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The Hole in America’s Soul

Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost by Benjamin P. Bowser, PhD ’76 (Cambria) Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost by Benjamin P. Bowser, PhD ’76 (Cambria) ‘By the standards of the African American past, gangster rap is insufficient to qualify as an art,” argues Bowser, an emeritus professor of sociology at California State University, East […]

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Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost by Benjamin P. Bowser, PhD ’76 (Cambria)

Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost

by Benjamin P. Bowser, PhD ’76 (Cambria)

‘By the standards of the African American past, gangster rap is insufficient to qualify as an art,” argues Bowser, an emeritus professor of sociology at California State University, East Bay. “It is racist pornography in blackface.” He contends that it creates a hole in society’s collective soul and destroys progress in racial tolerance. In contrast, hip hop and rap are positive articulations of American culture and expressions of young people’s search for peace and sanity. “Gangster rap,” he writes, “has reinforced white racism for all involved.”

The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle ’94 (Spiegel & Grau). The third novel by the award-winning author of The Ecstatic and Big Machine is the embodiment of a nightmare. When the police take the protagonist to a psychiatric hospital in Queens instead of arresting him for assault, he is admitted for observation, but his confinement soon stretches to months. On the first night, he’s attacked in his room by a grotesque creature with the head of a bison and the body of an old man. Struggling against the unsympathetic hospital staff, he enlists three patients in an alliance to slay the monster.

Gathering Noise from My Life by Donald Anderson, MFA ’89 (Iowa). In a book he calls a “camouflaged memoir,” a professor of English and writer in residence at the U.S. Air Force Academy deploys anecdotes, quotations, snapshots of history, and snatches of poetry to reveal his many-sided life. “We are where we’ve been and what we’ve read,” he writes. He examines memories of his upbringing in Montana, war, race, religion, his career as a writer and teacher, and the fascination with boxing—the sport in which individuals can “nearly grasp perfection”—that he shares with his father and grandfather.

The Gluten-Free Edge by Peter Bronski ’01 and Melissa McLean Jory (The Experiment). Celiac disease, an autoimmune response to gluten in the diet, affects an estimated 30 million Americans and is much more common today than it was fifty years ago. Bronski, the founder of the blog No Gluten, No Problem, advocates a gluten-free diet. “It is about regaining health and vitality,” he writes, “about not just improving quality of life, but about thriving. For athletes, it is about excelling in sport to your maximum potential; about gaining an edge that you may not have even realized was missing.”

The Normal Kid by Elizabeth Holmes, MFA ’87 (Carolrhoda Books). In Holmes’s third novel for young adults, fifth-grader Sylvan is obsessed with what it means to be normal and doesn’t want to hang out with “weirdos.” At the start of school, it doesn’t take him long to figure out who the weird kids are: Brian spends his afternoons alone jumping on the trampoline; Charity Jensen is having difficulty adjusting to home in America after several years in Africa. When they learn that the principal is going to fire their favorite teacher, Sylvan, Charity, and Brian become unlikely allies.

Fiction

The Forsaken by Lisa Wright Stasse ’96 (Simon & Schuster). In a debut novel set in a post-apocalyptic America, Stasse tells the story of Alenna Shawcross, who must learn to survive after she’s sent to a prison island for a crime she hasn’t committed yet..

The Machiavelli Letter by Thomas Quinn ’73 (Amazon). While doing research in Florence, Cornell professor Jack McNair, an authority on Machiavelli, discovers a long-lost letter by the Italian philosopher that contains a plan to dominate the world. Soon McNair realizes that America’s enemies are following the plan, and he enlists a group of former students to expose the plot and compel the White House to act before it’s too late.

Behind the Walls by Merry Jones ’70 (Severn House). Iraq War vet Harper Jennings receives a late-night visit from Zina, a cataloguer of artifacts for Cornell’s archeology department, who claims she’s seen a Pre-Columbian shape-shifter. But when Harper visits the collection, she finds Zina is dead. Her post-traumatic stress disorder soon resurfaces, and members of her former army unit die in mysterious ways.

The Maelstrom by Henry Neff ’95 (Random House). The fourth volume of author/illustrator Neff’s Tapestry series raises the stakes in mankind’s struggle against demons and demigods.

Glide by Bill Gourgey ’85 (Jacked Arts). An inventor learns about the dark environmental implications of his world-saving creations in a first novel that the author terms a work of “green sci-fi.”

Children’s

The Wednesdays by Julie Wallace Bourbeau, MS ILR ’98 (Random House). Strange things happen in Max’s village, but only on Wednesdays. When he investigates the cause, Max discovers a secret that turns his life upside down.

Big Mean Mike by Michelle Knudsen ’95; illustrated by Scott Magoon (Candlewick). A tough neighborhood dog changes his ways when he meets and befriends a little bunny.

Nimpentoad by Henry ’82, Josh, and Harrison Herz (Birch Tree). In this children’s fantasy, the Nimpentoad leads his fellow Niblings on a quest to reach a castle where they can find refuge from goblins, trolls, and other perils.

Non-Fiction

The Unofficial (and Slightly Irreverent) Cornell University Who’s Who by Michael Turback ’66 (History Company). Ranging from Ezra Cornell to the writer of “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” from E. B. White ’21 to Toni Morrison, MA ’55, and from Pop Warner, LLB 1894, to Margaret Bourke-White ’27, this reference profiles more than 200 Cornell­ians, both the famous and the infamous.

Tolstoy on War edited by Rick McPeak ’89 and Donna Tussing Orwin ’69 (Cornell). On the 200th anniversary of the French invasion of Russia, a group of historians, social scientists, philosophers, and literary critics commemorate War and Peace, Tolstoy’s epic meditation on war and history.

The Modernity Bluff by Sasha Newell, PhD ’03 (Chicago). A professor of anthropology at the College of the Holy Cross studies the subculture of bluffeurs—young men in the Cote d’Ivoire who buy European and American brands in order to appear sophisticated, gain respect, and get ahead.

Behind Closed Doors by Laura Stark ’98 (Chicago). An assistant professor of sociology at Wesleyan University examines how institutional review boards helped change the rules for the treatment of human research subjects.

Envisioning Disease, Gender, and War by Jane E. Fisher, PhD ’89 (Palgrave Macmillan). Drawing upon the novels and essays of Katherine Anne Porter, Willa Cather, and Virginia Woolf, an associate professor of English at Canisius College examines how women developed an appreciation of their own endurance in the aftermath of World War I and the influenza pandemic of 1918.

Moved by Politics by Gerhard Loewenberg ’49, PhD ’55 (Gray Pearl). In this memoir, a professor emeritus of political science tells of his family’s emigration from Nazi Germany in 1936, the changes in the academic world, and how he went on to become a Fulbright scholar and dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Iowa.

Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy by Richard L. Velkley ’70 (Chicago). A professor at Tulane University analyzes how Heidegger’s radical questioning of philosophical traditions influenced the work of Leo Strauss.

Intimate Distance by Michelle Bigenho, PhD ’98 (Duke). A prize-winning anthropological study about the cultural appropriation of Andean music by Japanese performers.

Enlightenment Orientalism by Srinivas Aravamudan, PhD ’91 (Chicago). In eighteenth-century Europe, Oriental tales were popular with ordinary readers as well as with writers such as Voltaire, Defoe, Montesquieu, and Swift. A professor of English and Romance studies at Duke University shows how these tales bridged the differences between civilizations.

Howard’s Gift by Eric Sinoway ’96 (St. Martin’s). The president and co-founder of Axcess Worldwide shares what he describes as the business acumen, keen perception, energetic spirit, and long-term vision of his mentor, the Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson.

Florida’s First Constitution by M. C. Mirow, JD ’86 (Carolina Academic). A professor of law at Florida International University explains the importance of the Spanish Constitution of Cádiz of 1812, which governed political life in early nineteenth- century colonial Florida before the territory was turned over to the United States.

Your Killer Emotions by Ken Lindner, JD ’78 (Greenleaf). A life coach shows readers how to identify personal emotional triggers and prevent negative emotions from affecting important decisions.

Artemisia annua, Artemisinin, ACTs & Malaria Control in Africa by Dana G. Dalrymple ’54, MS ’56 (Politics & Prose). An agricultural economist at the Agency for International Development draws attention to artemisinin, a compound in the medicinal plant Artemisia, which is now the most effective treatment against malaria in Africa.

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