Love the Stranger, by Jay Deshpande ’02
Love the Stranger by Jay Deshpande ’02 YesYes Books, November 2015 Through the wide-eyed study of beauty and the eerie stations of the erotic, Love the Stranger maps the body in its struggle with desire and absence. The poems treat love, kinship and loss as instruments of our own awakening — tools that can help us encounter our own mysteriousness and touch new ground. As they peer into childhood memory, the end of an affair, dream dismemberments, and even Kim Kardashian, the lyrics in Love the Stranger guide us toward the truths hidden within the body. Jay Deshpande is the winner of...
Read MoreCan China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth, by F. Warren McFarlan ’55
Can China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth by Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby and F. Warren McFarlan ’55 Harvard Business Review Press, February 2014 A lack of accountability, transparency, and ease of operation in China — combined with growing evidence of high-level corruption — has made domestic and foreign businesspeople increasingly wary of the “China model.” These issues are deeply rooted in Chinese history and the country’s political system. The authors contend that the country’s dynamic private sector, which could be a source of sustainable growth,...
Read MoreWar in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam 1965–1968, by John Darrell Sherwood ’85
War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam 1965–1968 by John Darrell Sherwood ’85 Naval History and Heritage Command, October 2015 At the height of the U.S. Navy’s involvement in the Vietnam War, the Navy’s coastal and riverine forces included more than 30,000 sailors and over 350 patrol vessels ranging in size from riverboats to destroyers. These forces developed the most extensive maritime blockade in modern naval history and fought pitched battles against Viet Cong units in the Mekong Delta and elsewhere. War in the Shallows explores the operations of...
Read MoreF*ck Feelings: One Shrink’s Practical Advice for Managing All Life’s Impossible Problems, by Michael I. Bennett, M.D. and Sarah Bennett ’96
F*ck Feelings: One Shrink’s Practical Advice for Managing All Life’s Impossible Problems by Michael I. Bennett, M.D. and Sarah Bennett ’96 Simon & Schuster, September 2015 A veteran psychiatrist and his comedy writer daughter present the antihero of the self-help section, the cut-to-the-chase therapy session people have been waiting for. Most people choose therapy to try changing something they don’t like about themselves or to figure out a way to change another person. The Bennetts argue that goals like these are impossible to achieve, and therefore are deflating and...
Read MoreAcrostic Woodstock, by Will Nixon ’75
Acrostic Woodstock by Will Nixon ’75 Bushwhack Books, December 2015 In more than 70 poems, Will Nixon offers a portrait of Woodstock, New York, a village of beloved shops, free spirits, artistic traditions, spiritual refuges, and unexpected moments of humor and grace. Poems recall Levon Helm’s “Midnight Ramble” or the night Jimi Hendrix played the Tinker Street Cinema. There are elegies to famous painters now in the Artists Cemetery. There are odes to the hardware store and pizza parlor. All sides of Woodstock life find their way into the book. An afterward, “The Stories Behind the...
Read MoreAll the Way Up: The Declassified Story of an American Life Lived to the Fullest, by C. Stephen Heard Jr. ’54
All the Way Up: The Declassified Story of an American Life Lived to the Fullest by C. Stephen Heard Jr. ’54 Advantage, August 2015 This book offers a front-row seat as Steve Heard looks back at his “life lived all the way up,” and shares seven decades of adventures and stories involving some of history’s most influential decision makers through rapidly changing times in American history. Steve’s story begins by chronicling his family’s roots, particularly his great-great-great-grandfather, Colonel Stephen Heard. Steve’s account opens with growing up in Westwood, Massachusetts,...
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