Rocky Boyer’s War: An Unvarnished History of the Air Blitz That Won the War in the Southwest Pacific by Allen D. Boyer (Law ’82)

The author weaves military history with personal reflections from the contraband journal of his father, a young airman in World War II, in this book that illuminates the individual realities of men on the ground to reveal a fuller history of the war.

The Living Forest: A Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods by Joan Maloof and Robert Llewellyn (Engr ’69)

Llewellyn’s stunning photos illustrate the stories told by a deciduous forest and articulated by Maloof. To convey the diversity of activity in one place, the book explores the complexity of the forest at many angles from the ground up. (See some of his photos in this issue’s article “The Magical Lure of Our Towering Trees”)

Poetry for Kids: William Shakespeareedited by Marguerite Tassi (Grad ’89)

Unique illustrations bring the work of Shakespeare to life in this children’s introduction to the Bard. Tassi’s curated collection, complete with definitions and commentary, takes younger ones on a journey through the poet’s “seven ages of man” by way of some of his most well-known verses.

Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century by James Loeffler (Faculty)

Loeffler explores the histories and work of five post-World War II Jewish activists. In so doing, he makes previously unstudied connections between the rise of Israel and the beginning of the human rights movement and examines the impact of this history on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Blood Highway by Gina Wohlsdorf (Grad ’13)

Seventeen-year-old Rainy Cain is kidnapped by her father, an escaped prisoner who expects her to lead him to a pile of money. With a cop close behind, a cross-country adventure ensues, and Rainy must determine what she is willing to do to survive.

Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecologyby Deirdre Cooper Owens (Fellow)

Owens looks back at the early experiments of gynecology and examines how the treatment of enslaved black women—and, later, Irish immigrant women—helped normalize views of race, gender, status and class that persist in the field today.