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BOOKSHELF

Horizon’s End

by Andrew Lazarus ’47. In this novel of lost values and redemption, foreign correspondent Jack Lerner must make tough decisions in honest news reporting and keep together a family in an unforgiving world of disappointing moral standards (Durban House Publishing Co., $15.95).

My Columbia: Reminiscences of University Life

edited by Ashbel Green ’50. Excerpts of writings about their time at Columbia by Columbians ranging from Nicholas Murray Butler (Class of 1882) and Margaret Mead ’23 Barnard to Thomas Merton ’38 and James Simon Kunen ’70, plus poems by John Berryman ’36, John Hollander ’50, Ron Padgett ’64 and David Lehman ’70 and a cartoon by Edward Koren ’57. (Columbia University, $29.50).

The Biblical Outlook: Topics in Jewish Philosophy (in Hebrew)

by Rabbi Shlomo (Solomon) Polachek ’68. Using the Bible as a source, this book covers topics such as God’s characteristics, creation and providence, revelation, God’s demands upon individuals, reward and punishment, repentance, prayer, God’s intervention in history and the end of days (Shalem Book Distributor, $12).

Time and Chanceby David Z. Albert ’76

Time and Chance

by David Z. Albert ’76, professor of philosophy. An introduction to the complex relationship between physics and philosophical theories of the past and the future, this book covers thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and asymmetries of knowledge and continues the author’s discussion of the uncertainty of modern science begun in Quantum Mechanics and Experience (Harvard University, $18.95).

My Father’s Fighter

by Ronald K. Fried ’77. Upper East Side English teacher Vincent Rosen enters the boxing world when he inherits management of a doomed prize fighter in this first novel from the Emmy Award-winning television producer (Permanent Press, $24).

Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modern by Joel Pfister ’77

Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modern

by Joel Pfister ’77. A new study of the attempts of the U.S. government to conform Native Americans to society’s prescribed “norms,” this book looks at the situation through the conflict between the promoted “individuality” and the Natives’ understanding of the self (Duke University, $23.95).

Mad Dogs, Dreamers and Sages by Stephen Zades ’78 and Jane Stephens

Mad Dogs, Dreamers and Sages

by Stephen Zades ’78 and Jane Stephens. Sharing the lessons learned from their Odyssey Project on Imaginative Intelligence, a two-year project in search of primary sources of innovation in various fields, the authors offer businesses and organizations inventive solutions to creating and sustaining growth (Elounda Press, $24.95).

A Tooth From the Tiger’s Mouth

by Tom Bisio ’79. A hands-on guide from a renowned martial artist and expert practitioner of Chinese sports medicine, this book highlights ancient Chinese healing strategies for everyday and sport-related injuries. Includes illustrated instructions, herbal formula recipes and dietary advice (Fireside, $14).

Sense and Nonsensibility by Lawrence Douglas and Alexander George ’79

Sense and Nonsensibility

by Lawrence Douglas and Alexander George ’79. This collection of “academic” spoofs on highbrow literary culture includes such witty pieces as The Penis Orations, an answer to The Vagina Monologues, It Kant Be Done, an article about the efforts of two major studios hoping to make a film based on the life of German philosopher Immanuel Kant and a spoof of Class Notes (Simon & Schuster, $9.95).

Baseball Legends of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery

by Peter J. Nash ’89. The author, a former hip-hop star (Prime Minister Pete Nice of 3rd Bass), returns to the public eye as a historian after seven years of research. His book examines Green-Wood Cemetery, home to almost 200 baseball pioneers, and its connection to the game’s roots in Brooklyn, New York City and Hoboken, N.J. (Arcadia, $19.99).

Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education

by Catherine Prendergast ’90. An analysis of the present-day multicultural literacy initiatives through research of the U.S. legal and educational system provides a strong basis for debates about Brown’s legacies. Outlining the problems of the current systems and concluding that only a literate citizen can engage and alter legacies of racial strife, the author provides solutions for the future of inclusive literacy scholarship (Southern Illinois University, $25).

The Jew, The Arab: A History of the Enemy

by Gil Anidjar, assistant professor of comparative literature. Suggesting that the “concept of the enemy” and its absence in Europe’s history is structured around Europe’s historical efforts to distinguish itself from “the Jew and Arab,” Anidjar links the “Jewish Problem” with the “Muslim Problem” in this critical view of Western civilization (Stanford University Press, $21.95).

Heaven’s Kitchen: Living Religion at God’s Love We Deliver

by Courtney Bender, assistant professor of religion and sociology. How does faith manifest itself in everyday actions? Recalling her time spent volunteering at the nonprofit, nonreligious organization God’s Love We Deliver, the author writes about the role of religion in contemporary American life (University of Chicago Press, $16).

America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe by Volker R. Berghahn

America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe

by Volker R. Berghahn, Seth Low Professor of History. Using the story of Shepard Stone, a former director of the Ford Foundation’s international affairs program in the ’50s, the author illuminates Cold War-era American-European cultural-political conflicts and America’s struggle to set global cultural trends (Princeton, $21.95).

Le vent, à nouveau me cherche

(The Wind Seeks Me Again) by Anna Frajlich, lecturer in Polish. This French translation from the original Polish is a collection of poetry that expresses the emotional torments of an artist in exile reconciling a broken childhood (Editinter, 13.50).

Humanism and Democratic Criticism

by Edward W. Said, former University Professor (deceased). With the once-sacred literary canon under attack for its Eurocentric, imperialistic slant, can humanism make a shift to a more democratic form? Said, in his last completed book before his death in September 2003, argues that a more expansive literary canon and social responsibility on the part of writers and intellectuals are parts of the solution (Columbia University Press, $19.95).

Parallels and Paradoxes: Exploration in Music and Society

by Daniel Barenboim and Edward W. Said, former University Professor (deceased). Originating from and including discussions between Barenboim, a conductor and music director, and Said, the late Palestinian-American scholar of modern literature and theory, this dialogue touches on the differences between prose and music, and the ephemerality of sound (Pantheon, $24).

Laura Butchy, Peter Kang ’05,
Masha Volynsky ’06

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