Did you know that Cornell has an online book club? Check it out!<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n For more titles by Big Red authors, peruse our previous round-ups<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you published a book you’d like to submit? Scroll down for details!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lorrie Moore, MFA \u201982<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Moore\u2019s fourth novel<\/a> was named one of the most anticipated books of 2023 by Time<\/em> magazine. The work, says the Chicago Review of Books<\/em>, \u201cis a chilling ghost story, hilarious and touching in its mortal wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The novel\u2019s protagonist is a high school teacher named Finn, a Midwesterner who\u2019s visiting a dying relative in Boston when he learns that his ex-girlfriend has taken her own life. So \u2026 Finn returns to their hometown, digs up her freshly buried corpse, and goes on a road trip with her ghost.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the narrative is interspersed by\u2014among other plotlines\u2014entries from a mysterious 19th-century journal stolen from a boarding house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI Am Homeless<\/em> is a triumph of tone and, ultimately, of the imagination,\u201d says the Guardian<\/em>. \u201cFor Moore, death doesn\u2019t necessarily mark the end of a story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An acclaimed novelist, short story writer, and critic for four decades, Moore holds a named professorship<\/a> at Vanderbilt University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jana Blankenship \u201904<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Arts & Sciences alum (who attended under the name Mirjana Milosavljevic-Cook) co-authors a guide<\/a> to marking the year with seasonal activities, comestibles, and wellness practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Subtitled Recipes, Rituals, and Crafts to Embrace the Magic of the Year<\/em>, it\u2019s divided into 12 chapters of microseasons and their associated themes (such as \u201cMid-Spring: Emerge\u201d and \u201cEarly Fall: Gather\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div> The projects are designed with kids and families in mind, and each is marked with a difficulty level. Many of the recipes are vegan or gluten-free (or have alternatives to accommodate those diets), can be made in bulk for gifting, or contain ingredients that can be wild-harvested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recipes include Blueberry Lavender Crisp Bars, Soothing White Pine Tea, and Maple-Cinnamon Buttered Popcorn; readers are instructed how to make their own crayons from cocoa butter and beeswax, concoct botanically based bug spray, create a habitat welcoming to butterflies, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A religious studies major on the Hill, Blankenship is the founder<\/a> of a plant-based beauty company and author of the 2019 guide Wild Beauty: Wisdom & Recipes for Natural Self-Care<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melissa Ditmore \u201990, BA \u201992<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ditmore\u2019s work of nonfiction<\/a>, which Booklist<\/em> calls \u201cstirring and compassionate,\u201d has an unsparing subtitle: The Hidden Role of Human Trafficking in the American Economy<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A sociologist<\/a> with a doctorate from CUNY, Ditmore has done extensive research on trafficking, in the U.S. and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe most prevalent image of trafficking involves people being kidnapped and forced to work (particularly in the sex industry),\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn reality, most trafficking victims are lured into starting what may seem like a normal job. It\u2019s only after they have started work that they begin to encounter increasingly abusive conditions, including threats, violence, forced labor, and debt bondage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book explores trafficking in a variety of spheres including agriculture, door-to-door sales, domestic labor, sex work, and manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis searing expos\u00e9 reveals the dark underbelly of the U.S. economy,\u201d says Publishers Weekly<\/em>, which goes on to state: \u201cKnowledgeable, empathetic, and impassioned, Ditmore is an expert tour guide through this harrowing landscape. Readers will be moved to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alli Frank \u201992<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The third novel<\/a> from Frank and her co-author, Asha Youmans, was published by a boutique imprint<\/a> headed by actor and style maven Mindy Kaling. Named one of the summer\u2019s best books by Entertainment Weekly<\/em>, it follows a 43-year-old Black woman named Nina, the divorced mom of a teenage girl, who has just landed her dream job as head of an elite private school in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Celebrating the launch of the \u201cbetter\u201d (second) half of her life by going on a road trip with her bestie, she has a summer fling with a stranger, a white man named Leo.<\/p>\n<\/div> Back home and coping with the realities of her new post, she\u2019s shocked to discover that she\u2019s pregnant. As she struggles to decide what to do, Leo\u2014who lives 5,000 miles away\u2014urges her to have the child and promises to co-parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Better Half<\/em> is a rom-com unafraid to tackle weighty issues,\u201d says the Seattle Times<\/em>, \u201cand Nina\u2019s narrative voice is a delightfully funny one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frank and Youmans<\/a> previously penned Tiny Imperfections<\/em> and Never Meant to Meet You.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabrielle Hartley \u201992<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A veteran divorce lawyer and mediator<\/a> who specializes in keeping cases out of court, Hartley previously co-authored the 2019 self-help book Better Apart: The Radically Positive Way to Separate<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the Human Ecology alum<\/a>\u2014who practices in New York and Massachusetts and does online mediation\u2014has published another guide<\/a>, subtitled 3 Steps to Life-Changing Conflict Resolution<\/em>. Library Journal<\/em> says it\u2019s \u201crecommended for anyone seeking to achieve accord or successful resolutions in the face of opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n As Hartley writes in the introduction: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn focusing on our increased polarization, or chalking everything up to \u2018these crazy times,\u2019 we\u2019re overlooking an even more worrisome part of the equation: we have gotten really, really bad at managing conflict. Somewhere along the way, we\u2019ve forgotten that some level of disagreement is normal and even necessary in our relationships. We\u2019ve normalized a zero-sum approach to interpersonal conflict and prioritized \u2018winning\u2019 at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kimberly Greene-Liebowitz \u201994<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kent State University Press published this collection of essays<\/a> by women physicians, co-edited by Greene-Liebowitz, a specialist in emergency medicine located in the NYC metro area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn many ways, women enjoy unprecedented access to medical careers: there are no longer rules preventing them from obtaining medical degrees or licenses or membership in professional societies, and the number of female physicians has exploded in recent years,\u201d Greene-Liebowitz<\/a> writes in the introduction.<\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cNevertheless, bias, discrimination, and inadequate mentorship combined with sub-par work-life balance lead to fewer female department chairs, lower lifetime earnings, and lower levels of academic achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 40 short pieces address such topics as the physician-patient relationship, juggling work and family, and barriers to professional advancement. The collection also features two essays\u2014\u201cFirst to Report\u201d and \u201cSometimes, I Help People Die\u201d\u2014by Greene-Liebowitz, a former bio major in Arts & Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Classic by a Cornellian<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Farhad Manjoo \u201900<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Manjoo, a former Daily Sun<\/em> editor, came out with this wry-but-weighty primer<\/a> on the sorry state of fact-based discourse way back in 2008\u2014an era that may seem positively quaint in our current age of ever-more-siloed realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subtitled Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society<\/em>, it contemplates the phenomenon that Stephen Colbert dubbed \u201ctruthiness\u201d: the notion that politics have come to the point that not only do we disagree about our positions<\/em> on issues, but on the veracity of the very facts underlying them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile new technology eases connections among people, it also, paradoxically, facilitates a closeted view of the world, keeping us coiled tightly with those who share our ideas,\u201d writes Manjoo, who’s now an opinion columnist<\/a> for the New York Times<\/em>. \u201cIn a world that lacks real gatekeepers and authority figures, and in which digital manipulation is so effortless, spin, conspiracy theories, myths, and outright lies may get the better of many of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manjoo contemplates such examples as conspiracy theories over the 9\/11 terrorist attacks; the \u201cswift boat\u201d veterans who undermined John Kerry\u2019s 2004 presidential campaign with thinly sourced allegations of misdeeds during his Vietnam service; and the unreliable intel about weapons of mass destruction that spurred the 2003 invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls the book a \u201cperceptive analysis of the status of truth in the digital age,\u201d noting that \u201cManjoo has produced an engaging, illustrative look at the dangers of living in an oversaturated media world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/I-am-Homeless-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSeasonal Family Almanac<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>Unbroken Chains<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Better Half<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>The Secret to Getting Along (And Why It\u2019s Easier Than You Think)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWhat We Bring to the Practice of Medicine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>True Enough<\/h2>\n\n\n\n