ANDREW BIENKOWSKI ’60
Radical Gratitude and Other Life Lessons Learned in Siberia
Allen & Unwin
A melding of narrative and inspiring practical guidance, this book is both the extraordinary true story of a Polish family’s survival in Stalinist Siberia and a guide to becoming a person who can give to others. Andrew Bienkowski was just 5 years old when he watched his grandfather starve to death so his family could survive in exile. This extraordinary book moves back and forth from the family’s terrible journey of survival in Siberia, to how to become a person who can give to others.
ROBERT SKLOOT ’63
The Theatre of Genocide
University of Wisconsin Press
Robert Skloot brings together four plays—three of which are published here for the first time—that fearlessly explore the face of modern genocide. The scripts deal with the destruction of targeted populations in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Armenia. Skloot is professor in the Department of Theater and Drama and in the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of two plays.
KARL R. SCHAEFER ’71
Enigmatic Charms: Medieval Arabic Block Printed Amulets in American and European Libraries and Museums
Brill
This is the first comprehensive examination of block printing in the medieval Islamic world. Examples of Arabic block prints have been preserved in collections across the globe, but they have long been treated as curiosities and oddities. Here, for the first time, a large representative corpus of block prints is examined and illustrated. The volume should prove useful to Islamic art historians and collectors, and those interested in popular social and religious practices in the Islamic realms between 900 and 1430 CE. Karl R. Schaefer earned a doctorate in near eastern languages and literatures from New York University and is an associate professor of librarianship at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
CHRISTOPHER L. BROWN ’78
Microbrewing Science
University Readers, San Diego
Microbrewing Science was developed for a college-level brewing course that Christopher L. Brown taught in Florida for seven years while working as the director of an undergraduate marine biology program. Brown presents home brewing in a detailed, process-oriented way. By emphasizing a focused range of beer types, Brown teaches readers how to maximize beer quality and achieve reproducible results. Readers may become wildly popular at barbecues and Super Bowl parties, Brown says. Brown earned a doctorate in physiology and has been brewing beer for more than 30 years. He is the division chief at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Milford, Conn.
CEVIN SOLING ’88
Rumpleville Chronicles: Fairly Twisted Fairy Tales Monk Media
The Chronicles are an ingeniously illustrated children’s book series for adults envisioned by writer-director- musician Cevin Soling. The book expands on his award-winning work in cutting-edge film (A Hole in the Head and The War on the War on Drugs) and independent music (The Love Kills Theory and The Neanderthal Spongecake). Soling penned these one-of-a-kind tales of jolly elves, conflicted communists, pet bombs, stoner dragons, and assorted sacred sagas in need of ironic tweaking. Soling is joined in this new endeavor by musician and artist Steve Kille, best known for playing bass in, and designing art for, the cult band Dead Meadow. Books in series include: The Jolly Elf, The Disciples of Trotsky and The Bomb that Followed Me Home.