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 J. Robert Lennon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lennon\u2019s second thriller is <\/em>a sequel<\/a> <\/em>to 2024\u2019s\u00a0Hard Girls<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That book\u2019s protagonists, the formerly estranged twins Jane and Lila Pool, have healed their rift and co-founded a private investigation agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Buzz Kill<\/em>, they dig into a case that\u2019s close to home: the possibility that the long-ago suicide of an aunt\u2014a lawyer with a powerful and unsatisfied client\u2014was actually murder, tied to the sale of a new and deadly synthetic opioid drug.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other plotlines include the efforts of Jane\u2019s daughter to find out who has produced a deepfake video intended to derail her campaign for class president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lennon is the Bowers Professor of English<\/a> on the Hill, where he also serves as editor of the EPOCH<\/em> literary magazine. His many previous books<\/a> include the novels Mailman<\/em>, Happyland<\/em>, Familiar<\/em>, and Broken River<\/em>, and several short story collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laurie Woolever \u201996<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI graduated from college in 1996 and moved to New York with three things: a vague ambition to be a published writer, a yawning desire for validation, and a love of feeding others,\u201d Woolever writes in the intro to her memoir<\/a>. \u201cMy parents had taught me to keep my head down and do my work, accept what\u2019s offered, show up early, be polite, become indispensable. Beyond all that, I didn\u2019t have much of a plan for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Woolever went on to work as a private cook to a wealthy family, attend culinary school\u2014and serve as the personal assistant to celebrity chefs Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain.<\/p>\n<\/div> In the book, she chronicles her career; her struggles with drugs, alcohol, and marital infidelity; and her working relationships with her two famous bosses: Batali, whose reputation nosedived following allegations of sexual harassment and workplace abuse, and Bourdain, who struggled with mental health issues that ultimately led to his suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a starred review, Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls the book a \u201cprofane, exhilarating autobiography,\u201d noting that, \u201cWoolever paints a raw portrait of the culinary world\u2019s hypermasculine work culture, but she steers clear of playing the victim \u2026 These rowdy reflections enlighten and entertain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claudia Barnett \u201988<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Published by Carnegie Mellon University Press, Barnett\u2019s volume<\/a> is subtitled Six Short Plays About Women in Science<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its characters include a Cornellian: Nobelist Barbara McClintock 1923, PhD 1927. McClintock is featured in the book\u2019s final play, I Knew I Was Right<\/em>, in which she attempts to convince a skeptical male colleague about the validity of her findings in genetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou must look at the entire organism,\u201d McClintock says in Barnett\u2019s imagined scenario. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou need to register the process. Then you\u2019ll see that what one cell loses, the other gains. The genes jump, and there\u2019s a reason. It isn\u2019t random; there\u2019s an on-off switch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other subjects in the volume\u2019s half-dozen plays are microbiologist Esther Lederberg; astronomer and astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin; and Pythias of Assos, depicted in the title work observing the natural world with her husband in Ancient Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to being a playwright<\/a> who has had her work produced around the world, Barnett is an English professor at Middle Tennessee State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary Gilliland \u201973, MAT \u201980<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Gilliland is an award-winning poet<\/a> who has taught on the Hill and elsewhere (including at Weill Cornell Medicine\u2019s branch in Qatar). Her collections include Ember Days<\/em>, The Ruined Walled Castle Garden<\/em>, and The Devil\u2019s Fools<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her latest work<\/a> is a long-form poem whose disparate inspirations include a statue from Japan and the author\u2019s own late brother, an ardent activist for human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the Pool of the Sea\u2019s Shoulder<\/em> is a multi-vocal poem with parts spoken by Marie Curie, the Radium Girls, and a mysterious fisherman,\u201d states the publisher, Dancing Girl Press.<\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cA grieving sister\u2019s encounters with a 19th-century metal sculpture originally made in Fukushima and its associated legends of the sea prompt memories of her deceased brother\u2019s activist years ensuring addition of LGBT to the state\u2019s hate crimes law. He and his life partner converse about their lives in the high desert of the Southwest amid the nuclear industry\u2019s benchmarks of Los Alamos and Church Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Henry Herz \u201982<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Engineering alum\u2019s latest book<\/a> is an anthology of short stories (and two poems) in the genres of fantasy and alternative history, contemplating twists on action during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDid the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk?\u201d muses the publisher\u2019s description. \u201cDid a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the U.S. drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Says Publishers Weekly<\/em>: \u201cHerz makes good on the fascinating premise \u2026 bringing together 20 high-octane stories that add terrifying monsters to the battlefields of WW II.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Herz has published<\/a> numerous children\u2019s books, including the recent I Am Smoke<\/em> and I Am Gravity,<\/em> and edited such anthologies as Coming of Age: 13 B\u2019nai Mitzvah Stories<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His new release got a blurb from bestselling author Charlaine Harris of \u201cTrue Blood\u201d fame, who says: \u201cCombat Monsters<\/em> is a challenging and rewarding read. War is always terrible, but the added dimension of supernatural creatures gives these stories a whole different slant on \u2018what if.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Qi Wang<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wang is the Jacobs Professor of Human Development<\/a> in Human Ecology, where she directs the Culture & Cognition Lab. Her co-edited book<\/a>, from Oxford University Press, has a scholarly bent but is on a topic of interest to many lay readers: how online life impacts human memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The volume\u2019s essays address such topics as Google, fake news, nostalgia, and how grave historic events such as the Holocaust are addressed on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cAs much as memory is a product of the mind and brain and thus inherently private and personal, it operates as an open system saturated in cultural contexts and shaped by layers of dynamic cultural forces,\u201d she writes in the intro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a key cultural force unique to our time of modern technology, the Internet and social media have brought about revolutionary transformations to how we receive, share, and remember information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/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 April 8, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n This month\u2019s featured titles include poetry, a prof\u2019s neo noir novel, and a memoir about working for two celebrity chefs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":9782,"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-50038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/buzzkill-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Buzz Kill<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCare and Feeding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Care-and-Feeding-A.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/AristotlesWife-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Aristotle\u2019s Wife<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nIn the Pool of the Sea\u2019s Shoulder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/pool-of-the-sea-A.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/CombatMonsters-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Combat Monsters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Remaking of Memory in the Age of the Internet and Social Media<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/remaking-of-memory-A.jpg\")
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