The Rochester Review, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
All the Essential Half-Truths About Higher Education by President Emeritus Dennis O'Brien. University of Chicago Press.
America on Film: Hollywood and History by Kenneth M. Cameron '53. New York: Continuum, 1997.
City Poems by Penny Cagan '80. Chatoyant Press, www.chatoyant.com, 1997.
Civic Illiteracy and Education: The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of American Youth by John Marciano '62. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Derivatives Handbook: Risk Management and Control edited by Clifford W. Smith, Jr., Clarey Professor of Finance at the Simon School, and Robert J. Schwartz. John Wiley & Sons. 664 pp., $65.
Development of Cardiovascular Systems: Molecules to Organisms edited by Bradley B. Keller, associate professor at the Medical Center, and Warren W. Burggren. Cambridge University Press. 360 pp.
Don't Explain, poems by Betsy Sholl '69 (MA). University of Wisconsin Press. $10.95 paper, $17.95 cloth.
Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists Since 1860 edited by Ralph P. Locke, Eastman School professor of musicology, and Cyrilla Barr. University of California Press, $45.
The Happiness Project: Transforming the Three Poisons Which Cause the Suffering We Cause Ourselves and Each Other by Ron Leifer '58M (Res). Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Press, 1997.
The Laws of Falling Bodies, poems by Kate Light '80E, '82E (Mas). Brownsville, Ore.: Story Line Press. 86 pp., $11.
Matt Gray: Frosh Phenom by Dave Ocorr '51. Perth Publications Ltd., P.O. Box 2996, Sanford, NC 27330.
Millimeter Wave and Infrared Multisensor Design and Signal Processing by Lawrence A. Klein '66 (MS). Boston: Artech House, 1997. 420 pp.
A Most Fortunate Ship (revised edition) by Ty Martin '52, Naval Institute Press, 1997.
The Motets of Georg Prenner (Vol. 99 in the series Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae) by H. Lowen Marshall '68 (PhD). Haensler Verlag.
Perception and Imaging by Richard D. Zakia '70 (PhD). Boston/London: Focal Press.
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John Barry '69 (MA). Simon and Schuster, $27.50. (See After/Words)
A Scientist's Tools for Business by President Emeritus Robert L. Sproull. University of Rochester Press.
The Ultimate Unauthorized Stephen King Trivia Challenge by Robert W. Bly '79. Kensington Books.
Adoration of the Magi, 14 original settings of Christmas carols composed and played on piano by E. J. Ulrich '49E (MM), '55E (PhD). Taproot Records: Root-1, P.O. Box 1798, Mendocino, CA 95460.
Christopher Rouse: Symphony No. 2, Flute Concerto, and Phaethon by the Eastman School professor of composition, performed by the Houston Symphony conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. Telarc.
John Dowland (15631626), complete works for solo lute in a five-CD set recorded by Paul O'Dette, Eastman School associate professor of conducting and ensembles. Harmonia Mundi HMX 2907160/64.
Joseph Schwantner: Velocities; Percussion Concerto; New Morning for the World, with Evelyn Glennie, percussion; Vernon Jordan, speaker; National Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting. Works by the Eastman School professor of composition. RCA 68692.
Kokopeli and Reflections by Katherine Hoover '59E, performed by Eugenia Zukerman, on Delos. Other new CDs: Canyon Echos by Duologue on Gasparo, and Homage to Bartok by the Cumberland Quintet on Centaur.
a new light--christmas and Somewhere Over. . . . (70 years of movie and Broadway music), two CDs currently in release from Richard Audd '71E (MM), performed by his East Pacific Symphony, a synthesizer duplication of a 90-piece orchestra. RMA Music, 11012 Ventura Blvd., #1265, Studio City, CA 91604.
Rune, three major works commissioned by the Eastman alumni percussion group, Nexus. Nexus Records CD 10511. Released in March: Nexus Performs Music of Takemitsu, performed by Nexus with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carl St. Clair.
A Thanksgiving Overture by the late Earl George '46E, '59E (PhD), performed by the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Alexander Titov conductor. MMC New Century, Vol. VII. MMC 2029.
Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists Since 1860 edited by Ralph P. Locke, Eastman School professor of musicology, and Cyrilla Barr. University of California Press, $45.
Dennis Hall, director, Institute of Optics
An award-winning faculty member since 1980, Dennis Hall is William F. May Professor of Optics. Juggling teaching and administrative duties with the demands of an active research program (he's the author or co-author of more than 120 scientific papers and a number of book chapters) makes finding time for recreational reading, he says, both difficult and essential. "Is there," he asks, "such a thing as spare time in modern academic life?
"For non-work-related reading, I gravitate primarily, but not exclusively, toward novels. I enjoy a good story, and I admire the best novelists' ability to capture and hold my attention while at the same time expanding my understanding of the larger and reportedly real world around me. Some of the books I've suggested aim purely for entertainment, whereas others have something more thought-provoking in mind."
Following are some recommendations.
Gospel by Wilton Barnhardt, St. Martin's Press, 1993.
M is for Malice by Sue Grafton, Henry Holt and Company, 1996.
Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.
The Gold Bug Variations, by Richard Powers, William Morrow and Company, 1991.
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, Simon and Schuster, 1994.
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg, in a translation by Tina Nunnally, Dell Publishing, 1993.
BOOKS
This latest book by Dennis O'Brien focuses on the institution, rather than the idea, of higher education, in order to discuss the realities of administration, financing, and the like.
The author presents a disturbing thesis: Education--often through history textbooks--promotes civic illiteracy and turns civic responsibility into patriotic conformity.
Covers a wide range of subjects related to risk management, featuring insight and commentary from leading experts and current cutting-edge thinkers.
Believed to be the first book to bring together basic scientists, embryologists, anatomists, physicians, and surgeons in a book targeted to undergraduate and graduate seminar series.
The first comprehensive study ever written about American patrons of classical music, whether male or female.
Two other musicologists with Eastman connections also contributed to the book: Professor Emeritus Alfred Mann and Mary Natvig '81E, '91E (PhD).
Co-winner of the 10th annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize.
Ocorr is former director of Sports and Recreation at Rochester, where he also coached. This is his latest in a series of books for boys ages 814, designed both to encourage reading and teach some sports fundamentals.
Unique in its coverage of integrated millimeter-wave and infrared multisensor design.
Other recent publications by the same author, who received the 1997 Robert G. Albion Award of the National Maritime Historical Society: Undefeated, Creating a Legend, and A Signal Honor, all from Tryon Publishing Company.
Profusely illustrated, including 290 quotations relevant to imaging.
Written, Sproull says, "to illustrate and explain the connections between business problems and the tools and modes of thinking of the scientist."
RECORDINGS
This recording won the Diapason D'Or Award for September 1997. Other 1997 award winners from Rouse: a Grammy-winning Sony recording by Yo-Yo Ma with the Philadelphia Orchestra featuring Rouse's Cello Concerto, and an RCA Victor recording of his Gorgon, Iscariot, and Trombone Concerto featuring Joseph Alessi with the Colorado Symphony conducted by Martin Alsop.
The first comprehensive study ever written about American patrons of classical music, whether male or female.
Two other musicologists with Eastman connections also contributed to the book: Professor Emeritus Alfred Mann and Mary Natvig '81E, '91E (PhD).
"Gospel ranks as one of my favorite novels of recent years. It follows the odyssey of fallen-away Jesuit Patrick O'Hanrahan, a theology professor on a quest to recover a long-lost first-century gospel. Barnhardt takes us on a wild ride through the ideas, history, politics, and cultural influences of early and modern Christianity."
"This is really a recommendation for Sue Grafton's entire series of alphabet mysteries: A Is for Alibi, B Is for Burglar, all featuring the exploits of private investigator Kinsey Millhone. Her novels feature what I'll call simple, local mysteries laced with strong insights into human motivations. Grafton has a special gift for description. When she writes about a beach setting, you will feel the ocean breeze on your face, hear the roar of the surf, and catch the unmistakable scent of sea life."
"You can depend on Hiaasen's hilarious novels like Stormy Weather, all set
in Florida, to portray wacky characters doing the unimaginable--apparently Hiaasen's summary judgment of life in and around Miami."
"I am very impressed with the thought-provoking novels of Richard Powers, a MacArthur Fellow. This one, my favorite of his offerings, draws a parallel between the structure and complexity of music and the endless variations that make up the human genetic code."
"Proulx's 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel explores family and self in a fishing village on the Newfoundland coast. The title refers to the column that Quoyle, the main character, writes for a quirky newspaper called the Gammy Bird; his editor emphasizes how important it is that Quoyle also snare a photo of a car crash each week. Proulx's depiction of Quoyle's struggle to build a life for himself and his family is an engaging study of the human condition."
"Born in Thule, Greenland, the daughter of an Inuit mother, a hunter, and a Danish father, a physician, Smilla Qaavigaag Jaspersen has an affection for mathematics and a natural affinity for ice and snow. Høeg spins his tale out of Smilla's obsession with trying to understand the sudden, apparently accidental death of a small boy in her apartment building in Copenhagen. And along the way we learn a lot about life in that part of the world. This international bestseller is a remarkable thriller that begs to be read during a Rochester winter."
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