Hot Type

Brycchan Carey and Geoffrey Plank ’80 (editors), Quakers & Abolition, University of Illinois Press, 2014; 264 pp. This book comprises 15 essays that embody the various and scattered Quaker perspectives on slavery.

Tamar Chansky ’84 Freeing Your Child From Anxiety (revised and updated edition), Harmony Books, 2014; 468 pp. With fun and effective tools for helping children combat anxiety, this updated parents’ guide helps prepare children to handle the pressures of a competitive, test-driven culture.

Robert George ’77, Conscience and its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2013; 290 pp. This book uses scientific research and philosophical and constitutional teachings to defend the author’s avid social- conservative stance against abortion, gay marriage, embryonic research, and assisted suicide.  

Rashelle Isip ’03, How to Plan a Great Event in 60 Days, self-published, 2014; 195 pp. This clearly written and detailed e-book covers the basics of event staging—from securing and preparing a venue to event creation, including elements such as decorations, invitations, and refreshments—and allows for a surprisingly stress-free experience.

Gregory Kaebnick ’86, Humans in Nature: The World as We Find It and The World as We Create It, Oxford University Press, 2014; 198 pp. Humans in Nature confronts a long-standing concern about whether or not humans are altering nature too much. 

Noah Efron ’82, A Chosen Calling: Jews in Science in the Twentieth Century, Johns Hopkins University Press and Hebrew Union College Press, 2014; 149 pp. A Chosen Calling refutes the popular belief that Jews’ success in science is related to their biological traits.

Maya Shanbhag Lang ’00, The Sixteenth of June, Scribner, 2014; 256 pp. Set in Philadelphia, this novel shows a family on the brink of change. In a single day, Leopold Portman, his fiancée, Nora, and brother Stephen attend a funeral and an annual community gathering. Tensions and hidden yearnings are revealed.

Cullen Hendrix and Marcus Noland ’81, Confronting the Curse: The Economics and Geopolitics of Natural Resource Development, Institute for International Economics, 2014; 188 pp. This book analyzes the “resource curse” that often afflicts poor countries being developed for their abundance of natural resources.

David Rosenbaum ’73, It’s a Jungle in There, Oxford University Press, 2014; 254 pp. Rosenbaum inventively illustrates cognitive processing, elucidating his theory that neural elements are just as competitive and prone to evolution as jungle animals. 

Ralph Lee Smith ’51, The Seeds of Love: Twenty-four English Folk Songs with Twelve American Versions from the Cecil Sharp Collection, Roots & Branches Music, 2014; 60 pp. Selected and arranged with Madeline MacNeil, Smith’s compilation of English folk songs from Cecil Sharp’s collection represents some of the most memorable and cherished dulcimer and traditional Appalachian music of the early 1900s.  

Betsy Kreuter Rymes ’87, Communicating Beyond Language: Everyday Encounters with Diversity, Routledge, 2014; 130 pp. The author explains why and how communication should be considered in multicultural workplaces, schools, and other social spheres.

Kenneth Turan ’67, Not to be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites From a Lifetime of Film, Public Affairs, 2014; 344 pp. Blending cultural criticism, historical anecdote, and inside-Hollywood controversy, veteran movie critic Turan shares a selection of favorites that includes the best of cinema’s romances, comedies, dramas, and thrillers. 

Christine Shepardson ’94, Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Religious Controversy, University of California Press, 2014; 312 pp. Taking a historical and developmental look at fourth-century Antioch (Antakya, Turkey), this book reveals the careful, meticulous manipulation of physical places and contests of rhetoric. Shepardson provides historical analysis of evolving power and religion in the late Roman Empire.  

Julia Stock Sarreal ’94, The Guarani and Their Missions: A Socioeconomic History, Stanford University Press, 2014; 335 pp. Between 1768 and 1800, the Guarani economy, built by prosperous Catholic missions of the Rio de la Plata along the Argentina-Uruguay border, plummeted along with the mission population. Archival materials provide context for the socioeconomic decline of the Guarani.