Bookshelf

Weimar in Princeton: Thomas Mann and the Kahler Circle by Stanley Corngold ’55. Corngold describes Mann’s early years in America and how he became part of a gifted group of émigrés at Princeton (Bloomsbury Academic, $26.95).

Choke Hold: A Paranoid Thriller by Art Eisensen ’63. A man is framed for the murder of his wife in this mystery penned under the pseudonym Frank Steel (Kindle edition, $4.99).

Beat Blues: San Francisco, 1955 by Jonah Raskin ’63. Raskin’s novel is set in the time and place when the American counterculture was born (Coolgrove Press, $15.99).

Elmer and Virginia: A World War 2 Romance in Letters edited by John Odell ’68. Odell’s compilation was selected from hundreds of letters exchanged by his parents, Elmer Odell and Virginia Schill, while they were separated by war (Quickfoot Books, $19.50).

The Prince and the Emperors: The Life and Times of Rabbi Judah the Prince by Dov S. Zakheim ’70. A biographical account of the second-century rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and his interactions with the Roman empire (Koren Publishers Jerusalem, $29.95).

One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General by William Barr ’71. A candid account of Barr’s tenures serving two vastly different presidents, George H.W. Bush and Donald J. Trump (William Morrow, $35).

Painful Joy: A Holocaust Family Memoir by Max J. Friedman ’71. Friedman did five years of intensive research to unearth stories of his parents, who met in Sweden after being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (Amsterdam Publishers, $28.95).

New York: An Illustrated History (Revised and Expanded) by Ric Burns ’78 and James Sanders ’76 and with Lisa Ades. The authors’ acclaimed history of the city is updated with new chapters describing the last two tumultuous and transformative decades (Knopf, $33.99).

As I See It: A Life in Detours by Tom Kligerman ’79. Kligerman, an architect and avid traveler, captured vibrant images on his smartphone as he journeyed throughout the world; the collection includes QR codes that link to building sites and video content (Triglyph Books, $17.95).

Day of Days: September 11, 2001, A Novel of the Fire Service by Frank Napolitano ’86. The story of an FDNY engineman and jazz musician that culminates with the emergency response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (Toren James Publishing, $16.95).

Mass Pardons in America: Rebellion, Presidential Amnesty, and Reconciliation by Graham G. Dodds ’88. Dodds examines when and why Presidents have issued mass pardons and amnesties to deal with domestic rebellion and attempt to reunite the country (Columbia University Press, $35).

111 Places for Kids in New York That You Must Not Miss by Rachel Mazor ’98 and Evan Levy. This illustrated guide will inspire readers to explore new neighborhoods, treat the kids in their lives to unbelievable experiences and make the city their own (Emons Publisher, $23.95).

Am I My Brother’s Keeper: Educational Opportunities and Outcomes for Black and Brown Boys by Adrianna Villavicencio ’00. Villavicencio chronicles the Expanded Success Initiative, a four-year study focused on improving the educational outcomes of 15,000 Black and Latinx males in NYC public high schools (Harvard Education Press, $33).

Mother Ocean Father Nation: A Novel by Nishant Batsha ’10. Batsha’s debut tells the story of a brother and sister, Jaipal and Bhumi, whose paths diverge after a nationalist coup in the South Pacific in 1985 (Ecco, $26.99).

Mrs. Watson: Untold Stories by L.A. Fields ’14. This collection of historically inspired fiction investigates the friendship between Sherlock Holmes, his former lover Dr. Watson and the doctor’s clever and tolerant wife (Lethe Press, $15).

Queen of All (The Jena Cycle) by Anya Josephs ’16. In Josephs’s debut YA fantasy, a teenage girl tries to save her beautiful cousin from a suspicious prince (GenZ Publishing, $17.99).

— Jill C. Shomer