Bookshelf

(Finishing Line Press, 2022).

Perhaps the best description of this chapbook comes from fellow poet Stuart Kestenbaum ’73: “Re-membering is a courageous and evocative book. Alice Hildebrand examines the complicated and profound bonds of mother and daughter, through what she calls in one poem the ‘undoing of her mother’s life.’ She skillfully intertwines her multiple roles of daughter, caregiver, and mourner throughout these poems, and we come to see how love evolves, becoming what it needs to be. She takes us on a spiritual journey that transforms her and us as well.”

(Little Cottage Press, 2024).

Here’s a summary from the publisher to get you hooked: “When Mary Jane Bennett is found dead in her bed — alone, strangled by her own scarf, and with every door in the house locked — the medical examiner rules her death accidental, the result of a sex game gone horribly awry. State police decline to investigate further, but Queensbridge Police Chief Caleb Crane doesn’t buy for a minute that his good friend died this way, so he undertakes his own investigation. Facing town councilors afraid of bad publicity, an angry medical examiner, and his own personal demons, he labors to solve what he believes is the first-ever murder in his pastoral Berkshire Hills village. Complicating things: the list of suspects includes some of the people to whom he is closest — including his own wife.”

(Fortress Press, 2025).

According to the publisher: “The gospels were not the only books in antiquity to retell the same story. Ancient readers had their own language for describing works that retread the same narrative ground. Different versions of a story were imagined as sharing a narrative core, called a hypothesis. Early Christian readers adopted this conceptual model in order to describe gospel literature, legitimize its pluriformity, and limit its diversity. Even before the term ‘hypothesis’ appeared explicitly, however, readers imagined gospels in roughly the same way. Christians did not radically reimagine the literary character of gospels at the end of the second century, when hypothesis language first appeared. Rather, the components of this model are already present in the earliest evidence for the reception of gospels. The standard model for thinking about pluriform narrative traditions in Hellenistic literary culture shaped the production and interpretation of gospel literature from the very beginning.”

(Wheatmark, 2021)

The author acknowledges that he draws on all his experiences when he writes — including his time at Hamilton. As the publisher notes: “Set in the year 2000, yet nostalgically focused on a simpler time of all-male student bodies and simpler rules of conduct, The River Quickens is a witty and charming romp through the peccadilloes, egos, and shenanigans of life in a small college town in upstate New York. As the 21st century encroaches on Talcot College, whether through virtual education, the hacking of admissions records, or even a secret lottery bonanza, the denizens of Talcot College and its surrounding village fumble and bumble to a Wagnerian and almost triumphant resolution of differences.”

(Birdwatch Publishing, 2023).

Global environmental issues can leave us feeling powerless — how can one person make a real difference? With the subtitle “a sustainability story to help you start your own eco-friendly journey,” this book is designed to inspire and empower readers to take action toward creating a better world.

(Archway Publishing, 2024)

Back in 1978, Charles Thacher’s wife gave him a fly-fishing outfit. Funny thing was, he wasn’t much of a fisherman. But proving that woman’s intuition is not to be underestimated, that gift would mark the start of a passion that would take him around the world — and to Argentina’s northern lakes country 20 times.

(Salt Water Media, 2023)

The publisher describes the book like this: “From watching a first-grade classmate drop into the ‘fires of hell’ to battling trolls, Brussels sprouts, and 50 miles of toilet paper, George Radcliffe remembers and reflects on a remarkable and lovingly spirited family growing up in the 1950s. As the lone survivor of that family of six, he recounts their often-hilarious exploits in a series of stories that will make you laugh and cry but leave you with memories of a unique and close family.”

(Beacon Press, 2025)

Join a high school science teacher as he leads readers on excursions that go beyond books and lectures to reimagine teaching and learning. “Through a blend of real-life examples and practical commentary, readers will see how Fox created localized learning opportunities for his students out of canoeing on the Bronx River, hiking in the Catskill Mountains, and other unconventional approaches,” the publisher notes.

(Bloomsbury, 2025)

It’s the turn of the 20th century, and young Vivian Lesperance has one goal — to get far away from her hometown of Utica, N.Y. Smart, intuitive, and determined, she heads to New York City where she inserts herself into the world of the post-Gilded Age elite. Before long she forms a plan that includes marrying Oscar Schmidt, a middle manager at a soap company, who, like Vivian, carries the residual scars from a less-than-happy childhood. In the mild-mannered Oscar, she finds a partner she can influence to build the life she wants — made easier by the fact that her husband is more interested in men and will leave Vivian to tend to her own romances with women.

(Salt Water Media, 2024)

A continuation of Growing Up in Oz, the author shares more humorous, sometimes poignant, coming-of-age stories that illustrate the importance of family. Included in the tales of growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s and 1960s are “being lost in the Big Apple as a young child, the summer bells that sent all children running, spending a night in the House on Haunted Hill, encountering Big Foot at his school, the worst college interview imaginable, buying a complete college wardrobe for $10, his dog that became a movie star, the disappearing Thanksgiving dinner, and the promise that got him through basic training,” according to the publisher.