An exciting spring season of publications is ahead of the University of Nevada Press as we move forward with our goals to expand our offerings in environmental studies, fiction, memoir, and Northern California books. We’re pleased to announce twelve new spring releases with a selection of these new books featured here. The first two on our list have special connections to our university both through their stories and especially their authors.
Professor emeritus Donald Hardy and Heather Hardy, who served as the University of Nevada, Reno’s interim executive vice president and provost, write together with wit and incredible power in a memoir about surviving cancer, and James W. Hulse, history professor for 35 years and 1997 inductee into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, returns with an exploration of the University’s magnificent arboretum.
Because I’d Hate to Just Disappear: My Cancer, My Self, Our Story
“Mortality is an inescapable shared trait among all living creatures,” Don Hardy writes, “and we humans know about it, whether or not we want to talk about it.” Because I’d Hate to Just Disappear unfolds an intimate view into a husband and wife’s lives as they’re thrown into a leukemia diagnosis and nearly two years of treatment. Disarmingly honest, they recount each stage of living through cancer together with humor and visceral emotion, revealing how two divergent personalities shape—and are shaped by—the experience of cancer. Through these moments emerge a constant flow of human kindness and discovery that lifts them each day.
Visitor’s Guide to the University of Nevada, Reno Arboretum
James W. Hulse joins with Cheryll Glotfelty, the chair of the University of Nevada, Reno Arboretum, and Rod Haulenbeek, a local Master Gardener and Arborist, to introduce readers to the university’s campus beyond the buildings. Richly illustrated with both contemporary color and archival photos, this guidebook captures the charm of the campus through all four seasons and shows how the university grounds have evolved over the years. Featuring 19 distinct tours around campus and family-friendly interactive “tree hunts,” this guide showcases the campus' ecological diversity and will appeal to first-time visitors as well as longtime residents.
Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love after Loss
Lisa Romeo opens with loss and ends with love in her powerful memoir, Starting with Goodbye, as she rediscovers her enigmatic father after his death. In this brutally honest yet compelling portrayal and tribute, Lisa reconciles the Italian-American father who liked smoking, Las Vegas craps tables, and solitude with the complex man she discovers influencing every aspect of her life. His absent presence invites Lisa to examine why the parent she had turned away from in life now holds her spellbound. By forging a new father-daughter “relationship,” grief is transformed to hopeful life-affirming redemption.
Across America and Back: Retracing My Great-Grandparents’ Remarkable Journey
After unearthing her great-grandparents’ diaries, Mary Ann Hooper sets out on a journey to retrace their 1871 trip on the Transcontinental Railroad across the United States. This compelling story is both a re-creation of a family journey and a thoughtful account of the American West’s evolution over the last 150 years. As she fulfills her quest to understand the glorified ‘Wild West’ myths of her childhood, Mary Ann reflects on the costs of “progress” to our environment and is left with a much bigger question: Can we transform our society quickly enough to stop the much-loved West from becoming an uninhabitable desert?
With Distance in His Eyes: The Environmental Life and Legacy of Stewart Udall
One of America’s most significant architects of conservation, Stewart Udall, comes to life in this environmental biography. Perhaps no other public official has ever had as much success in environmental protection and natural resource conservation as Udall. His life offers a profound look at issues even more relevant today, but this biography also extends to show the massive impact of Kennedy’s assassination on Udall, his push for African American civil rights, his meeting in the U.S.S.R. with Nikita Khrushchev, and his warnings about global warming 50 years before Al Gore’s Nobel Prize-winning film. This book is a study in a life of passion and vision.
More about the Press
Our press was founded in 1961 by Robert Laxalt, and we strive to publish high-quality works that advance scholarly research, contribute to the understanding and appreciation of regional history and culture, and reach a wide range of academic and general readers. We publish in a wide range of humanities and social science disciplines, including environmental studies, Basque studies, Native American studies, public health, and many more.
To view more titles published by the Press, submit your work to be published, or read more about 2018's newest titles in their spring 2018 catalog, visit unpress.nevada.edu.
