Constrained by shrinking budgets, can colleges do more to improve the quality of education? And can students get more out of college without paying higher tuition? Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs conclude that the limited resources of colleges and students need not diminish the undergraduate experience. How College Works reveals the surprisingly decisive role that personal relationships play in determining a student’s collegiate success, and puts forward a set of small, inexpensive interventions that yield substantial improvements in educational outcomes.

A comprehensive, lively and accessible introduction to social research methods, written for the undergraduate audience. Co-authored with Russell K. Schutt, is a social science research methods textbook primarily for undergraduates, published by Sage Publishing as part of their Pine Forge Press series. With a fifth edition coming out in 2015, MSSW is currently in use at over 100 colleges and universities in the U.S. and the U.K., and is listed as a “best seller” among the several hundred methods books offered by Sage. In 2009, the third edition of MSSW was chosen as “Best Revision of the Year” by the 225 members of the Sage higher education publishing group.

Beyond Caring: Hospitals, Nurses, and the Social Organization of Ethics is a sociological study of moral quandaries faced by nurses in American hospitals. The book won the Eliot Freidson Prize in 1998 from the American Sociological Association as the “best book on medical sociology published in the previous two years.” Having sold more than 10,000 copies in paperback and translated into Japanese, in 2010 Beyond Caring was chosen as “One of 7 Must-Read Books Nurses Say Inspired Them” by RNdegrees.Net, a clearing house for online nursing education.

A coach, his team, and four aspiring Olympians as they struggle through two years leading up to — and including — the Games themselves. Published in 1988 by Wm. Morrow and Company, a trade press. Released just before the Summer Olympics in Seoul, and accompanied by a nation-wide tour of personal, television, and radio appearances, the book received the U. S. Olympic Committee’s “Book of the Year” Prize.