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Volume 2 |
October 2006 |
Issue 3 |
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 and is distributed to
"subscribers" by email notification. If you would like to
become a subscriber or just make a comment, email the editor, David
Everett at everettdd@hiram.edu.
This has been a bit of a slow
month as we wait for this fall's orders to start arriving and to be
processed. So for this month there is no new fiction and no
new juvenile books. But there are some really interesting
non-fiction titles, so let's get to it!
Non-Fiction
Ohio plays a role in two new books
on very different subjects. Robert
A. Taft: Ideas, Tradition, and Party in U.S. Foreign Policy
(Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005 -
call number 328.73092 Taf-W), is a look at the role of Taft,
"Mr. Republican," who was the leader of the minority party, in
foreign policy. The author, Clarence E. Wunderlin, is a
history professor at Kent State and editor of the
Taft papers. Moving back in time, history professor (Augustana
College in Illinois) Stephen Warren's
The Shawnees and Their Neighbors, 1795-1870 (Urbana,
IL: University of Illinois Press, 2005 -
call number 970.3 Sha-W) looks at changes in Shawnee politics
and society during that time period and the influence of Christian
missionaries in the process, as well as the role of the U.S.
government.
Memoir and contemporary China come together in
Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's
Fight for Freedom (New York: Soho, 2006 -
call number 323.4420951 Zen), in which Jennifer Zeng tells of
her involvement in the Fulan Gong, her subsequent imprisonment for
"re-education," her release and her subsequent escape to Australia.
Zeng was a member of the Party and an intellectual (with an advanced
degree in geochemistry) who first published this book in Chinese in
Taiwan in 2004.
Two new books bring together politics and history.
The Reagan Presidency: Assessing the Man
and His Legacy (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield,
2005 -
call number 976.927 Rea-R), edited by Paul Kengor and Peter
Schweizer, is a collection of essays that assess Reagan and his
administration in areas such as Iran-Contra, management, economic
policy, and relationship with the courts. Eleanor Roosevelt's
newspaper columns are brought together by David Emblidge in
My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt's
Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962 (New York: Da
Capo, 2001 -
call number 973.917 Roo 2001). Emblidge arranges the
columns (some are excerpts only) by year and provides a brief
introduction to help set the context in which Roosevelt wrote the
columns. The columns were syndicated by United Features
Syndicate and appeared in newspapers across the country.
Everyday math, in the form of statistics and probability, is
the subject in Jeffrey S. Rosenthal's
Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities
(Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2006 -
call number 519.2 Ros 2006). Rosenthal explains
probability and statistics through everyday examples such as
polling, card playing, and email spam. It's a little bit like
reading an episode of the TV show Numb3rs.
Richard J. Evans (history, Cambridge) looks how historians work
and deal with issues such as objectivity and how historians examine
the evidence in the context of David Irving's trial related to to
Irving's works on the Holocaust in Lying
About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial
(New York: Basic Books, 2001 -
call number 940.5318 Irv-E).
The study of Hurricane Katrina and its impact continues with
After the Storm: Black Intellectuals
Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina (New York:
New Press, 2006 -
call number 305.896076 Aft), a collection of essays by David
Dante Troutt (who also edited the book), John Valery White, Michael
Eric Dyson, Sheryll Cashin, and others. Dyson has touched on
this topic before in his book
Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster.
Philosophy is represented by
Habermas: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005 -
call number 193 Hab-F) in which James Gordon Finlayson (lecturer
in philosophy a the University of Sussex) provides a quick
introduction to the thought of Jurgen Habermas, one the the greatest
living philosophers, along with a brief biography. This is
part of a series from Oxford that includes short introductions to
Foucault,
Buddhism, and
Classics.
Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones: A Journey Between
China's Past and Present is a 2006 National Book Award finalist.
A Prisoner in the Garden
is a collection of photos, letters, and notes from Nelson Mandela's
27 years in prison.
Baseball fans who have an interest in the game's history should look
for Charles C. Alexander's Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the
Depression Era.
Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community is a photo
essay on the Mexican migrant community around Hartville.
Elizabeth Tucker's Campus Legends: A Handbook gathers those
legends and tales from around the country.
Elisabeth Ogilvie on September 9 at age 89.
Olgilvie wrote nearly 50 novels most set on the coast and islands of
Maine. Among her books were High Tide at Noon (her
first in 1944),
Where the Lost Aprils Are, and The Day Before Winter
(her last novel in 1997).
Joachim Fest on September 11 at age 79. Fest, a German
journalist and author, was best known for his biographies and
interpretations of Nazi Germany. Among his books were
Hitler,
The Face of the Third Reich, and
Speer: The Final Verdict.
Joseph Hayes on September 11 at age 88. Hayes, a
novelist and playwright, was probably best known for the novel
The Desperate Hours, which he turned into a Tony Award-winning
play and a movie starring Humphrey Bogart.
Albert S. Lyons on September 24 at age 94. A physician
and surgeon, Lyons also wrote
Medicine: An Illustrated History.
Mary Orr on September 22 at age 95. Orr, a short story
writer and a playwright, is probably best known for her short story
"The Wisdom of Eve" (published in Cosmopolitan in 1946),
which became the movie "All About Eve." She also wrote plays,
often with her husband Reginald Denham, such as
Dead Giveaway: A Play of Suspense.
Maureen Daly on September 25 at age 85. Daly, who published
her first short story at age 15, is best known for her first novel,
a coming-of-age story title
Seventeenth Summer.
Orhan Pamuk
was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in
Literature. The Turkish writer is known for his
works that deal with the clashing of cultures, particularly within
his native country. Among his works are
Snow,
My
Name is Red,
The Black Book, and
The White Castle, his third novel that served as his
international breakthrough. For more information on the Nobel
Prize in Literature and to see past winners, go to
http://nobelprize.org/literature/.
Kiran Desai was awarded the Man
Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel
The Inheritance of Loss. Desai is the youngest woman
to ever win the prize. Her mother,
Anita
Desai, has been on the Man Booker shortlist three times, but
never won. The Man Booker Prize for fiction is for the best
novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of
Ireland. For more about the Man Booker Prize and to see the
past winners, as well as this year's shortlist, go to
http://www.themanbookerprize.com.
The National Book Foundation has announced its finalists for this
year's National Book Awards.
The winners will be announced in November. For a complete list
of the nominees go to
http://www.nationalbook.org.