What We're Reading This Summer: Authors from the CSU Community

From pioneering scholarship to unforgettable storytelling, members of the CSU community are producing books that spark curiosity and conversation. This curated selection of recent publications showcases authors whose work reflects the rich experiences and diverse perspectives that make the CSU unique.

CPP alumnae​ Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke ('99, Communications​)​ are at it again with their latest novel, “Naysayers," a witty, sharp-edged tale of corporate greed, unexpected romance and the quiet power of shared humanity. At Naysay Inc., rising star Megan'​s job is to whisper negative thoughts straight into the minds of clients in the Real World. But when she is assigned to sabotage a romance between lifestyle influencer Lily and author Jasper, Megan's carefully constructed reality begins to unravel. 

Best friends since childhood, the pair have co-authored ten books together, including the Amazon Charts bestseller, “The Good Widow​," in 2017.

Talk about a small world: When CSUN ​Associate Professor​ Daniela Gerson met her now wife, immigration attorney Talia Inlender, the pair discovered their families were forced to flee the same town of Zamość, Poland, during World War II. “The Wanderers​" is the true story of the Gerson and Inlender families' intertwined past and sheds light on how hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews survived Hitler's Holocaust at the brutal hands of Stalin. 

Gerson included her and Inlender's love story in the book “because I don't think I could do a book that doesn't end with a happy ending."

“The topics are so dark—I delve into some of the more brutal elements of persecution—and we live in such a dark time," Gerson continued. “It needed to end with hope."

Inspired by true events, “The Sleeping Sisters," written by Cal State Fullerton alumna and author Jennifer Givhan (B.A. '07; M.A. '09, English), is a mystery rooted in myth and a Chicana-Indigenous reimagining of the headless woman legend, exploring motherhood, trauma​ and sacrifice.

Givhan ​is the author of five full-length poetry collections, including “Rosa's Einstein" and “Belly to the Brutal," and the novels, “Trinity Sight" and “Jubilee," which were finalists for the Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards and won The Southwest Book Award. Her 2025 novel, “Salt Bones," was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year in the Mystery/Thriller category.​

While boxing is often framed as a brutal and intensely individualistic sport, “Rings of Dissent" reveals how fighters transform the ring—and everything surrounding it—into stages for rebellion, activism, community-building and self-expression. Co-edited by Chico State Professor​ ​David Leonard, the book brings together essays, interviews and cultural analysis to center the lived experiences of marginalized boxers whose performances inside and outside the ring challenge dominant narratives of race, gender, nationalism, masculinity​ and capitalism.

The book earned the Best Anthology Award for 2026 from the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), one of the leading scholarly organizations dedicated to the study of sport history.

Dedicated to his mother, the silk finisher herself, SDSU Shared Services Director Daniel Melchior's​ debut book is part memoir, part true crime story. In “The Silk Finisher​," Melchior unearths the story of Rudolph Ziemer, known by some as the “Queer Undertaker." Along the way, he discovers how one man's murder—someone he never knew—led him to a deeper understanding of his family, his beliefs, his country and his triumphant relationship with his mom.

“I hope everyone enjoys reading the stories within as much as I enjoyed researching and writing them," Melchior ​said.​​​​

“I've had cats, and I was never really certain why!" said “Cat Tales" author Jerry D. Moore, an emeritus professor of Anthropology at CSUDH. Curious, Moore began looking into the history of cats and humans living together. He was struck by how different the domestication process was from other animals that were usually brought into human society to perform a specific task.

In his new book, Moore uses the latest archaeological evidence to trace the cat's path from deadly enemy to unlikely roommate. Illustrated throughout with photographs, artifacts and artwork, "Cat Tales" delivers a lively survey of our relationships with cats from the Paleolithic period to the present day. One of the things that Moore found most interesting was that there are two metropolitan areas in the world where large wild cats roam. “One is Mumbai," Moore said. “The other is Los Angeles!"

We don't just experience a crisis—we live through it as a story unfolding in real time. That's what author Jenny Novak, director of systemwide emergency management and continuity for the CSU Chancellor's Office, demonstrates in her book, “The Anatomy of Resilience​: The Story of Disaster from Crisis to Recovery​​."

Drawing from her frontline response to devastating wildfires and from her own unexpected cancer diagnosis at age 26​, Novak frames crisis through the narrative arc of Nightfall, Midnight and Dawn—an organizing framework for understanding the lived experience of disruption and recovery. More than just a preparedness guide or memoir, Novak's book reveals how people experience crisis from the inside—how we interpret early warnings, how uncertainty reshapes our sense of time,​ and how relationships and connection influence our path forward.

In her newest book, “Velvet Goldmine," Cal State Fullerton Associate Professor of Musicology Katherine Reed traces how fans of the 1998 film by the same name have kept the movie alive through rewatches, relistens and fan fiction.

Reed weaves in the history of the film with close readings of its cinematic references, songs and style. She re-evaluates “Velvet Goldmine" considering Haynes'​ other films—as well as ​addresses its fraught production history;​ its allusions to David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop;​ and the ways in which Haynes reshapes those figures into a new mythology. Reed also analyzes the film's soundtrack and examines legendary costume designer Sandy Powell's role in creating blends of fantasy and reality in each character's wardrobe. 

Fresno State Associate Professor of English Brynn Saito's third book, “Under a Future Sky" is a collection of poems that gives voice to the intergenerational impact left by World War II Japanese internment camps. The poems are inspired by Saito's journey with her father to the desert prison where, over eighty years ago, her grandparents met and built ​a life.

Saito is also the author of “Power Made Us Swoon" and “The Palace of Contemplating Departure​​,​"​​ which earned the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. Her poems have appeared in the New York Times and American Poetry Review,​ and she was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award.

From curating to creating, SJSU Director of Special Collections and University Archives Craig Simpson has published a new book, “Television Is Where You Find It: A History of Feature Filmmakers in TV." Through ten compelling case studies featuring directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Orson Welles, Ida Lupino, Melvin Van Peebles and Martin Scorsese, Simpson explores how these filmmakers transformed the language of television through innovation, artistry​ and cinematic vision.

Before coming to SJSU, Simpson managed the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project where he co-authored “Above the Shots: An Oral History of the Kent State Shootings​" with colleague Gregory S. Wilson.

After more than a decade of wishing someone would publish a book on the civil rights activism that took place in Los Angeles in the 50s and 60s, Karin Stanford—a professor of political science at CSUN—decided to do it herself. “Marching West: The Los Angeles Civil Rights Movement in Photographs" includes more than 100 images—some of which have never been published previously—drawn from the Tom and Ethel Bradley Center at CSUN, the Getty Research Institute and other collections.

Many of the photographs reveal connections between local and national movements, highlighting the action that took place in Los Angeles, such as Martin Luther King Jr. creating an organization called the Western Leadership Conference that was established in Los Angeles​.

Stanford s​aid she hopes “Marching West" will help schools teach a more complete history, “one that reflects the civil rights legacy of Los Angeles and the communities that shaped it."

Award-winning Professor of Psychology Jean Twenge has created a concrete and accessible guide to raising resilient, successful, happy children in a time of overwhelming technologic intrusion. Drawing on her decades as a psychologist studying the impact of technology and mental health, and her personal experience as the mother of three teenagers, Twenge offers ten actionable rules, from setting “No Social Media Until 16" boundaries to creating no-phone zones like bedrooms and family dinners.

Short, empowering and timely, “10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World" equips parents with the tools to combat not just immediate harms such as online bullying but also helps to nurture essential life skills, preparing kids and teens to become autonomous adults.