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 T\u00e9a Obreht, MFA \u201908<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReaders will once again be beguiled by Obreht\u2019s lyrical imagination,\u201d says Publishers Weekly<\/em> of the author\u2019s<\/a> third novel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Named by Time<\/em> as one of the most anticipated books of 2024, it\u2019s set in a dystopian near-future where costal cities are underwater due to rising sea levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story<\/a> is narrated by an older woman who, at age 11, is brought to Island City (seemingly NYC) with her mother from a war-torn country as part of a repopulation program.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her aunt is manager of the high-rise building where they live, a formerly luxe residence for which the book is titled. It\u2019s now occupied by a variety of characters that fascinate the new arrival\u2014including one who may have supernatural powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cObreht is offering a cautionary vision of what our future might look like, but she\u2019s also asking questions that are as old as storytelling. What do we want to tell ourselves about ourselves? What do we try to hide from ourselves? And what\u2019s the cost of our lives?\u201d says Kirkus<\/em>, calling the novel \u201ca captivating blend of science fiction and magical realism with a wonderfully engaging protagonist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obreht\u2019s first novel, The Tiger\u2019s Wife<\/em>, was a finalist for the National Book Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chad Randl, PhD \u201914 & D. Medina Lasansky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two Cornellians\u2014a doctoral alum and an architecture professor\u2014serve as editors for this collection of essays<\/a> that contemplate the relationship between board games and the built environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Published by MIT Press, the book<\/a> was inspired by a class Lasansky teaches on how architecture and design intersect with popular culture.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Says the publisher: \u201cAlthough board games are often recreational objects, their mythologies and infrastructure do not exist in a vacuum\u2014rather, they echo and reproduce prevalent cultural landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The richly illustrated volume features some three dozen essays, many of which were penned by Big Red faculty or alumni. They focus on such games as Masterpiece, Scrabble, Life, Settlers of Catan, and Monopoly, as well as others less familiar to general audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlaying Place<\/em> takes games seriously as primary sources that suggest how cultures and communities see the world around them,\u201d the editors write in the intro. \u201cAt the same time, our contributors take the lessons of games to heart by embracing playful scholarship. Their essays draw from numerous academic disciplines \u2026 yet are united by a belief that games matter and are worth examining.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Esaki-Smith \u201983<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This nonfiction book<\/a> offers an alternative to traditional college-prep guides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Subtitled It\u2019s Not Where You Go, It\u2019s What You Know<\/em>, it aims to help readers make informed decisions about where to study\u2014based not on name recognition but on the more meaningful basis of how a school will prepare them for life and work in the current economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Esaki-Smith<\/a> is the co-founder of a research consultancy that serves universities and edtech companies, and is a contributing writer for Forbes<\/em> on higher ed topics.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In her book, she weaves data with her own personal story<\/a> to help guide future college students in finding the school that\u2019s right for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCollege can represent the most exciting and stimulating time of your life. So it\u2019s important that you focus on what you want and not just follow the herd,\u201d she writes in the preface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re probably already being bombarded by test-taking tips and essay-writing prompts. The problem with that is that you can\u2019t see the forest for the trees, meaning that you\u2019re too bogged down with details to see the big picture. This book will give you the forest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Van Valkenburgh \u201973<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Van Valkenburgh is the founder of one of the nation\u2019s leading landscape architecture firms<\/a>. In this photo-laden coffee table volume<\/a>, he and his colleagues chronicle their more than two-decade-long process of creating a prominent 85-acre park in NYC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReclaimed from 1.3 miles of New York\u2019s postindustrial waterfront, Brooklyn Bridge Park is a place for escape, recreation, and immersion in the natural world,\u201d notes the publisher.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTransforming parking lots and crumbling piers into a living ecosystem, the project is an exemplar of climate resilience, fiscal innovation, and joyful public space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Van Valkenburgh\u2019s firm, which has more than 100 employees, has designed parks and landscapes for cities, firms, and institutions around the country\u2014including Cornell\u2019s Bailey Hall plaza<\/a>. His previous books include Designing a Garden<\/em>, about a project at Boston\u2019s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jennifer Ng Chow \u201901<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chow launches a new mystery series with this tale<\/a> of a woman named Felicity Jin who takes over her mother\u2019s magical bakery, creating fortune cookies that may predict or even shape people\u2019s futures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But when a customer (who\u2019s also the owner of a rival bakery) dies, Felicity is the prime suspect\u2014prompting her to solve the mystery and clear her name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chow\u2019s \u201cMagical Fortune Cookie\u201d series is her latest in the cozy mystery genre, again featuring Asian cultural themes and protagonists.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n She also pens the \u201cSassy Cat\u201d series, featuring heroine Mimi Lee and her talking kitty, and the \u201cL.A. Night Market\u201d series, about two cousins who solve crimes while running a food stall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CALS alum<\/a> has been nominated for several major mystery awards including the Agatha and the Anthony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donna Tesiero \u201976<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tesiero, a former government major who holds a JD from Columbia, offers a biography of Elizabeth Freeman<\/a>, who spurred a 1781 court case that established the legal precedent for abolishing slavery in Northern states. Born into bondage in New York, Freeman (then known as Mum Bett) was a widow with a child when a prominent Massachusetts attorney agreed to represent her in her fight for freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hers became a test case in the post-Revolutionary era\u2014demonstrating that the principles of liberty enshrined in the Massachusetts state constitution meant that slavery was unlawful there, and by extension in other Northern states.<\/p>\n<\/div> After her legal victory, Bett changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman and became a paid domestic worker in the household of the lawyer who represented her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tesiero previously penned The Choosing Time<\/em>, a YA historical novel set in the 16th-century French court of King Francis I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thaddeus Rutkowski \u201976<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dubbed a \u201cnovel in short fictions,\u201d Rutkowski\u2019s latest book<\/a> is a collection of dozens of short stories, divided into three sections, that follow its protagonist from northern Appalachia to NYC and from childhood to maturity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first-person narrator chronicles such challenges as growing up with a father who\u2019s both a frustrated artist and an abusive alcoholic; coping with racism as a half-Chinese boy in a heavily white small town; and not fitting in with the traditional masculine stereotypes of his rural community.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rutkowski, who teaches at NYC\u2019s Medgar Evers College, is the author<\/a> of seven previous books, including the novel Haywire<\/em> and the poetry collections Border Crossings<\/em> and Tricks of Light<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/the-morningside-A.jpg\")
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<\/figure>Make College Your Superpower<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBrooklyn Bridge Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>Ill-Fated Fortune<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nA Revolutionary Woman<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>Safe Colors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n