Books, music & film

Information is provided by publishers, authors, and artists.

The Vitamin Cure for Women’s Health Problems
Helen Saul Case ’00
(Basic Health Publications)

The Vitamin Cure for Women’s Health Problems — a recent installment in The Vitamin Cure series — is a reference for discovering natural, drug-free alternatives for healthy, everyday dietary supplementation or when traditional medicine disappoints. Helen Saul Case supports her knowledge of orthomolecular nutrition and its use for women’s health problems with extensive research into the scientific studies of nutrition and supplementation. She also shares how good nutritional guidance, natural alternative options, and reliable vitamins are cures that are generally not offered as options in the modern medical tool bag.

Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War
R.M. Douglas
(Yale University Press)

 Immediately after the Second World War, the victorious Allies authorized and helped to carry out the forced relocation of German speakers from their homes across central and southern Europe to Germany. The numbers were almost unimaginable — between 12 million and 14 million civilians, most of them women and children — and the losses horrifying. At least 500,000 people, and perhaps many more, died while detained in former concentration camps, while locked in trains en route, or after arriving in Germany exhausted, malnourished, and homeless. A Colgate history professor, R.M. Douglas is the first to tell the full story of this man-made upheaval. Based mainly on archival records of the countries that carried out the forced migrations and of the international humanitarian organizations that tried to prevent the disastrous results, the book examines an aspect of European history that few have desired to confront.

Integration and Peace in East Africa: A History of the Oromo Nation
Tsega Etefa
(Palgrave Macmillan)

In Integration and Peace in East Africa, Colgate history professor Tsega Etefa analyzes the development of indigenous religious, commercial, and political institutions among the Oromo (the largest ethnic group in East Africa), primarily focusing on two relatively peaceful centuries in its history. The people of the Oromo nation have promoted peace, cultural assimilation, and ethnic integration. From 1704 to 1882, the nation witnessed flourishing commerce and communication networks that advanced the maturation of Oromo law and government, integration of foreign ideas, and assimilation of the Oromo into other East African cultures.

The Forbidden Book  
Joscelyn Godwin and Guido Mina di Sospiro
(The Disinformation Company)

The Forbidden Book is a multi-faceted mystery that focuses on the sensitive and serious issue of religious extremism. The evocative setting of Venice and the Veneto dominates the story’s action, supplemented by vivid scenes in Santiago de Compostela, Provence, Washington, and the Vatican. Occult beliefs and practices fuel the action as the main characters become embroiled in an aristocratic sex-magick plot. On one level, this is a murder mystery set against the conflicts of Islam and the West, but the book also delves into knowledge based on Guido Mina di Sospiro’s expertise in Catholicism and Colgate music professor Joscelyn Godwin’s studies of the Western esoteric tradition. Underlying the fast-paced action are moral and political dilemmas, the conflict of religions, and the frightening possibilities of the occult.

Contrast: A Biracial Man’s Journey to Desegregate His Past
Devin Hughes ’91
(Round Table Press)

 In 1967, the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage. Devin Hughes was born two years later to a black father and white mother who fled to Washington, D.C., to escape the racism of the Deep South. Bigotry still ran rampant, and light-skinned, green-eyed Hughes felt its pull from both ends: strangers who didn’t know he was half black and friends who didn’t care that he was half white. Hughes was also consumed with his dysfunctional family life: a father who offered an alternative education in the form of “street life” and religious exploration, and a mother whose drug use zombified her. Despite his parents’ flaws, they were his greatest believers. They taught Hughes that anything was within reach, that their mistakes needn’t be his choices, and that he was destined for greatness.

Relación del festejo que a los Marqueses de las Amarillas les hicieron las Señoras Religiosas del Convento de San Jerónimo (México, 1756)
Edited by Frederick Luciani
(Iberoamericana)

 Theater was frequently performed in the convents of Baroque Spain and the Spanish colonies, but relatively few works have survived. This scholarly edition of the text of a complete festejo — an evening of festive entertainment involving theater, music, and dance — gives new evidence of the vibrancy of this tradition. The festejo was performed by the nuns and lay women of the Convent of San Jerónimo in Mexico City in 1756 in honor of a visiting viceroy and his retinue.  It included plays that were visually elaborate, secular in content, and jocular in tone, sometimes taking a satirical view of convent life itself. But under the cover of spectacle, praise, and self-deprecating humor, the Hieronymite nuns were adept at promoting the interests of their order and convent. Luciani — a Colgate professor of romance languages and literatures — transcribed and edited the text of the festejo that was originally written by Joaquin Barruchi y Arana in the 18th century.

The Best Sunset in Venice
Julian Padowicz ’54
(Fireship Press)

 A sequel to his novel Writer’s Block, The Best Sunset in Venice revisits Julian Padowicz’s cast of characters. Kip learns that his bride, the attractive widow Amanda, is not only creative, but also rather accident-prone. In Barcelona, she develops an allergic reaction that makes her face swell to the degree that she no longer resembles her passport photo, leading to the couple’s detainment in Spain. Upon returning to their home in Venice, Mass., they discover that Amanda’s late, abusive husband, Scott, is not quite as “late” as she represented him to be. Later helping to resolve the problem are personalities including a former Green Beret–turned-smuggler, a group of partying psychologists, and a woman colonel in the Israeli army.

Live Your Dreams, Change the World: The Psychology of Personal Fulfillment for Women
James Campbell Quick ’68, David J. Gavin, and Joanne H. Gavin
(American Mental Health Foundation Books)

 By interviewing successful females who have overcome challenges to reach their full potential — Helen Thomas, Brooke Shields, Ebby Halliday, and others — James Campbell Quick and his co-authors offer a comprehensive view of setting and achieving goals in Live Your Dreams, Change the World. This book is intended to act as a primer for women who aspire to live fulfilling lives while working in their chosen field of work.

The Nature and Culture of Rattan: Reflections on Vanishing Life in the Forests of Southeast Asia
Stephen Siebert ’78
(University of Hawai‘i Press)

The Nature and Culture of Rattan examines the ecology, use, management, and cultural importance of one of the world’s most important forest products. Stephen Siebert has written about the knowledge, practices, and lives of rattan cane collectors and artisans in three southeastern Asian forest villages where he lived and worked for 25 years. Siebert focuses on crucial issues in tropical forest conservation and management, including government policies, household livelihood strategies, conflicts between local resource use, Western approaches to protected area management, and the value of integrating scientific inquiry with traditional ecological knowledge and practice.

Also of Note:
With Harlem Jazz Adventures: A European Baron’s Memoir, 1934–1969 (Scarecrow Press), Fradley Garner MA’70, international editor of Jersey Jazz, has translated and edited the memoirs of his friend Timme Rosenkrantz, a Danish baron who loved swinging jazz and wrote about the masters of Harlem back in the golden era of jazz.

In Common Sense, Legal Sense, and Nonsense About Divorce (Xlibris Corporation), Lenard Marlow ’54 shares his expert advice in the field of divorce mediation. The book argues that divorcing husbands and wives deserve better than the legal system has given them, and explains how turning to the law can transform from representing legal nonsense to legal sense.



In the media

“The current generation of European leaders may be an uninspired one, lacking in what the elder President Bush called ‘The Vision Thing.’”
        — Ray Douglas, professor of history, commenting to Bloomberg News on the euro crisis and the ambivalence of the major European political powers  
 
“It is really exciting to be the first person to look at a result, and even more exciting when the result can be made sense of on the theoretical side.”
        — Data analyst and physicist Ben Cerio ’07 shares his excitement in being part of proving the existence of the Higgs boson particle, on Eveningtribune.com (Hornell, N.Y.)
 
“You delete the e-mails, then you wind up missing the sales. We set out to build a tool to never miss a deal again.”
— Katie Finnegan ’05 talks to Forbes about the motive behind creating Hukkster, a website designed to watch shoppers’ favorite sites for the best online sales

“Gesturing is a sort of middle ground between doing something and talking about something.”
        — Spencer Kelly, associate professor of psychology, explains to NBCNEWS.com how gesturing is an integral part of communication

“Partnering with Patagonia Sur enables our students, professors, and alumni to experience the reforestation project firsthand, while also engaging in research and adventure in one of the most incredible places on earth.”
        — John Pumilio, sustainability coordinator, tells the Globe Newswire about Colgate’s partnership with the Patagonia Sur’s University Conservation Circle

“We want to make it possible for Facebook or the U.S. Census Bureau to analyze sensitive data without leaking information about individuals.”
        — Michael Hay, assistant professor of computer science, speaks to technologyreview.com about a new mathematical technique developed to analyze large data sets of personal information without infringing on privacy rights