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Book Notes

Moon Handbooks: Maine

By Hilary Nangle '80

From the restaurants and grills of Portland to the historic towns and villages of the Acadia region, Hilary Nangle ’80 provides an insider’s view of the Pine Tree State in Maine (Avalon Travel Publishing, Moon Handbooks). As a Maine native, Nangle is the perfect tour guide, providing essential information on local dining, transportation and accommodations. With details on white-water rafting on the Kennebec River, sailing near Camden and camping in Baxter State Park, this guidebook gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

Nangle is a freelance writer and editor. A resident of Maine, she edits the state’s tourism magazine and has contributed to numerous publications, newspapers and guidebooks. She is also a travel expert for a local television show.

 

The Essential HBO Reader

Edited By Gary R. Edgerton '74 and Jeffrey P. Jones

The Essential HBO Reader (University Press of Kentucky), edited by Gary R. Edgerton ’74 and Jeffrey P. Jones, is a comprehensive and compelling examination of one of cable television’s most innovative and popular networks. Edgerton and Jones have assembled a group of contributors to discuss how HBO transformed the world of cable television, and how it continues to shape popular culture and the television industry today. They explore the network’s diverse repertoire of programming that includes landmark shows such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City as well as dramatic series like Six Feet Under; miniseries such as Band of Brothers; comedies like Curb Your Enthusiasm; and sports shows such as Inside the NFL.

Edgerton is professor and chair of the communication and theatre arts department at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. He is the author of The Columbia History of American Television.

 

To See the Earth

By Philip Metres '92

In To See the Earth (Cleveland State University Poetry Center Imagination Series)—his first full-length collection of poetry—Philip Metres ’92 navigates the increasingly turbulent waters of a globalized world. From Moscow to Chicago, from Cleveland to Hiroshima, from Philadelphia to Ramallah, Metres’ poems speak of ordinary people and their attempts to articulate a response to the violent and destructive world around them.

Metres teaches literature and creative writing at John Carroll University in Cleveland.

 

Peace Operations: Trends, Progress, and Prospects

Edited by Donald C.F. Daniel '66, Patricia Taft and Sharon Wiharta

Since 2000, the trends in the number and scope of peace operations indicate heightened international appreciation for their value in crisis-response and regional stabilization. Peace Operations: Trends, Progress, and Prospects (Georgetown University Press), edited by Donald C.F. Daniel ’66, Patricia Taft and Sharon Wiharta, addresses national and institutional capacities to undertake such operations. It is a groundbreaking volume aimed at helping policymakers and academics better understand the regional and national factors influencing peace operations into the next decade.

Daniel is a professor in the Security Studies Program and a fellow in the Center for Peace and Security Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

 

Modernism, Drama, and the Audience for Irish Spectacle

By Paige Reynolds

By employing previously unexamined archival material, Paige Reynolds reconstructs five large-scale public events staged in Ireland, starting with the riotous premiere of J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World in 1907 and concluding with the organized protests accompanying the premiere of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars in 1926. Reynolds’ book, Modernism, Drama, and the Audience for Irish Spectacle (Cambridge University Press), provides a detailed study of the literature and theater famously produced in tandem with these events as well as revises pessimistic explanations of 20th-century mass politics and crowd dynamics by introducing a more sympathetic account of national communities and national sentiment.

Reynolds is associate professor of English at the College.

 

Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story

By David Hitt, Owen K. Garriott and Joseph P. Kerwin ’53
Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story (University of Nebraska Press), by David Hitt, Owen K. Garriott and Joseph P. Kerwin ’53, tells the dramatic story of America’s first space station from beginning to fiery end. Told by two of Skylab’s own astronauts and a NASA journalist, Homesteading Space is more than just a story of technological and scientific success; it is also an absorbing, sometimes humorous, and often inspiring account of the determined, hard-working individuals who shepherded the program through a near-disastrous launch, a heroic rescue, an exhausting study of the Comet Kohoutek, and the lab’s ultimate descent into the Indian Ocean.

Kerwin, a former NASA astronaut, flew on the first Skylab mission in 1973. He has most recently served as senior vice president of Wyle Laboratories.

 

Saints off the Pedestal: Real Saints for Real People

By Amanda Roberts ’94

In Saints off the Pedestal: Real Saints for Real People (Saint Anthony Messenger Press), Amanda Roberts ’94 takes an in-depth look at the lives of 10 well-known saints of the Catholic Church, including Peter, Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Avila. By revealing their struggles of faith and everyday life, Roberts makes their stories accessible and inspires the reader to follow their examples of holiness. She includes interesting facts about the life and times of each saint as well as questions for individual or group reflection.

Roberts is director of faith formation at St. Robert Bellarmine Parish in Andover, Mass.

 

Defense of the Hudson Highlands, From 1775 to 1783

By Eric T. Rippert ’64, Thomas J. Orbacz ’64, Buzz Solomon, Edward Winser and Carl Treuter ’63

Early in the American Revolution, both sides recognized that control of the Hudson River was a key strategic factor. If the British forces were to invade and gain control of the Hudson River, the fledgling nation would be virtually divided in half. In order to block an inland incursion of British forces, it was only logical to fortify the region known as the Hudson Highlands. In Defense of the Hudson Highlands, From 1775 to 1783 (Fidler Doubleday Press), Eric T. Rippert ’64, Thomas J. Orbacz ’64, Buzz Solomon, Edward Winser and Carl Treuter ’63 discuss the early exploration of the Hudson River as well as provide insight into the initial causes of the American rebellion and the evolution of the colonial forces’ defenses.

Rippert is a retired U.S. Navy officer; Orbacz is a retired insurance executive; and Treuter is a retired mathematics teacher, department chair and computer center coordinator at the William T. Rogers Middle School in Kings Park, N.Y.