Bookshelf

(self-published, 2021)
With its subtitle “How a $10 Horse Became an Eventing Champion,” this inspirational story tells of the author’s lifetime journey with horses, and with one mare in particular. “The detail Tootie Anderson goes into about her chosen equine sport of eventing, the care it takes to create and maintain an equine athlete, medical situations she encountered, and the thoughtfulness she puts into being a true partner with her horse will delight any ‘horse person,’” one reviewer wrote. “Have a tissue ready for the last chapter, but by the last page Anderson’s commitment to horses and her sport will fill readers with great optimism.”

(Middletown, Del.: BestSellingBook.com, 2021)
Often people realize that a lack of diversity is a problem in their companies, but they don’t have the vocabulary, or tools, to address it effectively. An organizational development expert and consultant, the author explains how middle managers are key to achieving more inclusive, welcoming, and productive workplace environments.

“[Managers] hire new employees, push for their promotions, liaise with senior executives, and affect who decides to stay and leave,” Kalaw writes. “Unlike the executive suite, they’re interacting with employees at various levels and can directly take part in bringing in more diverse employees or carrying out a company’s DEI vision.”

Written in a straightforward, conversational tone, the book includes best practices, helpful exercises, and strategies that managers can put into place immediately to mitigate implicit bias and encourage a culture of active allyship.

(Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2020)
Little Ernestine is getting ready to go camping for the first time. It’s going to be great … isn’t it? In this delightful children’s book, both written and illustrated by Jennifer Mann ’85, we are all reminded that opening our minds to new experiences, no matter how challenging, can lead to great memories. Described by the author as a hybrid picture book/comic, The Camping Trip has received numerous honors ranging from the Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best List to the Washington State Book Award. The author lives in the Pacific Northwest.

(Dublin, Ohio: Telemachus Press, 2021)
This sweeping novel, the author’s first, uses the flashback/present style to tell the story of Hank Miller in the late days of the Wild West. While most cowboys ride off into the sunset, Miller’s path is more complicated. As the book jacket notes, the protagonist “survives the Civil War, Texas-sized desperados, and the great San Francisco earthquake. With a debt to pay, Hank will place himself and his twin sons in great danger in a new, wild and untamed frontier — Morocco!”

Several fans of the book are hinting at sequels. We’ll have to wait and see! Herrman is a retired physician who lives with his wife in California.

(Kirksville, Mo.: Golden Antelope Press, 2022)
Described as a “story of dispossession, refuge, and the search for justice and humanity,” this novel focuses on two Jewish families in the impending days of the Holocaust — specifically a little girl “kindertransported” to England to be raised by a foster family and a butcher’s apprentice who changes his identity and escapes to England to join the British Army.

The publisher notes, “The novel could be complete and coherent without its ‘third man’ frame, but the Prologue and Epilogue references to the famous 1949 noir film are distinctive and imaginative; they deepen the significance of the several other episodes. In the end, [the male protagonist] recognizes the similarities between himself and the film’s Harry Lime (as grifters who sometimes did questionable things). But he also identifies with his own ‘third man, the one he has tracked with revenge in mind. He recognizes that this man might have been evil, but might instead have been a ‘poor fool like himself, neither good nor evil, just a confused human being trying to muddle his way through this life.’”

The novel is inspired by Splitter’s family. His parents fled Vienna in 1938 a few years before his birth. He is a retired English professor who has written screenplays, made short films, and published short stories, novels, and a psychoanalytic study of Marcel Proust.

(New York: Routledge, 2021)
Written for a general audience, this book proceeds in a sequence of 26 brief “riffs” on topics ranging from singing cowboys and pop songs to postmodern philosophers and climate-driven homelessness. The author argues that “wandering, as a primal and recurrent human experience, is basic to the understanding of certain literary texts. In turn, certain prominent literary and cultural texts (from Paradise Lost to pop songs, from Wordsworth to the blues, from the Wandering Jew to the film Nomadland) demonstrate how representations of wandering have changed across cultures, times, and genres.”

Morris is emeritus professor of English at the University of Virginia. He is the author of two prize-winning books in 18th-century studies and is known for contributions in pain medicine.

(Yaoundé, Cameroon: Editions Ifrikiya, 2021)
In this collection of articles, the author describes Werewere-Liking as “a multitalented artiste … a novelist, a poet, a playwright, a dancer, a choreographer, a painter, a movie maker, and a singer.” One of the first female Francophone writers of African literature, she has taught at the University of Abidjan in West Africa and other universities around the world.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Village Ki-Yi, a school of arts founded by Werewere-Liking that trains mostly underprivileged children, scholars around the world shared articles on various aspects of Werewere-Liking’s multifaceted work, which are gathered in this book.

(New York: Catapult Press, 2020)
The author of eight novels and three collections of stories brings us this tale of an American couple who travel to a snowy European city to adopt a baby. Complicating their mission is the wife’s increasingly debilitative illness, which makes them concerned that the orphanage will not release their child. During their stay at a once glorious but now fading grand hotel, they encounter a strange cast of characters. Publishers Weekly notes, “[A] dreamlike, resonant fable ... Cameron doles out the right amount of eeriness and eccentricity ... emotionally affecting.”

(Montgomery, Ala.: China Aerospace Studies Institute, 2021)

Garafola, a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corp., and Allen, a retired Air Force analyst, explore the evolution of China’s air force since its founding in 1949 and the directions it might pursue leading up to its 80^th anniversary. Topics considered include strategy and doctrine, organizational structure, personnel, education, training, and military diplomacy and exchanges.

(Virginia Beach, Va.: Köehler Books, 2020).
A thousand miles off course, a private plane strikes a lighthouse and crashes near snowy Lake Superior. The pilot’s body is found, but three VIP passengers are missing. Combine that with a deadly snowmobile accident, an upstart congressional candidate, and alarming discoveries in Isle Royale National Park, and local sheriff Sam MacDonald finds he has more than enough challenges as the solitude of the North Shore is disrupted by events that could have national and international repercussions.