American Revolution and how Benjamin Franklin’s Masonic connections brought France into the war, helping to cement American victory. The book traces Washington’s reliance on generals who were fellow Masons and his use of Masonic resources to achieve the first victory at Trenton. Along the way, readers are introduced to Masonic soldiers, spies, diplomats and financiers who founded the nation.

Moira Dolan, M.D. ’80 BONEHEADS & BRAINIACS:

Heroes and Scoundrels of the Nobel Prize

Paperback Nonfiction, 260 pages Quill Driver Books

Dolan, a practicing physician for more

than 30 years, profiles the winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine from 1901 to 1950—a surprisingly diverse group of racists, cranks and opportunists, as well as heroes, geniuses and selfless benefactors of humanity. In a highly entertaining book written for the ordinary reader, she reveals the messy human reality behind medical progress. Some were bad scientists; others were great scientists and lousy human beings. But the majority of these researchers produced knowledge that now saves millions of lives through priceless discoveries such as the role of vitamins in nutrition, the dangers of radiation, treatments for diabetes and deadly infectious diseases, and more. Boneheads and Brainiacs showcases the enthralling, all-too-human personal lives that made modern medicine possible. Leith Swanson ’70

CONNECTED –ABOVE AND BELOW:

A Global Journey to Faith, a Passion for the Ocean, and a Love Story Straight from God’s Heart

Paperback Nonfiction, 307 pages Independently Published Available on Amazon

An international realtor who has ad-

vised the Saudi royal family, Swanson lived for nine years in the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, and worked in 31 countries. His business activities have included directorships in companies he co-founded to introduce a new eight-seat, air-pressure jet helicopter to the international marketplace, and agent for what is today the Semester at Sea collegiate program. In each of his chapters, Swanson takes the reader on a spiritual, historical and personal travelogue into some of the most interesting and geopolitically sensitive parts of the world. As one reviewer wrote, “the pages before you are the diary of an Indiana Jones without the hype.” Kimberly Van Ginkel ‘97 IN THE SLEEP OF DEATH

Paperback Fiction, 426 pages Genz Publishing

In this debut novel, a dark romance fantasy set in the American West, a woman who is framed for murder schemes to evade the hangman’s noose while traversing a world of stolen Indian magic. Outspoken 1880s socialite Lorena Whittaker vows never to take a husband. No one compares to the mysterious man who shows up in her dreams every night. But that changes when a stranger comes to call. Diedrick Adalwolf is a cold and doddering old man, the least likely candidate for her heart. But Lorena sees him as the robust, dashing young German she has already fallen in love with in her dreams. Lorena soon realizes that her marriage to Diedrick is a mistake. Worse yet, she can’t escape him, for he is now haunting her dreams.