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Books and Recordings

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Books and Recordings is a compilation of recent publications by University alumni, faculty, and staff. For inclusion in an upcoming issue, send the work’s title, publisher information, author, and author’s class year, along with a brief description, to Books and Recordings, Rochester Review, 147 Wallis Hall, P. O. Box 270033, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0033; e-mail: rochrev@rochester.edu.

Books

Liberation
By Joanna Scott
Little, Brown, 2005

Scott, the Roswell S. Burrows Professor of English, traces the story of Adriana Nardi, a pivotal character in Scott’s 2003 novel Tourmaline.

The Science in Science Fiction
By Robert W. Bly ’79
BenBella Books, 2005

Bly traces the connections between modern scientific concepts and their earlier counterparts in science fiction.

A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow
By David L. Chappell ’92 (PhD)
The University of North Carolina Press, 2005

Chappell, an associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas, explores the intellectual roots of civil rights reform.

Notes from Toyota-Land
By Darius Mehri ’88
Cornell University Press, 2005

Subtitled “An American Engineer in Japan,” the book is a critical analysis of Japanese corporate and manufacturing practices based on Mehri’s observations during three years in an upper-level Toyota group company.

Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation and What We Can Do About It
Cowritten by Richard Niemi
Brookings Institution, 2005

Niemi, the Don Alonzo Watson Professor of Political Science, is one 19 leading political scientists who discuss ways to reverse trends that indicate a growing dissatisfaction with government among American citizens.

Producing Music with Digital Performer
Ben Newhouse ’98E
Berklee Press, 2004

Newhouse, a former associate professor at the Berklee College of Music, provides a guide to the widely used music production software program.

A Complex Solution
By Kurt Gerstner ’79
Authorhouse, 2005

In Gerstner’s first novel, a humorous murder mystery, college freshman Jerry Taylor investigates the death of his chemistry instructor.

Money Without Matrimony: The Unmarried Couple’s Guide to Financial Security
By Debra A. Neiman ’90S (MBA) and Sheryl Garrett
Dearborn Trade, 2005

The two financial planners explore issues affecting the finances of unmarried couples.

The Laughing Buddha Box
By Fran London ’86N, ’91N (MS)
Chronicle Books, 2005

Featuring a small figurine of the Buddha, the box also includes a paperback by London, a health education specialist at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, that explores the statue’s association by some with good luck and prosperity. London also is a coauthor of the fifth edition of Patient Education in Health and Illness (Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2005) and No Time to Teach?: A Nurse’s Guide to Patient and Family Education (Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1999).

Being There
By Barry M. Goldstein ’81M (MD), ’82M (PhD)
Master Scholars Press/New York University School of Medicine, 2005

An associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Rochester, Goldstein documents the work of medical student volunteers from New York University who helped identify remains of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The book also is available through the University of Rochester Press.

The Concept of Constituency: Political Representation, Democratic Legitimacy and Institutional Design
Andrew Rehfeld ’89
Cambridge University Press, 2005

Rehfeld, an assistant professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis, explores the origins of territorial electoral districts, and makes the case for randomized, national, and permanent electoral districts instead of territorial, proportional, or group-based systems.

The Benedictine Gift to Music
By Katharine Wilbur Le Mée, ’61, ’64 (Mas)
Paulist Press, 2003

Le Mée, the author of the 1994 book, Chant: The Origins, Form, Practice, and Healing Power of Gregorian Chant, explores how Gregorian chant developed into the complex polyphonic music of the western world.

In and Out of Southampton, N.Y., 1932–1956
By Sheila Smith ’46
Trafford Publishing, 2005

Smith combines personal history with descriptions of the social hierarchies she encountered as she grew up and began her career as a teacher.

Destined for Evil?: The Twentieth-Century Responses
Edited by Predrag Cicovacki ’91 (PhD)
University of Rochester Press, 2005

Cicovacki, an associate professor of philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, edits and contributes to a collection of responses to the ancient question of whether human beings are—individually and collectively—destined for evil.

Weitz on Automobile Litigation: The No-Fault Handbook
By Harvey Weitz and Richard B. Ancowitz ’79
New York State Trial Lawyers Institute, 2005

In its 10th edition, the handbook reviews and analyzes automobile insurance in New York State. Ancowitz is an attorney, arbitrator, and mediator in private practice in Albany and in New York City.

Laundry
By Cheryl Mendelson ’73 (PhD)
Scribner, 2005

Subtitled “The Home Comforts Book of Caring for Clothes and Linens,” the book is drawn from—as well as expanded and updated—from Mendelson’s bestseller Home Comforts (Scribner, 1999).

Thucydides: An Introduction for the Common Reader
Perez Zagorin
Princeton University Press, 2005

Zagorin, a professor emeritus of history at Rochester, explores the work of the Greek historian. Zagorin’s previous book, How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West, which was named one of the 20 best books of 2003 by the Los Angeles Times Book Review, also has been released in paperback by Princeton.

Recordings

Bluebird from the Sky
By Johnny Russo ’66E, Doug Robinson, and Friends
Watershed Arts, 2005

Russo and Robinson, who codirect Ithaca’s East Hill Classic Jazz Group, collaborate on seven original compositions and six pop and jazz standards. Drew Frech ’65E plays banjo on two tracks.

Music by George Crumb and Rafael Hernandez
By Cramped Spaces Ensemble
Self-produced, 2003

Pianist Beverley Simms ’78E (MM), a professor of music at Indiana State University, performs works for two pianos and two percussionists. Pianist and Indiana State faculty member William Hughes ’85E (DMA) also is featured.

Winter
By Chris Gekker ’76E
Albany Records, 2004

The CD features Gekker, a professor of trumpet at the University of Maryland, playing works by his onetime Eastman School roommates Eric Ewazen ’76E, who teaches at the Juilliard School, and composer David Snow ’76E.

Suite for John A. Williams
By Tyrone Brown
Dreambox Media, 2005

Jazz musician Brown bases the collection on the writing of Williams ’03 (HNR), a noted novelist, poet, and essayist whose papers are housed in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation. Richard Peek, director of the department, produced the CD.

Havana to Harlem
By Donna Coleman ’87E (DMA)
ABC Classics, 2005

Pianist Coleman, the head of the keyboard department at the University of Melbourne, tours the history of ragtime.

Live at the Jazz Standard: Days of Wine and Roses
By the Maria Schneider Orchestra
ArtistShare, 2005

Schneider ’85E (MM), who was named the 2005 Composer and Arranger of the Year in Down Beat magazine’s critics’ poll, re-releases her widely praised, but difficult-to-find, 2001 album.