WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...
The Mathematician's Shiva, STUART ROJSTACZER, PhD '88; Penguin Books, $16
Sometimes party crashers target wedding receptions, but who horns in on a shiva? Jealous mathematicians do, in this debut novel by a geophysicist. The deceased was a strong-willed genius rumored to have secretly solved the Navier-Stokes problem without claiming the million-dollar Millennium Prize; her rivals hope to wrest the solution from her family or find it among her possessions. Interwoven with the comic plot is the bittersweet story of that Polish/Russian family's colorful life and sometimes stormy relationships—from their exile in Siberia to immigrant life in U.S. college towns—narrated by the son with alternating chapters from his mother's diary.
What Do You Have?
Not this earth, not even dust—
Not yours, caw invisible crows
like doors swinging shut.
Not your memories, rising
and burning in the air
like leaf-dew in sun.
Not your thoughts, poking in
and darting out
like hummingbirds among the blossoms.
Only this bit of time (like clouds unforming)—
even as you point to it,
gone.
—MARCIA FALK, MA '71, PhD '76, in The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season; Brandeis University Press, $24.95.
Among Chimpanzees: Field Notes from the Race to Save Our Endangered Relatives, NANCY J. MERRICK, '74; Beacon Press, $27.95
As a junior at Stanford, Nancy Merrick studied chimpanzees in Tanzania under then-lecturer Jane Goodall. In Among Chimpanzees she recounts her trips back to Africa in hopes of improving the coexistence of Africans and the great apes.
"In some communities . . . a Catholic school stands out as a model of success in the midst of failure, of order in the midst of chaos—and therefore of the possibility that demographics need not dictate destiny."
—MARGARET F. BRINIG AND NICOLE STELLE GARNETT, '92, in Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools' Importance in Urban America, University of Chicago Press, $45.
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, DANIEL J. LEVITIN, '79; Dutton, $27.95
Levitin gives an overview of the brain systems that evolved to attend to, categorize and store incoming information, and explains how they can fail when tasked with handling the torrent of data we now face daily. He advocates setting up systems that mirror the way the brain operates to improve efficiency while reducing stress and facilitating creativity.
I Pledge Allegiance, PAT MORA AND LIBBY MARTINEZ, JD '96; Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, $16.99
Libby and her great-aunt Lobo practice saying the Pledge of Allegiance—Libby for school and Lobo for her U.S. citizenship ceremony. Their time together takes on new meaning when Libby learns why becoming a citizen is so important to her great-aunt.
Invisible Beasts, SHARONA MUIR, PHD '91; Bellevue Literary Press, $14.95
Muir's debut novel is an imaginative, delightful field guide to animals that seem to be visible to only a few people—including amateur naturalist and narrator Sophie. As her detailed descriptions of the fantastic creatures unfold, Sophie reveals a bit about human nature.
Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly) Perfect Information, ITAMAR SIMONSON AND EMANUEL ROSEN; HarperBusiness, $27.99
How can companies reach consumers when old-school marketing techniques no longer work? Simonson, a professor at the Graduate School of Business, retools the rules of brand strategy and marketing for our increasingly transparent digital era.
The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, NINA TEICHOLZ, '87; Simon & Schuster, $27.99
Saturated fat takes the spotlight as investigative journalist Teicholz delves into the past 50 years of nutrition science, back to the origins of the current low-fat dietary edict. Could eating eggs, whole milk and steak actually help reduce the incidence of obesity, diabetes and heart disease?
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, GREG MCKEOWN, MBA '08; Crown Business, $23
McKeown, a blogger for Harvard Business Review, guides readers toward leading a life with maximum reward and productivity. In pursuing less, he notes, one must recognize that most everything is nonessential, learn to say no and embrace the power of routine.
There's No 'I' in Reality
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, Sam Harris, '89; Simon and Schuster, $26
Neuroscientist Harris, whose 2004 book The End of Faith established him as one of the New Atheists (or Four Horsemen, depending on whom you ask), here argues that spirituality can—and should—be separated from any mystical or supernatural connotations. "A middle path exists," he writes, "between making religion out of spiritual life and having no spiritual life at all." A longtime student of various contemplative practices, he describes techniques to banish impediments to glimpsing the world as it really is—if only for moments at a time. The most central of these, he says, is the illusion of an entity, what we tend to call "I" or "me," that is separate from our physical body and brain.
We’re broadening our Shelf Life section to include Stanford-connected music and film. Let us know if you have something creative in the pipeline, and we’ll consider featuring it in a future issue of the magazine, in print, online or both.
The following did not appear in the print version of Stanford.
Necessary Luxuries: Books, Literature, and the Culture of Consumption in Germany, 1770-1815, MATT ERLIN, '90; Cornell University Press, $29.95
Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens, Schoolmistress at the Court of Siam, ALFRED HABEGGER, MA '66, PhD '67; University of Wisconsin Press, $28.95
The Garbageman's Guide to Life: How to Get out of the Dumps, NORM LEMAY and STEVEN KAUFMAN, '83; Morgan James Publishing, $9.99
The Birth of the New Justice: The Internationalization of Crime & Punishment, 1919-1950, MARK LEWIS, '90; Oxford University Press, $110
Are You Listening?, JOHN MARKS, '70; Kototama Publishing, $15
Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela, MARCIA OCHOA, MA '02, PhD '06; Duke University Press, $24.95
Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature Through Essays and Interviews, DANIEL A. OLIVAS, '81; San Diego State University Press, $21
Six Word Lessons on Winning With Today's Media: 100 Lessons to Control Your Message & Avoid Media Blunders, MARY WALDMANN, '72; Pacelli Publishing, $12.95
In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam, (TOMAS) URAYOÁN NOEL, MA '99; University of Iowa Press, $49.95
