Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War by Grace M. Cho '93 (Minnesota). In Korean, yanggongju translates "Western princess," but it's often used as a slur: "Yankee whore" or "GI bride." Since the Korean War, 100,000 Korean women have married GI's, a practice stigmatized in Korean culture. Cho's mother, a schizophrenic, was one of those brides. Cho cites the psychoanalytic theories of Nicholas Abraham and Maria Torok, arguing that one generation's secrets get passed to the next via "taboo words," which, unspoken, become "ghosts" in the unconscious. Cho's ghost was yanggongju. The American Sociologist named this 2010's best book on Asia and Asian America.

Happy Chic: Colors and Happy Chic: Accessorizing by Jonathan Adler '88 (Sterling). Design guru Adler shares his philosophy (and pictures of his houses) in two cheery guidebooks. Adler's a fan of tasteful, rigorous design, but too much can be heartless. "Where's the joie de vivre?" he writes. Chic, in turn, can be "cold and cruel." His recipe for success? Ninety-five percent chic plus five percent happy. A few of Adler's axioms: Your home should make you happy. Minimalism is a bummer. And handcrafted tchotchkes are life-enhancing.

Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom by Danya Macy '83 AM (Hay House). The daughter of a former model and an emotionally abusive father, Macy spent decades sating her yearnings and fending off fears with olives, sausage, chocolate, and cheese. Here she faces her obsessions head-on, visiting farms, cheese makers, a "humane" slaughterhouse. She fasts. She bakes brioche. She practices yoga. What she seeks and ultimately finds is balance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALUMNI NON-FICTION

How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play by Barbara Baig '71 (Writer's Digest).

The Great American Eat-Right Cookbook by Jeanne Besser '80 and Colleen Doyle (American Cancer Society).

The Productive Writer: Tips and Tools to Help You Write More, Stress Less, and Create Success by Sage Cohen '91 (FW Media).

Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL by N. Jeremi Duru '95 (Oxford University).

Choose Your Story, Choose Your Life: Tell Your Best Story to Create Your Best Life, and Learn the One Question You Must Ask! by Dean Erickson '82 (Bionic Publishing).

Damned If She Does, Damned If She Doesn't: Rethinking the Rules of the Game That Keep Women from Succeeding in Business by Lynn Cronin and Howard Fine '74 (Prometheus Books).

What Caused the Financial Crisis, edited by Jeffrey Friedman '83 (University of Pennsylvania).

Into the Sky with Diamonds: The Beatles and the Race to the Moon in the Psychedelic '60s by Ronald P. Grelsamer '75 (Hey Bulldog Press).

Climate Savvy: Adapting Conservation and Resource Management to a Changing World by Lara J. Hansen and Jennifer R. Hoffman '89 (Island Press).

All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly '89 (Free Press).

Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging by Eleana J. Kim '93 (Duke University).

Carolina Cottage: A Personal History of the Piazza House by Margaret Ruth Little '72 AM (University of Virginia).

Freelancing Expertise: Contract Professionals in the New Economy by Debra Osnowitz '74, '75 MAT (Cornell University).

Pinks, Pansies, and Punks: The Rhetoric of Masculinity in American Literary Culture by James Penner '95 AM (Indiana University).

Emerging Markets: Resilience and Growth Amid Global Turmoil by M. Ayhan Kose and Eswar S. Prasad '86 AM (Brookings Institution).

Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine: The United States, France, and Japan by Marc A. Rodwin '77 (Oxford University).

Mr. Funny Pants by Michael Showalter '92 (Grand Central Publishing).

Engineering Nature: Water, Development, and the Global Spread of American Environmental Expertise by Jessica B. Teisch '94 (University of North Carolina).

Balancing Acts: Youth Culture in the Global City by Natasha K. Warikoo '95 (University of California).

Sayville Orphan Heroes: The Cottages of St. Ann's by Jack Whitehouse '68 (History Press).

Creating the Nazi Marketplace: Commerce and Consumption in the Third Reich by S. Jonathan Wiesen '92 AM, '98 PhD (Cambridge University).

 

ALUMNI FICTION

Deus Ex Machina by Andrew Foster Altschul '91 (Counterpoint).

Mediterranean Grave: A Henry Grave Mystery by William Doonan '87 (BookYear Mysteries).

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas '02 (HarperCollins).

Leaving Eden by Liane Strauss '89 AM, PhD '93 (Salt Publishing).

Food and Worry and Six Words by Becky Wolsk '93 (Text Isle Patchwork).

 

CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION

June and the Raven King by Stephen Chambers '08 (Sourcebooks).