BOOKSHELF
The New
Prince: Machiavelli Updated for the Twenty-First Century by
Dick Morris '67. President Clinton's former chief political
strategist updates one of his Contemporary Civilization texts,
arguing (without a trace of irony) that self-serving politicians
should pursue issues and ideals rather than devoting themselves to
negative campaigns and tactics (Renaissance Books,
$22.95).
Timbuktu:
A Novel by Paul Auster '69. Mr. Bones, the faithful and
articulate mutt belonging to Willy G. Christmas, an ill and
troubled Brooklyn loner, recounts the adventures that begin when he
sets out with his master to find Willy's high school mentor in
Baltimore (Henry Holt, $22).
The
Superman Complex: Achieving the Balance that Leads to True
Success by [William R.] Max Carey [Jr.] '69. Recounting his own
"dangerously exaggerated need to succeed," a fighter pilot turned
businessman identifies a dangerous, self-created source of burnout
and ways to combat it (Longstreet, $22).
The
Restitution of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism
by Michael D. Aeschliman '70, foreword by George Gilder. A reissue
of the acclaimed study of the author, philosopher, and Christian
apologist, who became an opponent of reductive scientism and a
champion of "the immeasurable worth of man" (Wm. B. Eerdmans, $12
paper).
Shall I
Say a Kiss? The Courtship Letters of a Deaf Couple, 1936-1938,
edited by Lennard J. Davis '70, preface by Gerald J. Davis.
Intimate correspondence between a young, deaf working class Jewish
Englishwoman and her deaf suitor in America is both a love story
and a portrait of deaf culture in the years preceding World War II
(Gallaudet University Press, $29.95).
When
Seconds Count by Alex Sachare '71. The author, editor of
Columbia College Today as well as The Official NBA Basketball
Encyclopedia, counts down the most exciting finishes to basketball
games of all time on all levels: high school, college, pro and
Olympics, women's hoops as well as the men's game (Sports
Publishing, Inc., $22.95).
The Water
We Drink: Water Quality and Its Effects on Health by Joshua I.
Barzilay '72, Winkler G. Weinberg, and J. William Eley. The
authors, all physicians, warn of potential health dangers inherent
in ordinary drinking water and offer practical measures to
safeguard water quality (Rutgers University Press, $40 cloth, $17
paper).
Chaos,
Power, and Accountability in the Information Age by David Brown
'75. The author argues that issues of control and responsibility
cannot be avoided as modern man pursues an electronic golden age in
the new frontier of cyberspace (Viking). Gross Indecency: The Three
Trials of Oscar Wilde. A play by Moisés Kaufman, with an
afterword by Tony Kushner '78. This play, says Kushner, "thoroughly
succeeds in conveying some of the best" of Wilde as it dramatizes
the trials for homosexual activity that led to his incarceration
(Vintage, $10 paper).
New Negro,
Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism Between the
Wars by William J. Maxwell '84. A study of the Harlem
Renaissance, emphasizing previously unexplored connections and
reciprocal debts between pre-World War II African-American literary
culture and the Comintern's revolutionary political program
(Columbia University Press, $49.50 cloth, $17.50 paper).
The
Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley, edited by
David Weiner '92 and Marc Berley '85; afterword by Dennis Prager.
Students at the University of California's Boalt Law School
(including editor Weiner) contributed essays describing and
decrying the repression of free speech on campus for the sake of a
delusory diversity (Foundation for Academic Standards &
Traditions, $12.95 paper).
Fish
Habitat: Essential Fish Habitat and Rehabilitation, edited by
Lee R. Benaka '91. Proceedings from a 1998 symposium where
scientists, fisheries managers, environmentalists, and industry
representatives offered a fish-eye view of habitat and how human
and natural events affect aquatic ecosystems (American Fisheries
Society, $55).
The Ladies
Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis '95. In this first novel, an Orthodox
Jewish community in Memphis, where "Shalom y'all" is a standard
greeting, is threatened by the arrival of a charming newcomer
(Norton, $23.95).
The
Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature: Readings from Western
Antiquity to the Present Day, edited by Byrne R. S. Fone. A
compendium, ranging from Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad to the
poetry of Allen Ginsberg '48, of friendship, love and sex between
men (Columbia University Press, $39.50).
Women and
Society in Greek and Roman Egypt: A Sourcebook, edited by Jane
Rowlandson, with the collaboration of Roger Bagnall, Professor of
Classics, et al. An anthology for non-specialists of the rich and
varied evidence documenting women's lives in Greco-Roman Egypt
(Cambridge University Press, $64.95).
From
Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race,
1896-1954 by Lee D. Baker, Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
An exploration of the impact of racial categories in American
public life, and of anthropology's role in shaping public
perceptions of race and racial policies (University of California
Press, $40 cloth, $17.95 paper).
History in
Our Time by David Cannadine, Professor of History. This festive
and high-spirited collection of reviews and essays range from
comments on the work of other historians to the death of Princess
Diana (Yale University Press, $25).
The
Longman Anthology of British Literature: Volume One, David
Damrosch, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, general
editor. The first new anthology of British literature in a quarter
century ranges from an extensive selection of medieval literature
(co-edited by Barnard Professor Christopher Baswell) to Oliver
Goldsmith's The Deserted Village (Longman, $52 paper).
The
Longman Anthology of British Literature: Volume Two, David
Damrosch, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, general
editor. The section on the literature of the Victorian period in
this exhaustive compilation of British literature from the
Romantics to the present was co-edited by William Sharpe '73,
professor of English at Barnard (Longman, $52 paper).
|