Princeton Alumni Weekly | The Weekly Blog: Princeton Authors Archives

September 6, 2011

Bassi *83, Frauenheim '89, and McMurrer '90 identify 'good' companies

New book: Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, by Laurie Bassi *83, Ed Frauehneim ’89, and Dan McMurrer ’90, with Larry Costello (Berrett-Koehler)

The authors: An economist, Bassi is CEO of McBassi & Company, a consulting firm that specializes in human capital analytics, and she chairs Bassi Investments. Frauenheim is senior editor at Workforce Management magazine and has written about topics including technology, work, business, and education. McMurrer is the chief analyst at McBassi & Company and chief research officer at Bassi Investments. Costello recently served as senior vice president for human resources at American Standard Companies.

The book: The bad guys might not finish first in business, argue the authors. Instead, for corporations to flourish in the future, they must show that they care about people and the planet. Consumers, the authors write, have become more “scrupulous about companies’ morals in recent years.” The authors developed the Good Company Index, ranking the Fortune 100 companies based on criteria associated with customer care, people management, and stewardship. They found that companies in the same industry with higher scores on the index outperformed their peers in the stock market. Of the companies rated, only Disney and FedEx earned As.

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August 25, 2011

Marquardt '94 explores the daily lives of 'illegal' immigrants

New book: Living “Illegal”: The Human Face of Unauthorized Immigration, by Marie Friedmann Marquardt ’94, Timothy J. Steigenga, Philip J. Williams, and Manual A. Vásquez (The New Press)

The authors: A cultural anthropology major at Princeton, Marquardt teaches religious studies, sociology, and women’s studies at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga. The co-author of Globalizing the Sacred: Religion Across the Americas (2003), she also has published articles on religion, gender, and civic participation of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. South. Marquardt is an advocate for immigrants and helped to organize the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta’s “Justice for Immigrants” campaign. Steigenga is a professor of political science at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University. Williams is the director of the Center of Latin American Studies and Vásquez is a professor of religion at the University of Florida.

The book: The authors aim to get beyond the polarizing debates over immigration and the “highly charged stereotypes that have become associated with the term ‘illegal,’” they write, by shedding light on the daily lives of unauthorized immigrants in America. Based on years of work in immigrant communities, the authors paint vivid portraits of immigrants as they work, go to school, build families, and contribute to their communities. The authors also explore the tensions that emerge in local communities where immigration has rapidly increased and the ways that religious groups and advocates have solved community problems. “The reality on the ground is far more complex than the stereotypes and myths that pervade public discourse on immigration reform,” they write.

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August 19, 2011

DaSilva '85 showcases summer house designs

(Courtesy John DaSilva)

New book: Shingled Houses in the Summer Sun: The Work of Polhemus Savery DaSilva, by John R. DaSilva ’85 (Images Publishing)

The author: The principal in charge of architectural design for the firm Polhemus Savery DaSilva, the author seeks to create “fresh interpretations of traditional approaches” and designs that are in “harmony with the land [and] relate appropriately to both the neighboring context and the continuum of architectural history.” Said DaSilva, “I like to do work that is related to historical architecture but that is also fresh and of our times. I think our architecture should not take itself too seriously — it should be playful and fun, even whimsical.” DaSilva, who lives on Cape Cod, also is the author of Architecture of the Cape Cod Summer (2008).

The book: This monograph of the recent work of the design/build firm Polhemus Savery DaSilva includes more than 400 color photographs of shingled summer homes. With short introductory text in each section, the book is organized by elements, including façades, porches, family rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. DaSilva’s firm, which serves as both the architect and general contractor for its projects, works primarily in coastal southern New England. Robert Venturi ’47 *50 has written of DaSilva’s work: “Here is architecture sublimely contextual, … teeming with exquisite details — rich and varied in their extreme beauty. One is constantly fascinated and at the same time always at ease when outside and inside these intriguing buildings.”

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August 12, 2011

Barron '85 pens another mystery for Jane Austen, detective

(Marea Evans)

New book: Jane and the Canterbury Tale, by Stephanie Barron ’85 aka Francine Mathews (Bantam)

The author: Fifteen years ago, Barron published Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, which introduced Jane Austen, detective. Since then Barron has continued to capture Austen’s voice and era in her Jane Austen Mystery series. Barron also is the author of the stand-alone historical suspense novels A Flaw in the Blood and The White Garden. As Francine Mathews, she is the author of the Nantucket mystery series and other novels.

The book: In the 11 installment of the Jane Austen mystery series, the famous sleuth attends the wedding of Adelaide Fiske and Andrew MacAllister. Trouble starts when a mysterious man arrives at the party and leaves a bag of tamarind seeds, rendering the bride ghostly white. The next day, the stranger is found dead, and soon he is identified as Fiske's first husband, Curzon Fiske, long believed to have been dead. Austen’s brother is the magistrate investigating the murder, but it's up to Austen to figure out why Fiske returned in the first place and who was responsible for the murder.

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August 5, 2011

Weiner '91 explores egg-donorship, surrogacy in new novel

(Courtesy JenniferWeiner.com)

New book: Then Came You, by Jennifer Weiner ’91 (Atria Books)

The author: Weiner is the bestselling author of nine books, including Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and Fly Away Home. She also is the executive producer for the ABC Family show State of Georgia.

The book: Jules Wildgren is a Princeton senior who decides to sell her “pedigree” eggs to help save her father from addiction. Annie Barrow, married to her high school sweetheart and the mother of two boys, believes that becoming a surrogate will not only help out another family, but also her own. India Bishop falls for a wealthy older man and thinks that having a child will ensure a happy ending. She turns to technology when her attempts at conceiving a child fail. These stories come together in a tale that explores the making of a truly modern family.

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July 28, 2011

Comedy writer Kutner '94 explores imagined futures

(Courtesy Rob Kutner '94)

New book: The Future According to Me, By Rob Kutner ’94 (Kindle Digital Services)

The author: Kutner, a longtime comedy writer whose credits include The Daily Show, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, and Conan, made his mark on campus humor as an early member of the improv troupe Quipfire! and a writer for the Princeton Triangle Club. He published his first book, Apocalypse How: Turn the End-Times into the Best of Times, in 2008.

The book: Billed as a comic review of “what could be, but probably shouldn’t,” The Future According to Me is a quick read, densely populated with jokes about 35 imagined futures. Kutner draws on current topics that may not seem like natural fodder for jokes (for instance, global warming and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), and uses several formats – brief stories, lists, journal entries, and even a Dr. Seuss-inspired poem. The book has been published electronically as a “Kindle Single,” an e-reader category that includes essays, novellas, and other short works. (The book is accessible from any computer or e-reader; see Kutner's website for purchasing information.)

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July 21, 2011

Webber '53 explores the life of an early abolitionist

(Courtesy Pegasus Books)

New book: American to the Backbone: The Life of James W.C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists, by Christopher L. Webber ’53 (Pegasus Books)

The author: An ordained minister, Webber is the author of more than two dozen books, including Reinventing Marriage and Beyond Beowulf. He also co-authored A Year with American Saints, stories of 365 men and women who helped shape American life over four centuries. While compiling that book, he developed his interest in James Pennington.

The book: In 1827, at the age of 19, James W.C. Pennington, a slave in Maryland, escaped to freedom. Illiterate at the time, he reached the North and eventually became a preacher, educator, and abolitionist. Ordained a minister after studying at Yale, he travelled the world as an anti-slavery advocate and fought for equal rights in America. He wrote the first-ever “History of the Colored People”and a study of the moral basis for civil disobedience. More than a century before Rosa Parks, he was beaten and arrested when he challenged segregated seating in New York City street cars. Eventually the New York State Supreme Court ordered the cars to be integrated.

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July 14, 2011

Griffith '87 pens quirky black comedy

New book: Trophy: A Novel, by Michael Griffith ’87 (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press)

The author: A native of South Carolina and an associate professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, Griffith wrote the novel Spikes (2001) and the collection Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories (2003). For 10 years he served as an editor of the literary quarterly The Southern Review, and in 2004 he became the founding editor of Yellow Shoe Fiction, an original-fiction series from LSU Press. Griffith also is fiction editor at The Cincinnati Review.

The plot: As the novel opens, Vada Prickett, a 29-year-old hose associate at a car wash in South Carolina, is being crushed to death by a stuffed grizzly bear that he is helping his lifelong neighbor, friend, and rival, Wyatt Yancey, move into Wyatt’s house — against the wishes of Darla, whom Prickett loves but who is about to marry Wyatt. As the cliché goes, Prickett’s life flashes before his eyes — and he tries to make his last moment last as long as possible as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of his life.

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July 7, 2011

Ben-Ami '84 calls for new approach to Israel advocacy

New book: A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation, by Jeremy Ben-Ami ’84 (Palgrave Macmillan)

The author: The founder and president of J Street, a lobbying group with a left-of-center stance toward the Middle East that backs a two-state solution, Ben-Ami served as President Bill Clinton’s deputy domestic policy adviser and as national policy director on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. Ben-Ami was selected as one of 50 “people of the decade” last year by Ha’aretz, an Israeli daily newspaper, and The Jerusalem Post named him one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.

The book: Ben-Ami shares his personal story — his grandparents were first-generation Zionists and founders of Tel-Aviv, and his father fought for Israeli independence in 1948 — and argues that the efforts to secure a safe and democratic future for Israel are heading off-track and that there is more than one way to be pro-Israel. A New Voice for Israel calls for a new approach to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to Israel advocacy — one that allows for more debate and conversation and that moves “away from its traditional zero-sum paradigm,” he states in the introduction. Ben-Ami argues that friends of Israel must give up the idea that support for Israel requires unquestioning loyalty to the Israeli government and recognize that the creation of a Palestinian state will increase Israel’s chance of survival.

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June 23, 2011

Moss '71 explores 'unorthodox approach' to innovation

Frank Moss '71 (Webb Chappell)

New Book: The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives, by Frank Moss ’71 (Crown Business)

The author: Until recently Moss was the director of MIT’s famed Media Lab, the interdisciplinary incubator of such innovations as an e-reader, LEGO Mindstorms robotic toys, and child-safe airbags. Today he is a professor of the practice at the MIT Media Lab, where he heads the new media medicine group. An entrepreneur in the software and computer industries, Moss was CEO and chairman of the software maker Tivoli Systems and cofounder of companies including Infinity Pharmaceuticals and his latest startup venture, Bluefin Labs.

The book: Moss takes readers on a tour of the MIT Media Lab, introducing them to the inventors and their innovative projects and “how they grew out of an environment that totally defies the conventional wisdom of what a research lab ‘should be.’” Among the technologies in development that he explores are Nexi, a mobile humanoid robot that can serve as a companion for the sick and elderly, and SixthSense, a compact wearable device that transforms any surface into a touch-screen computer.

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June 17, 2011

Snyder '82 chronicles extreme athletes

New book: Hell on Two Wheels: An Astonishing Story of Suffering, Triumph, and the Most Extreme Endurance Race in the World, By Amy Snyder ’82 (Triumph Books)

The author: After an almost two-decade career in management consulting, Snyder retired, moved to La Jolla, Calif., and took up Ironman triathlons. A three-time Ironman finisher and marathon cyclist, Snyder understands what it means to push yourself. But even she was struck by the athletes who compete in the Race Across America (RAAM) — a brutal 3,000-mile bicycle race from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis, Md. “I couldn’t fathom racing such a long distance,” says Snyder, who wanted to discover how other athletes could and why they would do it.

The book: Snyder followed a group of the ultra-distance racers before, during, and after the 2009 RAAM. To win, athletes make do with an hour or so of sleep a day. The winner of the 2009 contest finished in nine days. Many athletes experience muscle, joint, and nerve failure, broken bones, terrible saddle sore, hallucinations, and dehydration. Some don’t finish. Their neck muscles can give out from the strain of holding up their heads — a condition known as Shermer’s Neck. “Watching this relentless contest unfold was considerably more disturbing than I expected,” she wrote. “As it dragged on, I saw how RAAM transformed my new friends, brutalized them, and at times broke their spirits. I bore witness to their suffering, but it was their passion and grit that stuck with me most.”

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June 2, 2011

Braude *98 pursues a mysterious murder in Casablanca

Joseph Braude *98 (Phyllis Rose)

New book: The Honored Dead: A Story of Friendship, Murder, and the Search for Truth in the Arab World, by Joseph Braude *98 (Spiegel & Grau)

The author: An American journalist born to an Iraqi-Jewish family, Braude studied Arabic and Islamic history at Princeton. His work has been published in The New Republic, Best Life, and Playboy, among other publications. He also is the author of The New Iraq: Rebuilding the Country for Its People, the Middle East, and the World (2003). To research his new book, he was embedded for four months with a Moroccan security service in Casablanca, whose detectives handle everything from terrorism to drug trafficking and homicides.

The book: Braude explores the story of an ordinary Islamic citizen whose life runs up against the underbelly of the Moroccan police. While embedded with the detectives, Braude befriends an unemployed Muslim Berber, Muhammad Bari, whose best friend has been brutally murdered in a warehouse where he had been sleeping for five years. Braude suspects a cover-up and launches his own investigation of the murder.

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