| Volume 1 |
February 2006 |
Issue 7 |
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.
The staff has been busy this month and there are lots of new
books. The result is the longest Book 'em yet. So
let's get right to it!
New Books
Fiction
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
(New York: Knopf, 2005 - call
number F G1656m) is the translation of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel
Garcia Marquez's first fiction in ten years.
The Diviners (New York:
Little, Brown, 2005 - call
number F M775d) is author Rick Moody's look at entertainment,
politics, money, sex, work, and family in contemporary America in a tale
about vanity and ambition.
Non-Fiction
History is well represented this time. In Remember
Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005 - call
number 942.061 Sha), historian James Sharpe looks at why Bonfire
Night, celebrated every year on November 5 to commemorate the foiling of
the Gunpowder Plot, continues in England 400 years after the
event. Looking at more recent history in The
Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam
(New York: Da Capo, 2004 - call
number 959.704142 Win), Martin Windrow recounts the story of the
French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, which led to the division of Vietnam
into North and South and, ultimately, the United States' involvement in
a war that cost 55,000 American lives.
Three books deal with American history. Fergus M.
Bordewich's Bound for Canaan: The
Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America
(New York: Amistad, 2005 - call
number 973.7115 Bor) tells the history of the Underground Railroad
and the people involved in running it. Simon Hall looks at the
civil rights movement and the antiwar movement and how they intertwined
in Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and
Antiwar Movements in the 1960s (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2005 - call
number 973.923 Hal). In Dew of
Death: The Story of Lewisite, America's World War I Weapon of Mass
Destruction (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press,
2005 - call
number 358.6482 Vil), Joel A. Vilensky (Indiana University School of
Medicine) tells the story of Lewisite, from its accidental discovery to
its development into a weapon by Winford Lewis (for whom it is named) to
U.S. production during World War I to its use by Japan in Manchuria and
by Iran during its war with Iraq to its effective use in treating
Wilson's disease.
Race in America is the topic of two new books. In The
Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American
Dream (New York: Public Affairs, 2004 - call
number 305.896 Cas), Georgetown Law Professor Sheryll Cashin looks
at how 50 years after the Supreme Court's decision on Brown v. Board of
Education, de facto segregation by race and class continues to affect
the United States. The Changing
Terrain of Race and Ethnicity (New York: Russell Sage
Foundation, 2004 - call
number 305.800973 Cha), edited by Maria Krysan and Amanda E. Lewis,
is a collection of essays looking at race and ethnicity in contemporary
America.
Biography is, of course, also well represented. Tommy
Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way: A Biography
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2005 - call
number 781.65092 Dor-L) is Peter J. Levinson's account of the swing
band great from his childhood in Pennsylvania coal country to his death
in 1956. In Hans Christian Andersen: A
New Life (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2005 - call
number 839.8186 And-A) is Jens Andersen's (no relation to Hans)
biography of the Danish storyteller famous for his versions of folk
tales, as well as his own stories. Geoffrey Lewis' Carson:
The Man Who Divided Ireland (London: Hambledon and
London, 2005 - call
number 941.5082 Car-L) is the biography of Edward Carson, who was
the major force behind the 1921 partition of Ireland the creation of
Northern Ireland. Kafka:
The Decisive Years (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2005 - call
number 833.912 2005), the English translation of the first volume of
Reiner Stach's biography of Franz Kafka, looks at the years 1910 to 1915
during which Kafka began work on his most important works. In The
Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the
World of Mental Illness (New York: Wiley, 2005 - call
number 617.48092 Fre-E), Jack El-Hai tells the story of Walter J.
Freeman, whose use of the lobotomy made him (in)famous.
Scientists are the topic of two more biographies. The
End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born: The Nobel
Physicist Who Ignited the Quantum Revolution (New York:
Basic, 2005 - call
number 530.092 Bor-G) is Nancy Thorndike Greenspan's biography of
Max Born: a Nobel Prize winning physicist, exile from Hitler's Germany,
discoverer of quantum theory, and himself the teacher of nine other
Nobel Prize winners. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherman look at the
life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic
bomb," in American Prometheus: The
Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York:
Knopf, 2005 - call
number 530.092 Opp-B).
Benjamin Franklin gets his own category as this year marks the
300th anniversary of his birth. J. A. Leo Lemay has released the
first two volumes of a proposed seven volume biography The
Life of Benjamin Franklin (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania, 2006 - call
number 973.2 Fra-L). These two volumes cover the first 41
years of Franklin's life. In A Great
Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
(New York: Henry Holt, 2005 - call
number 327.7304409 Sch), Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff looks at
Franklin's eight year mission to France to swing the French to the
American side in the American Revolution. The mission's success
may well have been Franklin's greatest achievement.
Finally, two sports figures are the subjects of recent biographies.
Everyone knows the story of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier
in baseball and the trials of his first season, but few know the story
of his first spring training with the Montreal Royals, the Dodger's AAA
farm team. Chris Lamb (associate professor of media studies at the
College of Charleston) tells the story of Robinson's six weeks of spring
training in 1946 segregated Florida in Blackout:
The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson's First Spring Training
(Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2004 - call
number 796.357092 Rob-L). Education of a Coach (New
York: Hyperion, 2005 - call
number 796.332092 Bel-H) is Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam's
biography of highly successful New England Patriot (and former Cleveland
Brown) coach, Bill Belichick. Belichick's Patriots have won three
of the last five Super Bowls. In case you did not know, Bill's
parents met at Hiram, where his dad, Steve, coached football (and other
sports) and his mom, Jeannette, taught foreign languages. For more
on this book, see Hiram Reads!
Six new books deal with Bioethics. In Lesser
Harms: The Morality of Risk in Medical Research (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2004 - call
number 174.28 Hal), Sydney A. Harris looks at the issues involved in
the introduction of new medical procedures that could cure or could do
harm. While today there are Federal guidelines for research on
human subjects, Harris also looks at the period from 1930 to 1960 when
researchers struggled with the question and began to develop their own
informal rules in balancing potential benefits and risks. Grant R.
Gillett (Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Otago Medical
School in New Zealand) uses philosophy as a tool to examine current
issues in bioethics in Bioethics in the
Clinic: Hippocratic Reflections (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2004 - call
number 174.2 Gil). Physician-Assisted
Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004 - call
number 179.7 Phy) is a collection of essays edited by Timothy E.
Quill and Margaret P. Battin. The
Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement
(New York: Pantheon, 2003 - call
number 362.1 Rot), by Sheila M. Rothman and David J. Rothman, looks
at what it means when medical science can not only cure diseases, but
reshape the human body and how, we as a society, should respond to these
new drugs and therapies. Ramez Naam's More
than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement
(New York: Broadway Books, 2005 - call
number 616.042 Naa) gives a more popular and less scholarly look at
the impact of biotechnology and genetic engineering. Along similar
lines is Joel Garreau's Radical Evolution:
The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies-And What it
Means to Be Human (New York: Doubleday, 2005 - call
number 303.483 Gar)
Juvenile
Lies and Other Tall Tales (New
York: HarperCollins, 2005 - call
number J 398.20976 Mye) is a collection of stories gathered by Zora
Neale Hurston during her travels in the Gulf states in the 1930s.
The Lady in the Box (New
York: Turtle Books, 1997 - call
number JF M17731) by Ann McGovern is the story of what happens when
two children befriend a homeless woman.
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: A Message from
Chief Seattle (New York: Dial Books, 1991 - call number J
811.3 Sea) provides the words of Chief Seattle's famous speech (which he
may or may not have actually given) with wonderful paintings by Susan
Jeffers.
Coming Soon (the following
books are on order or in process)
You're Wearing That? : Understanding Mothers and Daughters in
Conversation is the latest from linguist Deborah Tannen.
Louis Sachar, author of Holes,
is back with Small Steps.
A Recent History of the United States in political Cartoons : A Look
Bok! is a collection of editorial cartoons from Akron Beacon Journal
cartoonist Chip Bok.
John Lewis Gaddis, probably the preeminent historian on the Cold War,
provides the most recent interpretation in The Cold War: A New
History.
Obituaries
Irving Layton on January 4 at age 93. Layton, a Canadian,
was a prolific poet.
Endesha Ida Mae Holland on January 25 at age 61. Holland, a
dramatist and scholar, was best known for her autobiographical play,
"From the Mississippi Delta," which she turned into the book From
the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir.
Wendy Wasserstein on January 30 at age 55. Wasserstein, a
playwright, is probably best know for her Pulitzer Prize winning play
"The
Heidi Chronicles."
Betty Friedan on February 4, her 85th birthday. Friedan, a
feminist who helped found the National Organization for Women, is best
known for her book, The
Feminine Mystique.
Awards
The American Library Association announced a number of prize winners in
books and videos for children on January 23 during its annual mid-winter
meeting. The major award winners were:
John Newbery Medal for most outstanding
contribution to children's literature: Criss
Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (New York: Greenwillow
Books, 2005)
Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most
distinguished American picture book for children: The
Hello, Goodbye Window (New York: Hyperion Books for
Children, 2005) written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Chris
Raschka.
Michael A. Printz Award for excellence
in literature written for young adults: Looking
for Alaska by John Green (New York: Dutton Children's
Books, 2005).
Coretta Scott King Book Award (author):
Julius Lester for Day of Tears: A Novel in
Dialogue (New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 2005).
Coretta Scott King Book Award
(illustrator): Bryan Collier for his illustration of Rosa,
written by Nikki Giovanni (New York: Henry Holt, 2005) (check
the status of the library's copy)
A complete list of award winners for children's books and videos,
including honor books, is available on the American Library Association
Web site at: http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/january2006/2006ymawardannc.htm.
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