FOR THE LOVE OF PARVATI: An Anita Ray Mystery By Susan Oleksiw Gr’77 (Five Star, 2014, $25.95.) After a body washes up on the bank of a monsoon-swollen river in South India, Anita Ray, an Indian-American photographer, finds her life growing increasingly murky and dangerous as she attempts to solve the murder. The third installment in a mystery series by Oleksiw, who is also the author of the Mellingham series of crime novels. Buy this book
L.A. [TEN]: Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s–1990s Edited by Stephen Phillips GAr’94 (Lars Müller Publishers, 2014, $35.00.) These interviews with 10 prominent L.A. architects represent an oral history of the city’s architecture in the 1980s and ’90s, one that explores its characters, environment, and cultural history. Phillips, who conducted the interviews, is associate professor of architecture at California Polytechnic State University and founding director of the Cal Poly L.A. Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design. Buy this book
IF NUNS RULED THE WORLD: Ten Sisters on a Mission By Jo Piazza C’02 (Open Road, 2014, $12.99.) The 10 world-changing nuns profiled here range from Sister Madonna Buder, who at 82 became the oldest athlete to complete an Ironman triathlon; to Sister Jeannine Gramick Gr’75, founder of New Ways Ministry, which has provided support to Catholic gays and lesbians since 1977; to Sister Dianna Mae Ortiz, an American nun who was brutally tortured in Guatemala and later founded the Torture Abolition and Survivors Coalition. Piazza is a New York-based reporter, editor, and digital-content strategist. Buy this book
IT’S EASY TO START EATING VEGAN: A Step-by-Step Guide with Recipes By Rebecca Gilbert C’93 (Montara Media, 2014, $14.95.) Five years after chronic joint pain forced Gilbert to quit her figure-skating career, she adopted a vegan diet, and within weeks she was able to return, pain-free, to the ice. Her book discusses the benefits of a vegan diet, features a wide range of recipes, and offers tips for stocking your pantry and staying vegan in a non-vegan world. Gilbert is the founder of yummyplants.com. Buy this book
ADAPTING TO WIN: How Insurgents Fight and Defeat Foreign States in War By Noriyuki Katagiri G’06 Gr’10 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015, $69.95.) Guerilla operations don’t always fail. Using sequencing theory to analyze more than 100 violent insurgencies against state powers, Katagiri shows how guerilla forces are able to adapt to shifting circumstances. He teaches in the Department of International Security Studies at Air War College. Buy this book
DOING HARM By Kelly Parsons M’97 (St. Martin’s Press, 2014, $25.99.) Chief resident Steve Mitchell, a surgeon charged with molding a group of medical trainees into doctors, has a brilliant future at University Hospital. But when a patient mysteriously dies, it soon becomes clear that a killer is playing a deadly game, one that will lead to more deaths and ruin Mitchell’s career and marriage. This is the first novel by Parsons, a urologist and associate professor of surgery at UC-San Diego. Buy this book
FAKED OUT: Tales for Lovers of Antiques and Art By Arthur Cobin D’60 and Vivien Boniuk (Eyetooth Press, 2013, $24.95.) As longtime collectors, dealers, and writers in the field of antiques, Cobin and Boniuk (his wife) have accrued a wealth of experiences, which—along with the short stories of Roald Dahl and Jeffrey Archer—inspired them to write their own collection of stories. “Woven into this world,” they write, “are the very human qualities that influence these events, including greed, jealousy, deception, irony and always the unpredictable element of chance.” Buy this book
MINDY’S MARVELOUS MATH RHYMES: A Treasury of Poems and Activities By Vera Shembel CW’73, illustrated by Sara Farrell (AuthorHouse, 2014, $19.99.) This collection of rhymes, songs, and activities for children is a tool to help budding mathematicians learn math lessons outside of the classroom. The glossary in the back provides a useful list of math vocabulary and definitions. Shembel is a teacher in the Upper Dublin (Pennsylvania) School District. Buy this book
