Need Research Help?
Chat With A Librarian!
|
Volume 3 |
January 2008 |
Issue 6 |
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.
Welcome back everybody. I hope everyone had a nice
break and a Happy New Year. We're a bit light on fiction and
juvenile titles this month, but there is a lot of interesting
non-fiction. Enjoy!
Fiction
Victoria Rachel (Loverboy) is back with
The Border of Truth: A Novel (New York: Counterpoint,
2007 -
call number F R2471b), a tale that takes the story of the
refugee ship St. Louis as a starting point and bounces between a
character on the ship writing letters to Eleanor Roosevelt and a
present-day New Yorker digging into her family history.
Non-Fiction
Psychology is the general subject of several new titles this
month. Journalist Stephen Murdoch tells the story of our
attempts to measure human intelligence from the late 19th century to
the present in IQ: A Smart History of a
Failed Idea (Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley and Sons, 2007 -
call number
153.9309 Mur). In Haunted by
Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans Including Women,
Reservists, and Those Coming Back from Iraq (Westport,
CT: Praeger Security International, 2007 -
call
number 616.85212 Pau), psychologists Daryl S. Paulson and
Stanley Krippner explain post-traumatic stress disorder among
soldiers throughout history with an emphasis on the current
situation with Iraq veterans. In
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration (New
York: Basic Books, 2007 -
call number
658.4036 Saw), Keith Sawyer (education and psychology,
Washington University) argues that creativity is always a
collaborative effort and describes how organizations can make groups
more creative. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Susan Faludi
looks at this country's psychological response to 9/11 and what it
says about us, especially the myth of protective male and dependent
female, in The Terror Dream: Fear and
Fantasy in Post-9/11 America (New York: Metropolitan
Books, 2007 -
call number
306.240973 Fal).
Two new books focus on Latin America and its politics and
history. In The Art of Political
Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? (New York: Grove, 2007 -
call
number 972.81053 Gol), novelist and journalist Francisco Goldman
investigates the assassination of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi in
April 1998, two days after the Bishop oversaw the publication of a
human rights report finding the Guatemalan Army large responsible
for a number of deaths and disappearances.
Fulgencio Batista (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 2006 -
call number 972.91063 Bat-A) is the first of a two-volume study
by historian Frank Argote-Freyre (history, Kean University) of the
controversial Cuban dictator who was overthrown by Fidel Castro.
Asia is the focus of two books.
China's Sacred Sites (Honesdale, PA: Himalayan
Institute Press, 2007 -
call number
Q 726.1951 Nan), by Nan Shunxun and Beverly Foit-Albert, is a
color pictorial tour with extensive commentary of just what the
title says. Lisa Trivedi (history, Hamilton College) provides
a study of khadi or home-spun or home-woven cloth, long a political
symbol of India thanks to Gandhi, in
Clothing Gandhi's Nation: Homespun and Modern India
(Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2007 -
call number 654.035 Tri).
Three new books deal with Native Americans. Part of the
Penguin Library of American Indian History,
The Shawnees and the War for America
(New York: Viking, 2007 -
call
number 970.3 Sha-C), by Colin G. Calloway (history, Dartmouth),
looks at Shawnee attempts to defend their land against American
settlers pushing westward. the subtitle gives a very good idea
as to the topic of Richard Middleton's
Pontiac's War: Its Causes, Course, and Consequences (New
York: Routledge, 2007 -
call number
973.27 Mid). Charles Wilkinson (law, Colorado) looks at
how Native American tribes re-established an array of rights (land
ownership, self-determination, and, perhaps most importantly,
gaming) in the period after World War II in
Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations (New
York: Norton, 2005 -
call
number 323.1197073 Wil).
Marketing in the digital age is the topic of Larry Weber's
Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital
Customer Communities Build Your Business (New York: John
Wiley and Sons, 2007 -
call number 658.872 Web) as he explains how to engage customers
in new social Web spaces like MySpace, YouTube, and blogs.
Several books fall under the general category of religion.
In Evolving God: A Provocative View on the
Origins of Religion (New York: Doubleday, 2007 -
call number
306.6 Kin), Barbara J. King (anthropology, William & Mary) looks
at how and why religion came to be by using research from the fields
of anthropology, archaeology, and biology. Hugh Kennedy looks
at the spread of Islam in the century after the death of Mohammad, a
spread that brought an empire larger than Rome's, in
The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of
Islam Changed the World We Live In (Philadelphia: DaCapo,
2007 -
call number 919.0976701 Ken). Joan Wallach Scott argues in
The Politics of the Veil
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007 -
call
number 305.6970944 Sco) that the French law banning the wearing
of headscarves by Muslim school girls prevents, rather than helps,
Muslims from integrating into French society.
Bioethics is represented this month by
The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic
Engineering (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of the Harvard
University Press, 2007 -
call number 174.957 San), in which author Michael J. Sandel
(government, Harvard) looks at the ethical issues in an age when we
may soon be able to re-engineer our very nature.
Surprisingly, there are only two biographies this month.
Roger Woolhouse's Locke: A Biography
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007 -
call
number 192.2 Woo) is a new comprehensive biography of the
English political philosopher. In
Henry Kissinger and the American Century (Cambridge, MA:
Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 2007 -
call number 973.924 Kis-S), Jeremi Suri (history, Wisconsin)
interprets Kissinger's theory and practice of foreign relations by
looking at his life's story, especially Kissinger's formative years.
Twelve of Arthur Krystal's literary essays are collected in
Half-Life of an American Essayist
(Boston: David R. Godine, 2007 -
call number 814.54 Kry).
The American health care system is the subject of two books,
Maggie Mahar's Money-Driven Medicine: The
Real Reason Health Care Costs so Much (New York: Collins,
2006 - call
number 338.433621 Mah) and Shannon Brownlee's
Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is
Making Us Sicker and Poorer (New York: Bloomsbury, 2007 -
call number
362.10973 Bro), both of which attempt to explain why health care
cost so much and, yet, we seem to get so little care in return.
Lisa's Story: The Other Shoe
(Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2007 -
call number
616.99449 Bat) reprints KSU graduate Tom Batiuk's Funky
Winkerbean comic strips dealing with the first cancer episode of the
character Lisa, as well as the reoccurrence of the cancer that
killed her in the strip in 2007.
Council of Foreign Relations fellow Max Boot provides a sweeping
history of how technology has changed warfare, and thus history, in
War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the
Course of History 1500 to Today (New York: Gotham Books,
2006 - call
number 355.020903 Boo).
I
Juvenile
In Ian Falconer's Olivia Helps with
Christmas (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2007 - call
number JF F182o 2007), Olivia the pig helps her family prepare
for Christmas day.
Bob Graham puts a different spin on the familiar tale of Humpty
Dumpty in Dimity Dumpty: The Story of
Humpty's Little Sister (Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press,
2006 - call
number JF G7602d) in which shy, little Dimity finds her courage
when brother Humpty needs help.
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.
Flora Stone Mather: Daughter of Cleveland's Euclid Avenue and
Ohio's Western Reserve by Gladys Haddad.
From Broadway to Cleveland: A History of the Hanna Theatre by
John Vacha.
Studs Terkel is back with Touch and Go: A Memoir.
Janice Hanson looks at the constant online connection of
contemporary society in 24/7: How Cell Phones and the Internet
Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play.
National Book Award-winning Ha Jin has a new novel, A Free Life.
Laura
Huxley on December 13 at age 96. Huxley, who was also a
concert violinist and a filmmaker, is probably best known for
This
Timeless Moment: A Personal View of Aldous Huxley, a memoir
of her years with her husband, novelist Aldous Huxley.
Diane Wood Middlebrook on December 15 at age 68.
Middlebrook, an English professor at Stanford, was best known for
her biographies, especially her
Anne Sexton: A Biography.
John A. Garraty on December 19 at age 87. A history
professor at Columbia, Garraty is probably best known for editing
the 24-volume
American National Biography. He also wrote some dozen
books, including biographies of
Henry Cabot Lodge and
Woodrow Wilson, as well as
The
Nature of Biography.
Julien Gracq on December 22 at age 97. A French writer
of novels, plays, and essays, Gracq is probably best known for his
surrealist novels such as Au Chateau d'Argol (The
Castle of Argol), his debut novel.
George MacDonald Fraser on January 2 at age 82. Fraser
is best known for his novels featuring Flashman, a British soldier
(who ultimately made general) who fights for Britain around the
world during the age when the sun never set on the British empire.
Philip Agee on January 7 at age 72. Agee, a CIA agent
who turned against the agency, is best known for his 1975 book
Inside
the Company: CIA Diary, which named CIA agents and front
companies. The publication led Congress to pass the
Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. It was the
investigation into the best violation of this law when Valerie
Wilson was named as a CIA officer that led to the perjury conviction
of I. Lewis Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick
Cheney.
The five category
winners of the 2007 Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread
Book Awards, have been announced. The winners will compete for
the 2007 Cost Book of the Year Award, which will be announced on
January 22 in London. The category winners were:
Costa Novel Award - Day by A. L. Kennedy
Costa First Novel Award - What was Lost
by Catherine O'Flynn
Costa Biography Award - Young Stalin by
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Costa Poetry Award - Tilt by Jean
Sprackland
Costa Children's Book Award - The Bower Bird
by Ann Kelley
The American Library Association announced a number of award
winners, primarily for children and young adult books, on January 14
as part of its annual mid-winter meeting, held this year in
Philadelphia. Among the winners of the prestigious awards
were:
Newbery Medal (outstanding contribution to
children's literature)
Winner: Laura Amy Schlitz
for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Caldecott Medal (most distinguished American
picture book for children)
Winner: Brian Selznick
for
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
To see the other 14 award winners, as well as honor books, see the
press release on the American Library Association's
Web site.
The January/February 2008 issue of the Horn Book Magazine
included winners and honors for the 2007 Boston Globe Horn Book
Awards, which are for children's and young adult's books.
The winners were originally announced at a ceremony in October in
Boston. The categories and winners are:
Picture Books
Winner: Laura Vaccaro
Seeger for Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories
Honors: Jean-Luc
Fromental (writer) and Joelle Jolivet (illustrator) for 365
Penguins
Honors: Emily Gravett
for Wolves
Nonfiction
Winner: Nicolas Debon for
The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr
Honors: Loree Griffin
Burns for Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of
Ocean Motion
Sid Fleischman for
Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini
Fiction and Poetry
Winner: M. T. Anderson
for
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation,
Volume 1: The Pox Party
Honors: Sara Pennypacker
(writer) and Marla Frazee (illustrator) for Clementine
Honors: Tim Wynne-Jones
for Rex Zero and the End of the World