Books, music & film

Information is provided by publishers, authors, and artists.

Long Way Home: On the Trail of Steinbeck’s America
Bill Barich ’65
(Walker & Company)

In the run-up to 2008’s Obama-McCain election, expatriate novelist and essayist Bill Barich returned from Ireland in the hope of rediscovering America. Inspired by John Steinbeck’s somewhat darker and more acerbic Travels with Charley in Search of America, written during the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy election, Long Way Home explores whom we have become in the half century since. In place of Charley, Steinbeck’s standard poodle, Barich travels with the ghost of Steinbeck himself, while Walt Whitman, Henry Miller, and other literary spirits also appear. Sidestepping Wall Street, he drives through the American heartland. Times are tough, yet despite their hardships, people are unwilling to surrender their personal connection to the American dream. As Barich reminds us throughout this richly rewarding book, in America, it is still the people who matter most.
— Garner Simmons ’65

Pictures of the Highway
Marc Black ’71
(Suma Records)

Award-winning folksinger/songwriter Marc Black has released a new CD, Pictures of the Highway, which includes 12 songs presented in a seductive tapestry of grooves and instrumentation — reminiscent of Randy Newman and Tim Hardin. The CD begins with the sultry opener “Red Lite,” continues with a love song to coffee (“Ooh I Love My Coffee”), and rounds out with the humorous “I Love You Rachel Maddow.”
   
Hannibal
The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Graeco-Roman World
Robert Garland
(Bristol Classical Press)

Classics professor Robert Garland has two new releases through Bristol Classical Press: Hannibal and The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Graeco-Roman World, Second Edition. In Hannibal, Garland spotlights the Carthaginian general whose military and political career made him one of history’s greatest survivors, Rome’s most formidable adversary, and the man who came closest to destroying the power base in Italy. At the same time, Garland writes, Hannibal did more than anyone else to bring Carthage to the edge of ruin. Garland investigates Hannibal’s unintended yet powerful legacy and concludes that he is both an inspiration and a warning to anyone who dreams big dreams.
    The second edition of The Eye of the Beholder is in paperback, with a new preface and updated bibliography. This first-ever book-length investigation into the plight of the disabled and deformed in Graeco-Roman society draws on literary texts, medical tracts, vase paintings, sculpture, mythology, and ethnography. 





Pukka: The Pup After Merle
Ted Kerasote ’72
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Since the publication of the best-selling Merle’s Door, Ted Kerasote has received thousands of e-mails asking two questions: “Have you gotten another dog?” and “Are you writing a new book?” Pukka: The Pup After Merle answers both. Told in Pukka’s voice and accompanied by more than 200 photos, this book tells the story of how Kerasote found Pukka, recounting the early days of their bonding as they explore the world. Walks become hikes and hikes become climbs, their adventures culminating in a rugged wilderness journey that teaches both Pukka and Kerasote something new about the dog-human partnership. Pukka is a love story as well as Kerasote’s take on raising a puppy. It will do pictorially what Merle did with words: show how dogs thrive when treated as peers while illustrating the many ways that dogs open the door to our hearts.

To Kill a Tsar
Al Rieber ’53 (pen name G.K. George)
(SCARITH)

In this work of historical fiction by G.K. George (Al Rieber), the eccentric Inspector Vasiliev exposes a conspiracy by a high-ranking Russian nobleman and a top official in the secret police to assassinate Tsar Alexander II. Inspector Vasiliev finds unexpected help in his work from Irina, a member of the revolutionary underground. The tale lures readers into the turbulent, terrorist times of 1880s Russia, with a plot full of twists and dramatic encounters. Rieber portrays the tensions and dynamics of life in Imperial Russia on the eve of Alexander II’s assassination as his characters grapple with the assassination plot and an unlikely romance.

The Current Economic Crisis and the Great Depression
Philip Salisbury ’65
(Xlibris)

In The Current Economic Crisis and the Great Depression, Philip Salisbury offers descriptive and quantitative approaches that present new perspectives on the topic. He emphasizes similarities between the pre-Depression years and the current economic malaise. Readers will learn about the presence of a housing boom and bust in both situations being attributed to individuals reaching home-buying age. It explains that when this peak of home buying reaches its crest and ages beyond that time of life, a rapid decline in population occurs. This decline is followed by a housing crisis as the number of home-buying individuals declines. Foreclosures follow as unemployment increases and incomes decline. Behind it all, the book explains the trends that come with economic declines and how they affect millions of people around the world.

Sweet Chic: Stylish Treats to Dress Up for Any Occasion
Rachel Schifter Thebault ’97
(Ballantine Books)

Founder and head confectioner of Tribeca Treats in New York City, Rachel Schifter Thebault combines a confectioner’s expertise with fashion sense to share a cache of popular dessert recipes that can be accessorized to fit any occasion. Transforming a basic dessert into a masterpiece brimming with personality and flair can be easy, quick, and fun, according to Thebault. In the same way you’d plan an outfit, Sweet Chic pieces together devil’s food cake (the little black dress of delights) with such irresistible accessories as caramel buttercream, turns vanilla cookies (the crisp oxford shirt) into strawberry “shortcakes,” and blends brownies (the cashmere sweater of confectionery) with a swirl of mint for a show-stopping number. For both the novice hoping to master the basics and the expert looking to add a little versatility to existing creations, Sweet Chic is a guide for memorable desserts.

Modern Irish Drama: W.B. Yeats to Marina Carr
Sanford Sternlicht MA’55
(Syracuse University Press)

Modern Irish Drama presents a thorough introduction to the recent history of one of the greatest dramatic and theatrical traditions in Western culture. Originally published in 1988, this second edition provides extensive new material, charting the path of modern and contemporary Irish drama from its roots in the Celtic Revival to its flowering in world theater. The lives and careers of more than 50 modern Irish playwrights are discuss-ed along with summaries of their major plays and recommendations for further reading. Including a selected bibliography and filmography, the book is a resource for students of drama studies and production companies alike. Sanford Sternlicht is an English professor at Syracuse University, where he teaches Irish, American, and British drama.

The Nature of New York
David Stradling ’88
(Cornell University Press)

From the arrival of Henry Hudson’s Half Moon in the estuarial waters of what would come to be called New York Harbor to the 2006 agreement that laid out plans for General Electric to clean up the PCBs it pumped into the river named after Hudson, this work offers a sweeping environmental history of New York State. David Stradling, associate professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, shows how New York’s varied landscape and abundant natural resources have played a fundamental role in shaping the state’s culture and economy. Simultaneously, he underscores the extent to which New Yorkers have, through such projects as the excavation of the Erie Canal and the construction of highways and reservoir systems, changed the landscape of their state.

Also of note:
The novel The Korean Pipeline (Publish America) by Raymond Flanders ’52 follows three enlisted men from their initial recall to active duty to combat service in the Korean War. Korean pipeline was the term used for the large numbers of enlisted men who were funneled from civilian status to the front line in Korea in a matter of weeks as the war erupted. The book begins at the start of the war in 1950 and continues as it drags on, finally ending in a virtual stalemate where it all started, at the 38th parallel in July 1953.

In Workplace Emotions: Emotional Intelligence in Bahraini Management (Outskirts Press), Richard Tzudiker ’73 and Suhaila Ebrahim AlHashemi, PhD, tell the story of how emotional intelligence turns around one of Bahrain’s largest companies. As management learns to recognize feelings, harness emotions, and adopt appropriate leadership tactics, signs of cultural change emerge in a corporation steeped in tradition.



In the media

“The one thing you can’t do with energy is sit on your butt.”
        — Richard Kessel ’71, CEO and president of the New York Power Authority, in an Ithaca Journal article about his prediction of a future energy crisis

“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with the coaching that goes on there…”
        — Syracuse University football coach Doug Marrone speaking with The Post-Standard (Syracuse) prior to his team’s matchup against Colgate

“I had never sung in my life besides maybe in the shower and in a silly senior musical… Honestly, I was afraid of embarrassing myself in front of these great singers.”
        — Yuni Shameshima ’13, in a New York Times article about starting college, describes how he went out of his comfort zone to join the Colgate Thirteen

“People’s ethical norms have deteriorated [in Afghanistan] to the point that whatever helps you survive from day to day is OK.”
        — R. Michael Smith ’70 talking to the Chronicle of Higher Education about his yearlong stint as a legal adviser in Afghanistan

“But it’s the Colgate maintenance team that deserves a bigger tip of the cap over Jones, who delivers a tough test. The large greens here are easily some of New York’s finest…”
        — Brandon Tucker, of TravelGolf.com, in his review of Seven Oaks Golf Club