THE THANK-YOU PROJECT: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time by Nancy Davis Kho W’88 (Running Press, 2019, $22.00) Part memoir and part how-to guide, this book tells the story of the year Kho wrote 50 letters to the people, places, and pastimes that positively impacted her life. Using her experience as a template, she offers practical advice on how readers can organize their own gratitude letter project, and shares evidence for how it can lead to greater happiness. Buy this book
A DAY SO GRAY by Marie Busterna Lamba C’84 and Alea Marley (Clarion Books, 2019, $17.99) This delightful picture book teaches children (and adults) the power of changing one’s perspective. A discontented girl at first sees only a dull winter landscape with gray skies and brown fields. But with the help of a friend, she starts to notice tiny orange berries, vibrant blue water, and a fresh way of seeing her surroundings. Buy this book
PLEASED TO MEET ME: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are by Bill Sullivan G’94 Gr’97 (National Geographic Books, 2019, $26.00) Why are you a morning person? Why do you vote the way you do? Using straightforward language, Sullivan, a geneticist and infectious disease expert, shares how our personalities and actions are shaped by genetics, epigenetics, microbiology, and psychology. Buy this book
NEW CASTLE’S KADUNCE MURDERS: Mystery and the Devil in Northwest Pennsylvania by Dale Richard Perelman WG’65 (The History Press, 2019, $23.99) Using historical records and contemporary interviews, Perelman recreates the summer of 1978 when a double murder took place in the quiet town of New Castle, Pennsylvania. The saga intermingles a serial killer, a Satanist, multiple suicides, and three courtroom trials. Buy this book
MALICROIX by Henri Bosco, translated by Joyce Zonana G’79 Gr’85 (NYRB, 2020, $16.95.) Originally published in 1946, this novel by the prolific French author Henri Bosco is available for the first time in English. It tells the story of a man living alone in a house on an island, where he battles wild winds, flooding, and his own solitude. Buy this book
LEADING FROM WITHIN: A Guide to Maximizing Your Effectiveness Through Meditation by Steven M. Cohen W’86 (Meditation4Leadership, 2019, $24.95.) A ruptured Achilles tendon at age 45 forced Cohen to slow down from his fast-paced life as a lawyer at a big international firm. It also triggered a daily meditation practice that improved his personal and professional relationships. Here, he identifies 13 traits of effective leaders that arise from a consistent mindfulness practice. Buy this book
LINCOLN’S INFORMER: Charles A. Dana and the Inside Story of the Union War by Carl J. Guarneri C’72 (University Press of Kansas, 2019, $39.95.) Charles A. Dana may be one of the most influential Civil War figures you’ve never heard of. An outspoken wartime journalist, he was later appointed by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton as a confidential Union informant, investigating cases of fraud and disloyalty. Guarneri writes, “No one played as important a role as a shaper of wartime events from the shadows.” Buy this book
TYRANNOSAURUS WRECKS by Stuart Gibbs C’91 (Simon & Schuster, 2020, $17.99.) In this latest installment of the FunJungle series for young readers, the skull of a rare dinosaur goes missing during an excavation. Everyone is a suspect, including zoo owner J. J. McCracken. Buy this book
CITIZEN COUNTESS: Sofia Panina and the Fate of Revolutionary Russia by Adele Lindenmeyr CW’71 (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019, $39.95.) Countess Panina, born in 1871, was a prominent aristocrat and philanthropist in tsarist Russia. She became the first woman to hold a cabinet position in any government. Later, charged with stealing government funds, she was labeled an “enemy of the people” and was the first political prisoner to be tried by the Bolsheviks. Buy this book
A WALL OF OUR OWN: An American History of the Berlin Wall by Paul M. Farber C’05 (University of North Carolina Press, 2020, $29.95.) Farber, cofounder of Monument Lab and a senior research scholar in the School of Design, traces the Berlin Wall as a site of pilgrimage for American artists, writers, and activists. Sparked by their first encounters with the Wall, individuals such as Leonard Freed, Angela Davis, Shinkichi Tajiri, and Audre Lorde incorporated their reflections in books and artworks, weighing the possibilities and limits of American democracy. Buy this book
Very Briefly Noted
SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS: Problem Solving for Current and Future Generations by Richard A. Niesenbaum C’84 Gr’92 (Oxford University Press, 2019, $75.00.) Buy this book
LOVE BOAT 78 by Thomas J. Madden ASC’70 (Mascot Books, 2020, $14.95.) Buy this book
FROM NEWS TO TALK: The Expansion of Opinion and Commentary in US Journalism by Kimberly Meltzer ASC’03 Gr’07 (State University of New York Press, 2020, $32.95.) Buy this book
THE PEARL HARBOR CONGRESSIONAL COVER-UP: A True Account of How a Partisan Congress Misled the American People on the Pearl Harbor Attack, December 7, 1941. Featuring Historic Lessons on the Failure of Leadership to Foresee the Attack and to Avert War with Japan. By Arnold G. Regardie W’56 (Arnold G. Regardie, 2019, $17.95.) Buy this book
PARTNERSHIPS, CHALLENGES, AND TRANSITIONS: Jewish Communal Service in Romania and Poland, 1986–2002 by Zvi Feine Gr’74 (Gefen, 2019, $39.95.) Buy this book
