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JUNEBUG by Maureen McCoy (Leapfrog Press). Junebug Angel Host, the hyper-sensitive seventeen- year-old narrator of Cornell MFA Program professor McCoy's fourth novel, has been visiting her mother, Theresa Host, in Ellisville Reformatory for Women ever since she was five years old, when the former beauty queen bludgeoned a neighbor to death. Theresa reels in her wild daughter by revealing the motive she has kept to herself since the day of the murder.

THE WEIGHT-LOSS DIARIES by Courtney Rubin '96 (McGraw-Hill). Rubin, a People magazine contributor and CAM correspondent for the Class of '96, spent more than two years chronicling her diet struggles in a regular column for Shape magazine, from her most ridiculous excuses to her days of flirting with eating disorders. She tells the story of binges, guilt, fat days, shopping sprees, exercise regimens, the seductions of comforting carbohydrates, discouragement, and how she transformed herself from a couch potato to a two-time marathon runner.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORCHESTRA by John Spitzer, PhD '83, and Neal Zaslaw (Oxford University Press). The story of the orchestra, from sixteenth-century string bands to the "classical" orchestra of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Zaslaw, the Gussman professor of music at Cornell, and Spitzer, a professor at the Peabody Institute, document instrumentation, social roles, repertories, and performance practices in Europe and the American colonies, concluding around 1800 with the widespread awareness of the orchestra as a central institution in European life.

BAIT AND SWITCH by Julie A. Mertus '85 (Routledge). A professor at American University and co-director of the Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs Program argues that talk of human rights has become the political equivalent of a "bait and switch." Based on extensive interviews with foreign policy makers, military officials, and human rights advocates, Mertus's book shows how America's attempts to promote human rights have, paradoxically, undermined such protections in other countries.

Recently Published | Fiction

HIDDEN by Paul Jaskunas, MFA '00 (Free Press).When Maggie Duke learns that the man who beat her almost to death years ago was a complete stranger, and not the husband she had put in jail with her testimony, she must unravel all that she holds true and determine to what degree she is responsible for ruining the life of a man she once loved.

RAIN STORM by Barry Eisler '86, JD '89 (G.P. Putnam's Sons). In the third novel featuring the Japanese-American character John Rain--a cynical, romantic, conscientious assassin with the soul of a poet--Rain has fled to Brazil to escape the killing business and his enemies. But his former employer, the CIA, persuades him to take on a high-risk assignment against an arms dealer in Southeast Asia.

Recently Published | Non-fiction

HISTORY IN TRANSIT by Dominick LaCapra (Cornell University Press). The Bowmar professor of humanistic studies and director of Cornell's School of Criticism and Theory reacts against the anti-theoretical bias of some prominent historians and presents an alternative model of history writing that emphasizes plural and hybrid approaches, combined with the concept of historical experience. LaCapra explores the relationships between experience and identity, history and various theories of subjectivity, extreme events and their representation, and institutional structures and the kinds of knowledge they produce.

TAKING SEX DIFFERENCES SERIOUSLY by Steven E. Rhoads, MPA '65, PhD '72 (Encounter Books).Many contemporary discussions of sex differences assume that they are determined by society rather than biology. Rhoads, a professor of politics and expert on public policy at the University of Virginia, examines disparities in aggression and dominance, sexuality and nurturing. He contends that, despite the idea that male and female roles have been socially constructed, sex distinctions remain a deeply rooted part of human nature.

SANCTIFYING THE NAME OF GOD by Jeremy Cohen, PhD '78 (University of Pennsylvania Press). The director of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center at Tel Aviv University examines the "Persecutions of 1096," the first extensive wave of anti-Jewish violence in medieval Europe that took place at the start of the First Crusade.

FACING AMERICA by Shirley Samuels (Oxford University Press). A Cornell professor of English explores the body of America imagined both physically and metaphorically, arguing that the Civil War marks a dramatic shift from identifying the nation as feminine to identifying it as masculine.

LATIN AMERICAN LAW by M.C.Mirow, JD '86 (University of Texas Press). An associate professor at Florida International University College of Law offers the first comprehensive history of private law in Spanish Latin America from the colonial period to the present.

UNCOMMON FRUITS FOR EVERY GARDEN by Lee Reich (Timber Press). A former Cornell agricultural researcher provides a guide to fruits and berries that may seem unusual at first glance, but which offer rewards to the gardener willing to go slightly off the beaten path at local nurseries.

LEVERAGE YOUR BEST, DITCH THE REST by Scott Blanchard '88 and Madeleine Homan (William Morrow). The co-founders of Coaching.com offer their methods for helping business executives reach their full potential.

SPEAK ENGLISH LIKE AN AMERICAN by Amy Gillett, MBA '99 (Language Success Press). A book and CD set designed for non-native speakers who want to achieve greater fluency in English as spoken in the United States.

ABANDONED WOMEN by Suzanne Hagedorn, PhD '95 (University of Michigan Press). An English professor at the College of William and Mary analyzes the figure of the abandoned woman in the works of Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer.

WORLD AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT by Jason Clay, PhD '79 (Island Press). The vice president of the Center for Conservation Innovation presents a global portrait of agricultural patterns and environmental impacts, including maps of the production areas for each of twenty-two major commodities.

EVER TRUE by Lisa Saunders '82 (Heritage Books). The Civil War letters between a Union private and his wife, edited by their great-greatgranddaughter.

IVY AND INDUSTRY by Christopher Newfield, PhD '88 (Duke University Press). An English professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, analyzes how business has influenced the American university.

THIRD-SECTOR DEVELOPMENT by Christopher Gunn '66, MBA '73, PhD '80 (Cornell University Press). A professor of economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges studies the role of nonprofit corporations, cooperatives, and credit unions in strengthening local economies.

EUROPE WITHOUT BORDERS, edited by Mabel Berezin and Martin Schain, PhD '71 (Johns Hopkins Press). A collection of essays in which Cornell sociology professor Berezin, NYU professor Schain, and other experts explore the shifting concepts of national sovereignty, citizenship, culture, and society in the new Europe.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES by Diane P. Freedman '77, MAT '78, and Olivia Frey, editors (Duke University Press). Twenty-seven essays that reveal the human face and voice of scholarship.

JOEY GREEN'S INCREDIBLE COUNTRY STORE by Joey Green '80 (Rodale Press). Potions, notions, and elixirs of the past, and how to make them today.

HANDBOOK OF PSORIASIS by Charles Camisa '73 (Blackwell Publishing). A comprehensive text on the skin disorder, by the senior dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic Florida.

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