Princeton Alumni Weekly | The Weekly Blog: Katherine F. Greenwood Archives

March 1, 2013

Greer '92 provides recipes to fight cancer

Julia Greer ’92 (Photo: Courtesy Sunrise River Press)

New book: The Anti-Breast Cancer Cookbook: How to Cut Your Risk With the Most Powerful, Cancer-Fighting Foods, by Julia B. Greer ’92 (Sunrise River Press)

The author: Greer is not only a physician and cancer researcher, but also a foodie. And she brings those interests together in her cookbooks. The author of The Anti-Cancer Cookbook: How to Cut Your Risk With the Most Powerful, Cancer-Fighting Foods, Greer is an epidemiologist whose work focuses on pancreatic, ovarian, and breast cancers. She is a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.

The book: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States. Greer discusses the prevalence, risk factors, and types of breast cancers as well as the role diet can play in reducing the risk of developing cancer and preventing a recurrence. She provides more than 200 recipes for main courses, sandwiches, breads, soups and salads, beverages, and desserts. The ingredients are heavy on antioxidants, which may reduce an individual’s risk of developing breast cancer.

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February 21, 2013

Cooper *05 pens a dark fantasy novel

L. Andrew Cooper *05 (Photo Courtesy: BlackWyrm Publishing)

New book: Burning the Middle Ground, by L. Andrew Cooper *05 (BlackWyrm)

The author: Cooper grew up fascinated with horror fiction. At Princeton, he earned a Ph.D. in English; his dissertation became the basis for his first book, Gothic Realities: The Impact of Horror Fiction on Modern Culture. He teaches at the University of Louisville and chairs the board of the Louisville Film Society, and also is the author of Dario Argento (about the Italian film director) and co-editor of the textbook Monsters.

The book: When he was 17, Brian McCullough returned home to find his parents dead, lying in their blood in the basement, and his 10-year-old sister in her bedroom. With a gun in her hand, she shoots herself. The tragedy leaves McCullough speechless for a year. Five years after the murders, he is still living in the same house. A journalist begins a book on the tragedy and finds a struggle between two local churches. There are strange things happening in this dark fantasy novel set in a small town in Georgia: Pets are going berserk and dead bodies with no eyes or tongues begin to appear.

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February 14, 2013

Taylor '70 explores affirmative action

Stuart Taylor ’70 (Photo: Richard Bloom)

New book: Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, And Why Universities Won’t Admit It, by Stuart Taylor Jr. ’70 and Richard H. Sander (Basic Books)

The authors: A journalist, Taylor is a contributing editor for National Journal and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He also has taught at Stanford Law School and is the coauthor of Until Proven Innocent. Sander is a law professor and economist at UCLA.

The book: Racial admissions preferences often undermine the very people they are supposed to help, argue the authors. Many recipients are “mismatched,” meaning they end up in institutions where they are not as prepared academically as their peers and their learning and self-confidence can suffer. In the worst case, mismatched students – who would have done well at schools better suited for them — drop out. The authors don’t believe racial preferences should be banned completely; they offer suggestions on reforms, including fully disclosing preferential admissions policies and outcomes.

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February 12, 2013

Brickman '05 writes speed-dating series for the Web

Mattie Brickman ’05 and producer Jon Avnet on the set of RO, a new web series that aired in December. (Photo: P. Martin)

In a new drama series on the Web, an attractive, smart young woman named Ro meets a series of men at a speed-dating event in a restaurant. She spends five minutes bantering with each one, before a bell rings to indicate time’s up. The first date compares her to a mutt. She hits it off with the second date, telling him that she spent the last few years in Italy. Before long, it’s evident that Ro is not her real name and that she seems to be hiding something and trying to reinvent herself.

Mattie Brickman ’05 is the creator of RO, which aired on WIGS, a new online channel, in late December. Brickman wrote six episodes – each about five to seven minutes long.

A playwright who is trying to break into TV writing, Brickman had been working mainly in theater in New York. But when producers of a new channel on YouTube began creating shows featuring leading female roles, they asked Brickman to write one of the series for their channel.

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February 7, 2013

Scranton GS edits collection of war fiction

Roy Scranton GS (Photo Courtesy: Da Capo Press)

New book: Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War, edited by Roy Scranton GS and Matt Gallagher (Da Capo Press)

The authors: An Iraq veteran, Scranton was an artilleryman in the Army from 2002-2006 and is earning a doctorate in English at Princeton. His fiction, poetry, and essays have been published in Boston Review, The Massachusetts Review, New Letters, and The New York Times. A former Army captain who served in Iraq, Gallagher is a senior fellow at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The book: This anthology of war stories — written by veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — includes pieces by an artilleryman, public affairs Marines, a military lawyer, staff officers, a medic, an Army Ranger, and a military spouse. “Redeployment” by Phil Klay explores the challenges faced by a Marine returning home; Andrew Slater, a former Green Beret, writes about a soldier with a traumatic brain injury; and Roy Scranton’s “Red Steel India” (from his novel War Porn) portrays soldiers in charge of guarding a gate in Iraq.

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February 1, 2013

Saguy *00 argues against our obsession with weight

Abigail C. Saguy *00 (Photo: Courtesy Abigail C. Saguy *00)

New book: What’s Wrong With Fat? By Abigail C. Saguy *00 (Oxford University Press)

The author: An associate professor of sociology and of gender studies at UCLA, Saguy earned her doctorate in sociology at Princeton. She also is the author of What Is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne.

The book: Our society is obsessed with fat – and we are told by experts that there is an obesity epidemic. Saguy “examines the social implications of understanding fatness as a medical health risk, disease, and public health crisis,” she writes, and the implications of understanding fat, instead, as beautiful and healthy. She argues that an obsession with obesity can do more harm than good by leading to bullying and discrimination. In an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times, she wrote, “fear and loathing of fat are real, and American attitudes about fat may be more dangerous to public health than obesity itself.”

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January 24, 2013

Foulke '52 compiles travel guide to New England

Patricia and Robert Foulke ’52 (Photo: Courtesy Robert Foulke ’52)

New book: A Visitor’s Guide to Colonial and Revolutionary New England, Second Edition, by Patricia and Robert Foulke ’52 (Countryman Press)

The authors: For nearly 60 years, Robert and his wife, Patricia, have been traveling, writing, and teaching. They have written 15 travel guides and many travel articles, which often focus on history, culture, voyaging, or skiing. The Foulkes live in Lake George, N.Y.

The book: This guide is geared for travelers who want not only to find good places to lodge and interesting sites to explore, but also to learn the history behind the places they visit. The book, which covers Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, explores colonial and Revolutionary sites, forts, churches, inns, houses, and museums. The introduction to each state describes its founding and development; the authors also discuss the social and cultural history of everyday life, such as architecture, religious practices, and customs.

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January 17, 2013

Georgescu '61 reflects on evil

Peter Georgescu ’61 (Photo: Courtesy Peter Georgescu ’61)

New book: The Constant Choice: An Everyday Journey From Evil Toward Good, by Peter Georgescu ’61 with David Dorsey (Greenleaf Book Group Press)

The author: Chairman emeritus of Young & Rubicam, a network of commercial communications companies, Georgescu was elected to the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2001. He also is the author of The Source of Success.

The book: Imprisoned in a Romanian labor camp as a child and separated from his parents for eight years, Georgescu reflects on the nature of evil and goodness, his understanding of God, and other philosophical and spiritual questions. He recounts his own journey — the horrors he experienced in Romania, his emigration to the United States at the age 15 knowing almost no English, and eventually becoming CEO of Young & Rubicam. He explores how individuals can make daily choices that lead to good. “Evil is woven into our past, as a species, but it doesn’t need to be a part of our future,” he writes.

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January 10, 2013

Pettit '72 profiles New Mexican artists

Michael Pettit ’72 (Photo: Courtesy Museum of New Mexico Press)

New book: Artists of New Mexico Traditions: The National Heritage Fellows, By Michael Pettit ’72 (Museum of New Mexico Press)

The author: Pettit, who lives in Santa Fe, is a poet and National Endowments for the Arts Fellow. Among his books is Cowden Ranch, Riding for the Brand: 150 Years of Cowden Ranching, a history of his family’s ranch. He produced a documentary video — Living Traditions: Folk Art of New Mexico — as a companion to Artists of New Mexico Traditions. The film premiered in December at the Santa Fe Film Festival.

The book: Since 1982, 15 artists from New Mexico have received National Heritage Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts — the most from any state. Pettit explores the artistic heritage of New Mexico through profiles of these individuals — among them are potters, weavers, storytellers, and musicians. Included in the book are Irvin Trujillo, a seventh-generation Chimayó weaver; woodcarver George López; and Charlie Carrillo, who creates religious paintings and carvings in the santero tradition.

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January 3, 2013

Plissner '86 pens debut young adult novel

Laurie Feld Plissner ’86 (Photo: Andres Matos)

New book: Louder Than Words, by Laurie Feld Plissner ’86 (Merit Press)

The author: Plissner majored in art history at Princeton and earned a law degree from UCLA. Girls’ Life magazine named Louder Than Words, which is a love story and a mystery, one of 8 books to read after Twilight. Plissner’s second novel, Screwed, is due to be published in May.

The book: After her family is killed in a car accident, Sasha is so traumatized that she can no longer speak and loses most of her memories. Four years later, 17-year-old Sasha meets Ben, who seems to know what she is thinking. Ben tries to help her heal but he worries that his unusual talent will impede her recovery and backs off. Angry and lonely, Sasha explores her past to try to recover her voice and finds that her family’s death might have been more than just an accident.

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December 14, 2012

Landy *97 examines the function of fiction

New book: How to Do Things with Fictions, by Joshua Landy *97 (Oxford University Press)

The author: An associate professor of French at Stanford University, Landy co-founded and co-directs its Initiative in Philosophy and Literature. He also is the author of Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust.

The book: In this exploration of the function of fiction, Landy challenges the idea that texts should be informative or morally improving to be of benefit to readers. In chapters on the Gospel of Mark, Plato, Beckett, Mallarmé, and Chaucer, he argues that these are texts “whose function it is to fine-tune our mental capacities.” They give readers know-how, skills, and training. “They present themselves as spiritual exercises” and “help us become who we are.” Each of the texts he examines, he writes, “contains within itself a manual for reading, a set of implicit instructions on how it may best be used.”

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December 7, 2012

Peters '84 examines climate change

E. Kirsten Peters ’84 (Photo: Krista Kramer)

New book: The Whole Story of Climate: What Science Reveals About the Nature of Endless Change, by E. Kirsten Peters ’84 (Prometheus Books)

The author: A geologist, Peters has authored three other books on geology. And she writes the “Rock Doc” column, syndicated essays on science for newspapers that can be found at www.rockdoc.wsu.edu. Peters taught geology and interdisciplinary science at Washington State University and is currently the director of major grant development for its College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences.

The book: To fully understand climate change, Peters argues, the public and policymakers should explore not only the work of climate scientists but also that of geologists. Drawing on the work of geology, Peters explains how the Earth’s climate naturally has changed over time. Geologists, she writes, “don’t generally traffic in computer models so much as direct physical evidence left in the muck and rocks of our planet.” Even if human beings never had produced greenhouse gases, she writes, “climate today would still be changing.” She also makes a plea to extinguish unwanted coal fires in mining districts, which would “eliminate a significant amount of carbon-dioxide production.”

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