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New releases from Cornellian scribes.

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WuDunn

A Path Appears

by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn ’81 (Knopf) 

The husband and wife team of Pulitzer Prizewinning journalists broadens the scope of their previous book, Half the Sky, which described the repression of women and girls in much of the world, to examine other obstacles to opportunity and how they might be overcome. “We spend trillions of dollars treating the symptoms of poverty,” they write. “But the more important challenge is to address underlying causes. Those of us who have won the lottery of birth have some responsibility to use our good fortune to help address these fundamental inequities.”

perryA String of Beads  by Thomas Perry ’69 (Mysterious). For almost twenty years, Seneca guide Jane Whitefield has helped victims of violence change their identities and escape their persecutors, but after being shot the last time she helped someone disappear, Jane tries to lead an ordinary life in the suburbs. When eight clan mothers show up at Jane’s house asking her to help find Jimmy, a childhood friend wrongly accused of murder, she feels duty-bound to honor the request. Not only must she help Jimmy avoid the police, she soon finds that a group of criminals are trying to kill him. cushmanBelligerent Muse by Stephen Cushman ’78 (North Carolina). “War destroys, but it also inspires, stimulates, and creates,” argues a professor of English at the University of Virginia in his analysis of memoirs, speeches, poetry, and stories by five of the best-known writers about the Civil War: Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, William Tecumseh Sherman, Ambrose Bierce, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. “Although writings provide keys to a historical understanding of the American Civil War, that understanding should not treat those writings simply as transparent windows opening onto the past. Those windows on the past will always be stained glass, sometimes only faintly tinted, sometimes richly colored.”
kirshnerAmerican Power after the Financial Crisis by Jonathan Kirshner (Cornell). The global financial crisis of 2007-08 was the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Kirshner, a professor of international political economy in Cornell’s Department of Government, argues that the crisis weakened American political power around the globe while increasing the influence of other nations, especially China. “One challenge to U.S. power,” he writes, “concerns the long-run trajectory of the dollar as an international currency. Its global reach will almost certainly be encroached on. The new international macroeconomic constraints facing the U.S. will encourage it to be more cautious on the world stage.” gabrielFarming the Woods by Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel (Chelsea Green). Mudge, an associate professor of horticulture at Cornell, and Gabriel, an ecologist, demonstrate how forest farms can be productive in terrain where the plow cannot reach. North America’s cool, temperate forests contain ginseng, edible mushrooms, ramps, maple, birch, and walnut syrups, berries, hazelnuts, paw-paws, and other fruits, as well as medicinal plants. The authors explain forest ecology and provide comprehensive information on designing a forest farm, creating a nursery, cultivating food crops, harvesting wood products, and integrating sustainable practices.

Fiction

In the Company of Sherlock Holmes edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus). An anthology of stories inspired by the Holmes canon, including works by, among others, Sara Paretsky, Michael Connelly, Harlan Ellison, and Michael Dirda, PhD ’77, book critic for the Washington Post.

Don’t Judge Me by Sylvie Fox (Jessica Gadsden, JD ’96) (Penner). Daisy Fletcher, webmaster for an adult site, has lost faith in the opposite sex, until she meets comedian Raphael Augustine, who up until that moment has had a history of one-night gigs and one-night stands.

Non-Fiction

The Happy Sleeper by Heather Turgeon ’98 and Julie Wright (Tarcher). A writer for the National Sleep Foundation shows parents how to help babies and young children fall asleep independently, sleep through the night, take healthy naps, and develop natural sleep patterns.

Exploring Southern Appalachian Forests by Stephanie B. Jeffries and Thomas R. Wentworth, PhD ’76 (North Carolina). A professor of biology at North Carolina State University and his colleague provide a hiking guide to the mountains of southern Appalachia, from short walks along the Blue Ridge Parkway to longer trips in the backcountry.

My Father’s House by Thomas Dumm, PhD ’85 (Duke). A professor of political ethics at Amherst College explores a group of haunting paintings of family, mortality, and the uncanny by the American artist Will Barnet.

Rise To the Top by Stacey Hawley ’96 (Career). An expert in executive compensation and talent management advises women on knowing their personality types, understanding how companies perceive them, navigating the corporate world, and using that knowledge to earn more money.

Poetry

The Red List by Stephen Cushman ’78 (Louisiana State). In this book-length poem, a professor of English at the University of Virginia meditates on the census of endangered species—the red list of the title—and about the overlapping layers of endangerment, whether environmental, social, or personal.

Children’s

Inside the Bee’s Hive by Karen Ang ’00 (Bearport). Young readers learn what bees look like, how they make their homes, and how they live.

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