Jennifer Freed Publishes Debut Poetry Collection

From today's Boston Globe:

 

Debut poetry collection

In her moving and powerful debut collection, “When Light Shifts: A Memoir in Poems” (Kelsay), Jennifer L. Freed writes of her mother’s cerebral hemorrhage and its aftermath. She captures the surreality of the world continuing to spin in the midst of crisis. Her mother has a stroke on the driveway, as “The chipmunks raced on round the junipers. / The sun went on bleaching the clapboards.” A matter-of-factness speaks to the gravity of the moment: sometimes facts are all we can express. Freed’s poems are precise, but never unfeeling, and she is alert to the moments when words won’t take us where we need to go. These poems operate in the deepest wells of experience: fear and frustration and love and pain. “If I can name what I miss, / will I know where to look — / how to find it in her?”

Here website is here:  https://jfreed.weebly.com/

Here is Jennifer's bio:

Jennifer L. Freed is the author of When Light Shifts (Kelsay, 2022), based on the aftermath of her mother's stroke, and of a chapbook, These Hands Still Holding, a finalist in the 2013 New Women's Voices Competition (Finishing Line Press, 2014).  She was awarded the 2020 Samuel Washington Allen Prize for a long poem or poem-sequence (New England Poetry Club), has been a finalist for the Frank O'Hara prize multiple times, and has received multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Orison Anthology.  She writes and teaches in Massachusetts.

Less recently, Jennifer Freed's non-fiction describing her experiences as an English language teacher in Sichuan, China, was published in The Yale-China Review, and, in Chinese translation, in Cultural Meetings: American Writers, Scholars, and Artists in China (Guangxi Normal University Press).  

Her articles about life in Prague in the 1990s, shortly after the fall of the communist government, appeared in the travel section of The Boston Globe.  

Doris Iarorvici -- new podcast episode

Doris Iarovici has had such a rich and considered life.  Doris brought her experience as an immigrant to Yale, and has emerged as a thoughtful and compassionate artist and doctor.  Listen in as she shares her experiences and what it is like to have Minnie Driver play her in an adaptation of Doris' life story.

Check out Doris' website: www.dorisiarovici.com.  There, you'll learn about her newest book, Minus One.  

Here is Doris' bio:  Doris Iarovici grew up in New York City after arriving there at age 5 from Romania. She began writing shortly thereafter, and first published poetry and essays in Seventeen Magazine as a teenager. A graduate of Yale College and the Yale University School of Medicine, she has since divided her time between writing and medicine, and has published both fiction and non-fiction.

Her newest book, Minus One, was released in November 2020 and can be ordered below, or through your favorite bookstore.

She has been awarded writing fellowships from the Djerassi Resident Artists' Program in California, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Virginia, Hambidge Center in Georgia, and the North Carolina Arts Council.

She works as a psychiatrist at Harvard University, and lives in Boston.

Lan Samantha Chang -- a new podcast to discuss Sam's new novel, The Family Chao

Sam Chang is an accomplished writer who has just come out with a novel, The Family Chao.  The story of a family of immigrants and first generation children who struggle with life in a midwestern town.  In this episode, we discuss the book, its themes of belonging, assimilation, alienation and ethnicity.  

Listen by clicking here.

For more about Sam and her new book, please visit her website: https://lansamanthachang.com/

New Book by Joanne Lessner

Joanne Lessner is coming out with a new book, "Bad Publicity."  Here is a blurb:

In the world of PR, there’s only one crime worse than killing a deal—killing a client.

Aspiring actress and office temp Isobel Spice finds a warm welcome at Dove & Flight Public Relations, thanks to her old school friend Katrina Campbell. However, the atmosphere chills considerably when Isobel unwittingly serves an important client a deadly dose of poisoned coffee. Her stalwart temp agent, James Cooke, rushes to her aid, but balks when he learns that the victim was the fraternity brother who got him expelled from college. News that Dove & Flight is being acquired by an international conglomerate quickly supplants the murder as the hot topic of office gossip, but Isobel is convinced the two events are related. When all roads of inquiry lead back to Katrina, Isobel is forced to consider the possibility that her friend’s killer instincts go beyond public relations.

Click here for Joanne's Website.

Joanne Lessner's New Book is Out!

Here's a note I just received from Joanne Lessner.  Go Joanne!

Dear Friends,

I am thrilled to announce the publication of Bad Publicity, the second novel in my series featuring Isobel Spice, aspiring actress/office temp turned amateur sleuth! You don't need to have read the first book, The Temporary Detective, in order to enjoy Bad Publicity—the books are meant to stand on their own.  What's the new book about, you ask? 

In the world of PR, there’s only one crime worse than killing a deal—killing a client.

Aspiring actress and office temp Isobel Spice finds a warm welcome at Dove & Flight Public Relations, thanks to her old school friend Katrina Campbell. However, the atmosphere chills considerably when Isobel unwittingly serves an important client a deadly dose of poisoned coffee. Her stalwart temp agent, James Cooke, rushes to her aid, but balks when he learns that the victim was the fraternity brother who got him expelled from college. News that Dove & Flight is being acquired by an international conglomerate quickly supplants the murder as the hot topic of office gossip, but Isobel is convinced the two events are related. When all roads of inquiry lead back to Katrina, Isobel is forced to consider the possibility that her friend’s killer instincts go beyond public relations. 

A new edition of Tim Calkin's book is out

REVIEW: Breakthrough Marketing Plans

A review of Tim's new book:

MARKETING
Breakthrough Marketing Plans
Tim Calkins
Palgrave Macmillan, $34.95

REVIEW WILLIAM YEOMAN

This is the second edition of Tim Calkins' classic book on developing effective marketing plans.

Calkins is professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Illinois.

The subtitle says it all: "How to Stop Wasting Time and Start Driving Growth".

Based on Calkins' experiences creating and using marketing plans, as well as rigorous academic theory, the book is aimed at those writing their first marketing plan and at more experienced practitioners who need reminding of the basics.

Easy-to-follow chapters take you through key elements: planning, writing, presenting, strategic initiatives, while answering common questions and providing plenty of examples.

A new book from Tim Lytton

Tim Lytton just came out with a new book.  Here are the details:

Now Available from Amazon.com

Harvard University Press

 Kosher

Private Regulation in the Age of Industrial Food

TIMOTHY D. LYTTON

Generating over $12 billion in annual sales, kosher food is big business. It is also an unheralded story of private-sector regulation in an era of growing public concern over the government’s ability to regulate the food industry. Kosher uncovers how independent certification agencies rescued American kosher supervision from corruption and turned it into a model of nongovernmental administration.

 “Kosher is one terrific book. It’s a wonderfully entertaining account of the squabbles, finger-pointing, and cutthroat competition that turned kosher certification from scandalous corruption to a respectable—and highly profitable—business. Today, if a food is labeled kosher, it is kosher, which is more than can be said of most claims on food labels. You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate the fun in Timothy Lytton’s presentation of an unusually successful case study.”

— Marion Nestle, New York University, and author of Food Politics

In overcoming many of the problems of insufficient resources and weak enforcement that hamper the government, private kosher certification holds important lessons for improving food regulation. The growing popularity of kosher food is a response to a more general cultural anxiety about industrialization of the food supply. Like the organic and locavore movements, a growing number of consumers see rabbinic supervision as a way to personalize today’s complex, globalized system of food production.

Timothy D. Lytton is the Albert & Angela Farone Distinguished Professor of Law at Albany Law School.

 CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Claire Messud to publish new novel

A new book to look out for in May, 2013 from Claire Messud.  This from a story I saw:

Claire Messud's best-selling novel The Emperor's Children was perhaps the most distinguished of the post-9/11 books. Her new novel The Woman Upstairs will be published by Virago in May. The story is set in Massachussetts, where Messud lives. It concerns a teacher who finds salvation in the works of art which she refuses to show.

Tim Calkins -- Defending Your Brand

Here is a recent video from Tim Calkins about his latest book, Defending Your Brand.

Three recent mystery titles - Books - The Boston Globe

Paul Doiron just got a great write up in the Boston Globe.  Check it out!

Paul Doiron made a big splash with his Edgar Award-nominated first novel, “The Poacher’s Son,” which introduced Maine game warden Mike Bowditch and his extraordinary talent for tracking animals and people through the worst weather that Maine can dish up. When he’s reassigned to the eponymous “Bad Little Falls,” a remote town near the Canadian border where drug abuse, unemployment, poverty, violence, and poaching are rampant, his reputation for disregarding orders precedes him and it looks as if his career has dead-ended. To him, it’s the equivalent of “being exiled to Siberia.” 

When he’s called upon to examine the carcass of a zebra, frozen to death in a wild animal hunting park, he immediately makes a dangerous enemy of the park’s owner, a yahoo whose only concern is luring customers who will pay big bucks so they can mount animal heads over their fireplaces. Lonely and far from friends, Bowditch develops an unhealthy attachment to lovely Jamie Sewall, a former drug addict who manages a McDonald’s. Her son is troubled, and her brother and ex-boyfriend sell drugs that may have recently killed a college student. When Jamie’s ex is murdered, Bowditch struggles to rein in his need to protect her. 

The story has a strong sense of place and makes palpable the raw power that weather and water can wield. The plot is driven by the elusive possibility that this time Bowditch can redeem his career while saving Jamie and her son. Shelve this book beside the works of Steve Hamilton and William Kent Kruger, stories of strong but not macho men living in godforsaken places, bruised by past relationships, and trying to get it right this time.

Three recent mystery titles - Books - The Boston Globe

Bronwen Hruska's Video Highlights Issue That Drove Her to Write Her Novel -- Wow

Take a few minutes to watch this.  Very moving.  Makes you want to go out and read her book, Accelerated.  To learn more about Bronwen and her book, click here.

New Book by Bronwen Hruska

Right before Reunion, I learned that Bronwen Hruska is about to publish a new book.  I added to the magical "wheel of books" on the right hand side.  Here is a little bit more information about the book:

“Bronwen Hruska's Accelerated is a smart, sexy thriller balanced on top of a real-life horror story: the irresponsible over-medication of our children by our schools." (Madison Smartt Bell, author of The Color of Night)

“A fast-paced, crystal-clear, and funny exploration of a subject that, thanks to Hruska, can finally be openly talked about. A kind of Kramer v. Kramer meets Erin Brokovich in a dark dystopia with baby pharmaceuticals packed in lunch boxes set in the most treacherous world there is: New York City private schools.” (Jennifer Belle, author of High Maintenance and The Seven Year Bitch )

A single dad and his son discover what lies beneath the gilded facade of a tony Upper East Side private school—an endemic of over-medicated children 

            Every afternoon Sean Benning picks up his son, Toby, on the marble steps that lead into the prestigious Bradley School.  Everything at Bradley is accelerated-3^rd graders read at the 6^th grade level, they have labs and facilities to rival most universities, and the chess champions are the bullies. A single dad and struggling artist, Sean sticks out like a sore thumb among the power-soccer-mom cliques and ladies-who-lunch that congregate on the steps every afternoon.  But at least Toby is thriving and getting the best education money can buy.  Or is he?

            When Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication for ADD, something smells fishy, and it isn't the caviar that was served at last week's PTA meeting. Toby's "issues" in school seem, to Sean, to be nothing more than normal behavior for an eight-year-old boy. But maybe Sean just isn't seeing things clearly, which has been harder and harder to do since Toby's new teacher, Jess, started at Bradley. And the school has Toby's best interests at heart, right? But what happens when the pressure to not just keep up, but to exceed, takes hold? When things take a tragic turn, Sean realizes that the price of this accelerated life is higher than he could have ever imagined. 

Bronwen Hruska, the publisher of Soho Press, has worked as a journalist and screenwriter for twenty years. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, More Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, the Village Voice, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has sold an original screenplay to Columbia Pictures and original television pilots to NBC, CBS, Lifetime, and Sony television. She lives in Manhattan with her two sons. Accelerated is her first novel. It will be published by Pegasus Books October 2012.

Parenting Guru: When kids “catch” stress

David Code was at reunion and a lot of people were talking about his latest book.  Click below to read an interview David gave recently.

David Code, Episcopal minister, father of two and author of Kids Pick Up on Everything: How Parental Stress is Toxic to Kids, explains why when it comes to children’s health, the real toxin is your tension, because kids pick up on the "vibe" you give off.

Parenting Guru: When kids “catch” stress

News from David Pollay

Here is a note I received from David Pollay: Hi Tim!  Thanks for all your doing.  Here's a short update from Florida!  The Law of the Garbage Truck book has now been translated into 12 languages.  I head to Spain next week to speak at a conference, and then promote the Spanish language edition.  We're hoping to travel Asia to support the Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese editions. And this is pretty cool.  Dawn and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary with Peter Frampton!  Peter is a fan of The Law of the Garbage Truck, and he invited us backstage after the concert.  He's a great guy, his band is cool, and his team is gracious.  And Joel Osteen wrote about The Law of the Garbage Truck book in his new book, Every Day a Friday.  We're excited because our mission is to increase happiness, success, and civility in the world.  While my main work is speaking to corporations and associations, I have been speaking more frequently in schools (The Law applied to anti-bullying and character development), churches, and I even spoke to inmates at a maximum security prison recently. My girls, Eliana (9) and Ariela (8) are doing great, and I'm thrilled to be married to Dawn. We're now living in Boca Raton, Florida.  All is good, and we're grateful. Thanks, Tim.  I hope the new job is going great! All the best, David

News from Dan Kohan

Our second book from Ruka Press, Cerulean Blues, is coming out October 18, so I want to alert people to that. Anyone interested in birding, the threats to our wild songbirds, mountaintop removal coal mining, and coffee production will appreciate the book. Cerulean Blues will be highlighted in the December issue of Birdwatching magazine as one of the year's top bird books.

Dan Kohan
Sensical Design & Communication
http://sensicaldesign.com
--
Ruka Press
http://www.rukapress.com

Cerulean Blues coming October 18. Preorder now!

Amor Towles' New Book

One of my guilty pleasures is reading People Magazine. There, I admitted it. No more secret shame.

As I was flipping through this week's issue, I saw that our classmate Amor Towles gets a great shout out for his new book, Rules of Civility:

Put on some Billie Holiday, pour a dry martini and immerse yourself in the eventful life of Katey Kontent, a smart young woman trying to find herself in Manhattan in the late 1930s. Though Katey's not to the manor born, her wit and intellect open doors all over the city, from Upper East Side society soirees to funky downtown jazz clubs. When she and her friend Eve Ross, a beautiful, nervy party girl from Indiana, meet suave bachelor Tinker Grey, life hits a high note-for a while. (Despite his royal-blue eyes, Tinker is a gentleman with some twists in his pedigree.) Yet his relationship with Katey ultimately shapes both their fates. First-time novelist Towles, a principal in a New York City investment firm and a graduate of both Yale and Stanford, clearly knows the privileged world he's writing about, as well as the vivid, sometimes reckless characters who inhabit it. Reading about Katey and her fast friends shaking off the Great Depression in pre-World War II Manhattan-a city "so improbable, so wonderful, so obviously full of promise"-you'll find yourself feeling nostalgic no matter how old you are.


It turns out that Oprah loved the book, too. Click here to read the Oprah.com review.

Review: Paul Doiron’s `Trespasser' filled with twists and turns

Classmate Paul Doiron is coming out with his second novel, Trespasser.  I really enjoyed Paul’s first novel, so I am excited to read the new one.  Luckily, others are excited, too – as Paul’s book is receiving great reviews.  Click below for one of them.

Well, done, Paul!

Review: `Trespasser' filled with twists and turns