Bestselling authors Mike Lupica, a Boston College alumnus, and James Patterson have teamed up again for a new thriller: The Hamptons Lawyer (Little, Brown and Company, 2025). According to the publisher: “Undefeated criminal defense attorney Jane Smith—known as the Hamptons Lawyer—never fails to make her case. When Smith takes on a famous celebrity client, she’s armed and ready: with brilliant arguments, hard evidence—and two Glocks. Yet she’s chased down, shot at, and risks contempt of court. That’s when mounting a legal defense turns into self-defense.” Lupica and Patterson first introduced readers to Jane Smith in their 2023 novel 12 Months to Live, which was followed by Hard to Kill in 2024.
Attorney Jane Smith
Learning about Joan Mitchell
American artist Joan Mitchell (1925-92), who created abstract oil paintings, drawings, and prints, is the subject of a new children’s picture book by Boston College graduate Lisa Rogers. Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony (Calkins Creek, 2025) focuses on the artist’s “La Grande Vallée,” a suite of 21 large-scale paintings she created in a studio outside Paris. Inspired by her friend’s description of an idyllic hidden valley in France, Mitchell paints the valley, not as a collection of flowers and meadows, but a harmonious, color-drenched blend of drips, splashes, and brush strokes. Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony is illustrated by Stacy Innerst. Kirkus Reviews called the book “simply marvelous.” Rogers is an award-winning author whose other publications include Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage and 16 Words: William Carlos Williams and “The Red Wheelbarrow.”
Father Greg’s vision
Gregory Boyle, S.J., a Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries—the largest gang-intervention program in the world—offers a transformative vision of community and compassion in his latest book, Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 2024). Homeboy Industries runs on two unwavering principles: 1) We are all inherently good (no exceptions), and 2) we belong to each other (no exceptions). Fr. Boyle believes that these two ideas allow for a new way of seeing the world. Rather than the tribalism that excludes and punishes, his narrative proposes a village that cherishes, a space for people to join together and heal one another in a new collective living dedicated to kindness. A Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Fr. Boyle is an alumnus of the Clough School of Theology and Ministry. He also is the author of
Posted in Alumni Authors
Tagged Clough School of Theology and Ministry, Jesuit author
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A framework for literacy instruction
Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor C. Patrick Proctor and Lynch School alumna Renata Love Jones, Ph.D. ’20 have written a book that provides a guide for K-12 educators to design curriculum focused on literacy and metalinguistics. Metalinguistics is the ability to evaluate language as a process or system, reflecting on its rules, nature, and ability to connect people. The framework presented in Pursuing Language and Metalinguistics in K–12 Classrooms (Routledge) was developed by Proctor, in collaboration with Jones. The book emphasizes the importance of honoring and valuing the linguistic diversity of students within the classroom and includes contributions from Lynch School faculty Lillie Albert, Kristen Bottema-Beutel, and Kate McNeill as well as graduate Sam Lee, Ph.D. ’24. Read more from the Lynch School.
Marvelous Marvin
Boston College graduate Dave Wedge has written the definitive chronicle of Marvelous Marvin Hagler (1954-2021), the undisputed middleweight boxing champion from 1980-87. In Blood & Hate: The Untold Story of Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s Battle for Glory (Hamilcar Publications, 2025), Wedge delves deep into Hagler’s escape from riot-torn Newark in the late 1960s, the unbreakable bond he built with the Petronelli brothers, and his 1980 title fight against Britain’s Alan Minter—with its deep racial overtones—to tell what Wedge calls the real story of Hagler. A radio host, journalist, and award-winning writer, Wedge is co-author of Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy; Ice Bucket Challenge: Pete Frates and the Fight Against ALS; 12: The Inside Story of Tom Brady’s Fight for Redemption; and Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture and Killing of America’s Most Wanted Crime Boss, among other titles.
The Carousel Man
The dreams and visions are getting worse for crime writer Jack Rainne. He can’t shake the childhood memory of a haunting carousel ride in a desolate Missouri cornfield. His only hope for answers is to return to where it all began. There, he uncovers a shocking truth—and a long-forgotten promise he’s condemned to fulfill. That’s the teaser for The Carousel Man (Hellbender Books, 2024), a thriller written by 1988 Boston College graduate Stephen Paul Sayers. He also is the author of the Caretakers horror trilogy (A Taker of Morrows, The Soul Dweller, and The Immortal Force). Sayers is an associate professor at the University of Missouri.
The Siberian Candidate
Boston College graduate John Houle ’94 has published his second novel, The Siberian Candidate (BookPress Publishing, 2023). The political thriller continues the story of former campaign strategist Henry Mercucio, introduced in Houle’s debut novel The King-Makers of Providence. In The Siberian Candidate, the Rhode Island lieutenant governor stumbles across a Russian plot to subvert America’s electoral system. Mercucio and former Congressman Ray McNally are recruited to deliver a new Democratic gubernatorial candidate who could prevent Rhode Island and the country from falling to dark forces. Houle is the founder of the public relations and marketing firm Main Street Media.
The 4-day work week
Economist Juliet Schor, a professor of sociology at Boston College and a bestselling author, makes the case for a four-day work week, showing how this model can address major challenges such as burnout, AI, and the climate crisis, in her new book Four Days a Week (Harper Business, 2025). The five-day, 40-hours-a-week work model has gone unchanged for nearly a century. But a study of the four-day work week, involving hundreds of organizations across various countries, has demonstrated success in maintaining productivity while seeing remarkable improvements in employee well-being. In Four Days a Week, Schor shares her analysis of the benefits of a shorter work week, how companies can achieve them, why the concept has taken so long to emerge and gain acceptance, and why doing so will help a company’s employees and its bottom line. According to the publisher, the book is a blueprint for implementing a change that once seemed radical, but is now within reach. Schor has researched and written about work for more than four decades, and is the author of several books, including The Overworked American, The Overspent American, and After the Gig. Read more in Boston College Magazine.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged economy, employment, Sociology Department, work
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Miracles can happen
The Boston College Class of 1975 recently celebrated its 50th Reunion. One of those Golden Eagles is Joan Luise Hill, who is the author of two books about miracles. Her first book, The Miracle Chase, co-authored with Katie Mahon and Mary Beth Phillips, tells the story of the authors’ friendship, the miracles that happened in their lives, and the journey of discovery these events sent them on. In Hill’s case, her miracle was the survival of her 13-year-old child from a dangerous cardiac event. Hill and Mahon followed up that book with The Miracle Collectors (Worthy Books/Hachette, 2021), based on the outpouring of stories of other miracles, offered from their readers and others. As part of their own spiritual quest, Hill and Mahon have become unofficial miracle experts and have discovered that when people are truly present, miracles abound. The authors say that “the stories of courage, forgiveness, gratitude, faith, hope, and love allow us to notice and appreciate the miracles that are available to each one of us, while opening us up to a part of the Divine mystery we can absorb and understand.” Shortly after The Miracle Collectors was released, Hill and Mahon were interviewed for a Boston College Church in the 21st Century Center God Pods segment. Learn more about Joan Luise Hill and her books at themiraclecollectors.com.
Grace
A new scholarly publication by Boston College Assistant Professor of Theology Henry Shea, S.J., proposes a deeply grounded investigation of grace and a robustly balanced impetus for advancing the gospel in the 21st century. In An Analogy of Grace (University of Notre Dame Press, 2025), Fr. Shea engages with the works of theologians Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Erich Przywara, and others. From this analysis, he advances a new framework that, according to the publisher, “posits that grace is best understood as a moving Trinitarian analogy that begins in the heart and advances through the incarnate Word in the Spirit toward the whole Christ. This new analogy of grace is radically universal and inclusive while also wholly informed by the distinct form of Jesus Christ.”
BC Bookmarks 