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SPEAKING
FREELY by
Floyd Abrams '56
(Viking). Abrams, who has argued before the
Supreme Court many times, presents behind-thescenes
details of eight of his important cases that
have shaped First Amendment rights. From his
appeal on behalf of the New York Times in the
Pentagon Papers case to his defense of the Brooklyn
Museum's exhibition of a painting that incorporated
elephant dung to his challenge of the
constitutionality of campaign finance reform in
the McCain-Feingold Act, Abrams recounts the
legal battles he has fought to preserve freedom of
speech in the United States.
WE
WHO ARE ABOUT TO…
and THE
TWO OF THEM by Joanna Russ '57
(Wesleyan University Press). Two of
Russ's classic feminist science fiction
novels return to print in new editions
with forewords by Samuel Delany and
Sarah Lefanu. The first is a subversive
shipwreck story that turns the Robinson
Crusoe plot on its head; the second,
a portrait of a future world in which a
young woman's creativity is being
transformed into madness by the maledominated
society in which she lives.
THE
FRANK FAMILY THAT SURVIVED
by Gordon F. Sander '72
(Hutchinson). Sander, a journalist, historian,
and former artist-in-residence
at Risley College for the Creative and
Performing Arts at Cornell, recounts
the story of the "other" Frank family
(Sander's mother, aunt, and maternal
grandparents). The book portrays their
flight from Nazi Germany to Holland,
their thousand-day submersion in a
small flat in the Hague, and their
efforts to avoid detection during raids that searched for Jews. It
concludes with an account of the bleak "Hunger Winter" of
1944–45 and the family's eventual escape to the United States.
ELDERESCENCE by
Jane Thayer '52
and Peggy Thayer (Hamilton Books).
Thirty-five million Americans are living
beyond the age of sixty-five, and
life expectancies have grown by
twenty-five years since 1900. Long life
spans have become much more common,
raising new issues for the elderly.
The authors--a psychotherapist and a
painter--argue that this time of life is
not just about retirement but about
understanding the experience and
forging a new sense of meaning.
DOG
WORLD AND THE HUMANS WHO LIVE THERE by Alfred
Gingold '68 (Broadway Books). In
2001, Gingold succumbed to the
endearing behavior of his family's new
Norfolk terrier, George, and became a
member of what he calls Dog Nation:
the 43 million dog owners and their 55
million pets living in America today.
While Gingold's dog plays a prominent
role in this "chronology of dog ownership,"
the book reads more like an
anthropological study of the bizarre
behavior of urban dog people.
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