The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future
Elizabeth C. Economy, MA '85
Cornell U. Press, 2004
$29.95

China's breakneck economic development has taken a heavy toll on natural resources and brought devastating air and water pollution in its wake. The author, director of Asian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, assesses the damage and the prospects for improvement, weighing the country’s growing grass-roots environmental efforts and its participation in international affairs against Beijing’s wariness of foreign influences and domestic activism—and China’s irrepressible growth.

Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion
Paul Grushkin, '74 and Dennis King
Chronicle Books, 2004
$29.05

This large-format book’s 1,800 rock-concert posters represent a staggering variety of styles and colors, and demonstrate that the genre is enjoying a golden age. Tracing the parallel histories of rock music and art, the authors note that posters are no longer a major advertising vehicle; rather, they fill a gap created as perfunctory CD packaging supplanted more creative LP sleeves.

Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown
James C. Mohr, MA '66, PhD '69
Oxford U. Press, 2004
$30

Faced with an outbreak of bubonic plague in late 1899, Hawaii’s health officials authorized the controlled burning of affected sites. But one fire blazed out of control, virtually leveling Chinatown and leaving 5,000 homeless. Mohr, a University of Oregon history professor, describes the political and cultural factors that complicated an already dire situation.

Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a Time
David Johnston and Kim Master, '02, MA ’02
New Society Publishers, 2004
$29.95

Pollution and resource depletion are global problems, but solutions can begin at home, the authors assert. Americans spend $160 billion annually on remodeling, and if a fraction of home improvement projects used eco-friendly materials and processes, it would make a difference. This book is a comprehensive guide on how to make a home green.

The Virgin
Erik Barmack, MBA '01
St. Martin's Griffin, 2005
$12.95

A send-up of reality TV that doesn’t seem altogether far-fetched, this novel has 20 men competing for the virginity of one beautiful blonde. As the protagonist, a deceitful suitor, confronts scheming producers, catty competitors and a bikini-clad woman in a hotel-lobby fish tank, it becomes clear that everyone has a few secrets—including, of course, the Virgin herself.

Black Trials: Citizenship from the Beginnings of Slavery to the End of Caste
Mark S. Weiner, '89
Alfred A. Knopf, 2004
$26.95

This book grew out of a seminar the author, a Rutgers law professor, taught at Stanford Law School seven years ago. In a literary style, he probes the impact of 14 legal cases on American concepts of race and equality. The episodes range from long-forgotten 18th-century trials to the Senate confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas.

Charles M. Russell: The Storyteller's Art
Raphael James Cristy, '69
U. of New Mexico Press, 2004
$45

Russell grew up wealthy in St. Louis, but in 1880 the 16-year-old left to become a cowboy in Montana. He gained renown for his sketches and paintings of the Old West, and as a storyteller around campfires and in print. In this well-illustrated biography, Cristy—who widely performs “Charlie Russell’s Yarns”—focuses on Russell’s witty writings on the West as it really was.

Edited to Death
Linda Lee Peterson, '71
21st Century Publishing, 2005
$23

Smart-alecky Maggie Fiori just can’t stop herself from playing Nancy Drew when her magazine-editor boss and former lover is murdered. The trouble is, the perpetrator is closer than she thinks and won’t stop at menacing her kids, cutting her brake cable or threatening her life to keep her off his trail. The Bay Area is the backdrop for this debut mystery.

Top Down: Why Hierarchies Are Here to Stay and How to Manage Them More Effectively
Harold J. Leavitt,
Harvard Business School Press, 2004
$29.95

The author, an emeritus professor at the Business School, dismisses contemporary wisdom that says top-down management is on the way out. For all their ills, he argues, hierarchies help get things done. He offers practical advice on making corporate structures more tolerable for employees and managers at all levels.