Bookshelf

Listen Up! Musings & Cartoons by Dr. Lawrence S. Harte ’53. Playful commentary on topics of the day from Flipdip the fantastical dog and his sidekick, Harte (BookBaby, $4.99 for Kindle).

The Finesse: Only a Last Resort by Dr. James Marsh Sternberg ’58. A finesse is one of the most common terms in bridge; in addition to his work in radiology, Sternberg is a champion bridge player and instructor (AuthorHouse, $17.99).

Sergeant Salinger: A Novel by Jerome Charyn ’59. Charyn imagines the famously reclusive author J.D. Salinger as a young WWII draftee, assigned to a band of secret soldiers to seek out and interrogate Nazi collaborators (Bellevue Literary Press, $16.59).

Before the Sidewalk Ended: A Walk with Shel Silverstein by Anthony Valerio ’62. Valerio memorializes his long friendship with author Silverstein against a backdrop of 1980s Greenwich Village (Audible audiobook, $5.99).

The Restoration of Man: C.S. Lewis and the Continuing Case Against Scientism by Michael D. Aeschliman ’70. Well-known for his Narnia books, Lewis was also a trained philosopher who critiqued the idea that science is the only path to knowledge; Aeschliman situates Lewis among other notable thinkers who weighed in on the issue (Discovery Institute, $14.95).

Giving My Father Back His Name: The Fuller Brush Man Meets the Great American Portrait Artist by Jerry Strauss ’77. The life story of Strauss’s father, a salesman and Holocaust survivor, and how he became a subject of painter Alice Neel (Independent Publisher, $17.95).

Bound in the Bond of Life: Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy edited by Beth Kissileff ’90. An anthology of essays by Pittsburgh journalists, academics, rabbis and other community members who try to come to terms with the horror of the murders of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in October 2018 (University of Pittsburgh Press, $25).

The New Normal: A Roadmap to Resilience in the Pandemic Era by Dr. Jennifer Ashton ’91. Ashton, ABC News’s chief medical correspondent, offers an essential toolkit for staying safe and sane in a rapidly changing world (William Morrow, $26.99).

Escape: One Day We Had to Run by Wah Chen ’92 and Ming Chen. The Chen sisters’ latest children’s book shares true stories of courageous people who had to leave their homes and families because of war, famine or persecution (Lantana Publishing, $17.99).

Opium and Absinthe: A Novel by Dr. Lydia Kang ’93. A young, drug-addicted woman investigates her sister’s death in turn-of-the-century New York City, and wonders whether the murder was committed by a vampire (Lake Union Publishing, $14.99).

Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone ’93. Stone, the bestselling author of The Everything Store, continues his investigation into Amazon and describes how a retail upstart became one of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy (Simon & Schuster, $30).

Get Money, Do Good: A True Story How-To by J.D. Vermaas ’95. In this adoption memoir, Vermaas details how she and her husband made a life-altering journey to rescue 11 South Asian children from slavery and sexual exploitation (Vermaas, $25.99).

I Had a Brother Once: A Poem, A Memoir by Adam Mansbach ’98. Mansbach chronicles the loss of his younger brother to suicide in this poetic meditation on mourning, ritual and faith (One World, $26).

The August Trials: The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland
 by Andrew Kornbluth ’04. The first account of the August Trials, initiated in Poland in 1944, that were meant to bring Nazi war criminals and their collaborators to justice (Harvard University Press, $45).

The Daylight Plays Tricks on Us by Julieanne Hoffmann ’16. Hoffmann’s poetry reflects opposing thoughts and changing emotions, the shifts from day to night and from security to anxiety (Julie Hoffmann, $9.50).

Monologues from the Makom: Intertwined Narratives of Sexuality, Gender, Body Image and Jewish Identity edited by Sarah J. Ricklan ’17, Rivka Cohen and Sara Rozner Lawrence. A collection of poetry and prose designed to break the observant Jewish community’s taboo against open discussion of female sexuality (Ben Yehuda Press, $14.95).

The We and They by Kyra Ann Dawkins ’20. Dawkins’s debut novel takes place in a world beset by famine, as a group of survivors gets lured in by bountiful but mysterious strangers (New Degree Press, $15.99).

— Jill C. Shomer