For this column, NASW book editor Lynne Lamberg asks NASW authors to tell how they came up with the idea for their book, developed a proposal, found an agent and publisher, funded and conducted research, and put the book together. She also asks what they wish they had known before they began working on their book, what they might do differently the next time, and what tips they can offer aspiring authors. She then edits the A part of that Q&A to produce the author reports you see here.
NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines to submit your report.
Publication of NASW members' reports in Advance Copy does not constitute NASW's endorsement of their books. NASW welcomes your comments and hopes this column stimulates productive discussions.
Skeptical reporters usually avoid the word “breakthrough,” but Charles Graeber deems it the right word for the Nobel Prize-winning scientific discoveries he describes in The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer. More than 3000 clinical trials of immunotherapeutic drugs for cancer are in process. “Even oncologists, a cautious bunch,” he writes, “are using the C word: cure.”
In the late 1950s, during the Cold War, the U.S. secretly conducted high-altitude atomic bomb tests, aiming to create a radiation shield to block incoming warheads. New York Times reporters pierced the veil of secrecy, raising safety and moral concerns relevant today, Mark Wolverton relates in Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space.
In Los Angeles, the La Brea Tar Pits hold millions of Ice Ace fossils, bobcats roam urban parks, and the world’s northernmost resident sea turtle population swims in the San Gabriel River. In Wild LA: Explore the Amazing Nature In and Around Los Angeles, NASW member Jason G. Goldman and colleagues provide an informative guide to these and other attractions, with photos, maps, and directions.
SpaceX sent a Crew Dragon spacecraft with cargo to the International Space Station this month. A planned Crew Dragon trip to ISS later this year will put two NASA astronauts in space for the first time since 2011. In SPACE 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age, Rod Pyle conveys the excitement of the next era of space exploration.
Once seen as rest between workouts, recovery today is deemed an active extension of training. Techniques, foods, drinks, and other products that promise to speed recovery abound. Some help; some don’t or even may cause harm. In Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, Christie Aschwanden helps readers distinguish substance from hype.
How does a writer research a book on the computer game Minecraft for elementary school-age children? By playing it–a lot, Linda Zajac reports. In The Unofficial Guide to Minecraft Survival, she provides tips to help users stay alive in the game, and in The Unofficial Guide to Minecraft Mods, she explains how users can vary their gaming experience. Both books include STEM and coding sidebars.
Harvard geometer, Fields medalist, and McArthur Award recipient Shing-Tung Yau grew up in poverty in China and Hong Kong. A teacher’s recommendation enabled him to pursue doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In The Shape of a Life: One Mathematician’s Search for the Universe’s Hidden Geometry, Yau and NASW member Steven Nadis tell Yau’s engaging story and explore his work.
In Dennis Meredith’s latest scifi thriller, Mythicals, fantasy beings from other universes live among humans, disguised in high-tech flesh suits. When the fairies, angels, elves, and other Mythicals discover the native species, i.e., humans, are ruining their planet’s ecology, they mobilize to halt the destruction. A human freelance technology journalist learns their plans, and then....
From Zeus’ thunderbolts to sci-fi fiction, films, and comics, death rays rouse public interest. The Pentagon has explored the potential of the laser, invented in the late 1950s, to shoot down ballistic missiles and achieve other military aims. That involved many alluring but ultimately false starts, Jeff Hecht reports in Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon.
