A Walk With Daimon is one man's intimate journey of self-discovery from childhood to manhood. Both beautiful and tragic, instead of trying to fix his life story, Delani embraces both the wins and losses of each season by navigating through the critical moments in his life where fate and free will collide. Along the way, Delani comes to terms with having been born the "healthy" son, learns the valuable lesson that poverty is a condition of the soul, not the wallet, and experiences firsthand that the glory of being reborn means that you first must die.

Delani invites the reader to take a walk with him as his invisible soul leads him back home to where his story began. A Walk With Daimon is a story of fate, calling, and destiny. It inspires each one of us to walk our own field of dreams.

Peter Delani ’87, vice principal of Masconomet Regional High School in Topsfield, is the author of A Walk With Daimon (Cold Tree Press, 2008), a memoir about his journey of self-discovery from childhood to manhood.

Millions can’t sleep; millions more sleep with those who can’t sleep. This collection is ideal for both the casual light sleeper and the dedicated insomniac (as well as their bedmates), delighting and distracting night owls with irresistible fiction, articles, blogs, art, photographs, comics, and more. Previously unpublished stories by Aimee Bender and Arthur Bradford; pithy comics by Howard Cruse and Shannon Wheeler; and art by Louise Bourgeois are a few of the highlights. Perfect for dipping (even while drowsing), Awake’s lively, literate riffs make sleeplessness not just tolerable but fun.

Steven Beeber ’85, ’95G, author of The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s, has written for the Paris Review, Fiction, Conduit, The New York Times, Mojo, Spin and elsewhere. Find out more about this self described insomniac at jewpunk.com.

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing the world today. And increasingly, it's become a crucial business issue. How will you and your company respond? In Climate Change: What's Your Business Strategy? Andrew Hoffman and John Woody provide concise and reliable advice to help you answer this question. Drawing from their extensive experience working with organizations to address issues of environmental sustainability, the authors explain the impact of climate change on businesses and present a three-step process for developing an effective climate-change strategy: À Determine your company's "carbon footprint" and the ways in which potential changes in policy and markets will affect how you position your products and services. À Reduce your carbon footprint in ways that create new strategic advantages. À Gain a seat at the policy-development table so you can begin influencing policy decisions that will affect your company. Packed with cogent advice and examples of how organizations in a wide range of industries are adopting this process, Climate Change is your playbook for strategically addressing a complex problem that no company can afford to ignore. From our new Memo to the CEO series -- solutions-focused advice from today's leading practitioners.

Andrew Hoffman ’83 is an associate professor of management and organizations; associate professor of natural resources; associate director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

The author has packed a lot of information into this book designed for beginning and seasoned players and covering seven-card stud and hold'em. The subtitle is The Four Basic Rules and Strategies for Winning at the Game of Poker," which are covered in the second chapter. The remaining chapters include Poker Strategies for Winners: How to Win More Often and Win More $; Poker Strategies for Special Situations; Rules and Strategies for Texas Hold'em; The Psychology of Poker (also the title of Epstein's first book); Making an Allowance for Antes: Recommendations for Tipping/Showing Your Appreciation; and For Senior Citizens: Playing Poker for Fun, $, and Good Health. Special chapters have been contributed by Dr. Daniel E. Abrams. On the cover, Epstein states: "Play by these four simple basic rules and the strategies, and you will come away a winner most of the time -- perhaps three out of four sessions or more. 296 pages, paperbound, 2001.

George Epstein ’48 writes, “My UMass education was fantastic. I learned more than math, science, and history: I learned to live with and be part of a community of people and that to contribute to society is the greatest goal. And it prepared me for graduate school at MIT and for the rest of my life.” George writes that he’s used the experience and knowledge gained at UMass Amherst even now in retirement in his second career—poker. “I’m having a ball at it. I’ve written two books so far, The Greatest Book of Poker for Winners! (T C Pr, 2001) and Hold ’em or Fold ’em: An Algorithm for Making the Key Decision (T C Pr, 2005). We played poker in the dorms and I learned to write well as sports editor of the Daily Collegian.”

Until He Died is a well researched, historical novel based on the American coastal packet schooners of the 1870's. Not a dull, scholarly tome, this book is about the people from those days of hard working sail. A part of our heritage, these proud men sailed down the wind to make their livelihood, leaving wives and families to wait . . . sometimes forever. Waves of tense drama, humor, love and excitement, all tinged with that peculiar sadness found in people of the sea. This epic tale is played out against the natural beauty of a Cape Cod which too has been lost to the years.

Arthur Clark ’55 of Osterville has published Until He Died (Infinity Publishing, 2005), a historical novel based on the American coastal packet schooners of the 1870s.

This classification, to be used in a new inventory of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States, is intended to describe ecological taxa, arrange them in a system useful to resource managers, furnish units for mapping, and provide uniformity of concepts and terms. Wetlands are defined by plants (hydrophytes), soils (hydric soils), and frequency of flooding. Ecologically related areas of deep water, traditionally not considered wetlands, are included in the classification as deepwater habitats.

Lewis Cowardin ’61G is co-author of Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States (Office of Biological Services Fish and Wildlife Service, 1979). This work has been granted the status of a National Standard by the National Institute of Standards (NIST). Wetland classification systems now certified by NIST has greatly influenced mapping and data collection on wetlands in the United States since 1977. The roots of this wetlands classification are in the work of the late UMass Amherst forestry professor William MacConnell ’43, who produced maps of major vegetation and land use for the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife beginning in the 1950s.

Breakthrough: Essays and Vignettes in Honor of John A. Rassias celebrates an outstanding educator who has revolutionized the art of learning languages. John A. Rassias’ method breaks down the barriers and inhibitions people have in learning another language. In his forty-plus years of teaching, he has touched and transformed many lives. This book includes a personal interview with Rassias; a listing of his life accomplishments; an article by Rassias; and scholarly essays on his method of teaching languages, as well as scholarly essays on teaching languages in general. A large portion of this book consists of personal vignettes by some of the people Rassias has touched as a teacher, mentor, father, uncle, and friend.

Mel Yoken ’60 is chancellor professor of French at UMass Dartmouth, where he has taught since 1966. After graduating UMass Amherst, he earned his M.A.T. from Brown and his PhD under the Five College Cooperation Program. He specialized in the study of French and Quebec literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. He has published eight books, his most recent being Breakthrough: Essays and Vignettes in Honor of John A. Rassias, (Peter Lang Publishing, 2007) as well as articles, reviews, and poetic translations in journals and scholarly periodicals. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards from the French Academy, the French government, the New York State Foreign Language Association, and the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association. He is the director of the Boivin Center for French Language and Culture at UMass Dartmouth and an honorary life member of the American Association of Teachers of French.

Pat DePaolo ’63 of Cheshire, Connecticut, published his first novel, The Beijing Games (AuthorHouse, 2007). Visit beijinggamesbook.com for more info.

From "Talking Points" UMass Amherst news department, June 12, 2008.

For most students, campus history begins when they enroll and ends when they leave school, but David L. and Lynne E. Adams hope their new book, “Massachusetts Memories: UMass Amherst History,” will promote a deeper appreciation of the events, people and traditions that have shaped the institution over the past 145 years.

“People on campus don’t know its history,” said Lynne Adams, a retired community college professor. “There’s a loss of tradition at this university that’s actually appalling.”

The Adamses, who graduated in 1967 with degrees in Chemistry, are among those alumni who bridge two eras on campus. They were students when the campus was on the cusp of expansion — enrollment was slowly ratcheting up, but hadn’t yet reached 20,000. The Southwest towers were being built and “there were no concrete buildings,” said Dave. There was still a small school feeling to the place.

“You could drive through campus,” said Dave. “Lincoln Avenue ran all the way to South College and you could park near Goessmann and the Student Union.”

“I miss the Hatch,” said Lynne, recalling the once popular student hangout on the bottom level of the Student Union. Now a lunchtime eatery, the Hatchet & Pipe (later shortened to the Hatch) was the one and only place to gather. “When you said to someone, ‘I’ll see you at two,’ you didn’t even have to say where,” said Dave. “It was understood that it was at the Hatch.”

The couple returned to a very different campus in 1999 after Dave shucked a tenured faculty position at Babson College for a teaching job in the Chemistry Department. For several years after their return, Dave worked on a history of the department and his research inevitably led him to other areas of campus lore.

Two years ago, the Adamses’ longstanding curiosity about their alma mater became a mission.

“I said to Lynne, “Let’s write a book,’” said Dave. “So, we sat down and wrote a table of contents.”

Lynne readily agreed to the idea. “We were students here and now we have the time to uncover these stories. Too much has been lost already.”

She began mining records and materials in Special Collections and University Archives at the Du Bois Library and Dave conducted interviews. What he soon learned is that history can be fluid, depending on who’s relating it.

“A lot of alumni have stories and opinions,” he said. “About 20 percent are wrong.”

Unlike previous works, like Harold Cary’s 1962 chronicle, “The University of Massachusetts: A History of One Hundred Years,” the Adamses’ volume is not chronological, said Dave. Instead, the couple penned a collection of 20 chapters about some of the most notable people, traditions, places and events on campus. There’s also an exhaustive list explaining the names attached to various facilities, memorials and other sites.

“I’ve been here all these years and never noticed all these things,” said Lynne, who crisscrossed the campus and its buildings many times to locate markers and track down other details for the list.

“We tried to verify everything,” said Dave. “We wanted a book that people could go to the bank on.”

Individual chapters trace the history of the Old Chapel, the Distinguished Teaching Award (which Dave won in 2004), campus symbols such as Metawampe and the Minuteman, and changes in Commencement over the years. Notable figures, such as Bernie Dallas ’66, memorialized in two places on campus, and Carl Allen ’14, who was believed to be the oldest alumnus when he died in 2001 at the age of 108, are also profiled.

The Adamses also recount the stories of some bygone buildings as well as various examples of social upheaval on campus, including three notable events from the spring of 1970: the national student strike, the tense confrontations surrounding the creation of New Africa House, and the time when former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey was driven from the speakers’ podium in Curry Hicks Cage by protesters who shouted him down.

The writing was mostly done by Dave with Lynne serving as editor. Many of the images that illustrate the 169-page book were culled from Special Collections and University Archives.

The Adamses shopped the work around, but chose Collective Copies to publish the book, which had an initial press run of 500. Along with selling copies at its shops in Florence, Belchertown and Amherst, the publisher is also supplying the work to local bookstores. Their arrangements give them flexibility to make revisions before another printing, said Dave.

All in all, the couple is pleased with the result. “We had a lot of fun,” said Dave. “We both had a blast.”

They had so much fun, in fact, that the couple is plugging away at a second collection. This time around, they plan to write their own chapters so they each can pursue topics that pique their interest.

“If we can get even a few people interested in the campus’ history, then it’s a success,” said Dave.

David Adams ’67, is a chemistry lecturer at UMass Amherst, and his wife, Lynne Adams ’67, is a retired college professor. They would love to hear from anyone with story ideas. E-mail at adams@chem.umass.edu.

Today’s sales managers face a tough challenge. They must be more productive than ever while relying more on partners and technology with reduced resources in the field. And with fewer, larger customers, every decision becomes more important -- and riskier. The Sales Manager’s Success Manual provides the critical information sales managers need to succeed in this increasingly difficult job.

Covering fundamental sales management topics including compensation, forecasting, and motivation, along with more advanced topics such as dealing with internal politics, understanding generational issues, managing up, and developing intuition, the book shows readers how to:

* hire the best sales force * foresee potential surprises * help reps make better decisions * save time and resources * target accurately for better results * work with the CEO and the rest of the company

Packed with savvy advice, enlightening case studies, and no-nonsense know-how, The Sales Manager’s Success Manual is a one-of-a-kind book no sales manager should be without.

Wayne Thomas ’69, is a consultant, speaker, and sales trainer in Sudbury.

When Mrs. Hopwood discovers the dead body of Miss Pinkerton under the table in the faculty room, St. Polycarp Elementary School is thrown into a tizzy. An autopsy reveals that Miss Pinkerton died of heart failure. But that doesn't sit well with Julia Hopwood, the second grade teacher, who is known for her colorful clothes, nor Amelia Johnston, the eighth grade teacher, who is known for her love of trouble. Mrs. Hopwood becomes even more suspicious when she enlists the help of Bruce Brewer, a sturdy sixth grader. Mrs. Hopwood asks Bruce to reach behind the sofa in the faculty lounge and retrieve some papers she lost. The couch nearly decapitates Bruce but, in the process, he discovers a vial of pills, which Nurse Nellie identifies as Digitoxin. Mrs. Hopwood does some research and discovers that the pills are helpful in arresting heart disease-if you suffer from heart disease. Otherwise, upon ingesting the pills, a perfectly well person could drop dead with all the symptoms of a faulty heart. Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. Hopwood are convinced that's exactly what happened to poor Miss Pinkerton. All of this drama is most exciting to the staff at St. Polycarp, who gossip gleefully at lunchtime, much to the annoyance of Father Felix, the principal. But not even his priestly praying can stop events from spiraling out of control. On the annual Halloween fun day, Mr. Ironweed, the janitor, drops dead after ingesting some soda. Together Mrs. Hopwood and Mrs. Johnston decide to catch the killer before they become victims themselves.

Marianna Heusler ’70 is a writer living in New York City. Visit mariannamystery.com to read more about the author.

Tiggie: The Lure and Lore of Commericial Fishing in New England begins more than 30 years ago in a remote cove on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay, Macfarlane, a young marine biologist newly deputized by the Orleans shellfish warden, gathers up her courage to confront one of the Cape's crustiest, crankiest commercial fisherman, a local legend name Tiggie Peluso. It's more than a contest between youth and age, or rules and reason, or book knowledge and hard-earned practical experience. It's a clash of two strong wills and two warring cultures - a bucolic, rustic Cape Cod that is in the process of changing beyond recognition, and an industry that is losing its past under a tsunami of foreign competition, legalisms and new technology.

Sandra Macfarlane ’71 is founder and president of Coastal Resource Specialists and lives in Orleans.

Should television advertising directed toward children be regulated? How does the House Rules Committee have life-or-death power over the fate of each bill? Do you agree that Supreme Court justices should be virtually unremoveable from office?

Those are among the questions raised in “The Dynamics of Law,” (M.E. Sharpe, 2008), a new edition of a book intended for students as well as for public officials and volunteer members of citizen boards who need a concise introduction to, and general understanding of how, the American legal system works.

Using more recent cases and other new materials, co-author and University of Southern Maine Professor Michael S. Hamilton has, in the words of one reviewer, “…revived and updated one of the best introductions to the way law works in this country.” This fourth edition is based on the work of co-author George W. Spiro, the late professor and associate dean in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. “Michael Hamilton’s stewardship of this new edition,” wrote another reviewer, “is a tribute to a great teacher and to the permanence of great teaching.”

Topics addressed include the nature and function of law; the trial stage; judicial, legislative and administrative lawmaking; and the private contributions to the legal system.

Hamilton, a USM professor of political science specializing in environmental and natural resources policy, is available to discuss the need for a book that introduces the layperson to the workings of the American legal system. His previous book, “Mining Environmental Policy: Comparing Indonesia and the USA” (Ashgate Publishing, 2005) was named the 2006 Best Book of Public Administration Scholarship by the American Society for Public Administration.

George Spiro ’71G, a former professor of management and associate dean for Undergraduate Matters in the Isenberg School of Management until 1997, writes, “My book, The Dynamics of Law (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), is a concise introduction to the American legal system for the non-lawyer. It provides a short, lucid discussion of ways in which the law interacts with social values, standards, and mores, examining structural and cultural sources of stability and change in the American legal system.”

Winner of the 2006 Blue Light Book Award—Ed Meek has published poetry, fiction and articles in The Paris Review, Yankee, North Dakota Quarterly, Cream City Review, The North American Review, The Boston Globe, etc. He teaches at Austin Preparatory School and lives in Belmont with his wife and son. Winters, he snowboards. Summers, he takes naps.

Edwin Meek ’73 lives in Somerville with his wife.

he Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany combines a concise narrative overview with chronological, bibliographical and tabular information to cover all major aspects of Nazi Germany. This user-friendly guide provides a comprehensive survey of key topics such as the origins and consolidation of the Nazi regime, the Nazi dictatorship in action, Nazi foreign policy, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the opposition to the regime and the legacy of Nazism.

Features include:

• detailed chronologies
• a discussion of Nazi ideology
• succinct historiographical overview with more detailed information on more than sixty major historians of Nazism
• biographies of 150 leading figures of Nazi Germany
• a glossary of terms, concepts and acronyms
• maps and tables
• a concise thematic bibliography of works on the Third Reich.

This indispensable reference guide to the history and historiography of Nazi Germany will appeal to students, teachers and general readers alike.

Ordinary Affects is a singular argument for attention to the affective dimensions of everyday life and the potential that animates the ordinary. Known for her focus on the poetics and politics of language and landscape, the anthropologist Kathleen Stewart ponders how ordinary impacts create the subject as a capacity to affect and be affected. In a series of brief vignettes combining storytelling, close ethnographic detail, and critical analysis, Stewart relates the intensities and banalities of common experiences and strange encounters, half-spied scenes and the lingering resonance of passing events. While most of the instances rendered are from Stewart’s own life, she writes in the third person in order to reflect on how intimate experiences of emotion, the body, other people, and time inextricably link us to the outside world.

Stewart refrains from positing an overarching system—whether it’s called globalization or neoliberalism or capitalism—to describe the ways that economic, political, and social forces shape individual lives. Instead, she begins with the disparate, fragmented, and seemingly inconsequential experiences of everyday life to bring attention to the ordinary as an integral site of cultural politics. Ordinary affect, she insists, is registered in its particularities, yet it connects people and creates common experiences that shape public feeling. Through this anecdotal history—one that poetically ponders the extremes of the ordinary and portrays the dense network of social and personal connections that constitute a life—Stewart asserts the necessity of attending to the fleeting and changeable aspects of existence in order to recognize the complex personal and social dynamics of the political world.

It was his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, another inveterate journal keeper, who urged Thoreau to keep a record of his thoughts and observations. Begun in 1837, Thoreau’s journal spans a period of twenty-five years and runs to more than two million words, coming to a halt only in 1861, shortly before the author’s death. The handwritten journal had somewhat humble origins, but as it grew in scope and ambition it came to function as a record of Thoreau’s interior life as well as the source for his books and essays. Indeed, it became the central concern of the author’s literary life. Critics now recognize Thoreau’s journal as an important artistic achievement in its own right.

Making selections from the entirety of the journal, Cramer presents all aspects of Thoreau: writer, thinker, naturalist, social reformer, neighbor, friend. No other single-volume edition offers such a full picture of Thoreau’s life and work. Cramer’s annotations add to the reader’s enjoyment and understanding. He provides notes on the biographical, historical, and geographical contexts of Thoreau’s life. The relation between Journal passages and the texts of works published in the author’s lifetime receive special emphasis. A companion to Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition, this gift edition of the Journal will be dipped into and treasured, and it makes a welcome addition to any book lover’s library.

Jeffrey Cramer ’77, is curator of collections at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods in Lincoln.

This In 1855 when the population of the United States was about one-ninth what it is today, and when nineteen states had yet to join the Union, Thomas Bulfinch's The Age of Fable; or Stories of Gods and Heroes began its long and influential life. Americans may confuse the author with his architect father, Charles Bulfinch; nevertheless, the name of Bulfinch is indelibly associated, in the American mind, with classical mythology.

Without a doubt, The Age of Fable formed the image that millions of Americans had of the classical gods and heroes. Before Edith Hamilton's widely used text, the mythology learned by Americans was Bulfinch's mythology. The National Union Catalog lists well over 100 editions, either of the book by itself or, with two of Bulfinch's collections of non-classical legends, as part of a trilogy; and in addition to these, there are various spin-offs more or less related to the original. Historians of American publishing--for example, Frank Luther Mott and Jacob Blanck--include it in their lists of long-time best sellers and public favorites. Literati who have written introductions to later editions, such as Dudley Fitts (Heritage Press, 1958), and Robert Graves (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1968) compare it to such classic works for readers of all ages as Robinson Crusoe, Alice in Wonderland, and Tom Sawyer. A recent lavishly illustrated edition, published in hard cover and paperback (Viking Press, Inc., 1979; Penguin Books, 1981), has sold 45,000 copies in the United States even though it is more expensive than some other versions.

Burton Feldman and Robert D. Richardson, in The Rise of Modern Mythology, 1680-1860 (Indiana University Press, 1972), place Bulfinch's book in the category of "Victorian popular mythology" along with the other successful collections of myths published in the 1850s: Wonderbook and Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Heroes by English novelist Charles Kingsley. The Age of Fable, however, was far more ambitious than the other works and differed radically from them.book is for practioners and teachers of Technical Reviews or Design Reviews / Audits.

(Originally published in Humanities magazine in the January/February 1987 issue (Volume 8, No.1, 12-15). Humanities is a publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities)

Marie Sally Cleary ’82G writes, “This book is the first study of the author whose name is familiar in the alternate title, Bulfinch’s Mythology, and who wrote the famous book The Age of Fable, first published in 1855 and still being reissued. It has been the source of knowledge of the classical myths for many, if not most, Americans.” Marie is married to professor emeritus of classics, Vince Cleary. They live in Amherst.

You don't have to pray for hours a day -- all God asks is that you keep the holy spirit in your heart. In three hundred words (or less), Peter B. Panagore can help you build a strong relationship with God, while reminding you of what is truly important in life.

From childhood pet ducks to fixing a house foundation, Two Minutes for God features anecdotes from Reverend Panagore's own life as well as those of the people and world around him to illustrate how pieces of the sacred live within everyday events. Encompassing many cultures and a wide variety of religions, Panagore does not exclude anyone from his perspectives on spirituality, prayer, and God's relationship to the world around us. Covering contemporary but timeless topics such as love, loss, healing, work, bullying, mythology, celebration, and family, Two Minutes for God provides a daily infusion of faith that will last all year long.

Peter Panagore ’82, an ordained minister for 20 years, appears every morning on two NBC-TV affiliates in Maine for his two-minute Daily Devotions segments. His stories are broadcast on radio stations around the world. He has been the minister for the First Radio Parish Church of America since 2003.

In this narrative overview, Embser-Herbert explores the history of the policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," (DADT) the federal law restricting the military service of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. She traces the policy from its origins in the early 1990s through its evolution and implementation into law in the United States military and evaluates the impact of post-9/11 events on the military, the policy, and the ongoing debate surrounding the existence of the policy itself as lawmakers consider its repeal. Her three-part history of DADT begins with a brief look at earlier policies that preceded it, a discussion of events in 1992-1993 that resulted in the passage and implementation of the new law, and an examination of the law's impact on the military. She also compares the policy to that of other nations, such as Canada, Australia, and Great Britain, that eliminated similar restrictions as they sought ways to avoid a potential manpower shortage in their armed forces. The War on Terror has returned DADT to the public spotlight. Embser-Herbert examines U.S. experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and what they can teach about gays and lesbians in the military. She concludes Part I with an analysis of whether the law might be repealed or overturned. Part II of the handbook provides summaries of key legal decisions, and Part III contains key documents, such as the language of the law itself and excerpts from current military regulations and training manuals. The book also includes a chronology of events, glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography.

Melissa Sheridan Embser-Herbert ’90G is professor and chair of the sociology department at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

In 1899, the streets of New York were as unsettled as the heart and mind of Mary Jane Elmer. The ideas of the transcendentalists were still in the air, and thoughts of a second revolution were rising. Emma Goldman spoke to ever-growing numbers of the disenfranchised in Union Square and scandalized the city fathers. Police used horses, clubs and bullets to disperse the crowds. Women were redefining their roles for the coming century. And, near the middle of life, solitary in her marriage to an intractable and distant artist, and still grieving the death of their daughter ten years earlier, Mary struggles to shape a future she can endure. Derived from the lives of real people, this beautiful novel is a whirlwind of history, art, familial tremors, and personal desire. But beyond its elegance, beyond its historical authenticity, Every Past Thing is an intimate and moving family portrait—and its every brushstroke is marked with longing.

Pamela Thompson ’96G is editorial director at Interlink Books/Olive Branch Press in Northampton.

Beginning with a botched suicide attempt, Lipstick and Thongs in the Loony Bin takes the reader on a journey that's at once inspiring, haunting, heartfelt, and hilarious. From life at a mental hospital and the colorful cast of fellow 'bin-mates' to the horrors of insomniac night terrors and modern day electroshock therapy, Lipstick and Thongs uses dark humor and Walsh's unstoppable personality to explore the absurdities of the mental illness realm.

Courtney Walsh ’96 lives in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse simultaneously celebrates and laments that “we are but decaying.” Betraying a love of old poems and symbols and new words and forms, these are poems where “the moon’s spritzing its perfumes and the phlegm is thick and fast” over cities and Starbucks and suburbs. The poet is in love with the rhythm of the man-made world, and “the rhythm is so strong sometimes / it blows up the room.”

Darcie Dennigan ’98 lives in West Hollywood, California, and received the “Discovery”/ The Nation poetry prize in 2007 and the Poets Out Loud Prize for 2006-2007.

Using a wide range of materials that include memoirs, oral interviews, poetry, legal cases, letters, government documents, and even road signs, Robert Hayashi illustrates how Thomas Jefferson's vision of an agrarian, all white, and democratic West affected the Gem State's Nez Perce, Chinese, Shoshone,Mormon, and Japanese residents. Starting at the site of the Corps of Discovery's journey into Idaho, he details the ideological, aesthetic, and material manifestations of these intertwined notions of race and place. As he fly-fishes Idaho's fabled rivers and visits its historical sites and museums, Hayashi reads the contemporary landscape in light of this evolution.

Robert Hayashi ’00G, ’02G is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

"Dawson's Creek: A Critical Understanding"
by Lori Bindig
Lexington Books, $16.95. ISBN: 978-0739122211

Dawson's Creek: A Critical Understanding provides a textual analysis of the Warner Brothers hit teen drama that ran from 1998 to 2003. Author Lori Bindig analyzes episodes of Dawson's Creek as a set of media texts that blur the boundaries between hegemonic and counterhegemonic content. Exploring the ideology, encoded within Dawson's Creek from a feminist cultural studies perspective, Bindig examines gender, race, class, sexuality, and consumerism as it is presented in the show. The depiction of each of these five ideological concepts is discussed beyond the framework of the series and put into a larger social context, allowing a discussion of the potential ramifications of the television program. This book suggests that although Dawson's Creek includes counterhegemonic story lines, ultimately the political-economic realities of the current media system undercuts the oppositional content and frames the program as hegemonic. Nevertheless, Dawson's Creek, the book, is a valuable tool in navigating the ongoing struggle against social inequality, illustrating how far society has come and how far it has yet to go.

Lori Bindig ’08G published her master’s thesis as a book, Dawson’s Creek: A Critical Understanding, while she was a doctoral student in communications at UMass Amherst. She lives in Bloomfield, Connecticut