Books by Bruins - Vol. II

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f you’re looking for a new book to settle down with over the holidays, or gift a loved one, why not get one written by a Bruin? In continuation of the Books by Bruins series, we've put together a list with something for every reader — from young adult mysteries to memoirs or a nonfiction bestseller if that’s more your taste.

Have you written a book or do you know an alum who has? Take a look at our list of Bruin authors at the bottom. If you don't see their name, be sure to enter their information to be included in the online Bruin Library coming soon.

“Desert Echoes” (2024) by Abdi Nazemian, MBA ’14

Iranian-American author, screenwriter and producer Abdi Nazemian has written six novels, including “Desert Echoes,” a young adult novel about loss and love. His book “Only This Beautiful Moment” received both the Lambda Literary Award and a Stonewall Book Award. Nazemian is also a screenwriter and producer with credits including films “The Artist’s Wife” and “Menendez: Blood Brothers.”

Review:

“This story, told in three points of view from three generations of the same family, is nothing short of masterful. This is the kind of story that young adult literature is made for — a story of the heart, of the very real human struggles young people face and that adults try to — but never truly — forget.” — ALA Booklist (starred review)

“We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights” (2018) by Adam Winkler

Adam Winkler explores the Supreme Court decision to extend free speech and religious liberty to corporations. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award, the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award and the California Book Award. Winkler is a professor at UCLA School of Law, where he specializes in American constitutional law. He is also the author of “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” which explores the ongoing political battle.

Review:

“Much of the value of Winkler’s book lies in his elegant stitching together of 400 years of diverse cases, allowing us to feel the sweep and flow of history and the constantly shifting legal approaches to understanding this unusual entity ― Blackstone’s ‘artificial person.’ Four hundred years is a lot of time, and Winkler does a wonderful job of finding illustrative details without drowning in them, and of giving each case enough attention to make it come alive…By nailing down the absurdities of the past, Winkler allows us to see how the future becomes more open.” ― Zephyr Teachout, New York Times Book Review

“Compton in My Soul: A Life in Pursuit of Racial Equality” (2024) by Albert Camarillo ’70, Ph.D. ’75

Entering UCLA in the mid-1960s, Camarillo was one of only 50 Mexican American students, and became one of the first Mexican Americans to earn a Ph.D. in history in the country. He is widely regarded as one of the founding scholars of the field of Mexican American history and Chicano Studies. At UCLA, he played basketball under legendary Coach John Wooden with teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ʼ69. The author of seven books and numerous articles and papers, “Compton in My Soul” weaves his personal story with the history of his L.A. neighborhood.

Review:

“Al Camarillo has been a mentor, role model and inspiring educator to thousands of students over decades. His life's journey reminds us of the wonderful progress America has made toward racial equality and also inspires us to keep working hard to close the gaps that still exist.” ―Julián Castro, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

“Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil” (2024) by Ananda Lima, M.A. ’08

Ananda Lima came to UCLA from her home of Brasília on a study-abroad program, returning to earn her master’s in linguistics. She is a poet, translator and fiction writer. Her 2021 poetry collection, “Mother/land,” was awarded the Hudson Prize. “Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil" is her fiction debut, a book of stories that travel through time and place.

Review:

“Irreverent and very conscious of form, this is a remarkable debut that announces the arrival of a towering talent in speculative fiction.” ―The New York Times

“Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling” (2024) by Jason De León ’01

The winner of the 2024 National Book Award for nonfiction is a character-driven look at human smuggling which revolves around a coyote (human smuggler). De León spent seven years chronicling the lives of people living on the border to be able to share their stories. A UCLA anthropology professor, he is also the author of “The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Sonoran Desert Migrant Trail” (2015).

Review:

“The book’s great virtue is in its close attention to the individual lives of its small group of central characters...toggling between the macro and the micro: the globe-spanning, incomprehensibly vast forces that have brought these smugglers’ lives into being, as well as their own individual struggles to make something of what the world has made of them.” — The New Republic

“Super-Italian: More Than 110 Indulgent Recipes Using Italy's Healthiest Foods” (2025) by Giada de Laurentiis ’96

Giada De Laurentiis is the author of 10 New York Times bestselling cookbooks. Her first cookbook “Everyday Italian,” based on her TV show, has almost 1,500 reviews on Amazon and 50,000 ratings on Goodreads. It introduced her take on Italian-American recipes. Twenty years later, her newest cookbook, Super Italian, will be released in March, 2025, with recipes that use Italian superfoods to create nutritious and delicious meals. She is an Emmy winning television host, a judge on Food Network Star and the owner of three restaurants. 

Review for “Giada’s Italy” 

“After so many years of focusing on convenience, I love that we’re all getting a little more savvy about foreign ingredients and that Giada can showcase local foods and tempt us with new flavors, picking out a whole red snapper at the market, slicing up fennel like it’s no big thing and telling you why you have to try Calabrian chiles (no seriously, try them). If you’re hungry for fresh and light Italian fare, and are craving an escape to the coast, come back for this one.” — the kitchn

“26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career” (2019) by Meb Keflezighi ’99

Long-distance runner Meb Keflezighi was recruited by UCLA in 1994, where he won four NCAA distance titles and earned a degree in communication studies. The four-time Olympian is the only man in U.S. history to win the Boston Marathon (2014), the New York City Marathon (2009) and to medal in the Olympics (Athens). In his newest book, he shares the life lessons he has gained through the hard work and sacrifice that went into completing 26 marathons.

Review:

“Meb’s 26 Marathons is like opening a treasure chest full of inspiring stories that give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the mental and physical joys and obstacles that elite-level racing can bring. His advice on training, overcoming injuries, and adversity is for everyone. It’s pure gold!” — Shalane Flanagan, 2017 TCS NYC Marathon Champion

“At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf” (2023) by Tara Ison ’87

A graduate of the UCLA Department of English, where she studied literature and creative writing, Tara Ison is the author of books including “A Child out of Alcatraz,” a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the essay collection, “Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love, and Die at the Movies.” Her book “At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf” tells the World War II story of a twelve-year-old Jewish girl hiding in plain sight from the Nazis. 

Review:

“’At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf’ is a thrilling novel, not just as a splendid read but as a deeply resonant work of art driven by the central yearning in the greatest literary narratives: the yearning for a self, for an identity, for a place in the world. Tara Ison has always been a writer I've ardently admired. Here she is at the height of her estimable powers.” — Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain” and “Paris in the Dark”

“Brown Girls Do Ballet: Celebrating Diverse Girls Taking Center Stage” (2024) by JaNay Brown-Wood ʼ07

Children’s picture book author JaNay Brown-Wood grew up in Fresno, California, and followed her interests in writing and children’s education to UCLA, where she studied psychology and applied developmental psychology. She is an early childhood professor and the author of many books for children. Her first book, “Imani’s Moon,” won the NAESP Children’s Book of the Year Award. Her book “Brown Girls Do Ballet: Celebrating Diverse Girls Taking Center Stage” comes out next year.

Review:

“Photographs of brown girls of all ages, shapes, skin tones and abilities are the star of this empowering ode to the grace and beauty of dancing brown bodies.... text and image(s) send the fierce message not just that ballet is for everyone, but that brown girls, too, have the right to move, to take up space and to be seen.” — School Library Journal, starred review

“Kill Her Twice” (2024) by Stacey Lee ’93

Stacey Lee is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult fiction, including the New York Times bestseller “The Downstairs Girl.” A fourth-generation Chinese American, her books have won the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Award, the PEN Center Award for YA and the Golden Poppy Award. She is a co-founder of the We Need Diverse Books movement. Her newest book, “Kill Her Twice,” is a young adult murder mystery that takes place in 1930s Los Angeles's Chinatown.

Review:

“Takes readers on a wild ride. Woven into the mystery are elements of grief, romance, family dynamics, struggle, prejudice and deceit. Lee skillfully introduces actual history into this fictional story, leading readers to learn what the residents of L.A.'s Old Chinatown faced. The story contains intriguing characters, but not everyone is who or what they appear — these twists will delight readers . . . Whether teens enjoy mysteries, historical fiction or both, this is one to get into their hands.” — School Library Journal, starred review

“All My Rage” (2022) by Sabaa Tahir ’04

Sabaa Tahir grew up at her family's 18-room motel in California's Mojave Desert. The former newspaper editor is the author of the bestselling “Ember in the Ashes” series, which has been translated into more than 35 languages. The first book in the series, “An Ember in the Ashes,” was named one of TIME's 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. Tahir's most recent novel, “All My Rage,” won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2022.

Review:

“’All My Rage’ is a love story, a tragedy and an infectious teenage fever dream about what home means when you feel you don't fit in.” — New York Times Book Review

“Gay Bar: Why We Went Out” (2021) by Jeremy Atherton Lin ʼ96

In this National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Jeremy Atherton Lin embarks upon a historical, transatlantic tour of gay bars, a place of solidarity and sexual expression. From Hollywood in the 1970s to London in the 1770s, he charts police raids and riots, as well as his own personal history. Atherton Lin is an Asian-American essayist based in Los Angeles and East Sussex, England. His debut book “Gay Bar” was listed in the New York Times Critics' Top Books of 2021 and received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. His memoir, “Deep House,” will be published in 2025

Review:

“A remarkable debut. . . it’s a difficult book to pin down, but that’s what makes it so readable and so endlessly fascinating. . . Each observation is sharp and phrased beautifully; Atherton Lin wastes no words, and the ones he chooses are carefully considered. Gay Bar is a book that’s beyond impressive, and Atherton Lin’s writing is both extremely intelligent and refreshingly unpretentious.” ― NPR

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We’re building an online Bruin Library and these are the alumni authors we have thus far. Don’t see a name that should be in there? Submit a Bruin author.

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