The Union College Bookshelf features new books written by or about alumni and other members of the Union community. We also highlight books edited by Union alumni, faculty or administrators.
To be included in Bookshelf:
Send the book and the publisher’s press release to:
Office of Communications
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308
or
Send publisher’s press release and a high-resolution book cover image to magazine@union.edu.
CHARLES STUART ’59
Bin Laden's Second Strike
CES Book Trust
A thriller that tells the story of a scheme by Osama bin Laden to assassinate the U.S. president in May 2003. Stuart weaves together factual events with fictional ones to create a terrifying story. The assassination plot is uncovered by a brilliant young female CIA analyst, Danielle Lamaze-Smith, who stops the attack despite the government's bureaucracy and limiting protocols. Former U.S. National Intelligence Officer Edward B. Atkeson calls it "a credible tale … of how matters look from the inside." The book was published just after Stuart's death in August 2007 by a trust he established and is available on Amazon.com. All sale proceeds go to scholarship funds, principally at Union College.
PAUL BOOR ’68
The Blood Notes of Peter Mallow
Pero Thrillers
Dr. Peter Mallow, a university scientist working on a virulent bird-flu virus, becomes concerned when his brilliant research student, Jorge, "freaks out" during a routine autopsy of a drowning victim. Jorge, obsessed with vehicular drownings, persuades Mallow to confront a board of auto-industry safety executives with damning evidence, but the older scientist is ruthlessly dismissed and his career threatened. Jorge secretly plots to take revenge, and Mallow’s notes take us into the downward spiral of his scientific career, a devastating hurricane and, eventually, the deadliest pandemic in history. Blood Notes is Boor’s first novel, though his short fiction and poetry has been published in literary journals dating back to 1976. His poetry recently appeared in the anthology Primary Care: More Poems by Physicians.
ANDREA BARRETT ’74
The Air We Breathe
W.W. Norton & Company
In the fall of 1916, debates rage about whether America should enter the European war. But at Tamarack Lake in the Adirondacks the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, mainly immigrants, fill the large public sanatorium on the hill. For all, time stands still. Prisoners of routine, yearning for absent families, the patients, including the newly arrived Leo Marburg, take solace in gossip, rumor, and secret attachments. To provide stimulation, an enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. When his well-meaning efforts lead instead to a tragic accident and a terrible betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. The conjunction of thwarted desires and political tension binds the patients so deeply that, finally, they speak about what's happened in a single voice.
JEFFREY D. CORBIN
California Grasslands: Ecology and Management
University of California Press
Grasslands are one of California's most important ecosystems in terms of both biodiversity and economic value. Bringing together the large amount of research conducted in recent years on California's grasslands, this comprehensive, state-of-the-art sourcebook addresses the pressing need to understand this unique habitat. Providing an authoritative summary of current grassland science and management, leading scholars examine the history of grasslands from the Pleistocene through European settlement. Corbin was one three editors of the book.
LORI JO MARSO
Director of Women’s and Gender Studies
W Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender
Duke University Press
In W Stands for Women ten feminist scholars analyze various aspects of Bush’s persona, language and policy to show how his administration has shaped a new politics of gender. One contributor points out the shortcomings of “compassionate conservatism,” a political philosophy that requires a weaker class to be the subject of compassion. Another examines U.S. Army Pfc. Lynndie England’s participation in the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in relation to the interrogation practices elaborated in the Army Field Manual, practices that often entail “feminizing” detainees by stripping them of their masculine gender identities.