Out of Left Field by Liza Ketchum ’64
Out of Left Field by Liza Ketchum ’64 Untreed Reads, July 2014 The summer of 2004 is full of promise for Brandon McGinnis. He has a job, a spot on the varsity swim team, loving parents, and loyal friends. Brandon and his dad, ardent Red Sox fans, wonder: Could this be the year the Sox finally win the World Series? Then Brandon’s father dies suddenly. His will, signed just before his death, reveals a secret kept for 30 years. As shadows of the Vietnam War bleed into the escalating war in Iraq, Brandon sets out to solve the mystery his father left behind. His journey takes him to Canada’s...
Read MoreThe Big Trip: A Family Gap Year by Martha McManamy ’75
The Big Trip: A Family Gap Year by Martha McManamy ’75 Lulu Publishing, July 2014 Taking a year off from the “rat race” is an idle dream for many, but the McManamy family — including their three teenagers — decided to make it happen. The Big Trip: A Family Gap Year tells how they put high school, college and work on hold while they learned Spanish in Spain and volunteered in Bolivia, Guatemala and Kenya. Choosing home stays and local transportation over hotels and rental cars, they undertook a deeply immersive journey of“slow travel,” living simply, and experiencing life...
Read MoreThe Season of Migration: A Novel by Nellie Hermann ’96
The Season of Migration: A Novel by Nellie Hermann ’96 Farrar, Straus and Giroux, January 2015 Vincent van Gogh is one of the most popular painters of all time, and yet we know very little about the difficult period in his youth when he and his brother, Theo, broke off all contact. In The Season of Migration, Nellie Hermann conjures a profoundly imaginative, original and heartbreaking vision of Van Gogh’s early years. In startlingly beautiful and powerful language, Hermann transforms our understanding of Van Gogh and the redemptive power of art. Nellie Hermann was born in Boston and lives...
Read MoreA Kinder, Gentler Place: An Appeal to My Contemporaries
By Martha Rose Shulman When I graduated from Milton Academy in 1968, I did not look back. I kept in touch with close friends and a few of my teachers, and I visited the school once, but I never went to a class reunion and I never donated. Nor did my sister (Class of 1967). I always appreciated the amazing education I got at Milton, especially because I didn’t go on to lead a conventional life, and I’ve always believed that my Milton education gave me the intellectual confidence to do that. But I do not have fond memories of my time there. So I am more surprised than anyone that I am now a...
Read MoreThe Moonshot Evangelist: Claire Johnson ’90 Is Steering Google’s Self-Driving Car
On May 28, at the Code Conference in Palos Verdes, California, Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed a surprise. The tech world already knew that Google has been developing self-driving cars that use laser scanners, cameras, and radars to map nearby terrain, track cars and pedestrians, and even identify construction zones. The vehicles avoid swerving cyclists, stop at traffic lights, and move around Google’s Mountain View neighborhood as naturally as a human-driven SUV. The computer-controlled cars have already logged more than 700,000 autonomous miles. Until recently, they’ve also had a...
Read MoreVisual Arts Faculty, Past and Present, Exhibit and Explain
This spring, the Nesto Gallery showcased the considerable and varied talents of visual arts faculty members, spanning five decades. This year has been significant in the program’s history: as longtime teachers retire, new and energized educators have joined the scene, advancing Milton’s tradition of excellence in art education. This coming year also marks the first time in recent history that all visual arts classrooms are housed in one building: the renovated Art and Media Center. Thirteen artist-educators shared a spectrum of media used in contemporary art. The exhibition highlighted...
Read More