Advance Copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

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.

Rectangular photo of Elizabeth Preston’s office bookshelf showing works on topics that include the evolution of parental care, Mother Nature, Father Nature, biology as ideology, social instincts, mating systems, and Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle. Photo credit: Elizabeth Preston.

Elizabeth Preston—The Creatures' Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care

“The tools for caring have been woven into our DNA,” Elizabeth Preston writes in The Creatures' Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care. From spiders to bats to whales, nature on land and sea is replete with examples. Humans and other animals’ shared biology and brain circuitry not only enable caring for our young, she says, but also living together in societies.

Rectangular photo of Roxanne Khamsis office bookshelf showing several books by and about Charles Darwin, along with books on genes, evolution, how environment shapes genes, cells, and mutations. Photo credit: Roxanne Khamsi.

Roxanne Khamsi—Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health

Contrary to common belief, we constantly experience genetic mutations. Some cause illnesses, such as cancer & heart disease. Others correct inherited disorders. In Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health Roxanne Khamsi reports successes, challenges, and risks of blocking or erasing some non-inherited mutations and tapping the healing potential of others.

Rectangular photo of Melody Glenn’s office bookshelf showing works addressing such topics as the politics of overdose, drug addicts as patients, addicts who survived, undoing drugs, addiction and women, and opium. Photo credit: Melody Glenn.

Melody Glenn—Mother of Methadone: A Doctor's Quest, a Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis

Methadone is a life-saving medication upon which users are dependent in the same way people with diabetes require insulin, Melody Glenn notes. In Mother of Methadone: A Doctor's Quest, a Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis, Glenn interweaves the biography of Marie Nyswander, co-founder of methadone maintenance treatment, with experiences from her own training as an addiction physician.

Rectangular photo of Alison Pearce Stevens office bookshelf showing a children’s book, If You Gave a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff that Stevens found inspiring, a book on beavers, Eager, by NASW author Ben Goldfarb, and a book on indigenous culture and plant ecology, Braided Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, along with a beaver skull showing the beaver’s distinctive orange teeth. Photo credit: Alison Pearce Stevens.

Alison Pearce Stevens—When Beavers Move In

When beavers become a nuisance in Washington State, chopping down trees and damming streams near homes, the Tulalip Tribes come to the rescue. They send biologists to transfer the beavers to ancestral tribal land in the Cascade Mountains. As Alison Pearce Stevens tells young readers in When Beavers Move In, the beavers thrive in their new homes and help restore trout and salmon populations.

Rectangular photo of Suzanne Sherman’s office bookshelf showing works on evolution, evolutionary biology, shells, mollusks and crustaceans, animals without backbones, and seashore life. The bookshelf also includes a display of similarly shaped seashells, with common cockles, most often found in Northern Europe, on the left, and prickly cockles, most often found along the coast of southwest Florida, on the right. Photo credit: Suzanne Sherman.

Suzanne Sherman—Shell Seeker: The Life, Work, and Adventures of a Blind Biologist

Growing up blind in the Netherlands, Geerat Vermeij learned to navigate the world via touch. Visits to the nearby ocean fostered his fascination with seashells and led to his discoveries on the evolution of both mollusks and their predators. In Shell Seeker: The Life, Work, and Adventures of a Blind Biologist, Suzanne Sherman highlights the value of curiosity and perseverance for K-5 readers.

Rectangular photo of Meera Subramanian’s office bookshelf showing books on climate science, climate change, and climate change denial. Photo credit: Meera Subramanian.

Meera Subramanian (NASW member) & Danica Novgorodoff—A Better World Is Possible: Global Youth Confront the Climate Crisis

The term “climate change” is too tame, Meera Subramanian and Danica Novgorodoff assert. In their graphic nonfiction book, A Better World is Possible: Global Youth Confront the Climate Crisis, they interweave climate science with reports from four young activists who helped organize a youth climate protest that drew over 250,000 people to New York, part of a Sept 2019 worldwide wave of climate rallies.

Rectangular photo of Melanie Kaplan’s office bookshelf showing works on dog behavior, dog research, animal research, medical research, and society and medicine. Photo credit: Melanie Kaplan.

Melanie D.G. Kaplan—Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research

Hammy, the 4-year-old beagle Melanie Kaplan adopted, a former laboratory research subject, was jittery, skittish, and often listless. In Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research, Kaplan tells how she helped Hammy adjust to life outside the lab and examines the breeding and use of animals for biomedical research, drug and product testing, and teaching.

Rectangular photo of Brendan Borrell’s desktop, showing some of the thousands of pages of court documents, including some providing days of Scholz’s own testimony, from the decade-long battle between Tom Scholz and his record label when he refused to hand over his third album until it met his exacting standards. Photo credit: Brendan Borrell.

Brendan Borrell—Power Soak: Invention, Obsession, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Sound

“More Than a Feeling,” the rock band Boston’s most enduring hit, attracting more than a billion listens on Spotify, marks its 50th anniversary in 2026. In Power Soak: Invention, Obsession, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Sound, Brendan Borrell tells the story of MIT-trained engineer Tom Scholz, who built Boston’s sound in his basement and later invented sound devices used by other big-name bands.

Rectangular photo of Dennis Meredith’s office bookshelf showing works on climate change, climate change and society, climate justice, dire predictions, extinctions, and the war on science. Photo credit: Dennis Meredith.

Dennis Meredith—Angelians

In Dennis Meredith's latest scifi novel, Angelians, an environmental journalist discovers his fiancée, a brilliant and compassionate neurologist, is an extraterrestrial being. Having fled one of Jupiter’s dying moons, she and fellow aliens live seemingly normal lives on Earth. Many strive to help humans protect our climate. A rogue group aims to eliminate humans instead. AI plays a big role.