Books Your November 2025 Reads Stories You May Like Exploring the Intersection of Economics, the Environment, and Human Behavior Laundry Putting You Through the Wringer? Apparel Expert Has Tips Pioneering Labor Reformer Honored, in Words and in Bronze This month’s featured titles include poetry, a famed restaurateur’s memoir, and a chronicle of the 1929 stock market crash 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! And did you know that Cornell has an online book club? Check it out! I’m Not Trying to Be Difficult Drew Nieporent ’77 The star restaurateur is known for popular, critically acclaimed NYC eateries of the 1980s and ’90s like Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, and Nobu. His memoir traces his life and career, beginning with childhood in the city—where his dad’s connections as an employee of the state liquor authority garnered them countless free meals out. For the young Nieporent, that sparked an early love not just of food, but of the dining scene; the role of restaurateur seemed glamourous, akin to that of a film director casting a movie and overseeing its production every evening. The memoir—whose title nods to its author’s sometimes-abrasive reputation—follows Nieporent to the Hotel School, where he made a name for himself but also clashed with faculty. His education continued on the job, with stints as a cruise ship waiter and in management positions at famed eateries like Tavern on the Green, before he opened his first restaurant on a then-unfashionable block of NYC’s emerging Tribeca neighborhood. “Nieporent revels in the world he details,” says a New York Times review. “There’s the headwaiter who ‘accidentally’ drops palmed bills from reservation-less customers to deftly calculate how good a table he should give them, and the old-school chef who drinks too much and sends out platters of strip loin that’s ‘borderline mooing’ to a corporate lunch.” Naked Ladies Julie Kane ’74 Kane is a former poet laureate of Louisiana, a professor emerita at Northwestern State, and a current faculty member at Western Colorado University. Her sixth volume of poetry includes selections from her five previous books and other award-winning work. “The title of this milestone collection acknowledges Kane’s place in the tradition of women confessional poets, evokes the nickname of a common Louisiana flower, and nods to the honesty and frankness that characterize her poems’ speakers,” states the publisher, Louisiana State University Press. The publisher describes the Arts & Sciences alum as “steeped in both Boston Irish-American and New Orleans cultures”; the former is reflected in such works as a poem titled “The Good Women”: “Three out of four / are named Mary, / these good Irish women / who surface at wakes / like earthworms after rain. / Death makes them bake / turkeys, casseroles, / applesauce cakes. / They breathe the thick / incense of flowers / for strength, dispense / prayers like milk / from each massive breast.” Perpetuity Kevin Kordziel ’91 Writing under a pen name, Kordziel crafts a techno-thriller about a young doctor who treats a woman’s minor injury—and learns that her blood contains nanobots. The discovery sends the two of them on the run for their lives, fleeing the bad actors who seek to use the tech for nefarious purposes. “This is a suspenseful read, part morality tale, part thriller,” a review in Aspects of Crime magazine says of the book, which was released by a small publisher based in London. “If you like genre-bending crime fiction, this is a page turner.” A retired corporate attorney with a JD from Duke, the ILR alum previously penned The Champion Maker, a speculative thriller about the dangers of genetic enhancement of competitive athletes. 1929 Andrew Ross Sorkin ’99 The journalist and author of the bestselling Too Big to Fail—about the 2008 financial crisis—now tackles the stock market crash of 1929 that spurred the Great Depression. “Sorkin informs readers early on that his book is as much a warning for our own time as it is a story about a bad day in October,” says a New York Times review. “Surveying the ‘market manias’ in today’s crypto and artificial intelligence sectors, he writes that ‘each wave seduces us into thinking that we’ve learned from history, and, this time, we can’t be fooled. Then it happens again.’” Stories You May Like Exploring the Intersection of Economics, the Environment, and Human Behavior Laundry Putting You Through the Wringer? Apparel Expert Has Tips Tapping some never-before-accessed sources, Sorkin chronicles the Roaring Twenties excess, corruption, double-dealing, and lack of governmental oversight that fueled the bear market—and the crash that followed, erasing fortunes and jobs. “Mr. Sorkin’s coverage of the crisis in 2008 was based on hundreds of interviews, but most of the people in this tale have been dead for decades,” says the Economist. “You would be forgiven for forgetting it. The combination of extensive research and a lively tone makes both the crash and the men involved feel more recent.” Why Fascists Fear Teachers Randi Weingarten ’80 Weingarten is the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s largest teachers union. Her nonfiction book presents the case for teachers as defenders of democratic ideals of open inquiry and critical thinking. In it, she draws on lessons from history—noting, for example, that public schools predate the nation itself—as well as more recent cases of teachers drawn into politically driven battles over content in libraries and classrooms. “The correlation between democracy and education is enduring and profound,” the ILR grad writes. She goes on to observe: “On the other hand, diminished critical thinking makes voters ripe for the disinformation that helps undermine democracy. … In an era where artificial intelligence and social media lack guardrails and nonpartisan media and media literacy are declining, it’s more important than ever that voters have the tools they need to think critically and discern fact from fiction.” Haunted USA Heather Alexander ’89 Alexander has published more than 70 works of fiction and nonfiction—from activity books to chapter books to novels for middle-grade readers. Her latest, subtitled Spine-tingling Stories from All 50 States, offers (slightly) scary tales based on true stories, folklore, and legends. Like many of Alexander’s publications, it’s geared toward middle-grade readers, aged nine through 12. (She has also produced dozens of chapter books for six-to-nine-year-olds.) “Have you ever seen pictures of playful otters frolicking in a river or ocean?” She writes in the book’s Alaska installment, about the Inuit legend of a shape-shifting creature. “These tiny, furry marine mammals couldn’t be more adorable if they tried. But don’t be fooled by all the cuteness—something sinister is afloat!” Other spectral entities covered in the volume include a New Hampshire witch, a Missouri swamp monster, a chocolate-loving ghost in Iowa, and a headless skeleton pirate in Mississippi. Hubert Harrison Brian Kwoba ’04 Kwoba’s nonfiction work, subtitled Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism, explores the life and work of the early 20th-century journalist, activist, and educator. Harrison emigrated to the U.S. from the West Indies as an orphaned teenager and—exposed for the first time to the nation’s stark racial and economic divides—became an advocate for socialism and racial justice. “He witnessed staggering luxury for the few alongside crushing poverty for the many,” states the publisher, University of North Carolina Press. “White mob violence continually haunted Black communities, while imperial conquest and world wars wrought wanton destruction upon entire nations of people. These conditions sparked a global political awakening to which Harrison gave voice as a leading figure in cutting-edge struggles for socialism, internationalism, free love, freethinking, and free speech.” A former philosophy major in Arts & Sciences, Kwoba is an associate professor of history and director of African and African American studies at the University of Memphis. To submit your book for consideration, email cornellians@cornell.edu. Please note that to be included, books must be recently published by a conventional publisher—not self published, pay-to-publish, publish on demand, partner-published, or similar—and be of interest to a general audience. Books not featured will be forwarded to Class Notes. Published November 17, 2025 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 Students Student Project Brings ‘Healing and Honoring Garden’ to Akwe:kon Quizzes & Puzzles Cornellian Crossword: 5-8-77 Campus & Beyond With a ‘Last Lecture,’ Hockey Coach Offers Words of Wisdom