KGB Banker John Christmas, MBA ’94—himself a former banker—says his own experiences as a whistleblower in the industry informed this thriller, whose globe-trotting plot makes stops in Latvia, Iceland, Moscow, Ukraine, and beyond.
Pump Zoologist Bill Schutt, PhD ’95 is an emeritus professor of biology at Long Island University and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. Here, he offers (in the words of the subtitle) a “natural history of the heart.”
Of Fear and Strangers A longtime psychiatry professor at Weill Cornell Medicine as well as an alum, George Makari, MD ’87, offers a history of xenophobia—the fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers.
I Am Smoke Henry Herz ’82, a prolific author of works for children, teams up with illustrator Mercè López for this unusual, environmentally themed picture book in which smoke itself is the narrator—describing its own dangers and benefits.
Vamp Until Ready The latest work by James Magruder ’82 is a novel-length series of connected stories set in and around the Ithaca theater scene from 1980–92—featuring such real-life locales as the Cornell and Ithaca College campuses, the Hangar Theatre, and Simeon’s restaurant.
The Whole-Person Workplace An expert on work and family issues who appears regularly in the national media, Scott Behson ’94 is a professor of management at Fairleigh Dickinson University. His latest book describes best practices in such areas as remote work, family leave, workplace culture, vacation policy, and more.
All Sorrows Can Be Borne In a novel inspired by true events, Loren Meyer Stephens ’65 tells a tale that spans from World War II to the early 1980s and from Japan to Montana. It’s narrated by a Japanese woman whose husband is seriously ill, and who makes the heart-wrenching decision to send her young son to live with relatives in America.
Hugo The title character in this hardcover picture book for kids aged three to seven—illustrated by Birgitta Sif Jonsdottir ’03—is a gregarious pigeon who serves as the warden of a small Parisian park, tending to its human and animal visitors and visiting the nearby apartments.
Vineland Reread Publishers Weekly calls this treatise on the novel Vineland (by Thomas Pynchon ’59) a “penetrating and nuanced work of literary criticism.” Author Peter Coviello, PhD ’98, is an English professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
How Photography Became Contemporary Art Andy Grundberg ’69, the New York Times’ photography critic from 1981–1991, had a front-row seat to (as he puts it in his introduction) “the remarkable rise of photography from the margins of art to its vital center, all within a span of 25 years.”