Enjoy this selection of reading material—fiction, nonfiction, and content for younger readers—written by Indiana University alumni, faculty, and staff, and chosen especially for IU alumni.
Winter 2025/26 Reading List
Fiction
The French Kitchen
by Kristy Cambron, BA’10
Thomas Nelson, 2025
As Paris rebuilds in the aftermath of World War II, U.S. ex-pat and former OSS operative Kat Fontaine never expected the skills she learned in a French chateau kitchen to be the key that unlocks the secrets swirling in her new post-war life.
Weaving multiple characters—including the world’s most famous would-be French chef, Julia Child—and storylines into a tapestry of secrets, betrayals, and redemption, The French Kitchen navigates between the heights of culinary cuisine in 1950s Paris society to the underbelly of a WWII spy network embedded deep within Nazi-controlled Vichy France. The French Kitchen delves deep into the pasts of women whose worlds collide, forcing each to question what she thought she’d planned for a perfect future.
Lost Man’s Lane
by Scott Carson (pseudonym of Michael Koryta, BA’06)
Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2024
Marshall Miller would’ve remembered her face even if he hadn’t seen it on a “MISSING” poster.
When a young woman disappears in his small town, the investigation hinges on Marshall’s haunted sighting of her, crying in the back seat of a police car driven by a cop named Maddox. There’s only one problem: no local cop named Maddox exists.
But the speeding ticket Maddox handed to Marshall certainly does. Dealing with police and media is heady stuff for a teenager, the son of a single mother. But Marshall is sure he can handle it, until the shocking day when his reliability as a witness implodes. Now scorned and shamed, he finds unlikely allies as he confronts the ancient secrets behind his small town’s peaceful façade—and learns the truth about his own family.
Follow the River
by James Alexander Thom (former IU faculty, 1977–1981)
Ballantine Books, 1981
Mary Ingles was 23, happily married, and pregnant with her third child when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement in 1755 and kidnapped her, leaving behind a bloody massacre. For months they held her captive. But nothing could imprison her spirit.
With the rushing Ohio River as her guide, Mary Ingles walked one thousand miles through an untamed wilderness no white woman had ever seen. Her story lives on—extraordinary testimony to the indomitable strength of one pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her own people.
Starting Over
by Dan Wakefield, ’54
Delacorte Press, 1973
When Phil Potter decides to divorce his wife, he imagines he’s in for a wild jaunt through the sexually liberated 1970s. But starting over—Phil has also left behind his job in PR for a teaching gig at a junior college—involves more solitary drinking and TV dinners than raucous orgies.
Even the women he manages to connect with are equally disaffected with their own divorces or failing marriages, and Phil begins to understand the harsh, though often darkly funny, realities of starting over and searching for love the second time around.
Capturing both the excitement and struggles of the sexual revolution, Starting Over depicts the pleasures and pitfalls of dating in the seventies with humor and with spot-on cultural references, all rendered under Wakefield’s careful journalistic eye.
Nonfiction
Making Indiana University
by James H. Capshew, BA’79
IU Libraries Publishing, 2025
This book sheds light on the creation of Indiana University’s institutional identity and image over its two centuries of existence by investigating the role of historians, archivists, and others in documenting its historical record. As such, it is an exercise in historiography—a study of the history of IU history.
The book presents a rationale for a more inclusive view of contributors to IU history, including not only historians and archivists but also architects, groundskeepers, and other members of its community, both academic and non-academic.
Through its interrogation of the sources and methods that construct the historical record, this book makes a unique contribution to the study of Indiana University history and culture.
Check out Making Indiana University
Heavy: An American Memoir
by Kiese Laymon, MFA’02
Scribner, 2018
In Heavy, Kiese Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up as a hard-headed Black son to a complicated and brilliant Black mother in Jackson, Miss.
From his early experiences of sexual violence to his suspension from college to the time spent in New York as a college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, gambling, and ultimately writing.
Heavy is a memoir combining personal stories with piercing intellect. Reflecting both on the strife of American society and on his personal experiences with abuse, Laymon’s book is “gorgeous, gutting … generous,” according to The New York Times.
Check out Heavy: An American Memoir
Wilkie Sprint
by Kerry Hellmuth, BA’91
Indiana University Press, 2024
In 1987 four young women from different walks of life enrolled at Indiana University. The same four freshmen, despite being underdogs, would go on to win the first ever women’s Little 500 bicycle race the following spring.
Kerry Hellmuth, a member of the legendary Willkie Sprint team, tells of that remarkable year of finding friendship and competitive purpose with her teammates, discovering the many beauties of Bloomington and the surrounding countryside from her bicycle, and embracing a larger world of insight and women’s rights through the guidance of remarkable professors.
Hellmuth soon realized that her team did not ride alone: they rode to victory on the shoulders of so many bold and visionary women who came before them. Willkie Sprint is the inspiring true story of that year of wonder and challenge, of the unbreakable bond they forged, and of the race they were determined to win.
Leave the Dogs at Home
by Claire S. Arbogast, BA’80
Indiana University Press, 2024
Claire and Jim were friends, lovers, and sometimes enemies for 27 years. In order to get health insurance, they finally married, calling their first anniversary the “It Means Absolutely Nothing” day.
Then Jim was diagnosed with cancer. With ever-decreasing odds of survival, punctuated by arcs of false hope, Jim’s deteriorating health altered their well-established independence as they became caregiver and patient, sharing intimacy as close as their own breaths. A year and a half into their marriage, Jim died from lung and brain cancer.
Sustained by her dogs and gardening through the two years of madness that followed, Claire soldiered through home repairs, career disaster, genealogy quests, and “dating for seniors” trying to build a better life on the debris of her old one. Delightfully confessional, Leave the Dogs at Home challenges persistent, yet outdated, societal norms about relationships, and finds relief in whimsy, pop culture, and renewed spirituality.
For Young Hoosier Readers
Capyboppy
by Bill Peet, ’36
Clarion Books, 1985
The creator of whimsical fantasies featuring a bevy of lifelike and lovable creatures, Bill Peet consistently combined excellent storytelling with enduring illustrations, becoming one of the most popular picture book creators of our time.
Born in Grandview, Ind., Peet nurtured his childhood drawing talent and was awarded a scholarship to the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, where he studied painting and design.
After a brief apprenticeship period, he went to work for Walt Disney as a sketch artist, eventually becoming a screenwriter and helping to produce such beloved films as Fantasia, 101 Dalmatians, and Peter Pan. In 1959, Peet published his first book, Hubert’s Hair-Raising Adventure, going on to write and illustrate more than 30 successful children’s books.
Clifford the Big Red Dog
by Norman Bridwell, LHD’94
Clarion Books, 1985
Meet Clifford. Clifford is big. Clifford is red. But most of all, Clifford knows how to be a good friend to Emily Elizabeth.
Like other dogs, Clifford sometimes chases cars; unlike other dogs, Clifford catches them. Like other dogs, Clifford digs in the garden; but while other dogs may dig up a few flowers, Clifford can dig up a whole tree. Also like other dogs, Clifford chases cats—big cats, like lions!
Originally published in 1963, Clifford the Big Red Dog launched a popular children’s book series, now with more than ninety million books in print. Clifford books, with their understated texts, slapstick illustrations, and tongue-in-cheek humor, have entertained generations of children all around the world.
Check out Clifford the Big Red Dog
Abuela’s Weave
by Omar S. Castenada, BA’80, MFA’83
Lee & Low Books, 1993
Esperanza’s abuela (grandmother, in Spanish-speaking countries) is unmatched in her skill in weaving traditional Mayan tapestries.
She has shared her gift with her granddaughter, and now they plan to sell their goods at the market. However, the birthmark on abuela’s face may scare customers away. So Esperanza must cope with the city streets and find buyers alone.
This touching story of personal growth and family pride is illustrated with authentic Guatemalan scenery that gives life to the country’s radiant landscape and bustling city streets.
The Princess Diaries
by Meg Cabot, BA’91
HarperCollins, 2000
Mia Thermopolis is pretty sure there’s nothing worse than being a five-foot-nine, flat-chested freshman, who also happens to be flunking algebra. Is she ever in for a surprise.
First, her mom announces that she’s dating Mia’s algebra teacher. Then, her dad reveals that he is the crown prince of Genovia. And guess who still doesn’t have a date for the cultural diversity dance?
The Princess Diaries is the first book in the beloved, bestselling series that inspired the feature film starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.