A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY by Kurt Vonnegut '44 (Seven Stories Press). Vonnegut admires the plainspoken truth, and he has been perfecting the art of truth-telling for over fifty years. "To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." This book of essays, many of which first appeared in the alternative magazine In These Times, is as pessimistic as Mark Twain's late work and twice as funny. In it, Vonnegut reflects on the difficulty of making jokes work, the war in Iraq, the destruction of the planet, and the corrosive effects of lying and greed on America's soul.

HOUSE OF THE DEAF by Lamar Herrin (Unbridled Books).Herrin, professor of creative writing at Cornell and the author of four previous novels, tells the story of Ben Williamson, a father aiming to avenge the death of his oldest daughter, who was killed three years earlier in a terrorist bombing while studying in Spain.

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES by Alison Lurie (Viking). Pulitzer Prize winner Lurie, the Whiton Professor of American Literature Emerita at Cornell, delves into the lives of two couples at her invented Corinth University. Alan MacKenzie is an expert on Victorian architecture; his wife, Jane, directs the university's humanities center. Alan's back problems make him self-centered and touchy, and Jane turns into a resentful caregiver. When a beautiful visiting writer and her husband arrive on campus, they turn the MacKenzies' marriage topsy-turvy.

SOLDIERS TO CITIZENS by Suzanne Mettler, PhD '94 (Oxford University Press). The G.I. Bill was one of America's most successful government initiatives. Over half of World War II veterans used the program to attend college or gain vocational training.Mettler, an associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, shows how the G.I. Bill transformed lives and enriched democracy.

THE WHITE HOUSE LOOKS SOUTH by William E. Leuchtenburg '43 (Louisiana State University Press). According to Leuchtenburg, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson each "had one foot below the Mason-Dixon Line, one foot above." Their connections with the South gave these presidents empathy toward the region that allowed Southerners to adopt a national perspective without losing their distinctive sense of place. The book is the winner of the Jules and Frances Landry Award.

Recently Published | Fiction

AMAZING GRACE by Megan Shull '91, PhD '98 (Hyperion). Teenage tennis star Grace "Ace" Kincaid seems to have everything—milliondollar endorsements and a modeling career— but the limelight leaves her dissatisfied. So she throws away the myth of perfection and sets out for a new life in Alaska.

EVERYONE WORTH KNOWING by Lauren Weisberger '99 (Simon & Schuster). The second novel from the author of the best-selling The Devil Wears Prada tells the story of a young woman who quits her banking job and joins a PR agency for the beautiful people.

PERFECT KILLER by Lewis Perdue '72 (Forge). Neurosurgeon Aaron Stone uncovers a conspiracy that involves a presidential candidate damaged by a drug that turns soldiers into sociopathic killers.

AMERICAN TRASH by Betty Dylan [Dan Dubelman '87] (Daz Unlimited). The novel and its accompanying CD tell the rock-and-roll love story of Billy and Rosanna in prose and fourteen songs.

THE NANNY MURDERS by Merry Bloch Jones '70 (St. Martin's Press). Zoe Hayes uncovers a grisly secret in her normally peaceful Philadelphia neighborhood. Detective Nick Stiles enlists Zoe to help find the man who is killing local nannies.

Recently Published | Non-fiction

VAN LOON by Cornelis A. van Minnen (Palgrave MacMillan). The Dutch-American writer Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882-1944), Class of 1905, was a popular historian, journalist, and radio commentator and one of the first to warn America about the threat of Nazi Germany. This biography by a professor of American history at Ghent University shows van Loon's place in American cultural life, where he counted among his friends Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sinclair Lewis, Fiorello La Guardia, Albert Einstein, and Archibald MacLeish.

ANATOMY OF THE WOODCHUCK by A.J. Bezuidenhout and H.E. Evans (American Society of Mammalogists). A senior lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and an emeritus professor of veterinary and comparative anatomy at the College of Veterinary Medicine provide "a quantum advance" in the anatomical information available on the woodchuck, the world's most common marmot species.

NEW JERSEY IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION edited by Barbara J.Mitnick '61 (Rivergate Books/Rutgers University Press). During the Revolutionary War, more battles were fought in New Jersey than in any other state.Mitnick, an art historian and adjunct professor of American history painting at Drew University, and the book's contributors explore the events that made New Jersey the "crossroads of the Revolution."

PERFORMANCE WITHOUT COMPROMISE by Charles F. Knight '57, MBA '59, and Davis Dyer (Harvard Business School Press). The CEO emeritus of Emerson Corporation reveals the management techniques that made his company a leader in technology and the global market.

WORK AND THE WORKPLACE by Sheila H. Akabas '51 and Paul A. Kurzman (Columbia University Press). The director of the Center for Social Policy and Practice in the Workplace and a professor at the Hunter College School of Social Work point to the potential inherent in a collaboration among management, labor, social work, and government.

SELLING & COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR LAWYERS by Joey Asher '84 (ALM Publishing). The president of Speechworks provides advice for lawyers on how to expand their practices and communicate better with clients.

INTRODUCING GAME THEORY AND ITS APPLICATIONS by Elliott Mendelson, PhD '55 (Chapman & Hall). A professor emeritus of mathematics at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate School analyzes combinatorial games such as chess, Nim, and Hex, and discusses applications of game theory in economics, business, biology, and political science.

U.S. ARMY FORCES IN THE KOREAN WAR 1950–53 by Donald W. Boose Jr. '62 (Osprey Publications). Boose examines the combat mission, organization, and evolution of the Eighth Army in Korea, the largest field army the United States ever sent into combat.

BIG IDEAS/SMALL PACKAGES by Josh Owen '93, BFA '94 (Woodsphere Publishing). Owen, an architect/designer, produced this monograph in conjunction with his solo exhibition at 222gallery in Philadelphia.

NICARAGUA by Randy Wood '94 and Joshua Berman (Moon Handbooks). An updated guide to travel in Nicaragua, from bustling Managua to colonial cities to offbeat mountain hikes and visits to the Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

Recently Published | Children's

SHANGHAI MESSENGER by Andrea Chang '79, MA '82, with drawings by Ed Young (Lee & Low Books). Eleven-year-old Xiao Mei travels alone from Ohio to visit her relatives in Shanghai, China, recording in free verse her impressions of the strange and the familiar.