Rochester Review, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
Recent publications from alumni, faculty, and staff
Absent Mothers and Orphaned Fathers by Susan Gustafson, associate professor of modern languages and cultures. Wayne State University Press.
The American Fund for Public Service: Charles Garland and Radical Philanthropy, 1922-1941 by Gloria Garrett Samson '88 (PhD). Greenwood Press. 288 pp., $59.95. Examines a now little-known, but infamous in its day, organization from the radical left.
Barron's College Review: Physics by Jonathan Wolf '82 (Mas). $13.95.
Bridge Engineering: Design, Rehabilitation and Maintenance of Modern Highway Bridges by Demetrios E. Tonias, '86. McGraw Hill. Recognized by the Association of American Publishers as the outstanding general-engineering book of 1995.
Catching Sense: African American Communities on a South Carolina Sea Island by Patricia Guthrie '78 (PhD). Bergin & Garvey. 160 pp, $49.95. An examination of "plantation membership" among Sea Island slaves, where identity was derived from plantation residency rather than from mother, father, or place of birth.
The Clarinet Sonata in Outline by Norman Heim '52E, '63E (DMA). Norcat Music Press.
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life of Emile Durkheim translated by Karen E. Fields, professor at the Frederick Douglass Institute of African and African-American Studies. Free Press.
The Empty Cradle: Infertility in America from Colonial Times to the Present by Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner '88M (Res). Johns Hopkins University Press. 326 pp., $29,95. Investigates the social, cultural, scientific, and medical dimensions of infertility over the past 300 years.
Energy Resources: Availability, Use and Impact by Ben W. Ebenhack, postdoctoral fellow, Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies. PennWell.
Engendered Trope in Joyce's "Dubliners" by Earl G. Ingersoll '60. Southern Illinois University Press. 211 pp., $29.95.
Gender and Immortality: Heroines in Ancient Greek Myth and Cult by Deborah Lyons, assistant professor of religion and classics. Princeton University Press.
George Eastman, A Biography by Elizabeth Brayer. Johns Hopkins University Press. 637 pp. Contains extensive material on Eastman's benefactions to the University. Some of this material appeared originally in this magazine.
Helldivers: U.S. Navy Dive-Bombers at War by John Forsyth '43. Motorbooks International. 160 pp, $12.95.
How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel by Horace Boyer '64E (Mas), '73E (PhD). Elliott and Clark.
Ladies First by Paul Humphrey '40. Tow Path Books. $7. A brief, witty, funny book about the ladies in our lives.
Limits of Anarchy: Intervention and State Formation in Chad by Samuel C. Nolutshungu, professor of political science. University Press of Virginia.
Modernism and the Theater of Censorship by Adam Parkes '93 (PhD). Oxford University Press. 242 pp, $45. Investigates the literary and cultural implications of obscenity controversies over Ulysses, Lady Chatterley's Lover, and The Well of Loneliness.
Phantom Illness: Shattering the Myth of Hypochondria by Carla Cantor '76 and Brian A. Fallon, M.D. Houghton Mifflin. 251 pp, $22.95. See Rochester Gazette/Mystery Malady.
The Practice of Quality Management by Simon School professors Phillip J. Lederer and Uday S. Karmarker. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Reconceiving Mathematics Instruction: A Focus on Error by Raffaella Borasi, associate professor, Warner School. Ablex, Norwood, N.J.
Sarah's Psalm, a novel by Florence Cawthorne Ladd '58 (PhD). Scribner. 288 pp, $30. A first novel by the head of Radcliffe's Bunting Institute (the world's largest multidisciplinary center of advanced studies for women) in which a Harvard-educated African-American woman discovers that Senegal is where she belongs and the man she belongs to is not the "suitable" husband approved by her family.
Senators on the Campaign Trail by Richard F. Fenno, Kenan Professor of Political Science. University of Oklahoma Press. 375 pp, $22.95. Follows 10 U.S. senators as they campaign for re-election.
Serious Money by Clifford W. Brown Jr.; associate professor of political science Lynda W. Powell; and Clyde Wilcox. Cambridge University Press. Profiles the donors of "serious money" to political campaigns.
Situating College English: Lessons from an American University edited by Evan Carton and Alan W. Friedman '66 (PhD). Bergin & Garvey. $65 (cloth), $19 (paper). Takes up the institutional and pedagogical sites and investments of professional identity for workers in college English.
Six Bebop Solos Inspired by Drum Set Legends by Rich Thompson '84E (Mas). Kendor Music.
Stories of Medical Family Therapy by associate professor of psychiatry Susan McDaniel, J. Hepworth, and W. Doherty. Basic Books.
Term Limits and Legislative Representation by John Carey, assistant professor of political science. Cambridge University Press.
Theory and Practice edited by Judith Wagner DeCew '70. New York University Press.
Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte
Lenya edited and translated by Lys Symonette and professor of musicology
Kim Kowalke. University of California Press.
Never before published letters of Kurt Weill, the composer of Three
Penny Opera and Mahagonny, and his wife and foremost interpreter,
Lotte Lenya. The letters-- first in German and later after their move to
this country in highly flavored English--are uninhibited, intimate, and
irreverent.
A foremost Weill scholar, Kowalke is president of the Kurt Weill Foundation
for Music.
Cycles of Moons and Tides by Mary Jeanne van Appledorn '50E (Mas), '66E (PhD). Opus One, CD # 170. Another new CD, New American Romantics--Solo Piano Music (NorthSouth Records, #10007), features her "Set of Five."
One Last Bar, Then Joe Can Sing, performed by Eastman alumni percussion group NEXUS. Philips Classics.
Patterns, for trumpet and keyboard by Chesley Kahmann '52, featuring Kahmann on keyboards. Orbiting Clef Productions, Summit, NJ 07901.
Toad, new and old songs performed by the College's women's vocal ensemble, Vocal Point. Newly released CD available at University Bookstore.
Waves, recorded and produced by René Mogensen '93, featuring Mogensen on tenor, soprano, and baritone saxophones. Wassard Jazz.
selected by faculty
Sam Nelson, assistant professor of English, director of forensics, and debate coach "I'm a big believer that our society in general and people in particular need more exposure to fantasy," says Nelson. "To indulge in fantasy is to delve into the 'what might have been' or the 'what could happen' if the facts were not in the way. I wish some mad genius would figure out how to bottle the Walter Mitty syndrome and put it in the drinking water--then we could all enjoy, throughout our lives, the best part of the adolescent mind.
"Until that happens I devour the fiction and nonfiction books of authors who can tell a good story--which for me is almost as effective as fantasizing myself."
Chasing the Long Rainbow by Hal Roth, Norton, 1990.
"I am fairly certain that I will never sail single-handedly around the
world. But not only did I traverse 27,550 miles in this book, I did it in
a race. In real life, I have trouble getting the soap to float in my bathtub.
However, I took great pleasure in the parts of the book where Roth, somewhat
arrogantly, rehashes the mishaps his competitors experience from gales, flat
calms, gear failure, and strategic error and then, very arrogantly, describes
what he would have done to avoid the catastrophe."
The Ransom of Russian Art by John McPhee, Farrar, Straus, Giroux,
1994.
"All twenty-some of John McPhee's books are masterpieces. This is
my favorite. In the 1960s, an American professor of economics gets interested
in the work of underground 'unofficial' artists in the Soviet Union. Norton
Dodge, the professor, eventually brings out personally, or arranges to have
illegally shipped to the United States, thousands of works of art."
A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes, Henry Holt, 1995.
"The subtitle says it all-- Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal
Passion for Books. Focusing on book collections, it begins 2,200 years
ago and brings us up to the present era. The second half is a hoot: It describes
and attempts to explain some of the more colorful characters who make up
the very colorful gallery of contemporary book collectors. If you have no
interest in book collecting, this may get you started. If you are already
interested, this may either serve as a wake-up call and save you from some
hideous fate, or it just could push you over the edge."
A River Town by Thomas Keneally, Doubleday, 1995.
"Keneally is
best known as the author of Schindler's List. This novel is based
on real events that happened around the turn of the century in the life of
the author's grandfather, an Irish immigrant in Australia. It's a story of
misplaced suspicion, defiance toward convention, and triumph over prejudice--and
it makes you feel good."
Consider This, Senora by Harriet Doerr, Harcourt Brace, 1993.
"The setting is Mexico. For me, the story was about understanding the
nature of place. The book begins with a real-estate transaction where Don
Enrique, the landowner, says, 'Consider this senora, . . . you are transforming
Amapolas into something more beautiful than it is.' Readers of this gracefully
written novel will have to decide for themselves if Don Enrique is correct."
Prejudicial Error by Bill Blum, Dutton, 1995.
"This is one of those great
court-appointed-attorney-with-all-the-odds-against-his-client legal
thrillers--and a fast and fun read. This new author is bound to get very
popular, very soon."
Blood Child by Octavie E. Butler, Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1995.
"Here are politically charged sci-fi short stories that can be read quickly
but will make you think for a very long time. Butler is too good to be true!"
Copyright 1996, University of Rochester