From the Bookshelf
Inventing Autopia. By Jeremiah B.C. Axelrod ’92. University of California Press, 2009. A visually oriented cultural and intellectual history of how utopian dreams 30 years ago resulted in the sprawling urbanism that characterizes Los Angeles today.
First Come the Zebra. By Lynne Barasch (wife of Ken Barasch ’56). Lee & Low Books, 2009. Inspired by a Williams-sponsored trip to Kenya led by Rosenburg Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology Hank Art, this picture book pays tribute to the potential of today’s youth to make a difference in the world.
A Fine Regard: Essays in Honor of Kirk Varnedoe. Edited by Patricia G. Berman and Gertje R. Utley. Ashgate, 2008. Through their essays about 19th- and 20th-century art, the late Kirk Varnedoe’s ’67 most distinguished doctoral students pay tribute to his legacy as a dynamic art history professor and chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art.
Bad Advice: Bush’s Lawyers in the War on Terror. By Harold H. Bruff ’65. University Press of Kansas, 2009. Through a close study of the legal advice provided to President George W. Bush, a former Justice Department attorney critiques the justifications for the tactics used in the War on Terror.
Freedom’s Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides. By Derek Charles Catsam ’93. University Press of Kentucky, 2008. An exploration of why the Freedom Rides were crucial in raising awareness among decision makers and the average American family about the realities of racial segregation and discrimination.
Nests of the Gentry: Family, Estate, and Local Loyalties in Provincial Russia. By Mary W. Cavender ’88. University of Delaware Press, 2007. A study of the province of Tver’ reveals the deep loyalty of a segment of the Russian gentry to life in the provinces from 1820-60.
Gender Games: Why Women Coaches are Losing the Field. By Christina Cruz, former Williams research analyst and former women’s crew coach. VDM Verlag, 2009. An exploration of the intertwining aspects of gender, relationships, coaches’ struggles and the sense of self as coach.
Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School. By Katherine Darling ’00. Atria Books, 2009. A culinary memoir about the cutthroat world of food and the eccentric people who make it.
Everywhere at Once. By Lisken Van Pelt Dus ’84. Pudding House Press, 2009. A chapbook of 20 poems unified by bird imagery addresses themes of immanence, identity and love.
Right of Thirst. By Frank Huyler ’87. Harper Perennial, 2009. A novel about a cardiologist who, shattered by his wife’s death and his own role in it, volunteers to assist with earthquake relief in an impoverished Islamic country.
Marine Shells of Northeast Florida. By Harry G. Lee ’62. Jacksonville Shell Club, 2009. An illustrated scientific catalog of 804 species of marine and estuarine mollusks, reported from the coastal region extending from Cape Hatteras to Cape Canaveral as well as the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico from southwest Florida to west Yucatan.
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World. By Marty Linsky ’61 et al. Harvard Business Press, 2009. A guide for leaders and organizations on how to respond flexibly and nurture change and growth under challenging circumstances.
Paul Outerbridge: Command Performance. By Paul Martineau, Grad Art ’02. Getty Publications, 2009. A catalogue produced for the first exhibition of Outerbridge’s work since 1981, held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, brings together 100 photographs from the photographer’s career.
Modern Surgical Neuropathology. By Douglas C. Miller ’74. Cambridge University Press, 2009. A comprehensive review of the pathology of the nervous system as seen in surgical neuropathology rather than through autopsies.
New Treehouses of the World. By Pete Nelson, with photographs by Chris Yorke ’06. Abrams, 2009. A journal-style tour of more than 35 innovative, contemporary treehouses around the world.
Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement. By James L. Nolan Jr., professor of sociology. Princeton University Press, 2009. An investigation of the cultural differences that arise when models of courts that attempt to solve problems underlying criminal behavior— rather than simply adjudicating offenders—are transplanted from the U.S. to other countries.
Sure-Kill. By Joseph S. Perrott ’57. Cypress Publications, 2009. A fictional memoir depicts how nature and nurture combine to create a psychopathic personality.
The Plated City. By Bliss Perry, Class of 1881. Rvive Books, 2009. Originally published in 1895, this novel, one of the earliest with a baseball theme, deals with race, class and sexual relations in a prosperous New England manufacturing town.
The Working Mom’s Survival Guide. By Paula Peters ’95. Adams Media, 2009. A how-to book teaches new moms strategies for juggling motherhood and work, with advice from a panel of medical and legal experts who are also working moms.
Eating Well in Season: The Farmers’ Market Cookbook. By Jessie Price ’95 et al. The Countryman Press, 2009. Recipes accompany advice about healthy foods and tips for buying, growing and storing seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Paper Horse. By Kim Xiong. Retold in English by Clarissa Yu Shen ’99. Better Chinese, 2008. In this children’s book, translated from a Chinese poem, a young boy’s grandmother creates a paper horse to keep him company while he waits for his parents, who are stuck in a snowstorm, to come home.
Crisis and the Everyday in Post-socialist Moscow. By Olga Shevchenko, assistant professor of sociology. Indiana University Press, 2009. A study, based on more than 100 in-depth interviews, of how postsocialist Russians made sense of and responded to rising unemployment, currency devaluation and political upheaval in the late 1990s.
Love Stories in this Town. By Amanda Eyre Ward ’94. Ballantine Books, 2009. Twelve fictional stories about love in all its complexity, absurdity and glory.
Willie Doherty: Requisite Distance. By Charles Wylie, Grad Art ’86. Yale University Press, 2009. A catalogue of the Northern Irish artist’s projects coincides with an exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art.
ON CD
Crunchtime. By Galveston Sand Bar Flies, with words and music by Peter Britton ’56. Galveston Sand Music, 2008. Including songs written before and after 9/11, this Western swing album explores everyone’s “crunchtimes.”
HELP FILL THE BOOKSHELF!
To have your recent work listed in Life of the Mind, please send information to the Alumni Review, P.O. Box 676,
Williamstown, MA 01267-0676
fax: 413.597.4158
e-mail: [email protected]