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

January 19, 2012

Tiger of the Week: Cheryl Rowe-Rendleman '81

Cheryl Rowe-Rendleman ’81

Two years ago graduate students from Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWISE), a student group on campus, reached out to a focus group for women in science that Cheryl Rowe-Rendleman ’81 was involved with to discuss issues that women in science face.

Eventually, the discussions honed in on mentoring, and with Rowe-Rendleman’s help, GWISE developed a mentoring program involving alumni. They kicked off the program in September 2011. She helped GWISE reach out to alumni and think about how to make a “vertical-mentoring program” sustainable.

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January 19, 2012

Reeve '50 pens novella set in a Vermont village

(Courtesy Brigantine Media)

New book: Nathaniel Purple, by F.D. Reeve ’50 (Voyage/Brigantine Media)

The author: A poet, essayist, and translator, F.D. Reeve taught English and Russian literature at Wesleyan University for 40 years and was a founding editor of Poetry Review. In 1962 he accompanied Robert Frost to Russia as a translator for Frost’s meeting with Nikita Krushchev. Reeve has earned an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in an old farmhouse in Wilmington, Vt.

The plot: The narrator of this novella is Nathaniel Purple, the librarian of a small Vermont town. “Terrible things happen — betrayals, violence, conflagrations — but here each event belongs not just to individuals, but to the whole village. Nathaniel Purple … absorbs it all, responds when he can, looks on, but at the same time continues to savor such simple pleasures as a morning ride with his horse Crystal and picking violets for the woman in his life,” wrote the author Lucille Lang Day.

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January 12, 2012

Agus '87 proposes a new perspective on health

(Todd Hido)

New book: The End of Illness, by David B. Agus ’87 (Free Press)

The author: An oncologist and researcher, David Agus is a professor of medicine and engineering at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He also heads the USC Norris Westside Cancer Center and the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine. He founded Oncology.com and co-founded Applied Proteomics and Navigenics, health-care technology and wellness companies.

The book: In what the author calls “part manifesto” and “part life plan,” he aims to give readers a new approach to their health that emphasizes prevention so that they can live “long, fulfilling, disease-free” lives. He looks at the body as a “complex system,” and writes that one of the most important messages of his book is that “there is no ‘right’ answer in health decisions; rather there are several right answers. You have to make the right decisions for you.” He proposes a new model of health, shows people how to apply that model to their own lives, explores new medical technologies, and offers practical suggestions.

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January 5, 2012

Isleib '75 pens food critic mystery

(Ruthanna Terrerri)

New book: An Appetite for Murder, by Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib ’75) (Obsidian)

The author: A clinical psychologist turned murder-mystery writer, Roberta Isleib has written a golf mystery series — featuring a professional golfer and a sports psychologist — and an advice column mystery series — featuring an advice columnist and a psychologist. Working under the pen name Lucy Burdettte, Isleib has launched a new food-critic mystery series.

The plot: Hayley Snow, a freelance journalist and foodie, moved from New Jersey to be with her boyfriend in Key West, Fla. While the weather is great, life hasn’t worked out as she had planned. Before long, she finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman. And when she applies to be a food critic at a new magazine, Key Zest, she realizes that themagazine’s co-owner is her boyfriend’s new girlfriend, Kristen Faulkner. When Faulkner is found dead, Snow becomes a suspect and sets out to find the real killer to clear her name.

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December 22, 2011

Gordon '84 pens another terrorist thriller

(Joe Viles/FOX)

New book: Hard Target, by Howard Gordon ’84 (Touchstone)

The author: A television writer and producer, Gordon was the executive producer of the TV show 24, which featured the federal counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer. He also is executive producer (with Alex Gansa ’84) of Showtime’s psychological thriller Homeland and executive producer of Awake, which is scheduled to premier on NBC in January. Gordon wrote his first novel, Gideon’s War, last year. In this sequel, he brings back main character Gideon Davis, a Princeton alumnus, diplomat, and presidential adviser who had helped stop terrorists intent on blowing up an oil rig.

The plot: In Hard Target Davis has returned to academia, but is pulled back into action when an informant provides a tip that a terrorist attack is imminent on U.S. soil — the target is the U.S. government during the State of the Union address. With the help of an FBI agent and his brother, a former covert operative who goes undercover to infiltrate a white-supremacist group that may be involved, Davis tries to untangle the homegrown plan before it’s too late.

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December 16, 2011

Davis '86 deciphers diet and nutrition claims

(Mria Dangerfield)

New book: Coffee is Good for You: From Vitamin C and Organic Foods to Low-Carb and Detox Diets, The Truth About Diet and Nutrition Claims, by Robert J. Davis ’86 (Perigee)

The author: A health journalist, Davis teaches at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and also is the author of The Healthy Skeptic: Cutting Through the Hype About Your Health. He is the founder and owner of EverwellTV, which creates video content about health and wellness.

The book: Davis looks at the veracity of some of the most common diet and nutrition claims — ranging from green tea promotes weight loss to milk is necessary for strong bones. He offers tips to help people decipher diet and nutrition claims, including “ignore health claims on food packages and in ads,” and he outlines how to assess a scientific study. “My goal is to help you put scientific research to use so you can make informed decisions for yourself and your family,” he writes.

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December 8, 2011

Robertson *59 explores Roosevelt's plan for occupying France

New book: When Roosevelt Planned to Govern France, by Charles L. Robertson *59 (University of Massachusetts Press)

The author: A retired professor of government at Smith College, Robertson first learned about President Franklin Roosevelt’s alleged plan for an Allied military occupation of France after its liberation from a former aide to Charles de Gaulle some 30 years ago. In 2004 he heard the same story again and then decided to find out whether it was true. Robertson, who taught precepts in the politics department at Princeton in the early 1950s, also is the author of International Politics Since World War II: A Short History and The International Herald Tribune.

The book: Few Americans have ever heard of Roosevelt’s plan to install a military government at the end of World War II, yet many French are aware of it and believe that until the last moment an occupation was imminent, writes Robertson. In When Roosevelt Planned to Govern France, he explores whether Roosevelt really did intend to occupy France, how and why the plan never came to be, why the French still believe it almost did, and why Roosevelt objected to de Gaulle being in power.

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December 2, 2011

Hutton '95 explores childhood, adolescence, and motherhood in poetry

(Alexander Ralph)

New book: She’d Waited Millennia, by Lizzie Hutton ’95 (New Issues Press)

The author: Hutton’s poetry has appeared in the Yale Review, Harvard Review, Antioch Review, and Interim. “Rose Gold and Poppies,” one of the poems in this, her first collection of poetry, won the Wabash Prize from the Sycamore Review. Hutton teaches at the University of Michigan.

The book: This collection explores the “various identities of childhood, adolescence, and motherhood,” says Hutton. The poet Chase Twichell has called the poems “emotionally and intellectually spontaneous.” They feel “as if we were present at their coming-into-being, a genuine writer-reader intimacy that’s hard to achieve at any stage, let alone in a first book. The poems about childhood and adolescence are among the most powerful I’ve ever read.”

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November 18, 2011

Fahs '73 explores the lives of early women journalists

New book: Out on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space, by Alice Fahs ’73 (University of North Carolina Press)

The author: A professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, Fahs studies the social and cultural history of 19th- and early-20th-century America. Her previous books include The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861-1865 (2001).

The book: Out on Assignment “examines some of the hundreds of little-known newspaper women who entered metropolitan work for mass-circulation dailies at the turn of the century,” she has said. While many of the women she writes about were well known at the time, Fahs said, they have been neglected because many of them wrote for sensational or “yellow” newspapers and for the women’s page. Fahs argues that their work — including celebrity interviews, advice columns, and a campaign in support of suffrage — opened up new opportunities for careers and lifestyles.

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November 11, 2011

Ross *80 explores how movie stars have shaped politics

(Alexandra Bissonette)

New book: Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics, by Steven J. Ross *80 (Oxford)

The author: A film historian and history professor at the University of Southern California, Ross won a Film Scholars Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He also is the author of Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America, which was named one of the best books of 1998 by the Los Angeles Times and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in History.

The book: Ross traces the intersection of Hollywood and politics from the early 20th century to today. By profiling 10 celebrities – five on the left, including Charlie Chaplin, Harry Belafonte, and Jane Fonda, and five on the right, including Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, and Arnold Schwarzenegger — he shows how the left and right gained popularity in Hollywood at different times and challenges the commonly held belief that Hollywood always has been a liberal stronghold.

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November 4, 2011

Polly '95 chronicles his two-year journey through mixed martial arts

New book: Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts, by Matthew Polly ’95 (Gotham Books)

The author: A travel writer for Slate.com, Polly spent two years in China (taking a break from college) learning the language and honing his martial arts skills with monks who taught him kung fu. He wrote about that experience in his first book, American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China, which PAW called “a raucous, wry look at his transformation from a ‘weakling’ to a fighting machine.” At the age of 36, Polly decided to put his body to the test again and spent two years studying mixed martial arts in New York, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, St. Petersburg, and Las Vegas.

The book: In this humorous narrative, Polly chronicles his grueling yet redeeming journey. He recounts Brazilian jiujitsu instruction from a Yoda-esque master who mixed armlocks with discourses on Kant, learning kickboxing by being beaten with a stick, and ultimately stepping into the ring to take on an opponent 15 years younger than he. Polly also discusses the sport’s history and its growing popularity. Polly began his project out of shape, but he not only survived, he won his one match. How did his body hold up? “I didn't suffer any major, debilitating injuries. But over the two years of training, I had my nose broken, my ribs cracked, and caught a staph infection while training in Brazil. The worst however was a stubbed toe. It hurt like heck whenever I tried to run or turn on it, but no one has any sympathy for a toe injury.”

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October 28, 2011

George '75 collects travel essays from stars

Don George '75

New book: Lights, Camera … Travel!, edited by Andrew McCarthy and Don George ’75 (Lonely Planet Publications)

The editors: A seasoned travel writer and editor, George has edited five previous literary anthologies for Lonely Planet, including A Moveable Feast and The Kindness of Strangers. He is a contributing editor and book review columnist for National Geographic Traveler magazine, special features editor and blogger for Gadling.com, and editor of the online literary travel magazine Recce. McCarthy is an actor, director, and travel writer. He has appeared in more than two-dozen films, including Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire, starred in Broadway plays, and is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler.

The book: When George was thinking about this year’s anthology, his Lonely Planet editor came up with the idea of asking actors to contribute their tales. “I was at first both intrigued and trepidatious,” said George. “Actors telling their best travel stories sounded great – but could they write? As it turned out, they could! I was happily surprised with the quality of the stories and especially with their willingness to write very personally about their lives.” The collection features 33 stories by actors, directors, and screenwriters, including Brooke Shields ’87, who recalls her mishaps in the Arctic while on assignment for Marie Claire; and Alec Baldwin, who presents an atmospheric and heartfelt depiction of life in Los Angeles.

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