Bookshelf

Taking on Global Health Issues: Odyssey of a Developmental Pediatrician by Dr. Alfred Scherzer ’49. Scherzer’s memoir of his work in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific includes the establishment of organized government health education services (Lulu.com, $10).

All is For the Best by Richard Ascher ’55. A collection of darkly comedic short stories about a tribe of New Yorkers 1945–2010; some of the tales are drawn from real-life situations (Amazon Digital Services, $14.99).

Minyan: Ten Interwoven Stories by John J. Clayton ’56. A minyan is a group of Jews who meet to pray; these fictional stories, set in a congregation in Boston, consider the intersections of love, psychology and spirituality (Paragon House, $17.95).

MacKenzie’s Farewell by William Burley ’63. In this novel, two environmental activists must fight to prevent a nuclear waste dump from moving into a Connecticut town (iUniverse, $20.98).

Manci’s Girl: An Updated Noir Thriller by Bennett Alan Weinberg ’71. A young writer becomes entangled with a Philadelphia crime boss and his amoral former mistress in this first volume of the Bon Vivant Mystery series (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, $15).

Literary Awakenings: Personal Essays from the Hudson Review edited by Ronald Koury ’78. A collection of 18 essays about the many ways literature shapes our daily lives (Syracuse University Press, $24.95).

Christianity Matters: How Over Two Millennia the Meek and Merciful Revolutionized Civilization — And Why It Needs to Happen Again by David Maloof ’80. Maloof, a senior partner at an international law firm, describes and analyzes the effect that Christianity has had on world history (70x7 Publishing, $12.99).

Martian Dawn & Other Novels by Michael Friedman ’82. Readers will encounter “stardom, science fiction, movies, love affairs, twins, French people, writing colonies, parenting, missionaries, murder and holograms” in this trio of novellas (Little A, $14.95).

A Hero in Time by Dr. Peter J. Rappa ’83. A love story with a medical theme that features a mysterious trauma victim in a Texas hospital and the team of doctors trying to discover his identity (Build.Buzz.Launch Media & Publishing, $16.99).

Campus Politics by Jonathan Zimmerman ’83. The battle between freedom of expression and political correctness is heating up at many universities; Zimmerman, a professor of history and education at NYU, lays the groundwork for understanding both sides of the controversy (Oxford University Press, $16.95).

The Comfort of Strangers: Social Life and Literary Form by Gage McWeeny ’93. The author describes how literature of the 19th century changed as cities got bigger, going from stories of individuals and interiority to those representing experiences of life amidst strangers (Oxford University Press, $69).

World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech by Franklin Foer ’96. Foer, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, makes a case for challenging the power of Big Tech monopolies such as Facebook and Amazon (Penguin Press, $27).

Modern Hungers: Food and Power in Twentieth-Century Germany by Alice Weinreb ’99. During WWI and WWII, many countries experimented with feeding — and starving — entire populations. The author shows how this was especially significant in Germany, which struggled with agricultural crisis at the same time it was becoming a military powerhouse (Oxford University Press, $55).

Butcher Paper by Simeon Mills ’00. This graphic novel, available from a small boutique press in the Inland Northwest, “uses a straightforward visual vernacular to show you weird and impossible things that are nonetheless emotionally familiar” (Scabland Books, $15).

Crescendo: A Novel by Amy Weiss ’01. A spiritual story about a woman who struggles to find meaning in her life after the sudden death of her husband (Hay House, $14.99).

The Epiphany Machine by David Burr Gerrard ’03. A tragicomedy that provides an alternative history of New York City, shaped by a device that tattoos personalized, irreversible predictions on its users’ forearms (Penguin Random House, $27).

The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo ’03. The author’s debut novel tells the story of two Columbia seniors who meet and fall in love on 9-11 and spend the next decade being separated and reunited (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $25).

Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora by Joanna Dee Das ’05. Dunham was one of the first choreographers to conduct anthropological research about dance, which she translated into performance, education and scholarship (Oxford University Press, $34.95).

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker ’10. Parker’s second collection of poetry offers perspective on what it means to be a black woman in America today (Tin House Books, $14.95).

— Jill C. Shomer