| Volume 1 |
November 2005 |
Issue 4 |
New Books
| Coming Soon | Obituaries
| Awards
Book 'em looks at selected books that are on, or have
recently been, on the New Book display, as well as other news in the
world of books. A complete list of books (and other materials)
cataloged in the past month may be found at http://hiraml.hiram.edu/ftlist.
Book 'em is published monthly from August through May. Please
direct any comments to the editor, David Everett.
New Books
Fiction
In Zorro: A Novel (NY:
HarperCollins, 2005 - call
number F Al547z) acclaimed author Isabel Allende tells how Diego de
la Vega became Zorro. Zorro first appeared in a 1919 serial by
Johnston MCalley. Think of this as "Zorro Begins?"
The Historian: A Novel (NY:
Little, Brown, 2005 - call
number F K8484h) is Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel. For
more about this bestseller, see Joanne Sawyer's comments on the Hiram
Reads! web page.
Non-Fiction
There is a lot to look at this time. For anyone who heard Dr.
Judith Reppy's presentation as the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, a
good follow-up is Biological Weapons: From
the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism
(NY: Columbia University Press, 2005 - call
number 358.388209 Gui), in which Boston College sociologist Jeanne
Guillemin looks at the history of biological weapons and the issues
surrounding such weapons.
American history is
well represented from the Revolution to present. In 1776
(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2005 - call
number 973.3 Mcc), Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough recounts
the first year of the American Revolution, a year when the revolution
could easily have failed. Bob Woodward's The
Secret man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat (NY:
Simon and Schuster, 2005 - call
number 364.132 Fel-W) is the Watergate reporter's story of his
relationship with his secret source know as Deep Throat, who we now know
33 years later to be Mark Felt, the number 2 man at the FBI a the time
of Watergate. The Torture Papers: The
Road to Abu Ghraib (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005 -
call
number 973.931 Tor) edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L.
Dratel brings together the memoranda and reports related to U.S.
interrogation methods in the war on terror, particularly in Iraq's Abu
Ghraib prison.
Science is represented by a number of books in several
areas. Three books look at Pharmaceuticals. In The
Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America
(NY: New York University Press, 2004 - call
number 616.6922061 Loe), Colgate University sociologist Meika Loe
looks at how Viagra has changed attitudes about sex and sexuality, while
also looking at the increasing market for the drug. Diarmuid
Jeffrey's Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a
Wonder Drug (NY: Bloomsbury, 2004 - call
number 615.783 Jef) covers the history of aspirin from ancient Egypt
to the present. Prozac as a Way of
Life (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina
Press, 2004 - call
number 616.8527061 Pro), edited by Carl Elliott (philosophy at the
University of Minnesota) and Tod Chambers (bioethics and medical
humanities at Northwestern), is a collection of eleven essays looking at
the philosophical and ethical issues in the wide-spread use of Prozac
and similar drugs such as Paxil, Celexa, and Zoloft.
Biotechnology and its application to food is the topic of two
books. In The Frankenfood Myth: How
Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution
(Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004 - call
number 303.483 Mil) authors Henry J. Miller (research fellow at
Stanford) and Gregory Conko (Director of Food Safety Policy at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, an interest group) look at what they
consider threats to the use of biotechnology to produce more and better
food and why the use of such biotechnology is good. Along the same
lines, but with more emphasis on the science, is Mendel
in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods
(Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2004 - call
number 631.5233 Fed) by geneticist and molecular biologist Nina
Federoff and science writer Nancy Marie Brown.
Three books look at Genome science. Greg Gibson and Spence
V. Muse (genetics and statistics, respectively, at North Carolina State
University) provide an introduction to genomics in A
Primer of Genome Science, second edition (Sunderland,
MA: Sinauer Associates, 2004 - call
number572.86 Gib 2004). Meanwhile, science and technology
writer Gina Smith looks at the effects of DNA technology on society as a
whole in The Genomics Age: How DNA
Technology is Transforming the Way We Live and Who We Are
(NY: AMACOM, 2005 - call
number 576.5 Smi). Christopher A. Cullis provides a basic
introduction to plant genomics in Plant
Genomics and Proteomics (NY: John Wiley and Sons, 2004 - call
number 572.862 Cul).
The Third World is the topic of two books. In Where
We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe (NY: Atlantic Monthly
Press, 2004 - call
number 968.91051 Mel), Andrew Meldrum, an American-born reporter for
The Guardian, recounts his twenty-plus years reporting news from
Zimbabwe until his forced departure in 2003. Meldrum is optimistic
about his country where Hiram has sent study-abroad programs in the
past. Hope in Hell: Inside the World
of Doctors Without Borders (Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books,
2004 - call
number 610.601 Bor) by journalist Dan Bortolotti looks at the
history (it was founded in 1971 by a group of French doctors) and
efforts of the Doctors Without Borders organization through the author's
interviews with doctors, nurses, and other volunteers associated with
the group.
Finally, . . . And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End
of Life (NY: Scribner, 2005 - call number 362.1750973
Kau) by Sharon R.
Kaufman (medical anthropology at University of California, San
Francisco) looks at hospitals, where most Americans die today, and the
tension between sustaining life and "letting go."
Juvenile
In Red Ridin' in the Hood and Other Cuentos
(NY: Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2005 - call
number JF M330r), author Patricia Santos Marcantonio injects Latino
culture into the re-telling of eleven classic fairy tales.
In this year marking Hans Christian Andersen's 200th birthday, Jane Yolen tells the story of
his childhood in The
Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen (NY: Dutton
Children's Books, 2004 - call
number J 839.8186 And-Y). And don't forget to check out these
new, beautifully illustrated editions of Andersen's stories: The
Little Mermaid (NY: Penguin Young Readers Group, 2004 - call
number JF An227L) illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger and The
Ugly Duckling (NY: Penguin Young Readers Group, 2005 - call
number JF An227g) illustrated by Robert Ingpen.
Coming Soon (the following
books are on order or in process)
Education of a Coach is David Halberstam's take on football coach
Bill Belichick. Do you know the Hiram connection?
Eyewitnesses to Massacre: American Missionaries Bear Witness to Japanese
Atrocities in Nanjing collects testimony of various missionaries in
Nanjing at the time of the Japanese capture of the city. This book
also has a Hiram connection.
First Man: Life of Neil Armstrong is a biography of the first man on
the moon and an Ohio native.
Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man is historian
Vincent Caretta's account of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), author of the
much anthologized and reprinted autobiography, Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.
Obituaries
Ba Jin on October 7 at age 100. A novelist who wrote about
pre-revolution China, Ba Jin is probably best known for Family,
the first work in his Turbulent Stream trilogy.
John Mulligan
on October 12 at age 55. Writer whose 1997 novel
Shopping Cart Soldiers, which depicted the struggles of Vietnam
veterans, won a PEN award.
George Sayer
on October 20 at age 91. Sayer is best known for his
biography of his friend C.S. Lewis, Jack, C.S. Lewis and His Times.
Michael Kilian on October 26 at age 66. A journalist with
nearly 40 years at the Chicago Tribune, Kilian also wrote the "Dick
Tracy" cartoon and dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Among his novels was a series of Civil War mysteries such as A
Killing at Ball's Bluff : a Harrison Raines Civil War Mystery.
Awards
Winners of the first Quill Book Awards were announced on October
11. The winners are voted on by readers. Winners were
recognized in 20 categories. Among the winners were: Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for Book of the Year,
Elizabeth Kostova and The
Historian for Debut Author of the of the Year, and 1776
for History/Current Events/Politics. For a complete list of
winners and more about the award, see http://www.qulllsliteracy.org.
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