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 And did you know that Cornell has an online book club? Check it out!<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Pynchon \u201959<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The hero of Pynchon\u2019s latest novel<\/a>\u2014his first in more than a decade\u2014is one Hicks McTaggart, a private eye searching for a missing cheese heiress in early 1930s Wisconsin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s another of Pynchon\u2019s aw-shucks metaphysical detectives,\u201d says a New York Times<\/em> review, \u201c\u2018a big ape with a light touch,\u2019 as an admiring woman puts it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, in typical Pynchon fashion, the plot is secondary to an immersion into a singular world\u2014one laden with digressions, odd acronyms, and hints of the surreal.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are droll and erudite disquisitions (and throwaway lines) on bomb-making and tacky lamps and how to bake bowling balls,\u201d the Times<\/em> observes. \u201cStrange casseroles are served, Vernors ginger ale is celebrated, and Harley Davidson flatheads are driven to vivid effect. Hooch wagons are exploded, mickeys are slipped, a trans-Atlantic voyage is undertaken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Washington Post<\/em> calls Shadow Ticket <\/em>\u201crollicking, genially silly, and ultimately sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it notes: \u201cTo some extent \u2026 the challenge, even the annoyance, of reading Pynchon is the point, insofar as his frenetic narrative density mirrors the growing complexity of the histories he maps, the halogen-illuminated and fallout-addled stretch of the long 20th century, especially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Campanella, MLA \u201991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to being a professor<\/a> of urban studies and city planning in AAP, Campanella is the historian-in-residence at NYC\u2019s Department of Parks and Recreation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His latest book<\/a> spotlights two fellow Cornellians\u2014Gilmore Clarke 1913 and Michael Rapuano 1927\u2014whom he calls \u201cunsung giants\u201d of American landscape architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cTheir vast portfolio of public landscapes propelled the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux into the motor age, touching the lives of millions and changing the face of the nation,\u201d states the publisher, Princeton University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith the patronage of public-works titan Robert Moses, Clarke and Rapuano transformed New York over a span of 50 years, revitalizing the city\u2019s immense park system but also planning expressways, public housing, and urban renewal projects that laid waste to entire sections of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While history remembers the contributions of Olmsted and Vaux\u2014not to mention the now-infamous Moses\u2014in reimagining urban spaces, Campanella observes, Clarke and Rapuano have largely been forgotten. But their work includes iconic spots like the Central Park Zoo, Riverside Park, and Jones Beach, as well as the Palisades and Taconic State Parkways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alejandro Ju\u00e1rez Crawford \u201995, BA \u201996 <\/strong>& Miriam Plavin-Masterman \u201993<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The two alums co-host the podcast What if Instead?<\/em><\/a>\u2014which, per its description, is about \u201ceveryday people reimagining the way things work\u2014and tackling the obstacles they face.\u201d Now, they\u2019ve parlayed the podcast into a book<\/a> that explores its principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subtitled Time for an Entrepreneurial Revolution<\/em>, it contemplates the challenges of our \u201cunresponsive\u201d economic system\u2014one in which factors like politics, inequity, and a myopic drive for cost savings have combined to make many aspects of life and commerce frustrating and unproductive.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n The canonical example they cite is the customer service rabbit hole, with its lack of human interaction and inability to address issues that fall outside narrow parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIncreasingly, we live and work in one-size-fits-none systems,\u201d they write in the intro. \u201cWhen you hear the phrase \u2018your needs are very important to us,\u2019 you know you are lost in one of these systems. It is magical thinking to believe they will suddenly become responsive\u2014even to address the biggest crises of our time. Time for a new plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pat Sutton Lipsky \u201963<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The AAP alum and acclaimed painter reflects on her life and art in this memoir<\/a>, published by University of Iowa Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough its SoHo grit and thrown punches, bad divorces and career reversals, Brightening Glance<\/em> is set apart by the sensitivity of its observations,\u201d says a review in the New Criterion<\/em>. \u201cA praised abstractionist on canvas, Lipsky on paper proves to be a keen portraitist, with illuminating depictions of [prominent art world figures] Tony Smith, Lee Krasner, Clement Greenberg, Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson, and Pierre Rosenberg, among others.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div> The memoir follows Lipsky from her early career days in 1970s SoHo, where she was a single mother living and working in a loft on Wooster Street. She recalls early childhood influences, her time in Paris, and friendships, mentorships, and romances with noted members of the art world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a visit with [famed abstract expressionist] Lee Krasner at her home \u2026 and another at Lipsky\u2019s Manhattan apartment; late-night, smoke-filled loft parties; and evenings at Max\u2019s Kansas City, where Lou Reed and Nico sing in the background while rival groups of earthwork artists, pop artists, conceptual artists, and color field painters pretend to ignore each other at the bar,\u201d says the publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlong the way, we experience Lipsky\u2019s emergence at the forefront of her generation of painters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jos\u00e9 Enrique Medina \u201991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Medina<\/a> won the prestigious 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize\u2014out of some 3,000 entrants\u2014which garnered him a monetary award and the publication of his debut collection of poetry<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith dark humor and aching tenderness, Medina conjures Mexican family life, queer whispers, and sacred forgiveness,\u201d says the publisher, the nonprofit Rattle Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting poetry. \u201cThis collection asks: what do we inherit from those who vanish? And what becomes of us when the ones we long for stay silent\u2014while those we tried to forget come back, again and again, to remind us who we are?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n In the collection\u2019s title poem, Medina invites the spirit of his departed mother:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAgainst the greenhouse he built, the soul \/ of T\u00edo Arturo leans, smelling faintly of brillantina. \/ Abuela drifts beneath cherry blooms, \/ thumbing her rosary, whispering prayers. \/ Mother, where are you? \/ Even the twins, who were never born, are here, \/ tossing big-headed mums, each one \/ a soft grenade of memory. \/ You died four years ago, \/ your silence unfolding like petals. \/ And still \/ you haven\u2019t stepped into my garden \/ or caressed my amapola blossoms. \/ What are you waiting for? Haunt me.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catherine Simpson Bueker \u201996<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bueker is a sociology professor<\/a> at Boston\u2019s Emmanuel College. Her nonfiction book<\/a>\u2014subtitled Evolution of an American Town<\/em>\u2014examines how the demographics of Wellesley, MA, have changed over the past century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Wellesley \u201chas long been considered the archetypal New England WASP community,\u201d the publisher notes, influxes of Italian, Jewish, and Chinese residents have made it more diverse. While some newcomers opted to assimilate into existing social structures, others created their own. Either way, they changed and enriched the community\u2014though they have sometimes faced racism, antisemitism, and discrimination.<\/p>\n<\/div> As Bueker observes in the intro: 99% of Wellesley residents described themselves as white in 1970, but that figure has since dropped to about 73%. And although the town was once heavily Protestant, it now has other active Christian denominations and 10% of residents identify as Jewish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose who consider these statistical changes in Wellesley\u2019s demographics inconsequential are being too quick to dismiss the implications,\u201d Bueker writes. \u201cWhile few may notice these changes at first glance, the implications are playing out each and every day.\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 December 5, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n This month\u2019s featured titles include fiction from Thomas Pynchon \u201959 and a look at two \u201cunsung giants\u201d of landscape architecture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":10396,"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-63321","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\/12\/shadow-ticket-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Shadow Ticket<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDesigning the American Century<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>One Size Fits None<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBrightening Glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/brightening-glance-A.jpg\")
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<\/figure>Haunt Me<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBeyond White Picket Fences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/needs-crop-Beyond-White-Picket-Fences-A.jpg\")
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