CREATIVE RECKONINGS: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt By Jessica Winegar C’93. (Stanford University Press, 2006. $68 cloth, $25.95 paper.) Those who make art in Egypt today must contend with not only the ancient greatness of Egyptian art but with the more recent histories of European modernism, anti-colonial nationalism, and state socialism—all in a context of rising political Islam and the neoliberal economy. Winegar, an assistant professor of anthropology at Fordham University, examines the heated cultural politics in today’s Arab world. BUY THIS BOOK
THE WEB OF EMPIRE: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion 1560-1660 By Alison Games Gr’92. (Oxford, 2008. $35.00.) Drawing on the stories of English traders, clergymen, soldiers, and colonists who traveled the world, Games explores England’s transformation from a weak country on the margins of Europe to a powerful empire with colonies across the globe. Games is a professor of history at Georgetown University. BUY THIS BOOK
PROVENANCE By Brandel France de Bravo C’82. (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2008. $12.00.) Using Ralph Waldo Emerson’s dictum that “Every word was once a poem” as a point of departure, France de Bravo has penned a collection of poems for each letter of the alphabet. The etymologies of the letters themselves play a vital role in each of these pieces, as readers are taken on a journey that explores language. The collection, whose cast of characters ranges from a Mayan cowboy to a night-clubbing saint, was a semi-finalist for the Academy of American Poets’ Walt Whitman Award. BUY THIS BOOK
HOT MESS: Summer In The City By Julie Kraut C’04 and Shallon Lester. (Delacorte Press, 2008. $8.99.) In Kraut’s and Lester’s debut novel for the young and pop-culture-obsessed, two high-school girls spend a summer in the Big Apple, dating, partying, and getting in all manner of trouble. BUY THIS BOOK
TAKING SOUTH PARK SERIOUSLY Edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock C’ 92. (State University of New York Press, 2008, $21.95.) This eclectic mix of essays examines the foul-mouthed, politically incorrect, and sometimes hilarious Comedy Central show that takes pride in making fun of all things pop-cultural. Weinstock is an associate professor of English at Central Michigan University. BUY THIS BOOK
