Son by Lois Lowry ’58 (Houghton Mifflin). In her final sequel to the classic 1963 novel The Giver, Lowry ties together its haunting threads in a paean to human connection. Banned by some schools for broaching such adult topics as euthanasia and suicide, The Giver is credited with sparking the current craze for dystopian young adult novels. With Son, the two-time Newbery Medal winner upends the genre she created.
The Secret Life of Objects by Dawn Raffel ’79 (Jaded Ibis). Each of these lyrical little essays—some just a paragraph long—is a tiny story about an ordinary household object. Like verses in a poem, they string together in a multigenerational story packed with gifts, friendship, loss, and, yes, stuff.
The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Changed America by James T. Patterson (Basic Books). The first six months of President Johnson’s first full term seemed to herald a golden age of liberalism, with Congress passing cornerstones of his Great Society: the Voting Rights Act, and Medicare and Medicaid. Over the summer that idealism gave way to violence, with riots in Watts and the escalation of the Vietnam War. Professor of History Emeritus James T. Patterson argues that 1965 split the country and sparked the conservative backlash that divides it still.
ALUMNI FICTION
Fragments of War by Mishka Gora ’98 AM (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform).
ALUMNI NON-FICTION
The Changing Nature of the Maine Woods by Andrew M. Barton ’80, with Alan S. White and Charles V. Cogbill (University of New Hampshire Press).
The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail by William Jeffrey Bolster ’84 AM (Belknap Press by Harvard University Press).
The Clinical Handbook for Surgical Critical Care, Second Edition by Kenneth W. Burchard ’69, MMSC ’71 (Informa Healthcare).
The Asperkid’s (Secret) Book of Social Rules: The Handbook of Not-So-Obvious Social Guidelines for Tweens and Teens with Asperger Syndrome by Jennifer Cook O’Toole ’97 (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).
Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine by Sienna R. Craig ’95 (University of California Press).
Hell of a Vision: Regionalism and the Modern American West by Robert L. Dorman ’85 AM, ’91 PhD (University of Arizona Press).
The Chappy Ferry Book: Back and Forth Between Two Worlds, 527 Feet Apart by Tom Dunlop ’84, photos by Alison Shaw (Vineyard Stories).
Sources of Vietnamese Tradition edited by George E. Dutton ’89, Jayne S. Werner, and John K. Whitmore (Columbia University Press).
Act. Adapt. Achieve: Find and Follow Your Path to Success by Dean Erickson ’82 (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform).
A Grief Unveiled: Fifteen Years Later by Gregory Floyd ’77 (Paraclete Press).
Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life by David Grinspoon ’82 (Ecco Press).
Bob Kuhn: Drawing on Instinct edited by Adam Duncan Harris ’92 (University of Oklahoma Press).
Taliesin Diary: A Year with Frank Lloyd Wright edited by Priscilla J. Henken and Sarah A. Leavitt ’94 AM, ’99 PhD (WW Norton and Company).
The Chinese Way to Wealth and Prosperity: 8 Timeless Strategies for Achieving Financial Success by Michael Justin Lee ’86 (McGraw Hill).
On Baking: A Textbook of Baking & Pastry Fundamentals, 3rd Edition by Priscilla A. Martel ’78, Sarah R. Labensky, and Eddy Van Damme (Prentice Hall).
Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting by Sianne Ngai ’93, ’95 MFA (Harvard University Press).
Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity by Ian Reifowitz ’93 (Potomac Books).
In the Crossfire: Marcus Foster and the Troubled History of American School Reform by John P. Spencer ’87 (University of Pennsylvania Press).
Making it in the Minors: A Team Owner’s Lessons in the Business of Baseball by Arthur P. Solomon ’61 and Allyn I. Freeman ’61 (McFarland & Co).
For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home edited by Keith Boykin, with essays including “Many Rivers to Cross” by Andre St. Clair Thompson ’05 (Magnus Books).
Borderline Slavery: Mexico, United States, and the Human Trade edited by Susan Tiano ’79 PhD, Moira Murphy-Aguilar ’85, and Brianne Bigej (Ashgate Publishing Company).
Advertising and Anthropology: Ethnographic Practice and Cultural Perspectives by Timothy de Waal Malefyt ’91 AM, ’91 PhD and Robert J. Morais (Berg Publishers).
What the Hoops Junkie Saw: Poems, Stories, and Reflections on the Passing Scene by John Walker ’64 AM, ’67 PhD (Prairie Dog Books).
FACULTY NON-FICTION
Historic Taverns of Rhode Island by Robert A. Geake (The History Press).
You Saved Me, Too: What a Holocaust Survivor Taught Me about Living, Dying, Fighting, Loving, and Swearing in Yiddish by Susan Kushner Resnick (skirt!).
Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy by Ted Widmer and Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion).
