MIXED MEDIA

OUR BOOKS AND CREATIVE Milestones BY KARA PETERS

Creative Voice

Murder à La Carte

In the late 1980s, Katherine Hall Page, G74, was in France during her husband’s sabbatical, and she thought it would be fun to conjure her inner Agatha Christie. She wrote The Body in the Belfry on an old Underwood typewriter, and the caterer-sleuth Faith Fairchild was born. Her latest book, The Body in the Birches (William Morrow), is her twenty-second Faith Fairchild mystery. She spoke with us about how she keeps Faith fresh after all these years.

“I made Faith Fairchild a caterer because I’ve always liked the pairing of food with crime. Dorothy Sayers did it with Lord Peter Wimsey, who was an expert on fine food and wine. Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone is defined by the fact that she lives on peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Food communicates details about a character, and what you serve people communicates what you think about them. And then you can always poison the food, so that works out quite nicely!

I do a lot of research about the various ways people can be killed. I found out that if you push someone into the pool that feeds the snowmaking apparatus, they’ll get shot out into the snow with such force that it kills them. I used that one in The Body in the Snowdrift. I meet a lot of people who are eager to share foolproof ways to kill people. Once a sweet old lady informed me that you can kill someone with a quilt if you poison the needle that it’s made with.

The classic ‘guy in the trench coat’ mysteries were very plot driven, but today’s readers really want a full character. Faith Fairchild has really changed a lot over the series. She’s grown up, had children, lost friends, and generally become a nicer, mellower person as well as a better sleuth. There’s a danger with long-running series of having your character become too formulaic, so that’s something I’ve been paying a lot of attention to. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to grow with Faith, and I still have more to write. I’m not done with her yet!”

Books

The Rise and Fall of Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories

This monograph by Edward E. Altshuler, G54, provides a chronological account of how a lab that evolved from the MIT Radiation Laboratory and the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory rose to become one of the premier research facilities in the post–World War II world.

Blue Chip Kids (Wiley)

Convinced that schools aren’t doing enough to teach financial skills, David W. Bianchi, A76, a lawyer and investor with a degree in economics, wrote this entertaining and accessible guide to money and the stock market, complete with fun cartoon illustrations. Bianchi doesn’t hold anything back, though: there are sections on calculating P/E ratios, saving for retirement, and the Euro. Neophyte investors of all ages will benefit from Bianchi’s incisive examples.

Mark Twain Vs. Lawyers, Lawmakers, and Lawbreakers (William S. Hein & Co.)

Kenneth Bresler, A79, compiled this carefully researched and footnoted anthology of Mark Twain’s humorous sketches and quotations about law and lawyers and government and politics.

Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice Professionals and Students (Charles Thomas)

This plain-English textbook, also by Bresler, takes a conversational approach to exploring the intersection of the U.S. Constitution and the criminal justice system.

Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies (University of Pennsylvania)

Edited by Rebecca J. Cook, G72, Joanna N. Erdman, and Bernard M. Dickens, this collection serves as a comprehensive guide to abortion law throughout the world, including key judicial decisions, constitutional texts, and regulatory reforms.

The Little Magazine in Contemporary America (University of Chicago)

Ian Morris and Joanne Diaz, J94, present the reflections of twenty-three prominent editors whose small literary magazines have helped launch the careers of successful authors over the past several decades. Those profiled include Betsy Sussler of Bomb, Don Share of Poetry, and Dave Eggers of McSweeney’s.

The Next Breath: New Life After Near Death

One morning Joseph Fisher, G77, was walking on the beach when a massive pulmonary embolism brought him to the brink of death. His memoir traces his journey back and examines the new life he constructed as a result.

Ruling Capital (Cornell)

Kevin Gallagher, G99, G03, combines econometric analysis with in-depth interviews to demonstrate how, in the wake of the global financial crisis, emerging market countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China in particular—are seeking new methods of international trade payments that circumvent the U.S. dollar.

Supernatural, Humanity, and the Soul (Palgrave)

The television drama Supernatural delves into social, philosophical, literary, and theological themes that deepen the show’s plot and speak to contemporary intellectual concerns. Susan A. George and Regina M. Hansen, J87, edited this collection of essays that analyze how the series represents humanity, the soul, and will, as well as issues related to gender, capitalism, postmodernism, and our post-9/11 anxieties.

So There, Stupid World

Elizabeth Chapman Hewitt, G68, G75, has written a warm, funny memoir of her early life. With rich detail and a winsome voice, she evokes the stark reversal of fortune that catapulted her family from wealth in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, to relative poverty in Cincinnati during the Great Depression.

Beholden: Religion, Global Health, and Human Rights (Oxford)

All major world religions talk about serving the poor and the sick, and the poor and the sick often turn to religion for help dealing with health crises. Yet faith-based global health efforts often clash with initiatives that take a more secular human-rights or social-justice approach. A scholar in religion, public health, and the history of medicine, Susan R. Holman, N83, cultivates a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates public health and public faith. In vivid detail, she ranges from Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Buddhist pilgrimage texts to the relationship between civic duty and religious identity in nineteenth-century health care to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the work of the African Religious Health Assets Program, all while encouraging readers to think critically about the “creative dynamics of interdependence.”

Reconstructing the World Trade Organization for the Twenty-First Century (Oxford)

Kent Jones, F79, examines the difficulties of the WTO in completing multilateral trade negotiations and outlines the necessary institutional reforms that will help restore its ability to do so.

The Choreographic (MIT)

Invoking a variety of postmodern artists and theorists, Jenn Joy, J97, BFA97, examines dance and choreography through the lenses of philosophy and critical theory.

Marvin Gilmore: Crusader for Freedom

The grandson of slaves, Marvin Gilmore was born into poverty, was decorated in World War II, and rose to become a successful entrepreneur and a leader in the civil rights movement. Paul Katzeff, A70, presents an engaging biography of the man who played a key role in helping to heal Boston’s racial divisions and is still committed to serving the city’s African-American community.

Agency Change: Diplomatic Action Beyond the State (Rowman and Littlefield)

John Robert Kelley, A96, argues that diplomatic relationships are increasingly driven not by institutions but by individuals competing for power. Governments, he says, must retool their diplomatic efforts by leveraging state strength to deal with nonstate actors.

The Painters’ Panorama (University Press of New England)

The Grand Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress is an eight-foot-high, eight-hundred-foot-long painting on muslin created in 1851. Enhanced by music, narration, and theatrical lighting, the canvas was scrolled in front of viewers to create the illusion of movement. Jessica Skwire Routhier, G96, and two coauthors tell the painting’s story, from its creation and descent into obscurity to its rediscovery in 1996 and restoration in 2012.

The Sage Encyclopedia of Classroom Management (Sage Publications)

A teacher’s ability to manage the classroom strongly influences students’ educational experiences, but classroom management involves more than simply controlling behavioral problems. It’s about creating learning environments that elicit the best from all students. W. George Scarlett, senior lecturer and chair, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, spent three years editing this two-volume collection featuring 320 entries—many by Tufts faculty—that cover virtually every aspect of classroom management. This long-needed resource will be a significant help to new and seasoned teachers alike and promises to expand the dialogue on this important and frequently misunderstood topic.

Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries: The Founding Fathers in the Age of Enlightenment (Palgrave)

Benjamin Franklin had his kite and Thomas Jefferson his ingenious contraptions, but the Founding Fathers’ love of science went way beyond the fun facts we learned in school. George Washington saved the Continental Army with an experimental smallpox vaccine; Thomas Paine invented smokeless candles, underwater bombs, and the first-ever iron span bridge; and the Declaration of Independence itself echoes Newton when it invokes natural law. In this well-researched account of America’s early scientific pursuits, Tom Shachtman, A63, celebrates the spirit of inquiry that animated the nation’s founders, and demonstrates that scientific and political freedom go hand in hand.

Pandora’s DNA: Tracing the Breast Cancer Genes Through History, Science, and One Family Tree (Chicago Review)

At 24, Lizzie Stark, J03, discovered that she carried a BRCA gene mutation that gave her a forty to sixty percent chance of developing the breast and ovarian cancers that claimed several generations of women in her family. She eventually made the agonizing decision to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy. Stark’s odyssey anchors her exploration of broader issues confronting those who test positive, including the range of options, the ethics of selecting eggs to prevent transmitting the gene to babies, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. She blends poignant personal details, scientific history, and top-notch reporting in this moving and informative look at the consequences of learning our genetic destinies.

Science Experiments for Beginners

Charles Logue, G61, a longtime educator, was concerned about the quality of U.S. science education—so much so that he spent three and a half years writing a book that he hopes will inspire budding scientists. Science Experiments for Beginners provides a wealth of well-designed hands-on experiments that will both enhance the curricula of science teachers and provide bored kids with productive fun at home. It includes units on eighteen different areas of science, including anatomy, chemistry, machines, heat, magnetism, and weather. Children learn to navigate the scientific method, interpret their results, and consider science fair topics.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM

The photographer Phillip Toledano, A91, has a slightly unusual way of dealing with grief. When his mother died unexpectedly in 2006, he became the caretaker for his ailing ninety-five-year-old father. Both experiences prompted him to obsess about his future, so he decided to face his fears head on. He consulted DNA tests, fortune-tellers, numerologists, and actuarial tables and concluded that he could end up obese, alcoholic, or suicidal. Over the course of three years, he donned theatrical makeup and prosthetics to immerse himself in these worrisome possibilities. He became an aging hipster, a ninety-year-old man in a wheelchair, an overweight office worker, and a stroke victim, among dozens of other “worst case scenario” characters. He captured these “Future Phils” in his new book Maybe (Dewi Lewis). Josh Seftel, A90, documented the creation of Toledano’s photographs—including the toll the project took on his family and his own psyche—in The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano, a short film screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Six students in the Institute for Global Leadership’s Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice (PNDP) partnered with six Brazilian students to create character-driven multimedia narratives about the challenges of living with hepatitis C. Last August the students spent two weeks together in Rio de Janeiro, where they worked with Samuel James, A10, a PNDP instructor who is an award-winning photojournalist, and the Brazilian photojournalist Marizilda Cruppe. The project, funded by the Health Media Initiative of the Open Society Foundations, is meant to raise awareness of the “silent epidemic.” See movingly captured stories, photos, and videos at the-silent-epidemic.com.

MUSIC

The jazz virtuoso Roberta Piket, J88, recently released Emanation (Thirteenth Note Records), her second solo piano recording. The tracks range from free improvisation to reinventions of jazz classics. Highlights include a reimagining of Chopin’s Prelude No. 2 in A Minor and Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma.” Piket is lauded for her elegant and expressive touch and the extraordinary emotional intensity of her work. Listen at bit.ly/emanations_cd.

STAGE

Since leaving medical practice, Steven Somkin, M68, has written nine full-length and four one-act plays. His newest stage work, Melissa’s Choice, ran for three weeks in May at the Lion Theatre in Manhattan. The humor-infused drama is set in a national forest in Oregon and features a lawyer who is passionate about women’s rights, the environment, population control, and two men. An accidental pregnancy saddles her with a difficult dilemma. The play takes a strong stand for women’s reproductive rights while exploring how our personal decisions affect our environment.