Bookshelf

(Hong Kong, China: Hong Kong University Press, 2019)
This book, awarded Choice’s Outstanding Academic Title of 2020, features 10 essays that demonstrate that the connection between laughter and political culture during the Mao years was far more complex than conventional conceptions of communist indoctrination can explain. By examining a variety of genres — including dance, cartoon, children’s literature, comedy, regional oral performance, film, and fiction — the editors uncover many nuanced innovations and experiments with laughter during what has been too often misinterpreted as an unrelentingly bleak period.

(Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
The author begins by stating: “If you serve on a nonprofit board, you probably hate doing the one thing upon which your cause depends: fundraising.” Jones aims to help change that. A certified fundraising executive, she has raised more than $175 million for nonprofits and helped thousands develop the comfort and willingness to successfully ask for the causes they care about. The book gives readers insight into their “asking personality,” illustrating how they can best thank, steward, research, cultivate, and ask; which of these five steps they favor; and how to master the skills they need to excel.

(Conneaut Lake, Pa.: Page Publishing, 2019)
This book includes tales from the author’s travels to Africa in his mid-20s on behalf of a Swiss-based multi-national fragrance company and is as much a coming-of-age-story as a travel memoir. He tells of encountering (and doing his best to cope with) situations, people, and challenges that he never imagined and learning lessons that he did not even know were there to learn. According to the book jacket, “Interwoven in the text is also much aviation lore with absorbing and extensive background information about some of the airlines and airplanes of the mid 20th century. The diverse and eventful episodes recounted in the book are both charming and informative, and 74 illustrations bring the witty and lighthearted text even more to life.”

(Missoula, Mont.: Blue Mountain Publishing, 2018).
From the publisher: “Within West Virginia’s irregular borders, formed by winding rivers, high ridges, and the peculiarities of colonial land surveys, is a sedimentary record of the entire Paleozoic Era. … Authors Joseph Lebold and Christopher Wilkinson lead you along the roads of the Mountain State, past roadcuts exposing contorted rock layers, coral reefs, and ancient red soils. Sidebars provide more details about iconic places such as the New River Gorge, Seneca Rocks, and Dolly Sods, and about unusual geologic features such as the riverless Teays Valley and the karst topography and caverns of the Big Levels.”

Lebold has taught geology at West Virginia University since 2009. Wilkinson, a musicologist specializing in African-American musical culture, taught music history and writing at WVU’s School of Music for 37 years before retiring in 2013. As a layperson with an interest in geology, he hopes the book will motivate others to explore West Virginia’s geologic history.

(Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2019)
A finalist for the Central Eurasian Studies Society’s Best Book Award for 2020, this work provides an overview of the relationship between two dynamic regions, highlighting the ways in which Russia and Central Asia have influenced and been influenced by Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. According to the publisher, “Cultural and social history are interwoven with the military narrative to provide a sense of the people, their religion, and their practices — all of which were severely tested under Stalin. The text includes a glossary as well as images and maps that help to highlight 500 years of changes, bringing Central Asia into the general narrative of Russian and world history and introducing a fresh perspective on colonialism and modernity.”

(New York: Viking Press, 2020)
The authors, investigative and White House reporters for The Daily Beast, share what the publisher describes as “an uncompromising account of the financial and moral degradation of our capital, told with righteous indignation and through the lens of key power players and foot soldiers whose own antics have often escaped the notice of the overworked press corps.” Markay, who covers money in politics, lobbying, influence, and corruption, formerly reported for the Washington Free Beacon and was the first investigative reporter for the Heritage Foundation.

(Self-published, 2020)
The author, who spent many years working in school ministry, shares this collection of spiritual meditations — one for each day of the year — that offers a creative and rich way to spark ideas and conversations. “Drawn from ordinary moments in life, the meditations are intended to point even the most spiritually reluctant readers to the sacredness of life,” noted Bristol, who writes about the spiritual life in unconventional ways, from blog posts to children’s books, a meditation book to a novel. “I use all means necessary to help my readers to see life from a new perspective,” he said.

(Seattle: Cutter Press, 2019)
Described by Publisher’s Weekly as a “high-octane, compulsively readable thriller,” the novel features the plight of: Two men — a former CIA assassin in the Vietnam War now in his 60s and living a quiet life and a mysterious mastermind behind a number of major al Qaeda terror attacks since the 1990s. Two sons — a U.S. assistant district attorney and a suspected terrorist awaiting trial for attempting to smuggle explosives across the Canadian border. One grandson — kidnapped and used as leverage. Sherer is the author of numerous books and articles and is a member of the International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America.

(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2020)
School closures in response to COVID-19 resulted in an immediate and universal pivot to online teaching. Lemov, author of the international bestseller Teach Like a Champion 2.0, and his colleagues at Teach Like a Champion spent weeks studying videos of online teaching and provide educators with real-life examples they can apply and adapt into their own online classroom. This guide explores the challenges involved in online teaching and guides educators and administrators to identify and understand best practices.

(Denise Publications, 2020)
A self-described poetic-essayist, Cutolo shares 42 pieces that reflect both his own hopes, fears, loves, and loathings, as well as those of his readers. As one reviewer noted, “When the world feels darkest, and our perspective cloudy, unexpected stories have the extraordinary ability to provide us the exact kind of solace we crave and the right bit of impetus this life, in that moment, demands. Chuck Cutolo understands this and delivers. … His writing is a light for those who come across it and a refreshing bit of sanity in even the maddest of times.” The author, who formerly worked on Capitol Hill as legislative director for former Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and as majority counsel for the Nassau (N.Y.) County Legislature, most recently served as the general counsel for governmental and media relations for Nassau Community College. This is his third book.