Book 'em

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.

Another month without fiction - sorry about that - but new fiction is coming.  Meanwhile, there is a lot of good nonfiction to talk about.  Plus some new juvenile titles with more coming thanks to the awarding of the Newbery and Caldecott awards.  So, let's get started reading!
 

New Books

Fiction

None this month, but check out a couple of titles in the Coming Soon section below.

Non-Fiction

Religion is the hot topic this month with seven new books in that field.  It starts with best-selling scholar Karen Armstrong providing a history of the writing and compilation of the Bible and the centuries of interpretation that followed in The Bible: A Biography (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007 - call number 220.09 Arm), part of the Books That Changed the World series.  A history of life in convents, frequently drawn from the words of the nuns themselves, is provided in Nuns: A History of Convent Life, 1450-1700 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 - call number 271.9 Eva) by Silvia Evangelisti.  In Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons: Evolution and Christianity from Darwin to Intelligent Design (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007 - call number 231.7652 Bow), Peter J. Bowler (history of science, Queens University, Belfast) examines the history of engagement and compromise of liberal theologians on the question of evolution and the long, but seldom noted, history of looking to reconcile science and religion.  Religion in Latin America: A Documentary History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Book, 2006 - call number 200.98 Rel), edited by Lee M. Penyak and Walter J. Petry, reprints primary documents to tell the history of religion in Latin America from indigenous religions in the 1500s to Protestantism and Catholicism moving into the 21st century (using documents as recent as 2005).

Hare Krishna Transformed (New York: New York University, 2007 - call number 294.5512 Roe), by E. Burke Rochford, Jr. (sociology and religion, Middlebury College), examines the organizational development of the Hare Krishna movement.  Lawrence Sutin traces the history of the acceptance of Buddhism by the West over a 2,000 year period in All is Change: The Two-Thousand-Year Journey of Buddhism to the West (New York: Little, Brown, 2006 - call number 294.3091821 Sut).  Fawaz A. Gerges looks at the mindset of the jihadist over the past thirty years in Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2006 - call number 322.4208829 Ger).

Three new books deal with biology topics.  In The Sand Wasps: Natural History and Behavior (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007 - call number 595.798 Eva), by Howard E. Evans and Kevin M. O'Neill, two entomologists provide just what the subtitle says in a species by species review.  Holley Bishop's Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey, the Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World (New York: Free Press, 2005 - call number 638.16 Bis) is a history of bees and honey, one of the oldest foods in the world. 

Geology and the earth's history are the topics of The Emerald Planet: How Plant's Changed Earth's History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 - call number 581.38 Bee), in which David Beerling (paleoclimatology, University of Sheffield) looks especially at the effect of plants on climate change.

Capitalism and ethics combine in two new books.  Hazel Henderson provides an overview of socially responsible, environmentally sensitive businesses in Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2006 - call number 338.927 Hen), a book companion to the PBS series Ethical Markets.  In The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005 - call number 330.1220973 Bog), John C. Bogle, founder of Vanguard mutual funds, examines what went wrong with the American financial system, how we lost our way, and how we can find it again.

Two new books focus on education.  In Educating the First Digital Generation (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007 - call number 371.334 Har), Paul G. Harwood and Victor Asal look at the use of educational technology with an emphasis on the Internet.  History comes into play in The Rosenwald Schools of the American South (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006 - call number 371.60975 Hof), in which Mary S. Hoffschwelle (history, Middle Tennessee State) looks at the history of the building of schools for black children in 15 southern states in a plan that came from Booker T. Washington with the financial support of Julius Rosenwald (president of Sears, Roebuck & Company) and the requirement of matching funds from the local communities.

Anyone familiar with children's books knows about Little Golden Books, which celebrated their 65th anniversary in 2007.  To help celebrate, Leonard S. Marcus has written the history of Golden Books and the company that publishes them in Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way (New York: Golden Books, 2007 - call number 070.5083 Mar).

Two new memoirs appear this month.  In Sky Time in Gray's Rivers: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007 - call number 508.79791 Pyl), Robert Michael Pyle recounts his life in Gray's River, Washington (population roughly 200) and what it means to live in a small, isolated town.  Full Swing: Hits, Runs, and Errors in a Writer's Life (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006 - call number 070.449796 Ber 2006) is a memoir from award-winning sports writer Ira Berkow.

In a somewhat similar vein, Kimberly R. Myers has edited a collection of essays in Illness in the Academy: A Collection of Pathographies by Academics (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2007 - call number 616 Ill).  The Oxford English Dictionary defines pathographies as "The study of the life of an individual or the history of a community with regard to the influence of a particular disease of disorder . . .."

Writing is the topic for two new books.  Best known for her B. I. Warshawski detective novels, Sara Peretsky looks at the traditions of political and literary dissent and what it means to write in the post-9/11 United States in Writing in an Age of Silence (London: Verso, 2007 - call number 81.54 Par).  In The Virginia Woolf Writer's Workshop: Seven Lessons to Inspire Great Writing (New York: Bantam, 2007 - call number 808.042 Jon), Danell Jones, a writing teacher and published author of poems, essays, reviews, and fiction, uses Woolf's own words to give advice to aspiring writers.

Classical studies are represented by The Death of Socrates (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007 - call number 183.2 Wil) in which Emily Wilson (classical Studies, Penn) analyzes the death of Socrates and its power in the Western imagination.

British history has two new titles this month.  Slave Trade Debate: Contemporary Writings For and Against (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2007 - call number 306.362 Sla) collects thirteen British writings from 1784 to 1807 on both sides of the debate over the slave trade.  Two Histories of England (New York: Ecco, 2006 - call number 942 Aus) brings together two forgotten works on English history, one by Jane Austen, the other by Charles Dickens.  Austen wrote her satirical The History of England when she was just 16.  Dickens' A Child's History of England was written for his children.

Two other books focus on non-U. S. history.  Ireland: Contested Ideas of Nationalism and History (New York: New York University Press, 2007 - call number 320.5409415 Kea) is a collection of essays by Hugh F. Kearney, an eminent historian of Irish history.   Frederick Taylor provides a history of the rise and fall of the Wall and the impact on both sides of the Wall in The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989 (New York: HarperCollins, 2006 - call number 943.1550877 Tay).

Recent U. S. history is the category for Peter Josyph's look at the neighborhood surrounding Ground Zero and how it has coped since 9/11 in Liberty Street: Encounters at Ground Zero (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2006 - call number 974.71044 Jos).

Two new titles focus on health care.  Healing Body and Mind: A Critical Issue for Health Care Reform (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007 - call number 362.10425 Kat), by Roger Kathol and Suzanne Gatteau, looks at the need to integrate physical and mental care for the healing of patients.  William D. Lafleur, Gernot Bohme, and Susumu Shimazono have edited Dark Medicine: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007 - call number 174.28 Dar), a collection of essays on the history of the "dark side" of medical research and the implications for medical ethics today.

Sports is the theme for two new books.  Raymond Schmidt's Shaping College Football: The Transformation of an American Sport, 1919-1930 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007 - call number 796.3326309 Sch) looks at the early days of college football and how it came to be such a big deal.  Jerry Lewis, a sociologist who has taught at Hiram, looks at fan violence and offers solutions to the problem in Sports Fan Violence in North America (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007 - call number 306.483097 Lew).

The campaign season is upon us making The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007 - call number 320.6 Cap) especially relevant.  Author Bryan Caplan (economics, George Mason) argues that democracies choose bad economic policies because they do, in fact, what the voters want, but the voters aren't necessarily rational.

Hard to believe there is only one biography featured this month.  Kate Berridge's Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax (New York: William Morrow, 2006 - call number 736.93092 Tus-B) tells the story of the French woman known for her famous wax museum in London and, now, several museums around the world.

Finally, are three books on Elie Wiesel that, while not newly published, are new to the library.  Elie Wiesel and the Art of Storytelling (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2006 - call number 813.54 Wie-E), edited by Rosemary Horowitz, is a collection of essays that look at Wiesel's use of stories (and especially Jewish traditions) to explain what is unexplainable.  In Conversations with Elie Wiesel (New York: Schocken Books, 2001 - call number 813.54 Wie 2001), Thomas J. Vinciguerra has edited a conversation between the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rutgers historian Richard D. Heffner.  And the Sea is Never Full: Memoirs 1969 - (New York: Knopf, 1999 - call number 813.54 Wie 1999) is the concluding volume of Wiesel's memoirs.



Juvenile

Before I Die (New York: David Fickling Books, 2007 - call number JF D7589b), a first novel by Jenny Downham, tells the story of sixteen year old Tess, who, when the treatments for her leukemia quit working, makes a list of things to do before she dies.  The book is often compared to Chris Crutcher's Deadline, but the list-making may remind you more of the new Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman movie, The Bucket List.

Sherman Alexie, best known for his short stories such as "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven", has written his first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (New York: Little, Brown, 2007 - call number JF Al279a), the story of coming of age on the Spokane Indian reservation.

Peter Johnson's What Happened (Asheville, NC: Front Street, 2007 - call number JF J6362w) is a story of moral choices as the sixteen year old narrator, a passenger in a hit-and-run, debates going to the police or keeping silent as told to by the wealthy father of the boy who was driving.

In Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006 - call number JF L8725u), Lenore Look tells the story of a young Asian American girl trying to stop her favorite uncle's wedding so she won't have to share him with a new aunt and in the process gives us a look at the festivities and the customs behind them.

 

Coming Soon

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.

Lori Smith.  A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love, and Faith.

Free Life is the latest novel from Ha Jin.

Andrew F. Smith's The Turkey: An American Story is a history of the turkey in American history.

My Appalachia: A Memoir by Sidney Saylor Farr.

John Edgar Wideman's newest novel is Fanon, a fictionalized biography of Frantz Fanon.

 

Obituaries

David Bradley on January 7 at age 92.  A surgeon, antinuclear advocate, champion skier, and a state legislator, Bradley's best know book was his first, No Place to Hide, his account of doing atomic tests on Bikini Atoll in 1946.

Edward D. Hoch on January 17 at age 77.  An award-winning mystery writer, Hoch was best known for his short stories, more than 900 of them, that appeared regularly in such publications as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (which published a Hoch story in every issue from 1973 until his death) and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, as well as in numerous anthologies.

H. Bradford Westerfield on January 19 at age 79.  A political science professor at Yale (both George Bush and Dick Cheney took classes from him), Westfield published several books, most notably The Instruments of America's Foreign Policy.

Margaret Truman Daniel on January 29 at age 83.  Daniel wrote biographies of her father, President Harry Truman, her mother, Bess Truman, and a number of mysteries set in buildings in Washington, DC.

Awards

The National Book Critics Circle Award finalists have been named.  Awards are given in six categories with the winners to be announced on March 6.  For a complete list of the finalists go to the Book Critics Circle Web page.

English poet Sean O'Brien won the 2007 T. S. Eliot Prize for The Drowned Book.  The award goes to the best collection of poetry by an individual to be published in Britain or Ireland.

Scottish author A. L. Kennedy won the 2007 Costa Book of the Year award for her novel Day.