End of summer news and new books

News and Notes

hecht

The August 8 edition of the London Review of Books featured a magnificent Colm Tóibín appreciation of The Selected Letters of Anthony Hecht.

morhaimAmericans are living longer than ever, aided by ever-advancing life-saving medical technologies and treatments. Dr. Dan Morhaim, author of The Better End: Surviving (and Dying) on Your Own Terms in Today’s Modern Medical World, joins Midday with Dan Rodricks, to discuss end-of-life care.

Hot off the Press

Being Cool: The Work of Elmore Leonard Charles J. Rzepka’s enticing exploration of the work and life of the “Dickens of Detroit” looks at what makes the dope-dealers, bookies, grifters, financial advisors, talent agents, shady attorneys, hookers, models, and crooked cops of Elmore Leonard’s world “cool.” [ed. note: With sadness we note that Elmore Leonard passed away this morning due to complications from the stroke he suffered in early August.]

Zbig: The Strategy and Statecraft of Zbigniew Brzezinski The first comprehensive account of Zbigniew Brzezinski’s complementary roles as author, academic, policy maker, and critic.

A Year across Maryland: A Week-by-Week Guide to Discovering Nature in the Chesapeake Region  Bryan Mackay invites readers to explore the Chesapeake Region, throughout the year, from watching bald eagles nesting in January to harvesting mistletoe in December.

Lights On! The Science of Power Generation  Mark Denny takes us on a fun tour, examining the nature of energy, tracing the history of power generation, and explaining the processes from production through transmission to use.

Spark from the Deep: How Shocking Experiments with Strongly Electric Fish Powered Scientific Discovery  William J. Turkel tells the story of how human beings came to understand and use electricity by studying the evolved mechanisms of strongly electric fish.

Prelude to Revolution: The Salem Gunpowder Raid of 1775 The latest contribution to the Witness to History series, Prelude to Revolution tells the story of a critical event in America’s early history, when a new nation’s fate was still uncertain.

New in paperback!

beilensonTapping into The Wire: The Real Urban Crisis “A convincing argument that nonviolent drug users are part of a significant public health problem that demands an effective response from cities . . . Readers cannot help but feel sympathy for those who struggle with addiction and the plight of government officials who strive to create alternatives to this dilemma. Highly recommended for readers interested in substance abuse or criminal justice issues and prepared for intellectual engagement.” —Library Journal

katzLeaving without Losing: The War on Terror after Iraq and Afghanistan “Katz makes a concise and readable argument for why withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan will serve to weaken the forces of radical Islam, and along the way provides a trenchant critique of the uses to which American power has been put over the past decade.”—Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University

Journals News

The Journal of Democracy has released two new podcast episodes featuring conversations with authors from the July 2013 issue. You can download the files from the journal website or subscribe via iTunes to have them automatically delivered to your digital audio player.

New Literary History will hold a conference next month on “Interpretation and its Rivals.” The two-day event will take place at the University of Virginia, the journal’s host institution, and will feature four panel sessions. The conference is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Humanities and Global Cultures and Johns Hopkins University Press.  

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