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BOOKSHELF

The Best American Essays 1998, edited by Cynthia Ozick. This collection of essays includes Louis Simpson '48 on his slow recovery, during his Columbia years, from combat fatigue following World War II, and Diana Trilling on her visit with husband Lionel Trilling '25 to the JFK White House (Houghton Mifflin, $13 paper).

The Truman Doctrine of Aid to Greece: A Fifty-Year Retrospective, edited by Eugene T. Rossides '49, with an introduction by Demetrios James Caraley, Robb Professor of Social Sciences, Barnard College. International contributors discuss the background of the Truman Doctrine, assess Greece's role in containing the spread of communism, and envision a future Mediterranean balance of power (Academy of Political Science/American Hellenic Institute, $20 paper).

The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China, edited by Red Pine and Mike O'Connor, introduction by Andrew Schelling. This selection from 1,500 years of Buddhist monastic verse includes poetry by Ch'i-chi (864-937), translated by Burton Watson '50, editor of The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry (Wisdom Press, $15.95).

The Moral Dimensions of Academic Administration by Rudolph H. Weingartner '50. The special characteristics of institutions of higher learning make their administration a special calling, more akin to managing hospital care for patients than a customer-driven business (Rowman and Littlefield, $58 cloth, $22.95 paper). Connections & Disconnections: Between Linguistics, Morality, Religion and Democracy by Tim Cooney '52 and Beth Preddy. A lively series of dialogues on the causes of anger within families and nations became the inspiration and cornerstone of the Democracy-via-the-Web (www.dvw.net) website (Cross Cultural Publications, $28.95).

Ethics and Authority in International Law by Alfred P. Rubin '52. This sobering assessment of international law argues that modern efforts to punish terrorism and war crimes will founder on the same issues that hindered attempts to stop the slave trade and piracy in the early nineteenth century (Cambridge University Press, $59.95).

Czechoslovakia's Lost Fight for Freedom, 1967-1969: An American Embassy Perspective by Kenneth N. Skoug, Jr. '53. A firsthand account by an American foreign service officer of the hopeful revolution of the "Prague Spring" and the ensuing Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (Praeger Publishing, $65).

Just the Weigh You Are: How to Be Fit and Healthy, Whatever Your Size by Steven Jonas '58 and Linda Konner. A "big picture plan for health" allows a natural approach to improve the diet, fitness and lives of everyone, including the majority of us not built like supermodels (Houghton Mifflin, $13 paper).

Memory Effects: Poems by Roald Hoffmann '59. The third volume of verse from an author perhaps better known for winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1981 (Calhoun Press, $9 paper).

Transforming Madness: New Lives for People Living with Mental Illness by Jay Neugeboren '59. An overview of mental illness that humanizes the plight of those afflicted while surveying new, effective approaches for dealing with the problem (William Morrow, $25).

Corpus Christi: A Play by Terrence McNally '60. A controversial retelling of the passion story, centered around the struggles of a young gay man, which was staged in New York in the spring of 1999 to mixed reviews and protests from religious groups (Grove Press, $12 paper).

Stranger in the Nest: Do Parents Really Shape Their Child's Personality, Intelligence or Character? by David B. Cohen '63. This contribution to the perennial nature vs. nurture debate insists that children are born with fundamental predilections and attributes outside the control of parents or the style of parenting (John Wiley & Sons, $27.95).

Dance for a City: Fifty Years of the New York City Ballet, edited by Lynn Garafola with Eric Foner '63, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History. As the vehicle for choreographer George Balanchine's unique genius, the New York City Ballet has been central not only to the cultural life of the city but also to the development of an American dance aesthetic (Columbia University Press, $57.50).

Illusions of Prosperity: America's Working Families in an Age of Economic Insecurity by Joel Blau '66. Arguing that the free market has been disastrous for all but the richest 20 percent of Americans, a SUNY Stony Brook professor proposes energetic government intervention to offset the deficiencies of laissez faire and ensure economic security (Oxford University Press, $30).

The Story of Libraries from the Invention of Writing to the Computer Age by Fred Lerner '66. From the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress, a history of the evolution of libraries, the role they play in society and people's fascination with recording human experience (Continuum, $24.99).

Mark Twain Remembers: A Novel by Thomas Hauser '67. It's 1910, and a dying Samuel Clemens looks back on his life along the Mississippi, in an America that went from the Civil War to the Gilded Age (Barricade Books, $20 paper).

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