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 Chris Pavone \u201989<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPavone is the author<\/a> of five previous books, literary thrillers characterized by elegant writing and intricate plotting,\u201d says a New York Times<\/em> review. \u201cThis is something bigger in tone and ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His latest novel<\/a> is set in and around a luxury apartment building in Manhattan. It centers on its doorman, a former Marine named Chicky Diaz, who struggles with massive debt while surrounded by enormous wealth. Meanwhile, political protests are inflaming the city, and the building\u2019s privileged residents endure their own dramas and crises\u2014often of their own making.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Says the Wall Street Journal<\/em>: \u201cMr. Pavone<\/a> has written an outstanding book full of sociological detail and pulsing with the passions and prejudices of the times in which we live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book garnered blurbs from such big names as Stephen King and Lee Child\u2014and comparisons to Tom Wolfe\u2019s The Bonfire of the Vanities<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Raves John Grisham: \u201cThe Doorman<\/em> is a near-perfect blend of clever plotting, wicked social commentary, irresistible setting, truly memorable characters, and old-fashioned, page-turning fun. What a romp!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah Spain \u201902<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spain, an award-winning sports journalist and podcaster<\/a>, co-authors the life story<\/a> of the NFL\u2019s Deland McCullough\u2014a former college football star who played for the Cincinnati Bengals before transitioning to coaching in the pros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSpain and McCullough captivatingly recount his journey,\u201d says a review in the Washington Post<\/em>, \u201cexploring the impact that love and self-knowledge can have on identity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Told in the third person, the book recounts McCullough\u2019s search for his own history through the unsealing of his adoption records. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n As he learned, his birth mother was a 16-year-old who gave him up in the hope he\u2019d have a better life\u2014but his childhood was volatile and even abusive, and he sought refuge in sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven non-sports fans will love this incredible story,\u201d says Booklist<\/em>, calling it \u201ca book about trauma, family, and hope, threaded with moments of profound sadness and unbelievable joy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ishion Hutchinson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hutchinson is Arts & Sciences\u2019 W.E.B. Du Bois Professor in the Humanities<\/a>, and a poet whose three collections include a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fugitive Tilts<\/em><\/a>, his first book of essays, collects work from the past few decades\u2014contemplating such topics as his childhood in Jamaica and the country\u2019s colonial history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the essays originally appeared in major periodicals such as Harper\u2019s<\/em>, the New Yorker<\/em>, and the Paris Review<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/div> The pieces include \u201cTreasure Island and Me,\u201d in which Hutchinson parses his youthful obsession with Robert Louis Stevenson\u2019s classic adventure novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wondered\u2014I was about 12 at this time, a full year of reading Treasure Island<\/em>\u2014how the bays, the coves, and the ridges behind our house got their names,\u201d he writes, adding: \u201cStrange to think, later when I left home, that it was Treasure Island<\/em> that brought on this kind of wondering about inheritance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Hutchinson tells the Cornell Chronicle<\/em><\/a> in an interview about Fugitive Tilts<\/em>: \u201cTo a great extent it\u2019s about the education of an aesthetic sensibility which is very much caught between all kinds of sociopolitical and historical structures that bear heavily on that reader hoping to become an artist or a writer or a poet, discovering what it means to become more confident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arlene Rosenfeld Schenker \u201971<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on the experiences of Schenker\u2019s co-author, this children\u2019s book<\/a> (aimed at kids aged four to eight) follows a young girl who emigrates from Ethiopia to Israel. She finds it difficult to adjust to many aspects of life in her new country\u2014and the transition is made harder when her teacher decides that her name is too difficult to pronounce, and she should go by \u201cRakhel\u201d instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m so different from the Israeli kids,\u201d the protagonist observes. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know we\u2019re all Jewish, but I look different, my lunches are different, and everything in Israel is different! I do love my name, and I don\u2019t like pretending that I\u2019m Rakhel when I\u2019m Gebyanesh on the inside!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Call Me Gebyanesh<\/em> is the first published book for Schenker, a Human Ecology alum<\/a> whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes practicing law and teaching first grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Says School Library Journal<\/em>: \u201cWhat an unusual, subtle addition to a familiar conflict; this will be a good fit for collections that support social-emotional learning in early elementary students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher Barns \u201972<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this nonfiction book<\/a> from University of New Mexico Press, Barns\u2014a longtime staffer and volunteer in the field of federal land management\u2014chronicles the history of Colorado\u2019s Mesa Verde National Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Barns explains, the park\u2019s backcountry and wilderness are not open to the public, in part to protect its hundreds of ancient Native American cliff dwellings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough this history, Mesa Verde emerges as a prime example of the conflicts often seen as inherent between the stewardship of what appear to be opposing resources,\u201d Barns writes.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is customary for disputes to be expected when trying to balance preservation and resource extraction. But here, as in other parks and wilderness areas with exceptionally important cultural components, there arises a friction between wilderness preservation and cultural preservation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charlie Green<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this satirical novel<\/a> by Green\u2014a senior lecturer<\/a> in English who previously published the poetry collection Feral Ornamentals<\/em>\u2014Texas secedes from the U.S. Then it installs a shah as its leader, and goes to war against its former country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tale is set in 1989, a decade after the secession. Its characters include those loosely based on such governmental bigwigs as President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor John Bolton.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n The novel\u2019s protagonist is a journalist seeking to uncover a Texas camp where political prisoners are tortured; meanwhile, the rebel state\u2019s government is feeding its residents disinformation to convince them it\u2019s winning the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the author has described<\/a> it: \u201cThink Dr. Strangelove<\/em> meets Mel Brooks meets 1984<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To submit your book for consideration, email cornellians@cornell.edu<\/a>. Please note that to be included, books must be recently published by a conventional publisher<\/strong>\u2014not self published, pay-to-publish, publish on demand, partner-published, 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 June 16, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This month’s featured titles include the latest from a bestselling thriller author and an NFL coach’s co-authored memoir<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":10397,"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-53584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Doorman<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>Runs in the Family<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFugitive Tilts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>Call Me Gebyanesh<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMesa Verde\u2019s Secret Garden<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>The Shah of Texas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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