The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
Daniel J. Levitin, '79
Dutton
$25.95
Levitin, the record producer turned neuroscientist who wrote This Is Your Brain on Music, gives a taxonomy to something we do an average of five hours a day: hear music. Songs (especially the ones that get stuck in our heads) can be categorized for the purposes of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion or love. In a chapter apiece, he explores the meanings and emotions humankind has drawn from each type.
While They Slept: An Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family
Kathryn Harrison, '82
Random House
$25.00
An author who's written previously about her experience with her transgressive father, Harrison contemplates the 1984 slayings of an Oregon couple and their younger daughter. Billy Gilley bludgeoned three members of his family to halt abuse against him and his sister Jody. Harrison interviews Billy, who was given three consecutive life sentences, and Jody, now a Washington, D.C., businesswoman, and explores how such tragedy bifurcates people into “before” and “after” selves.
Things That Pass for Love
Allison Amend, '96
OV Books
$16.95
In one of this book's wide-ranging, funny and observant stories, a character fights her urge to correct someone's pronunciation and says, “Since becoming a teacher, I sometimes forget I don't have dominion over every erring thing.” Amend, who teaches fiction in New York City, has lots of affection for those who are erring, off-kilter, tenuously sane, or otherwise not-quite-in-charge.
Lynching Photographs
Dora Apel and Shawn Michelle Smith, '87
U. of California Press
$19.95
This volume contemplates the context—both historical and contemporary—for viewing photos that documented lynch mobs. “Lynching spectacles, photographs, and postcards presented white viewers with a choice between the law and lawlessness and tested their willingness to identify with white supremacy,” writes Smith, an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Dirty Secrets Club
Meg Gardiner, '79, JD '82
Dutton
$24.95
Prominent San Franciscans are being blackmailed in a scheme that leads to their suicides or murders, and forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett has only days to sort out their secrets while dodging a spate of earthquakes. This is Gardiner's debut hardcover in the United States, but the London author has written five thrillers set in Santa Barbara, Calif., about an author named Evan Delaney, that recently have become available in the U.S. in paperback.
The Hollywood Assistants Handbook: 86 Rules for Aspiring Power Players
Hillary Stamm, '98, and Peter Nowalk
Workman
$12.95
If you don't want to 86 your chances in Hollywood, perhaps these rules—not your conscience—should be your guide. Stamm, who works for the chairman of a studio, and Nowalk, who writes for Grey's Anatomy, used to work 12-hour days together as assistants. All they learned about rolling phone calls, making copies and sucking up is compiled here, along with their praise for the headset that best facilitates eavesdropping.
