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This month's featured titles include a novel drawn from the Icarus myth, a poetry collection, and a kids' book about penguins

Did you know that Cornell has an online book club? Check it out!

For more titles by Big Red authors, peruse our previous round-ups.

Have you published a book you'd like to submit? Scroll down for details!

The Sky Was Ours

Joe Fassler ’06

Kirkus calls Fassler’s debut novel “a thrilling, hopeful retelling of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus” and lauds its “dazzling” prose.

Set in the early 2000s, the tale follows a computer science grad student who’s frustrated and unhappy. After dropping out of Cornell and fleeing Ithaca, she meets a father and son living off the grid in the northernmost region of Upstate New York.

The elder man enlists her in his passion project, which springs from Greek myth.

The cover of "The Sky Was Ours"

He’s obsessed with designing a pair of wings that would allow humans to fly, promoting global unity and erasing borders.

“Fassler’s audacious premise is buoyed by pristine prose and vibrant characterizations,” says Publishers Weekly. “The result is a captivating fairy tale of the slippery line between fanatic and genius.”

A College Scholar and English major in Arts & Sciences, Fassler has contributed to the New York Times, Wired, the Guardian, the Atlantic, and elsewhere.

The cover of "Democracy in Retrograde"

Democracy in Retrograde

Sami Fishbein Sage ’11

The ILR alum is chief brand officer of Betches Media, a news and culture company she co-founded with two fellow alums as undergrads.

Now, she has co-authored a self-help guide subtitled How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives.

“Americans are woefully disengaged in the politics of our own towns, cities, schools, and courts,” she and her coauthor write in the intro.

“And our policies and systems continue to be shaped by those who are most engaged, the loudest, and the already-powerful. For democracy to function, we need more people who care about their communities to step up and help shepherd our country into the future.”

The volume offers a roadmap to becoming more involved—including an analysis of the deeply divided status quo; a grounding in how government works; and exercises to help the reader asses their own potential contributions, temperament, and bandwidth.

“Most valuably, the authors frame political participation as a form of self-expression that must be rewarding to be sustainable,” says Publishers Weekly, calling the book “a solid guide for those who already feel overwhelmed by the 2024 presidential election news cycle.”

The Witchstone

Henry Neff ’95, BA ’96

The former history major, who previously worked in the YA fantasy genre, turns to the adult audience for his seventh novel.

The result is what Publishers Weekly calls an “incandescently funny glimpse of hell on Earth, starring Paul Newman look-alike and 800-year-old demon Laszlo.”

The plot involves an urgent attempt by Laszlo—who’s something of a satanic slacker and bon vivant—to become a more effective demonic curse-keeper, as he faces potential liquefication for poor performance.

The cover of "The Witchstone"

So he teams up with Maggie, a 19-year-old whose family curse he’s responsible for managing (and which kicks in at age 20).

“Maggie and Laszlo quest across Europe and back to the Catskills amid both belly laughs and heart-tugging moments as Laszlo, aided by an Italian priest, gradually becomes more human and Maggie takes on magical energies to protect her family,” says Publishers Weekly. “The result is a glorious romp that’s clever enough to keep readers infernally entertained.”

Neff’s previous work includes “The Tapestry,” a five-book fantasy series.

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The cover of "Natural Wonders"

Natural Wonders

Sarah Sutro ’72

“These poems are guides to seeing up close,” states the publisher, Finishing Line Press.

“They move throughout a year, tempered by the fundamentals of sun, rain, snow, darkness as the basis of human survival, and the re-creation of beauty thanks to a poet’s eye.”

As Sutro writes in a poem titled “Explanation”: “If night is a pearl, / where is the oyster? / If the moon is a worn / shoe, who is wearing it? / If the trees against a / violet sky are scratchy / fingers, / Where is the handwriting, / on the sky?”

The volume is the second poetry collection for Sutro, an AAP alum who’s also a painter.

Natural Wonders was blurbed by classmate and fellow author Peter Fortunato ’72, who calls it “a record of diverse experiences lived deeply, poems that continually surprise us with images and metaphors drawn from the natural world and connected to our hearts and imaginations.”

Penguins Ready to Go, Go, Go!

Deborah Lee Rose ’77

Rose’s many previous children’s books include several devoted to nature and STEM topics.

Among them are Swoop and Soar, Beauty and the Beak, Scientists Get Dressed, and Astronauts Zoom!

The cover of "Penguins Ready to Go, Go, Go!"

(A copy of the latter was launched to the International Space Station, where a crew member read it aloud as part of the “Story Time From Space” series.)

Here, Rose explores the frozen world of Antarctica’s Emperor penguins. The volume’s many photos, taken by scientists and explorers, show the lovable creatures sliding on the ice, jumping into the water, cuddling their chicks, huddling together against the snow, and more.

The book offers numerous facts about the penguins, including how scientists study them and the threats they face from climate change. It also has QR codes that readers can scan to access online videos.

The cover of "The Public Humanities Turn"

The Public Humanities Turn

Philip Lewis

A past dean of Arts & Sciences, Lewis is a professor emeritus of French literature on the Hill.

His nonfiction book—published by Johns Hopkins University Press and subtitled The University as an Instrument of Cultural Transformation—promotes the role of the humanities as a force for public good.

As he argues, it’s an essential mission in the current era, as climate change threatens to make the planet uninhabitable for future generations.

“Far from reinforcing divisions between the humanities and the sciences, the point here is to promote their complementarity and interaction,” he writes in the preface.

“It is to recognize that the advance of scientific understanding confronts human society with vitally important problems, possibilities, and choices on which science itself, as a mode of inquiry and constantly expanding body of knowledge, does not readily pronounce.”

The book boasts a blurb from fellow emeritus prof Richard Klein ’62, who calls the volume “the most important book you’ll ever read,” as it “aims to impel the public humanities to confront the imminence of the doom we face.”

To submit your book for consideration, email cornellians@cornell.edu. Please note that to be included in our listings of new titles, books must be recently published by a conventional publisher—not self published, pay-to-publish, publish on demand, or similar—and be of interest to a general audience. Books not featured will be forwarded to Class Notes.

Published August 2, 2024

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