Summer Reading: Duke Authors’ Hot New Books

Montage of 10 books by Duke authors

New summer reading from Duke authors includes timely books on race, history and political polarization, useful books on finance, health and mentorship and good reads of poetry and fiction. Plus: for the kids, there’s a primer on subatomic particles.

Below is a roundup of some of the most recent and upcoming published titles.

Many of the books, including new editions of previous titles, can be found on the “Duke Authors” display shelves near the circulation desk in Perkins Library. Some are available as e-books for quick download. Most can also be purchased through the Gothic Bookshop.

[If you are a member of the Duke faculty or staff who will be publishing a book of interest to a general audience, send us a message at duketodayeditors@duke.edu along with your publisher’s brief description.]

Matthew Adler, “Risk, Death, and Well-Being: The Ethical Foundations of Fatality Risk Regulation” (Oxford Academic)

A range of governmental policies seek to reduce individuals’ fatality risks. Professor Matthew Adler’s new book explores the ethics of making policy decisions related to fatality risk. The book describes social welfare functions, which measure effects in terms of individual well-being, as being superior to cost-benefit analysis. Adler is Richard A. Horvitz Distinguished Professor of Law and professor of economics, philosophy and public policy.

Tracie Canada, “Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football” (University of California Press)

In one of the first ethnographies about Black college football players, anthropologist Tracie Canada reveals the ways young athletes strategically resist the exploitative systems that structure their everyday lives. She highlights often-overlooked voices to describe how a brotherhood among Black players operates alongside their caring mothers, who support them on and off the field. Canada discusses the book in a Trinity College story.

Patrick Charbonneau (co-editor and contributor), “Women in the History of Quantum Physics: Beyond Knabenphysik” (Cambridge University Press) (June 2025)

Capturing the stories of 16 women who made significant contributions to the development of quantum physics, this anthology highlights how, from the very beginning, women played a notable role in shaping one of the most profound scientific fields of our time. These concise biographies serve as a valuable counterweight to the prevailing narrative of male genius, and demonstrate that in the history of quantum physics, women of all backgrounds have been essential contributors all along. Charbonneau is professor of chemistry and physics.

Ariel Dorfman, “Allegro” (Other Press)

A thrilling historical mystery by novelist and playwright Ariel Dorfman starring Mozart tells of friendship and betrayal, and how music allows us to defy death. In Dorfman’s tale, Mozart becomes a detective investigating the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. Dorfman is Walter Hines Page Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Literature.

roundup of book covers

Stanley Hauerwas, “Jesus Changes Everything: A New World Made Possible” (Plough Publishing House)

Hauerwas, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, has been provoking Christians for decades to stop bemoaning their loss of cultural and political power and instead welcome their status as outsiders and embrace the radical alternative Jesus has had in mind for them all along. These accessible readings selected from Hauerwas’s seminal books will introduce a timely, prophetic voice to another generation of followers of Jesus tired of religion as usual.

Sonia Grego and co-authors, “Engineering Field Testing of Non-Sewered Sanitation Systems: Compendium of Lessons Learned” (IWA Publishing)

One of the most promising ways to affordably improve population health in low-income areas is by treating human waste where it is generated, eliminating the need for sewer systems.  Sonia Grego, assistant research professor of electrical and computer engineering, and co-authors working with Duke’s WaSH-AID project, report on lessons from India, South Africa and Thailand that serve as a guide to the design and implementation of non-sewered sanitation systems. Read more about WaSh-AID in a Duke Today story. 

John Hillen, “The Strategy Dialogues: A Primer on Business Strategy and Strategic Management” (Econcise)

John Hillen, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state and current adjunct professor at the Sanford School, has written a practical guide to strategic thinking for business executives and other leaders. The book treats strategic thinking as a process to generate questions, insights and options that lead to effective action.

Sönke Johnsen, “Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth” (Princeton University Press)

One of the country’s leading ocean scientists explores how life thrives in one of the most mysterious environments on Earth. Sönke Johnsen, Ida Stephens Owens Distinguished Professor of Biology, describes how life in the water column of the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges, such as gravity, movement, the absence of light, pressure that could crush a truck, catching food while not becoming food, finding a mate, raising young, and forming communities and threats from human activity. Read an excerpt in Live Science.

Remi Kalir, “Re/Marks on Power: How Annotation Inscribes History, Literacy, and Justice” (MIT Press)

Annotation — the seemingly simple act of marking a text — is often diminished as a marginal practice. Duke’s Remi Kalir believes it is so much more. Kalir’s interdisciplinary approach examines annotation in archives and libraries, on walls and in books, atop maps and monuments, and along byways and all manner of margins to describe the relevance of “re/marks.” Kalir is associate director of faculty development and applied research at Duke Learning Innovation & Lifetime Education.

David McAdams, co-author, “Games of Strategy” (W.W. Norton and Co.)

Fuqua School professor David McAdams and two other noted economists provide an introductory primer on game theory. The book examples can be understood by students of all different interests and experiences. The new edition applies game theory to topics like digital currency, trade relations, grade inflation, strategy in voting rules. and interactions between the Federal Reserve and Congress. McAdams is professor of business administration.

Jarvis McInnis, “Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South” (Columbia University Press)

Founded by Booker T. Washington, the Tuskegee Institute, offered agricultural and industrial education as a strategy for Black self-determination.  In his new book, English professor Jarvis McInnis charts a new account of Black modernity by centering Tuskegee’s vision of agrarian worldmaking. McInnis shows how artists, intellectuals and political leaders adopted Tuskegee’s methods into dynamic strategies for liberation in places like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Jamaica. McInnis is Cordelia and William Laverack Family Assistant Professor of English.

Robert Nau, “Arbitrage and Rational Decisions” (Routledge)

A professor emeritus of business administration, Robert Nau presents a new approach to the modeling of rational decision-making under conditions of uncertainty and strategic and competitive interactions. The book also provides some history of developments in the field over the last century, emphasizing universal themes as well as controversies and paradigm shifts.

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Crystal Simone Smith, “Runagate: Songs of the Freedom Bound” (Duke University Press)

In a new book of poetry, Crystal Simone Smith, an instructor in the Thompson Writing Program, reimagines the experiences of enslaved and formerly enslaved persons in a stark and chilling response to the archives of chattel slavery: bills of sale, interviews, narratives, and fugitive runaway ads. 

Jessi Streib, co-author, “Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? Why Red and Blue White People Disagree, and How to Decide in the Gray Areas” (Stanford University Press)

Racism and sexism often seem like optical illusions—with some people sure they see them and others sure they're not there—but the lines that most consistently divide our decisions might surprise you. Sociology professor Jessi Streib and co-author Betsy Leondar-Wright offer a new way of understanding how inequalities persist by focusing on the individual judgment calls that lead us to decide what’s racist, what’s sexist and what’s not. 

Clara Park, “Making Financial Globalization, How Firms Shape International Regulatory Cooperation” (Oxford University Press)

The visiting assistant professor of political science challenges the conventional wisdom that finance has always been global. Drawing on original datasets of financial trade restrictions and domestic financial regulations, archival research of international negotiations, and case studies of the US and China, Park details how financial firms used multilateral lobbying strategies to create an international framework for financial service liberalization.

Herman Pontzer, “Adaptable: How Your Unique Body Really Works and Why Our Biology Unites Us” (Penguin Random House)

Herman Pontzer, professor of evolutionary anthropology, describes how the human body became fine-tuned to local environments. Adaptability is at the heart of being human and the engine of our diversity—our species’ original superpower. Working with human populations around the globe, Pontzer’s research that embraces our incredible diversity, documenting the connections among lifestyle, landscape, local adaptations and health.

John Staddon, “Scientific Method: How Science Works, Fails to Work at Pretends to Work” (Routledge)

This expanded second edition of Scientific Method by John Staddon, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience, shows how science works, fails to work, or pretends to work, by looking at examples from physics, biomedicine, psychology, sociology and economics. Scientific Method is essential reading for students and professionals trying to make sense of the role of science in society, and of the meaning, value and limitations of scientific methodology.

montage of book covers

Eve Vavagiakis, “I’m a Photon” MIT Kids Press.

Assistant Professor of Physics Eve Vavagiakis has written another book in her Meet the Universe! children’s book series. The third book in the series, “I’m a Photon” introduces young readers to the study of physics — specifically, particle physics and astronomy — through playful language and illustrations.  

Gennifer Weisenfeld, “The Fine Art of Persuasion: Corporate Advertising Design, Nation, and Empire in Modern Japan” Duke University Press

The book examines the evolution of Japanese advertising graphic design from the early 1900s through the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a pivotal design event that rebranded Japan on the world stage. Weisenfeld tells the story of how modern corporations and consumer capitalism transformed Japan’s visual culture and artistic production across the pre- and postwar periods. Gennifer Weisenfeld is Walter H. Annenberg Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History. Read more on the Duke libraries blog.

Wylin Wilson, “Womanist Bioethics”(NYU Press) 

Assistant professor of theological ethics Wylin Wilson’s news book is a response to Black women’s health crisis in the United States, opening space for conversation and social action centering race, gender, health and spirituality as important considerations in health disparities. Read more about Wilson’s on maternal health awareness in Authority Magazine.

Maria LaMonaca Wisdom, “How to Mentor Anyone in Academia” Princeton University Press

A practical guide to the art of mentorship in higher education, Maria Wisdom’s book fills an important need in an industry where until recently there was little training in that area. Many academics have ingrained assumptions about mentorship that no longer fit the lives, needs and aspirations of mentees. Wisdom, an assistant vice provost for faculty advancement, highlights the importance of honoring the unique backgrounds, values and goals of mentees, and of self-knowledge and self-reflection for mentors. Wisdom discusses mentoring in this Chronicle of Higher Education article.

Peter Wood, “Black Majority: Race, Rice and Rebellion in South Carolina 1670-1740”  (W.W. Norton)

On the 50th anniversary of the initial publication, professor emeritus of history Peter Wood’s groundbreaking history of Black people in colonial South Carolina has received a new publication with a new foreword by National Book Award winner Imani Perry. The book chronicles the crucial formative years of North America’s wealthiest and most tormented British colony. It explores how West African familiarity with rice determined the Lowcountry economy and how a skilled but enslaved labor force formed its own distinctive language and culture.