Alien vs. Predator

Michael Robbins, AM’04, PhD’11 Author Alluding to modern culture—Guns N’ Roses, Star Wars—as well as the English canon, the poems in this volume make up Michael Robbins’s first collection. Robbins has been published in the New Yorker, Poetry, and the London Review of Books.  

Strings Attached: Untangling the Ethics of Incentives

Ruth Grant, AB’71, AM’75, PhD’84 Author Incentives can be a form of power, says Duke University philosopher Ruth Grant. They can influence people’s financial decisions or child-rearing choices, so if they are used to manipulate or exploit rather than as an exchange for a desired behavior, the ethics of incentives become complex. Presenting a history of incentives in the 20th-century United States, Grant examines their use in four areas: plea bargaining, recruiting medical-research subjects, International Monetary Fund loan conditions, and motivating students.  

Forgotten Country

Catherine Chung, SB’01 Author In her debut novel Catherine Chung weaves together Korean mythology with contemporary issues of immigration and identity. The night Janie’s sister, Hannah, is born, her grandmother tells Janie that, ever since the Japanese occupied Korea, their family has lost a daughter in every generation. As she grows up, Janie’s parents also tell her vague tales imbued with warnings—in one, girls jump off cliffs and drift into the sea. Years later Hannah disappears without warning or explanation, and Janie sets out to find her sister and discover the reasons behind her family’s silence.  

Missing Links: The African and American Worlds of R. L. Garner, Primate Collector

Jeremy Rich, AB’93 Author R. L. Garner was a self-taught zoologist during the Progressive Era, famous for his study of African primates in Gabon, who influenced contemporary debates about evolution. Maywood University associate professor of social sciences Jeremy Rich examines Garner’s life (1848–1920) and work, as well as the race-dominated thinking of the time. Missing Links explores the effect of colonialism on Africans, the complicated history of buying and selling primates, and the popularization of biological racism.  

Halley

Julio Chavezmontes, AB’05 Screenwriter and producer A Spanish-language horror movie, Halley is Julio Chavezmontes’s first feature-length film. A dead man who works as a 24-hour-gym night guard starts to show signs of decomposition. He had been covering it up with makeup and perfume, but he’s having trouble hiding the smell. Deciding to become a hermit, the guard, Alberto, first forms a friendship with Luly, the gym’s manager.  

The Little Book of Stock Market Profits: The Best Strategies of All Time Made Even Better

Mitch Zacks, MBA’99 Author There are no foolproof investment strategies. But in this guide Mitch Zacks, senior portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, identifies techniques based on valuations, seasonal patterns, and price momentum, as well as when particular strategies work best.  

Crossing the Borders of Time: A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed

Leslie Maitland, AB’71 Author Journalist Leslie Maitland tells the story of her mother’s life. In 1942, Janine, an 18-year-old German Jew, boarded a boat from Marseille bound for New York City, leaving the Catholic Frenchman she hoped to marry. Five years later Janine married an American man, but she never stopped thinking about the man she loved in France.  

Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy

Maggie Anderson, JD’98, MBA’01 Author On January 1, 2009, Maggie Anderson and her family, who live in Oak Park, IL, pledged to buy only from black-owned stores for the full year. The subject of a 2010 Magazine feature, Anderson and her husband, John, both African American professionals, wanted to support black businesses,which lag behind those of other racial groups. Hoping that their year of “buying black” would encourage other African Americans to do the same, Anderson, CEO and cofounder of the Empowerment Experiment Foundation, traces her family’s yearlong experiment, including their struggles and a call to action to support the black economy.  

The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius

M. D. Usher, AM’94, PhD’97 Author M. D. Usher, a classics professor at the University of Vermont, has adapted a Latin novel from the second century AD. His children’s book tells the story of Prudentius, a boy obsessed with magic who accidentally turns himself into a donkey.