Merle Fischlowitz ’53 shares his memories of technology and the changes he has witnessed throughout his life. He says, “One thing that moved me to write the book was when my 4-year-old granddaughter showed me she knew how to use her mother’s passcode to open her iPhone. I have dedicated the book to my eight grandchildren and great-grandchildren who were born in this century.”
In Seeing Like a Citizen: Decolonization, Development, and the Making of Kenya, 1945–1980 (Ohio University Press, 2019), Kara Moskowitz ’06 approaches Kenya’s late colonial and early post-colonial eras as a single period of political, economic, and social transition. In focusing on rural Kenyans — the vast majority of the populace and the main targets of development interventions — as they actively sought access to aid, she offers new insights into the texture of political life in decolonizing Kenya and the early post-colonial world.
In his new book (St. Johann Press, 2019), Jeff Frantz ’66 emphasizes “reading the Bible in light of its historical context and mostly as metaphorical narrative, freeing God from the bonds of supernatural theism and viewing Jesus not as divine but as fully human.”
Mistaking an ad to join the Loneliest Band in France for one to sell his blood, the novella’s narrator finds himself instead under the sway of the band, drinking heavily and being recruited to play a battle-of-the-bands-esque concert (that night) at the local Café Bovary. Not only is there prize money attached to the concert, the bandmates also see this as an opportunity to debut a new song — one, they claim, that can hurt — even kill — its listeners. The Loneliest Band in France (Texas Review Press, 2020) won the 2019 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and is the first book by Dylan Fisher ’14.
Well+Good founders Alexia Brue ’95 and Melisse Gelula have curated a collection of 100 easy and delicious recipes from the luminaries across their community, to help their readers eat for wellness, in Well+Good Cookbook: 100 Healthy Recipes + Expert Advice for Better Living (Clarkson Potter, 2019).
Who owns Maine’s spectacular Aguahega Island — the National Park Service, the rich summer people, or the Beal family? The novel by Kathleen Snow ’65 was reissued in a new edition in 2019.
Editor Kenneth J. Varnum ’89 presents the perfect introduction for libraries to look beyond their own reality and adapt the ideas inside Beyond Reality (ALA Editions, 2019). The current price of virtual reality headsets may seem out of economic reach for most libraries, but the potential of “assisted reality” tools goes well beyond merely inviting patrons to strap on a pair of goggles. Ranging from enhanced training to using third-party apps to enrich digital collections, there is a kaleidoscope of library uses for augmented, virtual, or mixed reality. In this collection, Varnum and his hand-picked team of contributors share exciting, surprising, and inspiring case studies from a mix of institution types.
For children ages 4–8, Butterflies in Room 6 (Charlesbridge, 2019) by Caroline Scheaffer Arnold ’66 follows a kindergarten class as they raise butterflies — from a tiny egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, and finally to the emergence of the adult butterfly. The children’s enthusiasm was contagious as they learned about butterflies and had the thrill of releasing them outdoors and watching them fly into the neighborhood.
Jeffrey Winer ’08 and two co-authors, B. Heidi Ellis and Saida Abdi, wrote Mental Health Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Youth (American Psychological Association, 2019), a book for providers and programs hoping to serve and support immigrant and refugee youth and family mental health. Winer is a clinical psychologist and researcher on the faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Congratulations to Grinnell College photographer Justin Hayworth whose photo of Charlotte Christensen, assistant professor of physics, and students under a blanket of stars at the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA) was voted best of show for September 2019 by the University Photographers’ Association of America. This was the first time in Hayworth’s seven years entering the monthly contest that he won best of show. His entry was up against nearly 600 others in eight different categories. September typically has the largest volume of contest submissions because it includes June, July, and August.
