Ralph Ellison: A Biography
Arnold Rampersad
Alfred A. Knopf
$35

Ellison’s 1952 novel about black identity, Invisible Man, won the National Book Award and established him as a notable American writer, but his cultural influence outweighed his subsequent literary output. English and humanities professor Rampersad is the first scholar to gain full access to Ellison’s papers. The result is an exhaustive account of a complex figure. Arriving in New York in the 1930s, Ellison found friends and his first writing job through the Communist Party. His ultimate allegiance, however, was to sophisticated Western culture, putting him at odds with many black activists.

The Elephant’s Secret Sense: The Hidden Life of the Wild Herds of Africa
Caitlin O’Connell
Free Press
$24

By meticulously observing a family of elephants in the wild, with the hope of developing new ways to keep them from destroying Namibian crops, O’Connell made a startling discovery: the pachyderms can communicate seismically—listening to one another through their feet. O’Connell, a research associate at the Medical Center, has become a leader in sub-Saharan efforts to reconcile human population growth and elephant conservation.

Practicing: A Musician’s Return to Music
Glenn Kurtz, MA ’89, PhD ’94
Alfred A. Knopf
$23

A classical guitar prodigy, Kurtz was utterly devoted to music, but he recognized, at age 25, that he did not have the talent or temperament to be the next Segovia. Years later he returns to the guitar and to meticulous practicing, aiming not at a career, but at a sustaining spiritual experience. This book’s lovely essays also contain lots of lyrical appreciation for guitar history and Eastern Europe.

Twice as Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power
Marcus Mabry, ’89, MA ’89
Rodale Press
$27.50

“One of the secrets to the spectacular rise of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is that every boss she has ever worked for was convinced that she shared his world view,” writes Mabry. The chief of correspondents and senior editor for Newsweek chronicles the life so far of the former Stanford provost—from her days as a serious piano student to her role in the Iraq war.

Domestic Violence
Eavan Boland
W.W. Norton
$23.95

Many poems in this sixth collection by Boland, director of the creative writing program, deal with what lies beneath the surface, the contrasts between exteriors and interiors. Irish history and the discounting of domestic experience are her two great subjects, and when she focuses on something mundane—a blue china plate, a candlewick bedspread—she often sees larger subjects like patriarchy, injustice or grief.

The Lost Diary of Don Juan
Douglas Carlton Abrams, ’89
Atria Books
$25

In this retelling of the story of the world’s great libertine, Don Juan—raised in a convent and employed as a spy—seduces because he just wants girls to experience fun. Abrams, who’s previously written nonfiction about sexuality and spirituality, writes a swashbuckling thriller about two love triangles during the Spanish Inquisition.

Russian War Films: On the Cinema Front, 1914-2005
Denise J. Youngblood, MA ’75, PhD ’80
University Press of Kansas
$34.95

A history professor at the University of Vermont, Youngblood offers the timeline and a historical analysis of a cinematic tradition under a repressive government. Surveying 160 fiction films, Youngblood shows how their humanistic messages subverted official militarism.

East Wind Melts the Ice: A Memoir Through the Seasons
Liza Dalby, MA ’74, PhD ’78
U. of California Press
$24.95

The Japanese regard the natural world’s changes so attentively that even vending-machine drinks change with the seasons, anthropologist Dalby notes. This memoir-cum-almanac is structured around 72 five-day periods—times such as “crickets come into the walls” (July 11-15) and “rice ripens” (August 31-September 4).

Henry Kissinger and the American Century
Jeremi Suri, ’94
Harvard U. Press
$27.95

Drawing on worldwide research and interviews with Kissinger, Suri, an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, weaves a portrait of a titan of diplomacy. Tracing Kissinger’s path from growing up Jewish in the Bavarian town of Fürth to enlistment in the U.S. Army, Harvard and government service, the author concludes that the former secretary of state’s foreign policy was “imperfect but practical.”