Books Your December 2024 Reads Stories You May Like Remembering the Cornellian Who Broke Racial Barriers in Math Meet Some of the (Many!) Cornellians Who’ve Won the Nobel Alumna’s Firm Makes Comfy Corporate Attire for Women This month's featured titles include a novel set in Arthurian times and a prof’s memoir about his education under Apartheid 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! Cross-Cultural Harlem Sandhya Shukla ’88 In this nonfiction book, Shukla explores how the influences of various racial and ethnic groups have intersected over the decades to create the Manhattan neighborhood long seen as a center of Black culture. “Over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, Harlem has been the capital of both Black America and a global African diaspora, an early home for Italian and Jewish immigrant communities, an important Puerto Rican neighborhood, and a representative site of gentrification,” states the publisher, Columbia University Press. “How do we understand the power of a place with so many claims and identifications?” A former government major in Arts & Sciences, Shukla is an associate professor of English and American studies at the University of Virginia. She previously penned India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England. The Shadowed Land Signe Pike ’03 This historical fantasy novel is the third—but not final—entry in Pike’s Lost Queen series, set in Scotland during the 6th century. “Those who have read The Lost Queen (2018) and The Forgotten Kingdom (2020) will be right at home as Pike continues her chronicle of the swirling intrigue and bloody confrontations among the Britons, Picts, Scots, Angles, Christians, and other kingdoms and ethnicities of the Arthurian period,” says Kirkus. Pike’s queenly heroine, Languoreth, is the twin sister of the real-life person who inspired the character of Merlin in Arthurian legend. (And yes, Arthur—here called Artúr mac Aedan—has a role in the book as well.) As Kirkus observes: “Even the Loch Ness monster makes an appearance in this kaleidoscopic epic with deep roots in both history and myth.” A former comm major in CALS, Pike also published the travel memoir Faery Tale: One Woman’s Search for Enchantment in a Modern World. Stories You May Like Remembering the Cornellian Who Broke Racial Barriers in Math Meet Some of the (Many!) Cornellians Who’ve Won the Nobel The Perversity of Gratitude Grant Farred Farred is a professor of Africana studies in Arts & Sciences. His book, published by Temple University Press, has been described as a “philosophical memoir.” The volume is part reflection on the author’s upbringing in South Africa during the Apartheid era, and part critique of the unjust system that, ironically, allowed him to thrive intellectually thanks to several outstanding teachers in the segregated schools he attended. “Apartheid made me think,” he writes in the preface, “and, as such, my apartheid education constituted the optimal conditions for thinking.” Farred’s many previous books include An Essay for Ezra—observations on racial violence and white supremacy, addressed to his biracial son—and In Motion, At Rest, which parses the deeper societal meanings of three infamous events in the world of sports. Krishna-Niti Kushagra Aniket ’15 A management consultant who majored in economics, math, and statistics in Arts & Sciences, Aniket holds an MBA from Columbia. In this nonfiction book, subtitled Timeless Strategic Wisdom, he and his coauthor offer 11 lessons in strategy drawn from the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. In the book—which they call the first of its kind—the authors compile all of the niti (Sanskrit for “guidance”) given by the deity Krishna in the Mahabharata on such topics as personal conduct, morality, policy, governance, and law, drawn from multiple editions of the epic. “The Mahabharata presents Krishna as the strategist par excellence,” they write. “He is as worldly wise as he is spiritually enlightened.” The Architecture of Urbanity Vishaan Chakrabarti ’87, BS ’88 The founder of a prominent NYC-based architecture and urban planning firm, Chakrabarti is also a visiting critic in the College of Architecture, Art & Planning. His nonfiction book, from Princeton University Press, argues that his field can play an essential role in addressing such challenges as climate change and political divisions through thoughtful urban design. “A city is a cultural, social, political, economic, and infrastructural construct, formed as much through people, policy, and advocacy as it is through physicality,” he writes. “Cities have always been my fascination because they spatially mediate between people and the planet.” Chakrabarti earned undergrad degrees from both Arts & Sciences (art history) and Engineering (operations research). His firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), has worked on such high-profile projects as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, NYC’s Penn Station, and the repurposing of the former Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn. 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 December 11, 2024 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Chime In The ‘Marvelous, Turbulent Times’ When a Literary Magazine Was Born Cornelliana From Big Red Presidents, Commencement Words of Wisdom Ask the Expert Is it Seasonal Depression—or the ‘Winter Blues’?