Bookshelf

(New York and London: The New Press, 2021).
The author spent years traveling the globe — from Liberia to Indonesia, India to Brazil — reporting on the human and environmental impacts of the growing palm oil industry. Her book blends history, science, politics, and food as seen through the people whose lives have been upended by this hidden ingredient. As Publishers Weekly noted: “Vividly describing people and places damaged by the palm oil industry, Zuckerman establishes a through line connecting 19th-century imperialism to the exploitative practices of today’s multinational corporations. This deeply reported account sounds the alarm loud and clear.” The author, a former deputy editor of Gourmet, is the recipient of a James Beard Journalism Award for Feature Writing.

(Seattle: Marrowstone Press, 2021)
This book of poems includes “many voices in many places, like snapshots saved in a scrapbook.” The author takes readers on a journey that begins in the South, moves to the Northeast and New England, shifts to Texas and the Middle West, and then travels to the Pacific Coast. “It concludes with another sort of pilgrimage, with its intimations of journeys’ end,” the publisher notes. “Throughout, it is concerned with one theme most of all, the intersection of place, time, and self as each speaks through the other of the meanings that bind them, and us, together.”

(Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2019)
One reviewer noted, “Scrutinizing a wealth of slave narratives, plantation records, and trial transcripts, the book documents the violent resistance of enslaved people … [who] did not violently rebel to claim their freedom; instead, they struck out in defiance or exasperation, to protect their honor, to reclaim their masculinity, and to defend their femininity. These acts did little to ultimately change the conditions for enslaved people; however, such physical confrontation ‘provided [them] with hope against a system of oppression designed to destroy their humanity.’”

New York: Hachette Books, 2021)

The author, a former college dean of admission turned consultant, says admissions committees often take seconds to decide whether to admit a student. They must sum up a candidate in one sentence that predicts whether that student will be a good fit for their college. That’s why she developed the soundbite, a tool that helps students craft their own defining statement of self-identity. By doing so, Haberson says, “the student’s fate no longer rests on a soundbite composed by an admissions officer. Instead, the student employs their own soundbite to define themselves on their own terms.” This book offers tried-and-tested exercises.

(Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020)
According to the publisher, “This richly illustrated catalog brings together for the first time all of the known popular prints published by the Altzenbach firm in Cologne from approximately 1609 to 1680. Over 550 prints plus models and copies are drawn from more than 120 collections in Europe and North America. Working in the bastion of Catholicism on the Lower Rhine, the Altzenbachs specialized in devotional prints for the local market as well as for the large number of pilgrims who visited the religious sites in Cologne, Trier, and Aachen. At the same time, however, they published prints for a broad market on a variety of secular subjects: local history, natural events, executions, architecture, allegories, and moral satires.”

(self-published, 2020)

The author, an internationally renowned baker and cake designer, turns her attention to the healthier side of eating — from Caesar, Cobb, and wedge, this cookbook features 70 mouth-watering salad recipes. It’s the fifth cookbook (and first printed in English) for Deffense, who lives in Portugal.

(Parker, Colo.: Outskirts Press, 2021).
The author writes, “As an antidote in these serious times … this book will answer a lot of questions that you may have about Jewish history, customs and ceremonies, religion, and food, as well as a provide you a dictionary of the most important Jewish words. And hopefully, it’s good for a few laughs. For Gentiles, learn all you need to know about being Jewish. For Jews, give the book as a present to somebody who really needs it.” 

(Seattle: Lake Union Publishing, 2021).
From the author of the bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky comes a new historical novel inspired by one family’s inspiring story of daring, survival, and triumph. According to the publisher: “In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves — murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect ‘pure-blood’ Germans? The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century. But after already living under Stalin’s horrifying regime, Emil and Adeline decide they must run in retreat from their land with the wolves they despise to escape the Soviets and go in search of freedom.”

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2020)

The sociologist-authors present both a rationale and guide to the science and art of in-depth qualitative interviewing — stressing both scientific rigor and artistic creativity — that take fellow researchers through the steps in the research process, from the initial stage of formulating a question to presenting final results. 

(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2021)

Drawing on interviews with 100 men and women who have lost jobs, the author examines the ways unemployment shapes families, finances, health, and the job hunt. The book offers insights into the “guilt gap,” where women who have lost jobs place higher levels of blame on themselves, and class privilege that gives some an advantage, while leaving others at the mercy of an underfunded unemployment system. The author is an associate professor of sociology and labor and employment relations at Pennsylvania State University.