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 Amanda Quain \u201913<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dashed<\/em><\/a> is Quain\u2019s third contemporary young-adult novel<\/a> inspired by the works of Jane Austen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows Ghosted<\/em> (in which the stately manor Northanger Abbey is recast as a haunted high school) and Accomplished<\/em>, which puts Mr. Darcy\u2019s younger sister from Pride and Prejudice<\/em> at center stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quain\u2019s latest is an updating of Sense and Sensibility<\/em>\u2014focused on the youngest sister, Margaret (who plays a minor role in the original novel). <\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n With her levelheaded oldest sister Elinor happily married, Margaret aims to follow her example rather than that of their volatile middle sibling, Marianne, who barely survived a car crash fueled by a dramatic heartbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cQuain moves the story along with ease and charm, spinning a tale that\u2019s as much about the love between sisters as the intrigues of unexpected romance,\u201d says Kirkus<\/em>. \u201cCharacters and key themes maintain the Austen connection, but Margaret\u2019s journey of healing from trauma and accepting herself is a Quain original.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirk Yeager, PhD \u201993<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A doctoral alum in inorganic chemistry, Yeager is the FBI\u2019s chief explosives scientist<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During his years in the field, he worked on such cases as 2003\u2019s infamous \u201ccollar bomb\u201d\u2014in which a criminal locked an explosive device around a stranger\u2019s neck and forced him to rob a bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeager\u2019s memoir<\/a>\u2014written with his sister, a journalist\u2014recounts his experiences with the bureau as well as his decades as an academic researcher and expert consultant. (He also served as a technical adviser to TV\u2019s \u201cMythBusters.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe forensic work required to solve the mystery of a crime involving high explosives is like nothing you\u2019ve ever seen on a made-for-television investigative series,\u201d he observes in the intro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cForget about fingerprint evidence\u2014that\u2019s blown to smithereens. There is rarely DNA of any value. As a true bomb detective, what you have to work with are fragments, soot, fields of twisted metal, and charred human remains. You have carnage and chaos. And in that sea of wailing sirens, beeping horns, screaming survivors, and the stench of diesel fuel and decaying bodies, your job is to ferret out forensic clues in a type of macabre scavenger hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Louis Guard, JD \u201912<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Guard is a vice president and general counsel<\/a> at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an adjunct professor at his doctoral alma mater, where he teaches a seminar on higher-ed law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That course formed much of the basis for this nonfiction book<\/a>, published by Harvard University Press and subtitled Litigation, Regulation, and the New Era of Higher Education<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn today\u2019s campus, the long arm of the law is inescapable,\u201d he and his coauthor write in the introduction. <\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPolicies, procedures, trainings, and forms reign supreme. When and how did higher education become so dominated by the law and by lawyers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Named \u201cone of the best books we\u2019ve read so far in 2024\u201d by the New Yorker<\/em>, it covers how colleges and universities are coping with the legal complexities around such topics as free speech, civil rights, admissions, student life, governance, and pandemic-era policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April 2024, the Law School held an event<\/a> marking the book\u2019s release and delving into the issues it raises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rachel Dodes \u201999<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Publishers Weekly<\/em> compares this coauthored novel<\/a> to Sliding Doors<\/em>\u2014the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow film that follows two potential versions of the protagonist\u2019s life, depending on whether she makes or misses a subway train\u2014and notes that \u201cthis well-told tale will leave readers wanting more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book\u2019s 35-year-old heroine is unhappy in work and love when she goes to her 15th reunion at a Cornell-esque university; there, she reconnects with a career counselor who offers her a magical \u201cmemo\u201d allowing her to revisit key points in her past and give herself advice.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirkus<\/em> praises the book\u2019s \u201cinsight, wit, and perfectly chosen details\u201d and observes that the authors \u201cexplore issues of love, work, friendship, ambition, and fulfillment that feel timeless yet particularly pertinent in the social media era, when it\u2019s so hard to see past the surface of other people\u2019s high-powered facades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dodes is a freelance culture writer<\/a> who has been published in Vanity Fair<\/em>, the New York Times<\/em>, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theodore Schwartz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this hybrid of memoir and science history<\/a> that Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls \u201csweeping and consistently captivating,\u201d a Weill Cornell Medicine neurosurgeon describes his field\u2019s evolution and reflects on his experiences in the operating room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book includes anonymized case studies of patients Schwartz has treated, as well as those of public figures like Michael J. Fox\u2014who underwent a procedure to ameliorate symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease\u2014and Argentine first lady Eva Per\u00f3n, who was subjected to a lobotomy.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile parts of the text are inevitably technical, the author is warm and insightful, making the book accessible to general readers as well as specialists,\u201d says Kirkus<\/em>. \u201cMixing expertise with storytelling, Schwartz provides a remarkable account of a crucial but misunderstood field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Weill Cornell, Schwartz holds several leadership positions<\/a>, including vice chair for clinical research. He discussed the book in an August 2024 appearance on NPR\u2019s \u201cFresh Air.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee Basevin Kass, PhD \u201975<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A pioneering researcher on the hereditary characteristics of corn, Barbara McClintock 1923, PhD 1927, observed that genes could \u201ctranspose\u201d\u2014positing that physical traits could be switched on and off depending on certain conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While her findings defied popular theory of the era, she was ultimately recognized with a Nobel Prize in 1983. In this scientific biography<\/a>, Kass (an adjunct professor<\/a> in CALS) chronicles McClintock\u2019s life and work.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The author aims, in part, to correct earlier inaccuracies\u2014such as the perception that McClintock was a loner in her youth and that she was denied tenure at the University of Missouri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndeed, as a woman who wished to pursue a career in science, Barbara McClintock did confront many obstacles before settling into a full-time job where she felt the \u2018female element\u2019 would not be a barrier,\u201d Kass writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYet, years before McClintock became a public figure, she was recognized by her scientific peers in plant biology and in plant breeding (genetics) and by her alma mater, Cornell University.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To submit your book for consideration, email cornellians@cornell.edu<\/a>. Please note that to be included in our listings of new titles, books must be recently published by a conventional publisher\u2014not self published, pay-to-publish, publish on demand, or similar\u2014and be of interest to a general audience. Books not featured will be forwarded to Class Notes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Published September 10, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n This month\u2019s featured titles include an Austen-inspired YA novel and memoirs by an FBI explosives expert and a neurosurgeon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":10398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-40600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nDashed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>The Bomb Doctor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAll the Campus Lawyers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>The Memo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGray Matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/09\/gray-matters-A.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/09\/from-chromosomes-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>From Chromosomes to Mobile Genetic Elements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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