New books from the Brown community:
Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History by Molly Schiot ’03 (Simon & Schuster)
In 2013, Schiot, a Los Angeles filmmaker, grew frustrated when her pitches for documentaries on pioneering women athletes were routinely batted away. So she began posting pictures of female athletes on Instagram. That led to this, Schiot’s first book, full of generous images and biographical sketches of the well-known—like distance swimmer Diana Nyad—and the lesser known, such as Betty Robinson, the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field.
Other People: Takes & Mistakes by David Shields ’78 (Knopf)
There’s a bit of everything in this rangy collection of Shields’s nonfiction from the last three decades. In these seventy-four pieces you’ll find a carefully observed mix of memoir, profiles, and cultural criticism focused on fathers, mothers, women, athletes, love, failure, movies, fame, and desire. Some of these pieces are only a paragraph long, while others, such as one about Brown in the 1970s, are extended explorations. They’re not all hits (several of the smaller pieces feel more like glimpses), but they are all wrapped in Shields’s often glittering prose.
Defiant Braceros: How Migrant Workers Fought for Racial, Sexual, & Political Freedom by Mireya Loza ’06 AM ’11 PhD (North Carolina)
From 1942 to 1964 the Bracero Program brought contract workers from every state in Mexico to the United States, where most worked in the fields of California. Loza, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, worked on the museum’s Bracero History Project for six years, collecting oral histories from former guest workers. Here she explores life in the work camps and how the men responded to the layers of discrimination and exploitation they encountered. A very readable and relevant analysis.
ALUMNI FICTION
The Mask of Sanity by Jacob M. Appel ’96, ’96 AM (The Permanent Press)
One for the Ark by Mary Hutchings Reed ’73 AM (Amerpsand)
ALUMNI NONFICTION
Mary Robinson and the Genesis of Romanticism by Ashley Cross ’89 AM, ’94 PhD (Routledge)
The Big Buddha Bicycle Race by Terence A. Harkin ’68 (Silkworm Books)
The Mathematics of Secrets: Cryptography from Caesar Ciphers to Digital Encryption by Joshua Holden AM ’94, PhD ’98 (Princeton)
Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You’re Not) by Beth Kobliner ’86 (Simon & Schuster)
Madhouse: Psychiatry and Politics in Cuban History by Jennifer L. Lambe ’06, ’07 AM (North Carolina)
Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life by William V. Madison ’83 (Mississippi)
The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty by Jonathan Morduch ’85 and Rachel Schneider (Princeton)
Innovative Investigations of Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder edited by Letitia R. Naigles ’83 PhD (American Psychological Institution)
Steel: The Story of Pittsburgh's Iron and Steel Industry 1852-1902 by Dale Richard Perelman ’63 (Arcadia & The History Press)
Al-Tounsi by Anton Piatigorsky ’94 (Ankerwycke)
Race and the Brazilian Body: Blackness, Whiteness, and Everyday Language in Rio de Janeiro by Jennifer Roth Gordon ’94 (California)
Romance's Rival: Familiar Marriage in Victorian Fiction by Talia Schafer ’90 (Oxford)
Pick Nick: The Political Odyssey of Nick Galifianakis from Immigrant Son to Congressman by John E. Semonche ’54 (Tidal Press)
Truth from the Trenches: A Practical Guide to the Art of IT Management by Mark Settle ’79 PhD (Bibliomotion)
The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach ’10 PhD (Penguin)
The Great American Foot Race by Andrew Speno ’88 (Calkins Creek)
American Higher Education: Issues and Institutions by John R. Thelin ’69 (Routledge)
The Champion Mindset: An Athlete's Guide to Mental Toughness by Joanna Zeiger ’92 (St. Martin’s Press)
FACULTY NONFICTION
Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution by Peter Andreas (Simon & Schuster)
Extraordinary Science and Psychiatry: Responses to the Crisis in Mental Health Research edited by Jeffrey Poland and Serife Tekin (MIT)
FACULTY FICTION
Huck Out West: A Novel by Robert Coover (Norton)
