In Review

Books

Getting Your Brain and Body Back: Everything You Need to Know after Spinal Cord Injury, Stroke, or Traumatic Brain Injury
Reflecting on the spinal cord injury that left him a quadriplegic, former Medical Center CEO Bradford Berk ’81M (MD/PhD) offers a user’s manual for those suffering the physical and mental health consequences of acute neurological injury. The book includes a foreword by Eric Topol ’79M (MD). (The Experiment)

A Concise Companion to Visual Culture
A. Joan Saab, the Susan B. Anthony Professor of Art and Art History at Rochester, joins scholars of film and photography Aubrey Anable ’10 (PhD) and Catherine Zuromskis ’06 (PhD) in coediting an overview of the field of visual studies, with a focus on the role of Rochester’s Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies. (Wiley-Blackwell)

Nurturing the Love of Music: Robert Freeman and the Eastman School of Music
In the third volume in his history of the Eastman School, Eastman historian and professor emeritus of piano Vincent Lenti offers an overview of growth and change during the tenure of the school’s fourth director (1972–1996). (University of Rochester Press)

“The Million Dead, Too, Summ’d Up”: Walt Whitman’s Civil War Writings
Ed Folsom ’76 (PhD), the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa, and coauthor and editor Christopher Merrill offer commentary on 40 selections from among Whitman’s war writings. Folsom is the editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, codirector of the online Whitman Archive, and editor of the Iowa Whitman Series at the University of Iowa Press. (University of Iowa Press)

American Anthem: A Song of Our Nation
Grammy Award–winning songwriter and librettist Gene Scheer ’81E, ’82E (MM) joins with a team of illustrators to produce a picture book celebrating the beauty and diversity of the United States and inspired by Scheer’s eponymous song, which he composed in 1998. The song has been performed for multiple presidents, as well as at the memorial service for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. President Joe Biden evoked the song’s lyrics during his inaugural address in January 2021. (Philomel Books)

Oil Palm: A Global History
Jonathan Robins ’10 (PhD), an associate professor of history at Michigan Technological University, tells the story of the oil palm across multiple centuries and continents, demonstrating how the fruits of an African palm tree became a key commodity in the story of global capitalism. (University of North Carolina Press)

Can’t Let Go: A Journey from the Heart of Africa to America
In a memoir animated by the themes of grace, destiny, and “love of family and country,” Raphael Tshibangu ’78M (MD), ’82M (Res) recounts his journey from a childhood spent amid political, economic, and social upheaval in the then Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to his career as a physician in the United States. Tshibangu is an obstetrician/gynecologist in Rochester and a clinical professor at the Medical Center in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. (RTST Group)

The Wiley Handbook of Gender Equity in Higher Education
Nancy Niemi ’84, ’01W (PhD) coedits a review of current research on gender equity in higher education. The book devotes special attention to gender and higher education in a global context, gender equity in STEM fields, and gender segregation by major and its relationship to pay inequities. (Wiley-Blackwell)

Medicine and Shariah: A Dialogue in Islamic Bioethics
Aasim Padela ’08M (Res), a professor of emergency medicine, bioethics, and humanities at the Medical College of Wisconsin, edits a collection of essays by clinicians, Islamic studies experts, and Muslim theologians on Islamic bioethics. Padela is also coeditor of Islam and Biomedicine. (University of Notre Dame Press)

The Medical-Legal Aspects of Acute Care Medicine: A Resource for Clinicians, Administrators, and Risk Managers
James Szalados ’92M (Res) offers an overview of the ethical, regulatory, and legal issues relevant to clinical professionals in acute care medicine. Szalados is the director of neurocritical care for Rochester Regional Health, of surgical critical care at Rochester General Hospital, and an attorney and counselor at law in private legal practice. (Springer)

The Papercutter
Cindy Rizzo ’77 presents a young adult speculative fiction novel taking place after the United States has split into two countries, the God-Fearing States and the United Progressive Regions. The story is told through the eyes of three Jewish teenage narrators and examines issues of antisemitism, racism, resistance, and young adult identity. (Bella Books)

Banned in Boston: A Slightly Naughty-but-Nice Fable of the 1980s
In the comedic novel by Daniel Kimmel ’77 and Deborah Hand-Cutler, a 1980s-era Boston antipornography group tries to stave off bankruptcy by secretly financing their own porn film and then publicly leading the protests against it. (Black Horse Press)

Addressing Challenging Moments in Psychotherapy: Clinical Wisdom for Working with Individuals, Groups and Couples
Jerome Gans ’67M (MD) offers a guide for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and those who teach and supervise psychotherapy. (Routledge)

Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment
Saxophonist and composer Mike Titlebaum ’91E, ’92 (MM) offers an introduction to jazz improvisation. Titlebaum is an associate professor of music performance and the director of jazz studies at Ithaca College School of Music. (Routledge/Taylor & Francis)

Trusting in Psychotherapy
Integrating ethical thinking in philosophy with psychological science, Jon Allen ’73 (PhD) explores what makes psychotherapists trustworthy. Allen retired in 2016 as a professor of psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. (American Psychiatric Association)

ShrinkTalk: Reflections and Writings of a Psychiatrist
Michael Blumenfield ’60, a professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at New York Medical College, offers an insider’s look at the world of psychiatric medicine. Topics include ethical dilemmas psychiatrists face, effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, and reflections on treating a variety of conditions. (ShrinkTalk)

Letting Go: How Philanthropists and Impact Investors Can Do More Good by Giving Up Control
Ben Wrobel ’10, director of communications at Village Capital, coauthors a series of profiles of grantmakers who have shifted decision-making power from experts to people with lived experience of problems funders seek to solve. (Independently published)

Recordings

The Recording Legacy of Artist-Teacher Cécile Genhart
A 3-CD set of restored live recordings brings to light performances of Cécile Genhart, a professor of piano at Eastman from 1926 to 1971. The set includes Genhart’s recitals and radio broadcasts from between 1936 and 1961, several of which featured compositions by students including William Bergsma ’42, ’43E (MM), Kent Kennan ’34E, ’36E (MM), and Robert Palmer ’38E, ’39E (MM). (American Matthay Association for Piano)

Three Tributes
Robert Freeman, Eastman’s director from 1972 to 1996, and his brother James, the Daniel Underhill Professor Emeritus of Music at Swarthmore College, collaborate in a tribute album in memory of their parents, Henry ’30E and Florence Knope Freeman ’30E, who studied double bass and violin at Eastman, respectively. The recording includes a piano quintet by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts ’94E, ’99E (DMA). (Innova Recordings)

Occasionally
Saxophonist and composer Pat Donaher ’97 presents his fourth CD, featuring drummer Allison Miller, pianist Carmen Staaf, and bassist Tony Scherr, and coproduced by Jason Polise ’97E, ’98E (MM). (Pat Donaher)

Spring Garden
Pianist and composer Harold Danko, a professor emeritus of jazz studies and contemporary media at Eastman, performs 10 compositions “harvesting my own garden growing directly from the Rite of Spring.” Danko has long studied the iconic Stravinsky score as a source of inspiration. (SteepleChase)

The Trio Reunited: One More Once
The trio of Bill Dobbins, Rich Thompson, and Bill Grimes ’82E (MM), ’88E (DMA) reunites to perform originals and standards. The musicians performed often together in Rochester in the 1980s. Pianist Dobbins and drummer Thompson are members of the jazz and media studies department at Eastman and bassist Grimes is retired as a professor of jazz studies at Louisiana State University. (Bill Grimes)

Where Only Stars Can Hear Us: Schubert Songs
Grammy Award–winning tenor Karim Sulayman ’98E performs Schubert lieder, accompanied by Yiheng Yang. (Avie)

Collaborations, Volume 2: Nästa Trappsteg (Next Step)
Saxophonist Miles Osland ’87E (MM), the director of jazz studies at the University of Kentucky, joins with his long-time collaborator, Swedish mallet virtuoso Anders Åstrand, who performs on vibraphone and marimba. (Mark Records)

Books & Recordings is a compilation of recent work by University alumni, faculty, and staff. For inclusion in an upcoming issue, send the work’s title, publisher, author, or performer, a brief description, and a high-resolution cover image, to Books & Recordings, Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; or by email to rochrev (at) rochester (dot) edu.