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 Peter Banko, MHA \u201992<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this management guide<\/a>, Banko\u2014a longtime health executive who\u2019s now president and CEO of a Massachusetts hospital system\u2014addresses a topic that few businesspeople relish: letting workers go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subtitled How Great Leaders Fire with Clarity, Confidence, and Compassion<\/em>, the volume comes from the book arm of Forbes<\/em> magazine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirkus<\/em> praises it as a \u201cwise and wide-ranging consideration of the delicacies involved in dismissing employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Having fired some four dozen people over the course of his career, Banko ponders the circumstances in which terminations become necessary and offers advice on best practices for doing it fairly and well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He covers such topics as handling these conversations empathetically and with precision; reframing firing as a leadership act rather than a personal failure on the employee\u2019s part; and preserving team morale amid staff departures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt makes complete sense that in classrooms and boardrooms there is a hush and stillness to this dialogue,\u201d Banko writes of the lack of attention to firing as a key leadership tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are taught to get along when we land in school at age five. \u2026 I value welcoming and belonging in my work. I don\u2019t value glossing over it when someone on the team is not performing and is bringing down the whole team and the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee Cadesky, MS \u201915<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A food scientist<\/a> and former lecturer on the Hill, Cadesky spent the second half of the 2010s working on startups that aimed to turn crickets into a source of protein akin to tofu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That endeavor serves as a backdrop to her first book, a general-audience work<\/a> in which she contemplates how humans think about what constitutes food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She identifies seven forces that shape that concept, including genetics, microbiology, anthropology, trade, and technology.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFood\u2019s definition can change a lot depending on whom you ask,\u201d Cadesky writes, going on to observe: \u201cWhy eat a snail but not a slug? Why eat a lobster but not a locust? Is the only difference butter? How we categorize food is perhaps even more fluid. Are alligators meat or seafood? \u2026 Is soy milk actually milk? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Is a cucumber a vegetable?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Booklist<\/em> calls Grub<\/em> a \u201ccomplex narrative that opens in a most unexpected way,\u201d noting that the author \u201coffers a fresh perspective for readers interested in a broad look at culinary traditions and changing approaches to what we eat and why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the director of innovation for a major Canadian food manufacturer, Cadesky pens a Substack newsletter titled the Digest Digest<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thaddeus Rutkowski \u201976<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rutkowski\u2019s latest volume<\/a> is a collection of short lyric poems inspired by his life experiences\u2014from childhood in Appalachia to adulthood in NYC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese candid, compact poems focus on themes of alienation and belonging, closeness to nature, eventual parenthood, and aging,\u201d states the publisher, Finishing Line Press. \u201cEach poem contains careful observation of detail\u2014the flapping of a bird\u2019s wing, the sound of a mantra, the smell of smoldering charcoal briquettes\u2014and a conceptual twist that casts new light on the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rutkowski\u2019s previous books include the novels Safe Colors<\/em> and Haywire<\/em> and the poetry collections Border Crossings<\/em> and Tricks of Light<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he writes in a poem from the new collection: \u201cI see a moment of happiness on my wife\u2019s face. \/ She smiles after she gets out of the bay water \/ before she sees I\u2019m looking. \/ She holds a towel to her cheek \/ and stands over the bedsheet \/ we\u2019ve brought to the beach. \/ We turned down the offer of reclining chairs, \/ at high prices, and even more \/ for the ones with sunshades.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stacey Langwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Langwick is a professor of anthropology<\/a> on the Hill; in addition to her doctorate in the field, she holds a master\u2019s in public health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her research focuses on cultural and medical anthropology\u2014and her latest book<\/a> delves into plant-based healing and sustainable farming practices in Tanzania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It examines (in the words of the publisher, Duke University Press) \u201cthe relationship between toxicity and remedy in the face of the intertwined health and environmental crises\u201d that shape modern life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cTogether we ask: \u2018What does it mean to heal in a toxic world?\u2019\u201d Langwick writes in the intro, adding: \u201cThe double bind defining our contemporary moment unsettles and disorients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Langwick previously penned Bodies, Politics, and African Healing: The Matter of Maladies in Tanzania<\/em> and co-edited Medicine, Mobility, and Power in Global Africa: Transnational Health and Healing<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gregory Dreicer, PhD \u201993<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This volume<\/a> from MIT Press traces the evolution of bridge-building, from an endeavor done a single structure at a time to a standardized practice performed worldwide. Along the way, author Dreicer chronicles related historical and societal shifts and offers a plethora of visuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book earned a blurb from fellow Cornellian and MIT prof John Ochsendorf \u201996: \u201cDreicer\u2019s engrossing study of the lattice truss bridge makes a nuanced and original contribution to the history of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n A doctoral alum<\/a> in science and technology studies, Dreicer is a historian, designer, and creator of visitor experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAmerican Bridge<\/em> explores a radical reimagining,” says the publisher, “a new way of building that introduced uniformity and modularity on a global scale while enabling the connectivity essential to the rise of the nation-state.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n John Hyland \u201999<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dubbed \u201cimpressive\u201d by the New York Times<\/em>, this war history<\/a> was penned by an Arts & Sciences alum<\/a> who\u2019s on the faculty at Virginia\u2019s Christopher Newport University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe wars between the Achaemenid Persian kings and the Greek city-states\u2014especially Xerxes\u2019s invasion of Greece\u2014are often remembered as foundational events in Greek history, and therefore, we often hear about them through Greek accounts,\u201d states the publisher, Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile the Persians left no campaign narratives to compare with Herodotus and Aeschylus, their documents, artwork, and artifacts offer the foundations for an illuminating reassessment of these pivotal conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The volume was featured in an April 2026 Times<\/em> round-up of books<\/a> that demonstrate similarities between the Persian invasion of Greece millennia ago and the current U.S. conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hyland previously published Persian Interventions: The Achaemenid Empire, Athens, and Sparta, 450\u2013386 BCE<\/em> and co-edited Brill\u2019s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires<\/em>.<\/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 August 10, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n This month\u2019s featured titles include poetry, a look at what we eat (and why), and a management guide on the art of firing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":9782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"This month\u2019s featured titles include poetry, a look at what we eat (and why), and a management guide on the art of firing","alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-74765","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\/2026\/08\/the-necessary-goodbye-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>The Necessary Goodbye<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGrub<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/grub-A.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/tracks-in-snow-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>Tracks in Snow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMedicines That Feed Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/medicines-that-feed-us-A.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/american-bridge-A.jpg\")
<\/figure>American Bridge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nPersia\u2019s Greek Campaigns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/persias-greek-campaigns-A.jpg\")
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