Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter
Lloyd Kahn, '57
Shelter Publications, 2004
$26.95
Kahn was “shelter” editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, the 1960s countercultural bible; his book Shelter (1973) documented do-it-yourself dwellings around the world. This sequel is the result of Kahn’s 30-year odyssey collecting data, anecdotes, 1,100 photographs and more than 300 drawings of structures that include a four-story tree house in China and an elegant three-ring yurt in the Maine woods. There’s a colorful house made of bottles in the Nevada desert, a greenhouse crafted from car windshields, and assorted mud, straw and bamboo creations. Kahn, who has built four houses himself, lives with his wife in Bolinas, Calif.
The Vienna Paradox: A Memoir
Marjorie Perloff
New Directions, 2004
$15.95
Perloff, professor emerita of English and comparative literature, began life as Gabriele Mintz; her privileged childhood in Vienna was cut short when the family fled to New York in 1938 to escape the Nazis. Part biography, part intellectual history, the memoir reflects on changing identity, assimilation and the conflict between high culture and American life as it affected three generations of her family.
Recall: California's Political Earthquake
Larry N. Gerston and Terry Christensen, '66
M.E. Sharpe, 2004
$18.95
The idea that California voters would bounce out Gov. Gray Davis nine months into his second term—in favor of a bodybuilding movie star new to politics—may have seemed like a Hollywood fantasy. The authors, both political science professors at San Jose State, take a thorough look at how it happened—and tell why California’s idiosyncrasies made it possible.
The Art of the Russian Matryoshka
Rett Ertl, '71, and Rick Hubbard
Vernissage Press, 2003
$40.00
From their first appearance in 1899, Russian nesting dolls were an instant hit. Ertl, an importer of Russian handicrafts for more than a decade, explores the evolution of the matryoshki in the context of Russia’s transformations over the 20th century. While production techniques have changed very little, creativity and entrepreneurship have blossomed in the post-Soviet era, as the book’s 330 color plates demonstrate.
Fred Terman at Stanford: Building a Discipline, a University, and Silicon Valley.
C. Stewart Gillmor, '60
Stanford U. Press, 2004
$70.00
Any one of Terman’s three major areas of accomplishment—dean of engineering, provost, father of Silicon Valley—could fill a book. Gillmor, professor of history and science at Wesleyan, has spent seven years exploring Terman’s whole career and personal life (1900-1982). Exhaustive research makes this 612-page volume the definitive biography of a towering figure.
Black Eye: Escaping a Marriage, Writing a Life
Judith Strasser, MA '70
U. of Wisconsin Press/Terrace Books, 2004
$26.95
This memoir opens as the author ponders how to relate being struck by her husband. “He gave me a black eye” was the customary locution, one that reflected her financial and emotional dependence. “My husband punched me in the eye” was wording more conducive to leaving the 17-year marriage. Black Eye combines Strasser’s journal and her reflections at a decade’s remove.
Lie Still: A Novel of Suspense
David Farris, '76
William Morrow, 2003
$24.95
Malcolm Ishmael's career seems doomed even before the young doctor completes his residency, when he tries to blow the whistle on an incompetent superior. That she was his lover is only one of many complications in this medical thriller, made credible by the author’s 20 years as a pediatric anesthesiologist.
Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past
William Deverell, '83
UC Press, 2004
$29.95
"Whitewashed" is a synonym for forgetting and appropriation. Deverell examines six developments— including a 1924 outbreak of bubonic plague and the creation of America’s largest brickyard—to show how Los Angeles changed from a Mexican city to a striving Anglo-centric “city of the future” that distanced itself from that heritage.
The Success of Open Source
Steven Weber, '86
Harvard U. Press, 2004
$29.95
As a political scientist, Weber's interest in nonproprietary software such as Linux centers on the programming community: its motivations and values, and how it is structured and governed. In layman's terms, Weber explains the movement's history, development and inner workings. The UC-Berkeley professor also assesses the movement's new definitions of property rights and their effect on conventional economic principles and organization.
