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Volume 3 |
August 2007 |
Issue 1 |
New Books | Coming Soon | Obituaries | Awards | Other News
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.
Welcome (back) everybody! This month's issue is pretty
long since we are looking at three months worth of new books - where
did the summer go? Anyway, since this covers three months of
new books, please be aware that many, if not most, of these titles
have moved from the new book shelf to their regular locations.
Just follow the link from the call number to the catalog record to
get the status/location of the books. So, let's get started.
Fiction
In her 17th novel, Digging to America: A
Novel (New York: Knopf, 2006 -
call
number F T9712d 2006), Pulitzer Prize-winner Anne Tyler looks at
what it is to be an American.
Ten Days in the Hills (New York:
Knopf, 2007 -
call number F Sm44t 2007), Jane Smiley's latest, is a tale of
love, sex, war, and politics in Hollywood.
Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day
(New York: Penguin, 2006 -
call
number F P9946a) is a sprawling epic from 1893 into the early
1920s.
Hisham Matar tells a tale of intrigue in Libya in the late 1970s as
seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old in
In the Country of Men (New York: Dial, 2007 -
call number F M413i).
Tracy Chevalier, the author of
The Girl with a Pearl Earring, is back with a story set in
Georgian England and involving the poet William Blake in
Burning Bright (New York:
Dutton, 2007 -
call number F C4276b).
Moral Disorder: Stories (New
York: Nan A. Talese, 2006 -
call number F At96m) is the latest short story collection from
Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who also wrote
The Handmaid's Tale.
Pakistani author Moshin Hamid looks at life in America from a
non-native point-of-view, especially after the events of 9/11 in the
novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist
(Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2007 -
call number F H1801r).
Last Town on Earth (New York:
Random House, 2006 -
call number F M9118l), the first novel by Thomas Mullen, looks
at morality at a time of crisis - the 1918 influenza epidemic.
Japanese author Haruki Murakami, perhaps best known for his novel
Kafka
on the Shore, is back with a collection of short stories in
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Twenty-Four
Stories (New York: Knopf, 2006 -
call number
F M931b).
Non-Fiction
As usual, Biography is well represented this time.
Debby Applegate's The Most Famous man in
America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (New York:
Doubleday, 2006 -
call number 285.8 Bee-A) is the life of one of our country's
most famous religious leaders, who still plays second fiddle to
sister Harriet Beecher Stowe. Ho Chi
Minh: A Biography (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2007 -
call number 959.704 Ho-B) is Pierre Broucheux's take on the
Vietnamese leader who ultimately defeated the United States with the
takeover of South Vietnam. John Bul Dau, a "lost boy of
Sudan," tells his own story of fleeing the Sudan as a young teen and
ultimately ending up in Syracuse, New York in
God Grew Tired of Us (Washington, DC: National
Geographic, 2007 -
call number 962.4043 Dau), a memoir that has been turned into a
movie.
Nigel Hamilton's Biography: A Brief History
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007 -
call number 907.2 Ham) is a history of that literary genre and
provides a nice segue into Literature.
The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery
of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh (New York: Henry Holt,
2006 -
call number 892.1 Gil-D), by David Damrosch, is a history of
what is considered to be the world's first great epic, written more
than 3,000 years ago and lost until 1872.
Business history and American culture is also well
represented this month. James Sullivan provides a "history of
American culture as told through its favorite pants" in
Jeans: A Cultural History of an American
Icon (New York: Gotham Books, 2006 -
call number 687.1 Sul). Brides,
Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2006 -
call number 338.473925 How), by Vicki Howard (history, Hartwick
College), looks at how business and advertising have created many of
our wedding customs and rituals.
History of Science is represented by astronomer David
Darling's Gravity's Arc: The Story of
Gravity, from Aristotle to Einstein and Beyond (Hoboken,
NJ: John Wiley, 2006 -
call number 531.14 Dar). Actually, the subtitle is not
quite correct - it's really the story of our understanding of
gravity.
Several books deal with foreign policy and U.S. policy.
The Bush Doctrine and Latin America
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 -
call number 327.7308 Bus), edited by Gary Prevost and Carlos
Oliva Campos, is a collection of essays that look at the Bush
doctrine that the United States is permitted to launch preemptive
war against potential aggressors and the effect of that policy on
relations with Latin America. Yonah Alexander has edited
Counterterrorism Strategies: Successes and
Failures of Six Nations (Washington, DC: Potomac Books,
2006 -
call number 363.32517 Cou), a collection of essays that look at
strategies used by France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, the United States,
and Sri Lanka to counter terrorism. Zeev Maoz (political
science at University of California at Davis) takes a very critical
look at Israel's policy arguing "the ascendancy of Israel's security
establishment over its foreign policy apparatus led to unnecessary
wars and missed opportunities for peace" in
Defending the Holy Land: A Critical analysis of Israel's Security
and Foreign Policy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 2006 -
call number 327.5694 Mao). Finally, the title pretty much
says it all in attorney Joseph Margulies's
Guantanamo and the Abuse of American Power (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 2006 -
call number 342.73062 Mar).
Robert C. Trumpbour looks at the role of politics, government, and
the press in constructing new stadiums, with chapters on Pittsburgh
and Cincinnati, in The New Cathedrals:
Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction
(Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007 -
call number 725.8043 Tru).
Race, gender, and sex are the topics of several new books
this month. Robert B. Ridinger has edited
Speaking for Our Lives: Historic Speeches
and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights (New York:
Harrington Park Press, 2004 -
call number 305.906 Spe), which provides the text of speeches
and other rhetoric from Robert G. Ingersoll's "Address at the
Funeral of Walt Whitman" to Congressman Dennis Kucinich's remarks on
the "Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Lesbian/Gay Community Service
Center of Cleveland." The Inequality
Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class, and
Gender (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2007 -
call number 305.01 Ine), edited by David B. Grusky and Szonja
Szelenyi, is a collection of previously published essays and
articles.
It seems like every time I turn around someone wants to survey me or
collect some kind of data. Sarah E. Igo's
The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens,
and the Making of a Mass Public (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 2007 -
call number 301.072073 Igo) is a history of how opinion polls
and other surveys came to be part of our social fabric and how they
changed the American public. If this interests you, you might
also want to look a the two-part PBS program,
The First Measured Century: The Other Way of Looking at American
History.
Two new books focus on Islam. Barnaby rogerson provides
an overview of how today's schism between Shias and Sunnis came
about in Heirs of Muhammad: Islam's First
Century and the Origins of the Sunni-Shia Split
(Woodstock: Overlook Press, 2007 -
call number 297.09021 Rog). Kenneth Cragg, an Anglican
Bishop, looks at how we should be interpreting the Qur'an in
the light of Western civilization in The
Qur'an and the West (Washington, DC: Georgetown
University Press, 2006 -
call number 297.1226 Cra).
In Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of
Our Water (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007 -
call number 333.9100973 Sni), Alan Snitow argues that water is a
human right, not a commodity, and looks at contentious demands fro
water in the west, while also looking at cities like Atlanta and
smaller towns such as Wisconsin Dells. The book goes with a
documentary film,
available on DVD.
Finally, two books just for fun. Anne Mitchell Whisnant's
Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway
History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2006 -
call number 975.5 Whi) provides a history of the Blue Ridge
Parkway, a scenic, two-lane highway closed to commercial traffic
that runs 470 miles along the Blue Ridge from just outside Great
Smoky Mountain National Park to Front Royal, Virginia.
The Maple Syrup Book (Erin, ONT:
Boston Mills Press, 2006 -
call number 633.645 Eag), by Janet Eagleson and Rosemary Hasner
will tell you everything you wanted to know about maple syrup, even
if it does focus on Canada and New England, not northeast Ohio.
Juvenile
Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows (New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2007 -
call number JF R797h v. 7) is J.K. Rowling's final installment
in the story of the boy wizard and his friends. Find out who
lives and who dies.
Walter Dean Myers's Harlem Summer
(New York: Scholastic, 2007 -
call number
JF M9929h) is a coming of age story set in 1925 Harlem.
In Estrella's Quinceanera (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 2006 -
call number JF
AL252e), by Malin Alegria, Estrella Alvarez feels caught between
the wishes of her parents and the draw of her sophisticated friends
from private school as her fifteenth birthday party, her quinceanera,
approaches.
Lizabeth Zindel, daughter of author Paul Zindel, tells the tale of a
young girl who gets the chance to intern for the latest teenage
Hollywood star in Girl of the Moment
(New York: Viking, 2007 -
call
number JF Z662g). This is Zindel's first novel.
Friendship for Today (New York:
Scholastic, 2007 -
call
number JF M217f), by Patricia C. McKissack, is the story of
12-year old Rosemary, one of the first African Americans to attend a
formerly all-white school, who builds a friendship with Grace,
initially her worst tormentor.
Nikki Giovanni's On My Journey Now: Looking
at African-American History Through the Spirituals
(Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2007 -
call number J 782.253 Gio) is just what the subtitles says with
complete lyrics included.
The following titles are about to be published,
on-order, or are in process. Keep an eye out for them on the
New Book Shelf in the library.
Not a lot to note and this issue is plenty long as it is. I
would note that among the titles on order are The Reagan Diaries,
Connie Schultz's . . . And His Lovely Wife (her account of
life on the campaign trail with husband, and now Senator, Sherrod
Brown), and Carl Bernstien's Woman in Charge: The Life of Hilary
Rodham Clinton.
Janet
McDonald on April 11 at age 53. McDonald, best known for
her books that spoke to African-American teens, is probably best
known for her six young adult novels, including Harlem Hustle
and Chill Wind, which one a Coretta Scott King award, as well
as her memoir, Project Girl.
Sheila Ballantyne on May 2 at age 70. Ballantyne is
probably best known for her mysteries, such as Imaginary Crimes
and Norma Jean, the Termite Queen, as well as her collections
of short stories. One of those collections, Perpetual Care,
won an O.Henry Prize in 1977.
Lloyd Alexander on May 17 at age 83. Alexander, who
wrote award-winning fantasy for young adults, is probably best known
for his
Chronicle of Prydain series, which included
The Black Cauldron. The final Prydain novel,
The High King, won a Newbery Medal in 1969.
Mark Harris on May 30 at age 84. Harris is best known
for his novel Bang the Drum Slowly, which became the basis of
a movie. Bang the Drum Slowly was the second of four
Harris novels that took readers through the life of a baseball
player.
William Meredith on May 30 at age 88. Meredith, a
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, was a past poet laureate of the United
States. He won the Pulitzer for his collection Partial
Accounts: New and Selected Poems.
Nazik al-Malaika on June 20 at age 83. One of the Arab
world's most famous poets, she was best known for her use of free
verse. Born in Iraq, little of her work has been translated
and published in the West.
Mary Ellen Stolt on June 21 at age 86. A poet, Stolt is
best known for her efforts to spread the art of concrete poetry by
combining words and typography. She edited
Concrete Poetry: A World View and taught literature at
Indiana University.
Philip Booth on July 2 at age 81. A poet, Booth published
10 books of poetry, including
Available Light and
Relations: Selected Poems, 1950-1985.
Civil War historian James McPherson won the initial Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime in achievement in the field of military writing.
Charles Simic, a retired professor of literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire, has been appointed the new U.S. poet laureate. Born in Yugoslavia, Simic came to the United States at age 16. He has published more than 20 volumes of poetry, as well as collections of essays and a memoir. He won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.