Your November 2024 Reads

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This month’s featured titles include an homage to a beloved prof, a techno thriller, and a popular history of the space shuttle

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!

Thinking Otherwise

Susan Brewer, PhD ’91, Richard Immerman ’71 & Douglas Little, PhD ’78

Subtitled How Walter LaFeber Explained the History of U.S. Foreign Relations, the book is a festschrift—a scholarly tribute to a distinguished academic by colleagues and former students.

It’s a companion volume, published by Cornell University Press, to a 2023 conference in NYC that paid tribute to the late professor, a giant in the field of U.S. history. In the introduction, the editors describe how the idea for the book and conference came about when former students gathered after his death to reminisce.

Cover image of the book “Thinking Otherwise: How Walter LaFeber Explained the History of US Foreign Relations” (Cornell University Press, 2024), edited by Susan Brewer, PhD ’91; Richard Immerman ’71; and Douglas Little, PhD ’78

“He was the greatest teacher and wisest mentor that anyone present had ever encountered,” they write.

“His days must have lasted more than 24 hours for him to have written so many iconic books and articles while still managing to stay in touch with students, friends, and colleagues.”

The volume is available in hardcover and paperback or as a free ebook download, a free Kindle book, or individual PDF chapters.

The cover of "The Dragon’s Brain"

The Dragon’s Brain

Gerold Yonas ’61, BEP ’62

This techno thriller is the second in a series—a sequel to Yonas’s The Dragon’s C.L.A.W., in which rival nations jockey for control of technology that could provide unlimited clean energy.

His hero, physicist Alek Spray, is back and battling another scientifically based peril: a discovery at a famed nuclear research lab may be causing a mysterious neurological pandemic.

It’s up to Spray and his team to find a cure—but that solution could itself have deadly implications. Meanwhile, the life of the woman he loves is in jeopardy.

An engineering physics alum, Yonas holds a doctorate from Caltech. He served as chief scientist for the Strategic Defense Initiative (commonly known as “Star Wars”) and blogs as SDI Guy; he was also a vice president at Sandia National Labs.

The Best Land

Susan Brewer, PhD ’91

A doctoral alum in history (and coeditor of the LaFeber festschrift detailed above), Brewer is a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. She’s also a native of Oneida, NY—the subject of her nonfiction book from Cornell University Press’s Three Hills imprint.

In the book, Brewer contemplates the history of the farmland on which she grew up—a parcel that had been in her family for generations, but which American settlers had stolen from Indigenous people.

The cover of "The Best Land"

During Brewer’s youth in the 1970s, the Native residents’ demand for sovereignty over their rightful land sparked tensions in the community—even leading to the loss of life.

“How could the people of Oneida live side by side and be so divided from each other?” she writes. “From the first, I had no difficulty believing the claim of the Oneida Indians that they had lost their lands as a result of dishonesty and corruption. I listened to people I had known all my life admit that wrongs had probably been done long ago and declare that they should not be held responsible for them.”

Stories You May Like

In Yiddish Class, Teacher and Students Find Mishpokhe—‘Family’

In the Hill’s Natural Dye Garden, A Rainbow of Color Is in Bloom

Brewer’s previous books include To Win the Peace and Why America Fights.

The cover of "The People’s Spaceship"

The People’s Spaceship

Amy Snyder Kaminski ’98

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Kaminski holds a doctorate in science and technology studies from Virginia Tech and currently serves as NASA’s chief of science engagement.

She previously edited the volume Space Science and Public Engagement.

This nonfiction book explores the popular history of the space shuttle—specifically, the American public’s relationship with the program over its four-decade history.

“When the Apollo 11 astronauts returned from humanity’s first voyage to the moon in 1969, NASA officials advocated for more ambitious missions,” notes the publisher, University of Pittsburg Press.

“But with the civil rights movement, environmental concerns, the Vietnam War, and other social crises taking up much of the public’s attention, they lacked the support to make those ambitions a reality. Instead, the space agency had to think more modestly and pragmatically, crafting a program that could leverage the excitement of Apollo while promising relevance for average Americans.”

Wherever You Go, My Love Will Follow

Birgitta Sif Jonsdottir ’03

Aimed at children ages five and up, this anthology comprises eight stories that are narrated as letters offering life lessons from parent to child. It’s both written and illustrated by Jonsdottir, author of several previous books for kids including Swish & Squeak’s Noisy Day and Where My Feet Go.

The anthology’s stories contemplate such themes as perseverance, hope, courage, trying new things, and finding friends.

The cover of "Wherever You Go, My Love Will Follow"

As she writes: “Remember that seeds we sow, / become buds that blossom and grow, / nurtured with love, roots of kindness, / and most of all, time.”

A native of Iceland, Jonsdottir earned a BFA on the Hill; her literary debut—Oliver, about an iconoclastic boy who finally makes a friend—won Iceland’s Dimmalimm Prize for illustration in children’s books.

The cover of "From Vision to Action"

From Vision to Action

John Marks ’65

Marks is the founder and former head of the peacebuilding nonprofit Search for Common Ground.

A former government major in Arts & Sciences, Marks previously penned The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence and The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control.

His nonfiction book from Columbia University Press, subtitled Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship, offers practical advice on negotiating effectively and resolving conflicts.

“When people told me that something could not be done, I usually replied, ‘Let’s find a way,’” he writes.

“Sometimes foolishly and sometimes wisely, I rejected the idea that most things were not possible. In some cultures, being told ‘no’ absolutely means ‘no.’ In other places, and particularly to successful social entrepreneurs, refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer is a useful quality—except on those occasions when it is not.”

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 November 12, 2024

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