Off the Shelf

Words Worth a Second Look

N o n f i c t i o n

Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Save Them
By Kimberly Lisagor and Heather Hansen ’94
(Vintage Books)

Eco-tourists need look no further than Disappearing Destinations for a guide to Earth’s breathtaking but beleaguered splendors. From Puerto Rico’s phosphorescent bays to the boreal forests of Finland, the authors show environmentally responsible travelers how to enjoy (and preserve) fascinating but fragile wonders on all seven continents.

Heather Baukney Hansen is a freelance journalist, environmentalist, and world traveler based in Colorado.

Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema
By Angela Dalle Vacche MA’80
(University of Texas Press)

The “diva film” became popular around the turn of the twentieth century, as artists questioned what it meant to be human in an increasingly mechanistic world. Diva is the first authoritative study of this genre, whose films denounced social evils and explored new models of behavior between the sexes.

Angela Dalle Vacche, an internationally recognized expert in European cinema, is an associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Literature, Communication, and Culture. 

A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade
By Christopher Benfey
(The Penguin Press)

A meditation on a moment in history, Benfey’s book seeks to show how some of the most famous writers of the nineteenth century responded to the Civil War and the era’s dynamic aesthetic, in part, with allusions in their work to the effervescent hummingbird.

Christopher Benfey, professor of English at MHC and an Emily Dickinson scholar, is also a critic and essayist.

The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama
Edited by Gabrielle H. Cody ’78 and Evert Sprinchorn
(Columbia University Press)

This 1,700-page reference highlights the interdisciplinary nature of modern drama by placing playwrights and plays within their social, cultural, and historical contexts. The editors take a global look at drama in the literary sense, providing concise entries and offering new perspectives on familiar figures, movements, and texts.

Gabrielle Hamilton Cody is professor of drama at Vassar College and the author of Impossible Performances: Duras as Dramatist; Direction: Essays on 20th Century Theater; and Annie Sprinkle Solo.

Beating Lyme: Understanding and Treating This Complex and Often Misdiagnosed Disease
By Constance A. Bean ’49 with Lesley Ann Fein, MD, MPH
(AMACOM)

Lyme is the fastest-growing infectious disease in America, and—if misdiagnosed—can result in chronic, debilitating symptoms. Beating Lyme helps explain the prevention, diagnosis, and antibiotic treatments available to beat the disease that afflicts 1.7 million people worldwide.

Constance Austin Bean is the author of six previous books, including Methods of Childbirth, a classic of the natural-childbirth movement.

Eat Smart in Sicily: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods, & Embark on a Tasting Adventure
By Joan Peterson and Marcela Croce CG’72
(Gingko Press)

This guidebook provides a historical overview of the peoples who have contributed to Sicilian cuisine, and the distinct fare of the villages and cities of Sicily’s four regions. It includes a guide to Sicilian menus, how to shop for traditional ingredients, and a glossary of foods.

Marcela Croce was born in Sicily and organizes Elderhostel programs there for Trinity College. For a schedule of Croce’s book tour, scroll down to the end of this page.


What This Cruel War Was Over: Slavery and the Civil War
By Chandra Manning ’93
(Alfred A. Knopf )

Using wartime correspondence, this book traces the evolution of Union and Confederate soldiers’ attitudes about slavery and patriotism. It shows both the increasing centrality of slavery to the Union’s crusade as well as the centrality of slavery and racial ideology to the Confederate national identity.

Chandra Miller Manning is assistant professor of history at Georgetown University.

Size Matters: The Hard Facts About Male Sexuality That Every Woman Should Know
By Harry Fisch, MD, and Kara Baskin ’00
(Random House)

Just what goes on inside a guy’s underpants? Size Matters is a humorous, engaging, and candid conversation between a doctor, the director of Columbia University’s Male Reproductive Center, and a patient, with writer Kara Baskin acting as “Everywoman.” The conversation revolves around questions that every woman has about men’s private parts—but rarely has a chance to address.

Kara Baskin is the editor of The Boston Globe’s “Lola” magazine, and has written for The New Republic, Slate, the Washington Post, The Boston Phoenix, and NPR.org. She lives in Boston.

 
A Sojourn in Tropical Medicine: Francis O’Connor’s Diary of a Porto Rican Trip, 1927
Edited by Raul Mayo Santana, Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano ’65, and Jose G. Rigau-Perez
(The University of Puerto Rico Press)

This book contains an annotated version of the diary of a tropical medicine specialist who spent eighteen days in Puerto Rico during a time of great colonial tension on the island. The diary reveals the pretensions and prejudices of a masterful clinician who engaged in a whirlwind of teaching, fieldwork, and writing. Included are essays by de Arellano as well as by Silvia Rabionet ’79.

Annette Biscombe Ramirez de Arellano is coauthor of Colonialism, Catholicism, and Contraception: A History of Birth Control in Puerto Rico.

Out of the Fog: Meditations for Believers and Skeptics
By Sarah Clark ’63
(Xlibris)
Writing of good and evil, sorrow and joy, nature and nurture, Clark offers meditations for all seasons of the year and spirit. With humor and reverence, she calls us to recognize and share the love and happiness in our lives.

The Reverend Sarah E. Clark was a playwright, journalist, bookstore clerk, Tupperware dealer, actress, teacher, and publicist before becoming a parish minister.

Radical Sisters: Second-Wave Feminism and Black Liberation in Washington, D.C.
By Anne M. Valk ’86
(University of Illinois Press)

Radical Sisters uncovers the often fruitful but divisive connections between the 1960s movements for urban change, welfare rights, reproductive control, and black liberation, while detailing their impact on the ideals of modern feminism.

Anne M. Valk is associate director of programs for the John Nicholas Brown Center at Brown University.

Legendary Long Islanders: Interviews With Famous Residents From the Hamptons to New York
By Helene Herzig ’49
(Mixed Media Memoirs)

Herzig has collected more than seventy of her interviews with Long Island, New York, celebrities and entrepreneurs written over a twenty-year period when she was feature editor of North Shore Magazine. Personalities include Martha Stewart, Billy Joel, and Kiri Te Kanawa as well as artists, astronauts, and politicians.

Helene Phillips Herzig lives on Long Island and in Palm Beach.

Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650–1750
By Tanya Kevorkian ’87
(Ashgate Press)

Kevorkian has reconstructed the social background of Johann Sebastian Bach’s work in Leipzig. She examines his church music audiences and their behavior, and relates Bach’s working conditions to a broader urban context. She shows that high Baroque culture emerged through both traditional practices and an infusion of change after 1680.

Tanya Kevorkian is associate professor of history at Millersville University in Pennsylvania.


To Jane and Yongxiu, China Letters 1981–2002
By Jane McCall Babson’47 and Yongxiu Pang
(The Winstead Press Ltd.)

The story told in these letters begins in 1981, when Jane Babson visited China and met Yongxiu Pang, her tour guide. Wanting to improve her English, Yongxiu asked Jane to begin a correspondence, which over the years covered world events, their professional lives, and personal benchmarks. Their friendship continues today; Yongxiu now lives in Canada.

Jane McCall Babson is a writer and artist. She is the former curator of prints at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

F i c t i o n

Tomboy
By Nina Bouraoui; translated by Marjorie Attignol Salvodon ’89 and Jehanne-Marie Gavarini
(University of Nebraska Press)

This translation of a best-selling French coming-of-age novel introduces Nina, a French-Algerian girl deeply conflicted about her identity. First, she becomes a tomboy to escape Arab culture’s limits on female behavior. Later, Nina forges a more feminine identity as a French girl, only to be constantly reminded that she is a foreigner.

Marjorie Attignol Salvodon is an associate professor of French at Suffolk University in Boston who wishes she was “still taking classes taught by professors Joan Cocks, Samba Gadjigo, Elissa Gelfand, Jean Grossholtz, Richard Johnson, and Jacques-Henri Périvier.”

The Royal Baker’s Daughter
By Barbara Goldberg ’63
(University of Wisconsin Press)

In this collection of poems, cooking is used as a metaphor for the creation of human hope. “Elegant and earthy,” according to the poet David St. John, the poems “reveal the inner workings of the human psyche and show us that sometimes the best defense against terror is making mischief.”

Barbara Heymann Goldberg is the coeditor of an anthology of contemporary Israeli poetry, After the First Rain: Israeli Poems on War and Peace.

Zapped
By Carol Higgins Clark ’78
(Scribner)

A blackout in New York City is the setting for the precarious and humorous escapades of a cast of eclectic characters including private investigator Regan Reilly. Burglars, a disgruntled lover, and a nearly famous actress populate this fun mystery during one very dark and hot summer night.

Carol Higgins Clark is the author of ten previous Regan Reilly mysteries.

A Civil War Love Story
By Laura Gott Dondey ’48
(Driftwood Press)

This book consists of Civil War letters between Laura’s great grandparents, and her fictionalized account of the events of the day. Spencer and Mary Lincoln grew up as neighbors in Ohio, married in 1853, and set out to homestead in Wisconsin. Her great-grandfather enlisted in the Union Army in 1864, and the couple lovingly corresponded until he returned a few months later, stricken with a fatal fever.

Laura Gott Dondey has lived in France for more than fifty years.

Y o u n g  R e a d e r s

The Wakame Gatherers
By Holly Thompson ’81
(Shen’s Books)

Holly Thompson’s picture book for children features bicultural Nanami, who goes wakame seaweed gathering with her Japanese and American grandmothers. During their day at the shore, Nanami serves as translator for the two women, whom she comes to understand were at war when they were her age. Included is a note about wakame, a glossary of Japanese words used, and recipes for wakame.

Holly A. Thompson is the author of the novel Ash and a longtime resident of Japan. She teaches creative writing at Yokohama City University. Visit her site at www.hatbooks.com.

Itty & Bitty on the Road
By Nancy Carpenter Czerw ’74
(McWitty Press)

Itty and Bitty, the Felix and Oscar of the miniature equine set, take a cross-country trip to see other members of their clan—zebras at a zoo, and fillies at a horse show. Czerw’s playful rhymes and illustrator Rose Mary Berlin’s fanciful watercolors make this third book in the series fun for all young readers.

Nancy Carpenter Czerw is the author of Itty & Bitty: Two Miniature Horses and Itty & Bitty: Friends on the Farm.

2008 lecture tour by Marcella Croce ’72 and book presentation of Eat Smart in Sicily by Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce (Ginkgo Press, 2008)
Please confirm exact location and times with sources below.

10 NOVEMBER
ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE—WASHINGTON
3000 Whitehaven Street NW, Washington, D.C., 6:30 p.m.
Tel.: 202-518-0998 Fax: 202-518-0399
E-mail: iicwashington@esteri.it

13 NOVEMBER
ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE—SAN FRANCISCO
425 Washington Street, San Francisco, 6:30 p.m.
Tel.: 415-788-7142 Fax: 788-6389
Homepage: www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it

17 NOVEMBER
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY
Smith Memorial Center, room 333, 6 p.m.
Portland, Oregon
503-725-9576 dept: 503-725-3522 fax: 503-725-5276

19 NOVEMBER
ITALIAN CULTURAL CENTER SOCIETY—VANCOUVER
3075 Slocan Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 7 p.m.
Phone: 604-430-3337 Fax: 604-430-3331
The Broken Memory—100th Anniversary of the Messina and Reggio Calabria Earthquake

21 NOVEMBER
ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE, VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA
Fletcher Challenge Theatre, Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street, 6 p.m.
604-688-0809 Fax: 688-2147
Homepage: www.iicvancouver.esteri.it
E-mail: iicvancouver@esteri.it