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 Aisha Abdel Gawad, MFA \u201913<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfolding during Ramadan, this coming-of-age tale<\/a> centers on a Muslim-American family in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. \u201cGawad\u2019s excellent debut novel illuminates one family\u2019s story through the holy month of fasting,\u201d says Kirkus<\/em>, \u201cagainst the backdrop of NYPD surveillance of a Muslim neighborhood and larger fears of detainment and deportation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main characters are twin sisters who are graduating from high school. One is pursuing the potentially fraught path of a modeling career; the other, the \u201cdutiful\u201d one, aims to go to college, but is hiding a secret romance.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, their older brother has just come home after a six-year prison term; the owner of a local caf\u00e9 is arrested by Homeland Security; and a mosque is vandalized, among other neighborhood unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Says the Washington Post<\/em>: \u201cGawad honestly portrays the excitement and uncertainty of adolescence, set against a backdrop of racial tension that exploded in 9\/11\u2019s aftermath.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gawad, who has been published<\/a> in Bon Appetit<\/em> and the Kenyon Review<\/em>, won the prestigious Pushcart Prize in 2015 for her short story \u201cWaking Luna.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Al Davidoff \u201980<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a senior in the ILR School (and student government president), Davidoff took a full-time job as a Cornell custodian\u2014both to support his studies and to be on the front lines of an effort to organize service staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI struggled to maintain some sense of my student identity and what I thought was dignity,\u201d he writes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019d borrow tapes from the library of great speeches. I\u2019d listen to Michael Harrington or Carl Sagan while bringing a row of six urinals to a gleaming polish.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div> Davidoff helped lead a successful campaign to unionize several sectors of the University\u2019s workforce and went on to serve as the union\u2019s first president\u2014an endeavor he chronicles in the book<\/a>, published by Cornell University Press\u2019s ILR imprint and subtitled Cornell Workers\u2019 Fifteen-Year Fight for Justice and a Living Wage<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Ithaca Times<\/em>, former Ithaca judge Marjorie Zagoria Olds, JD \u201976, calls it \u201ca great read. Honest, exciting, and important local history. The brotherhood and sisterhood of Labor with activism reflected in Al\u2019s book is especially current, as we see how fragile and precarious democracy is, not only in America, but globally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lauren Mukamal Camp \u201988<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are suspended in places \/ entire and different and home<\/em>,\u201d Camp writes in her seventh poetry collection<\/a>. A Human Ecology alum, Camp is Poet Laureate<\/a> of New Mexico and has served as astronomer in residence at Grand Canyon National Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Worn Smooth between Devourings<\/em> is her second publication of 2023, following An Eye in Each Square<\/em>\u2014a volume of poetry described as an \u201cenigmatic biography\u201d of the painter Agnes Martin.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe poems in Worn Smooth between Devourings<\/em> travel through fears of ecological devastation and national and global tragedy, and map routes away from despair,\u201d says the publisher. \u201cWorry remains in the background, even in landscapes that still hold time\u2019s beginning. \u2026 These precise, sonically driven poems investigate a confessed gaze for contentment with the conviction of quiet rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Camp\u2019s past publications include Took House<\/em> (winner of the American Fiction Award in Poetry), and her work has appeared in such journals as Kenyon Review<\/em>, Prairie Schooner<\/em>, and Poet Lore<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawrence Kasanoff \u201981<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Arts & Sciences alum is a veteran Hollywood producer<\/a> whose many credits include Terminator 2: Judgment Day<\/em>, Platoon<\/em>, True Lies<\/em>, and Dirty Dancing<\/em>. Here, he taps his experience in the film industry\u2014and shares some dishy behind-the-scenes tales\u2014with a self-help guide for people in creative roles in a variety of sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book\u2019s<\/a> subtitle is How to Be More Innovative in Work and Life … by Being a Little Crazy<\/em>\u2014and his underlying message is that it\u2019s sometimes essential to embrace the unique, bold, and just plain wacky.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe current of the river of life will always try to pull you towards the middle, towards complacency and mediocrity,\u201d he writes. \u201cThis is true of every person and every company. \u2026 Companies and organizations tend to be comfortable with the tried and true. But the audience, i.e., your customers, are attracted to what\u2019s new, different, and better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kasanoff offers tips on generating new ideas; persisting until you get a \u201cyes\u201d; melding work and fun; turning adversaries into partners; and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo grow and become a great company, a great entrepreneur, you must actively embrace [innovation],\u201d he writes. \u201cYou can become pretty good without it, but not great. You must take a shot. And to be very innovative, you have to be a bit crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heather Alexander \u201989<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This hardcover for young readers<\/a> is part of a series offering \u201cweird and wonderful facts\u201d about the 50 states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It takes kids on a tour of the Empire State, from Niagara Falls to the Statue of Liberty and many places in between\u2014including the state capital in Albany, the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and the Finger Lakes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The book covers some of New York\u2019s notable history, people, culture, food, animals, plants, sports, and more\u2014narrated by Alexander and brought to life by an artist\u2019s colorful illustrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirkus<\/em> calls the volume \u201cinformative and fun,\u201d saying: \u201cWhat could have been a straightforward textbook is, instead, a quirky approach to the subject that encourages young readers to peruse the elements that appeal to them and to come back to learn more. There is plenty of solid information here, but there is also a great deal of the odd and unexpected and, yes, the weird and wacky, from a mention of the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival to a section on things invented in New York (among them Jell-O, Scrabble, and pipe cleaners).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A prolific children\u2019s book author<\/a> with more than 70 titles to her name, Alexander is an Arts & Sciences alum whose time on the Hill included serving as a research assistant for Prof. Alison Lurie, the famed novelist and scholar of children\u2019s literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Halloween Horror Pick<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Victor LaValle \u201994, BA \u201995<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n LaValle is an award-winning author<\/a> of literary horror. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/between-two-moons-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Between Two Moons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nUnionizing the Ivory Tower<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/unionizing-the-ivory-tower-A.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/worn-smooth-cover-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Worn Smooth between Devourings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nA Touch of the Madness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/touch-of-madness-A.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/Only-in-New-York-Cover-Final-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Only in New York<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Changeling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/changeling-book-cover-A.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n