Ithaca Connections

"Jacob White can write."--Padgett Powell

"A wide array of layered stories written with disarming care."--Ron Carlson, author of Five Skies

"Jacob White's characters are in trouble, and their creator brings them to life with language both lush and harsh, gritty and great."--Antonya Nelson, author of Bound

"Fresh, fierce, sad, funny, deep. The author is a natural story teller, with a voice that is like music. . . . This book sings. It's real, it's beautiful."--Lev Raphael, author of The German Money

Set largely in the modern South, the stories in Being Dead in South Carolina concern people who no longer recognize themselves, who have arrived, like the Sunbelt itself, to a strange day that seems disconnected from all the old days, the old stories, the old selves. Yet it's always on this day we must answer for ourselves--right an overturned car, recover the body of a brother, convince a son of our worth and his. We are adrift with bad judgment, a little loose in the head, but searching for the correction.

A South Carolina native, Jacob White studied creative writing at the University of Houston, where he received the Donald Barthelme Memorial Fellowship in Fiction. His fiction has appeared in many journals, including the Georgia Review, New Letters, Salt Hill, and the Sewanee Review, from which he received the Andrew Lytle Prize. He teaches creative writing at Johnson State College and co-edits Green Mountains Review.

How would our lives be different if we could weather the storms of tragedy and loss without fear? What if the fearlessness were not a result of isolation from others or insulation in comforting beliefs, but of full immersion in uncertainty, armed only with the trust that what we perceive as the entirety of a lifetime is nothing compared to what Life really is?

With the raw, surreal events of September 11, 2001 as the backdrop, "Birding in the Face of Terror" is told by two parallel narrators, Joseph and Pedro, facing the same spiritual crisis. Both must use their scattershot religious and philosophical background to come to grips with psychological exiles of their own devising. Joseph, trapped by circumstance as an eyewitness to the terrifying events on the East Coast, is forced from his agoraphobic shell into a hero's role. Pedro is secluded and silenced on the West Coast, left to plumb his own interior landscape to make sense of it all. The saving grace of connection comes in ways both ordinary and mysterious when a kindred clan of mystics from the Heartland emerge, offering a middle road between their extremes.

As John Donne famously told us, "No man is an island." "Birding" contemplates this timeless truth anew, unveiling answers both familiar and revolutionary. Though it flips the bird in the face of our post-9/11 security hysteria and de facto state religion, it does so by pointing toward an alternate way of seeing that confounds common assumptions about who we are. While tipping some of our most sacred cows, it also makes space for everyday miracles to work their wonders through characters who never expected themselves to be holy. The result is an upwelling inspiration, steeped in a no-nonsense pantheistic spirituality that will speak to today's savvy, multicultural truth seekers.

"Birding" is an antidote for our age of anxiety, a hopepunk testament of love and wholeness for a culture broken by fear.

In 1910 and 1914, a two-volume study of New York's native birds was issued as part of the State Museum's annual report. A vast catalog of hundreds of species, the survey was illustrated by Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874-1927), a rising star in scientific bird studies. Fuertes was highly influenced by John James Audubon's The Birds of America, and today he ranks second only to Audubon in terms of output and recognition for ornithological illustration. A frequent lecturer at Cornell University, he honed his expertise during numerous scientific expeditions throughout the United States and abroad, collaborating with Frank Chapman of the American Museum of Natural History on field research, museum dioramas, and book illustrations.
This reproduction of all 106 of Fuertes's stunning full-color images spotlights more than 300 birds. It marks the first time that the artwork from Birds of New York has been available in decades, and the volume has never been so affordable. The captions have been reset for easy identification, and a complete Index offers a quick reference. Noted Fuertes expert Robert McCracken Peck provides an informative Foreword. Bird watchers at all levels of experience as well as illustrators, artists, and naturalists will find this book an excellent resource.

An instant New York Times bestseller

Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships--or, as they would say, because of them--they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.

In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life's inevitable suffering?

They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.

This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecendented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye.

We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy--from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives.

The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.

This is the story of a little girl named Fern who loved a little pig named Wilbur - and of Wilbur's dear friend Charlotte A. Cavatica, a beautiful large grey spider who lived with Wilbur in the barn. With the help of Templeton, the rat who never did anything for anybody unless there was something in it for him, and by a wonderfully clever plan of their own, Charlotte saved the life of Wilbur, who by this time had grown up to be quite a pig.

Now in paperback, the stunning debut about a woman rediscovering herself after a divorce explores the heartbreaking and deeply funny aspects of the mess called love. With glowing reviews from the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, NPR's All Things Considered, and more.

When Barb Barrett walks out on her loveless marriage, she doesn't realize she will lose everything: her home, her financial security, even her beloved children. Approaching forty with her life in shambles and no family or friends to turn to, Barb must now discover what it means to rely on herself in a stark new emotional landscape.

With only a questionable business plan in hand, Barb is determined to reinvent herself. She moves into a house once occupied by the literary genius Vladimir Nabokov, author of the notorious Lolita. She discovers what could be Nabokov's last unpublished manuscript and from there begins a personal journey that is deliciously romantic, darkly comic, and wise.

Written in elegant prose and illuminated by sharp humor and wit, Cleaning Nabokov's House offers a new vision of modern love and a reminder that it is never too late to find loyalty to our truest selves.

In their history of Cornell since 1940, Glenn C. Altschuler and Isaac Kramnick examine the institution in the context of the emergence of the modern research university. The book examines Cornell during the Cold War, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, antiapartheid protests, the ups and downs of varsity athletics, the women's movement, the opening of relations with China, and the creation of Cornell NYC Tech. It relates profound, fascinating, and little-known incidents involving the faculty, administration, and student life, connecting them to the Cornell idea of freedom and responsibility. The authors had access to all existing papers of the presidents of Cornell, which deeply informs their respectful but unvarnished portrait of the university.Institutions, like individuals, develop narratives about themselves. Cornell constructed its sense of self, of how it was special and different, on the eve of World War II, when America defended democracy from fascist dictatorship. Cornell's fifth president, Edmund Ezra Day, and Carl Becker, its preeminent historian, discerned what they called a Cornell soul, a Cornell character, a Cornell personality, a Cornell tradition--and they called it freedom.The Cornell idea was tested and contested in Cornell's second seventy-five years. Cornellians used the ideals of freedom and responsibility as weapons for change--and justifications for retaining the status quo; to protect academic freedom--and to rein in radical professors; to end in loco parentis and parietal rules, to preempt panty raids, pornography, and pot parties, and to reintroduce regulations to protect and promote the physical and emotional well-being of students; to add nanofabrication, entrepreneurship, and genomics to the curriculum--and to require language courses, freshmen writing, and physical education. In the name of freedom (and responsibility), black students occupied Willard Straight Hall, the anti-Vietnam War SDS took over the Engineering Library, proponents of divestment from South Africa built campus shantytowns, and Latinos seized Day Hall. In the name of responsibility (and freedom), the university reclaimed them.The history of Cornell since World War II, Altschuler and Kramnick believe, is in large part a set of variations on the narrative of freedom and its partner, responsibility, the obligation to others and to one's self to do what is right and useful, with a principled commitment to the Cornell community--and to the world outside the Eddy Street gate.

Cuddle up with a classic! In twelve needle-felted scenes and twelve child-friendly words, each book in this ingenious series captures the essence of a literary masterpiece. Simple words, sturdy pages, and a beloved story make these books the perfect vehicle for early learning with an erudite twist. Budding bookworms will delight in this clever retelling of the classics made just for them!

In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, young Tom has a first kiss, makes camp in the woods, and discovers the secrets of a mysterious cave. It's a first words primer for your literary little one!

The Cozy Classics series is the brainchild of two brothers, both dads, who were thinking of ways to teach words to their very young children. They hit upon the classics as the basis for their infant primers, and the rest, as they say, is history. From Moby Dick to Pride and Prejudice, here are The Great Books of Western Literature for toddlers and their parents in board book form--a little bit serious, a little bit ironic, entirely funny and clever, and always a welcome gift.

The Finger Lakes region is known for its beauty, but look carefully and you will discover some of New York's other abundant--and unusual--treasures. The cliffs of Excelsior Glen are scattered with ancient Indian pictographs, and Bluff Point conceals the ruins of an unknown civilization. The wine industry has its own strange stories; discover why one wine producer was banned from using his own name. Among the oddities of the Finger Lakes region are the world's largest pancake, a slice of Susan B. Anthony's seventy-eighth birthday cake and the anecdote of the boy who accidentally caught an eight-pound trout with his nose. Join author Melanie Zimmer and uncover these and other curiosities and strange tales of the Finger Lakes.

Fairy tales and myths inform this collection of poems written by a woman who has often danced or fled the shadows cast by old stories. Wolves, princes, looms, combs, swans, straw, blackbirds: these images, polished to the bone by telling and retelling, take on new shape and life when infused with autobiography and lessons learned from others' choices and fates. What path can a young girl take when her red sweater grows ragged? How can a bride escape the knife poised to cut off her trusting feet? Yet, too, these poems are about survival, resilience: Penelope learns to weave for and with the women around her; a resourceful witch outwits a stickler who would silence her; a sister escapes murder and grows up into summers of wild strawberries. Ultimately, risk's rewards triumph, offering a crone's wisdom that even sadness is "tipped with stars and stars."

A Best Book of the Year: NPR and Boston Globe

Finally a novel that puts the pissed back into epistolary.

Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. His star (he thinks) student can't catch a break with his brilliant (he thinks) work Accountant in a Bordello, based on Melville's Bartleby. In short, his life is a tale of woe, and the vehicle this droll and inventive novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, and passive-aggressive strategies. We recommend Dear Committee Members to you in the strongest possible terms.

Why the dollar is--and will remain--the dominant global currency

The U.S. dollar's dominance seems under threat. The near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008-2009, political paralysis that has blocked effective policymaking, and emerging competitors such as the Chinese renminbi have heightened speculation about the dollar's looming displacement as the main reserve currency. Yet, as The Dollar Trap powerfully argues, the financial crisis, a dysfunctional international monetary system, and U.S. policies have paradoxically strengthened the dollar's importance.

Eswar Prasad examines how the dollar came to have a central role in the world economy and demonstrates that it will remain the cornerstone of global finance for the foreseeable future. Marshaling a range of arguments and data, and drawing on the latest research, Prasad shows why it will be difficult to dislodge the dollar-centric system. With vast amounts of foreign financial capital locked up in dollar assets, including U.S. government securities, other countries now have a strong incentive to prevent a dollar crash.

Prasad takes the reader through key contemporary issues in international finance--including the growing economic influence of emerging markets, the currency wars, the complexities of the China-U.S. relationship, and the role of institutions like the International Monetary Fund--and offers new ideas for fixing the flawed monetary system. Readers are also given a rare look into some of the intrigue and backdoor scheming in the corridors of international finance.

The Dollar Trap offers a panoramic analysis of the fragile state of global finance and makes a compelling case that, despite all its flaws, the dollar will remain the ultimate safe-haven currency.

-- "Kirkus"

Eccentric Finger Lakes is an armchair travel guide of sorts to the odd, the offbeat, the hidden and mysterious, and the just plain unexpected in New York's Finger Lakes region. The author explores often overlooked stories and treasures, bizarre legends and best-kept secrets. The book is filled with curious characters -- religious zealots, mediums, daredevils, explorers, suffragettes, inventors, benefactors, artists and writers, winemakers and chefs, bootleggers, and scoundrels - a ready-to-explore trail of knowledge about Finger Lakes history and culture you won't want to miss. Whether you follow it straight through, or pick out individual stories as the mood strikes, you're in for captivating reading.

An urgent exploration of men's entitlement and how it serves to police and punish women, from the acclaimed author of Down Girl

"Kate Manne is a thrilling and provocative feminist thinker. Her work is indispensable."--Rebecca Traister

In this bold and stylish critique, Cornell philosopher Kate Manne offers a radical new framework for understanding misogyny. Ranging widely across the culture, from Harvey Weinstein and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings to "Cat Person" and the political misfortunes of Elizabeth Warren, Manne's book shows how privileged men's sense of entitlement--to sex, yes, but more insidiously to admiration, care, bodily autonomy, knowledge, and power--is a pervasive social problem with often devastating consequences.

In clear, lucid prose, Manne argues that male entitlement can explain a wide array of phenomena, from mansplaining and the undertreatment of women's pain to mass shootings by incels and the seemingly intractable notion that women are "unelectable." Moreover, Manne implicates each of us in toxic masculinity: It's not just a product of a few bad actors; it's something we all perpetuate, conditioned as we are by the social and cultural mores of our time. The only way to combat it, she says, is to expose the flaws in our default modes of thought while enabling women to take up space, say their piece, and muster resistance to the entitled attitudes of the men around them.

With wit and intellectual fierceness, Manne sheds new light on gender and power and offers a vision of a world in which women are just as entitled as men to our collective care and concern.

In the New York Times bestseller Everything All at Once, Bill Nye shows you how thinking like a nerd is the key to changing yourself and the world around you.

Everyone has an inner nerd just waiting to be awakened by the right passion. In Everything All at Once, Bill Nye will help you find yours. With his call to arms, he wants you to examine every detail of the most difficult problems that look unsolvable--that is, until you find the solution. Bill shows you how to develop critical thinking skills and create change, using his "everything all at once" approach that leaves no stone unturned.

Whether addressing climate change, the future of our society as a whole, or personal success, or stripping away the mystery of fire walking, there are certain strategies that get results: looking at the world with relentless curiosity, being driven by a desire for a better future, and being willing to take the actions needed to make change happen. He shares how he came to create this approach--starting with his Boy Scout training (it turns out that a practical understanding of science and engineering is immensely helpful in a capsizing canoe) and moving through the lessons he learned as a full-time engineer at Boeing, a stand-up comedian, CEO of The Planetary Society, and, of course, as Bill Nye The Science Guy.

This is the story of how Bill Nye became Bill Nye and how he became a champion of change and an advocate of science. It's how he became The Science Guy. Bill teaches us that we have the power to make real change. Join him in... dare we say it... changing the world.

Excursions range from half-day walks for families to overnight circuits for campers or backpackers and many of them are suitable for ski-touring or snowshoeing. For each, you will find: easy-to-follow directions to the trailhead; walking distances; vertical rise; landmarks; estimated hiking time; and a topographical trail map.

The world celebrated with the development of Artificial Intelligence in the middle of the twenty-first century and established a robot singularity. In order to create an elite standard of living, most jobs were replaces with these robots. After the discovery that the uncountable could not be coerced, the armies of robots that inhabited every part of the workforce were recalled and replaced by a robot force that was tethered by a single computer run by the central government. The Agency that once protected the nation from malicious foreign influences was turned inward and trained to hunt and eliminate the members of the robot singularity.

Many years later, enthralled in a government conspiracy to destabilize the sovereign nations of the Americas in order to create a world government, a lone robot disappears with a dangerous antigen stolen from a government laboratory. Believing that the robot had been hacked by a terrorist group, the Agency was brought in to find it. Unable to locate the robot, the agency must hire Bob Sags, a retired agent turned person finder, to track down and eliminate the wayward robot. During his investigation when things do not add up, Bob is declared an enemy of the state and becomes hunted. It becomes a race against time when Bob realizes that the only way to clear his name is to find the robot before the Agency does.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Books for a Better Life Award, and one of The New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2012, this masterpiece by the National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon features stories of parents who not only learn to deal with their exceptional children, but also find profound meaning in doing so--"a brave, beautiful book that will expand your humanity" (People).

Solomon's startling proposition in Far from the Tree is that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition--that difference is what unites us. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.

All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent should parents accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on ten years of research and interviews with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges.

Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original and compassionate thinker, Far from the Tree explores how people who love each other must struggle to accept each other--a theme in every family's life.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Richard Feynman: physicist . . . Nobel winner . . . bestselling author . . . safe-cracker.

In this substantial graphic novel biography, First Second presents the larger-than-life exploits of Nobel-winning quantum physicist, adventurer, musician, world-class raconteur, and one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: Richard Feynman. Written by nonfiction comics mainstay Jim Ottaviani and brilliantly illustrated by First Second author Leland Myrick, Feynman tells the story of the great man's life from his childhood in Long Island to his work on the Manhattan Project and the Challenger disaster. Ottaviani tackles the bad with the good, leaving the reader delighted by Feynman's exuberant life and staggered at the loss humanity suffered with his death.

Anyone who ever wanted to know more about Richard P. Feynman, quantum electrodynamics, the fine art of the bongo drums, the outrageously obscure nation of Tuva, or the development and popularization of the field of physics in the United States need look no further than this rich and joyful work.

One of School Library Journal's Best Adult Books 4 Teens titles of 2011
One of Horn Book's Best Nonfiction Books of 2011