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More On the Wall
If you could see them now
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Her
eyes cast down and her hair cropped short in contrast to the traditional
style, she stands as a symbol of a country at a crossroads, a
Vietnam that is opening up to Western economic ideas and influence.
"I see in her the hope of the future," says Jim Gensheimer,
MSVC '99. "Pain and Grace, A Journey Through Vietnam,"
featuring photographs by Gensheimer and essays by Kristen Huckhorn
and Mark McDonald ($29.95, hardback, San Jose Mercury News),
is a collection of photographs taken while Gensheimer was on assignment
for the San Jose Mercury News. "With photojournalism,
so often we are trying to make a point or answer a question,"
he says. "But every time I went there to unravel the mystery,
the more intrigued I became." The book conveys the traditional
life of Vietnam as well as the increased influence of Western
life and the effects of Agent Orange. The text is written in both
English and Vietnamese.
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"A
Trail of Innocents" by Michael Swiger, BBA '97, whose
pen name is Michael Andrew ($17.95, paperback, American House).
A brutal crime and the relentless pursuit of a conviction lead
Lori Franks and defense attorney Danial Solomon into a whirlwind
of conspiracy and dark secrets. Suspense, intrigue and sensitive
topics punctuate this murder mystery, which is set in Ohio. "I
wanted to write about real people with real problems, and for
me that meant dealing with some controversial issues," Andrew
says. "Sure, I like to entertain people, but I'd rather make
them think."
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"Prince
Estabrook: Slave and Soldier" by Alice Hinkle, AB '59
($19.95, paperback, Pleasant Mountain Press).
While
doing an interview for a Patriot's Day newspaper article, Hinkle
stumbled upon an extraordinary figure: Prince Estabrook, the first
black soldier of the Revolutionary War. "I thought I knew
a lot about the Revolution, yet I had never heard about a black
man serving in it," Hinkle says. Intrigued by her discovery,
Hinkle wanted to know more about Estabrook, a slave who joined
the Lexington Militia Company (the first to engage the Redcoats)
in 1773. Hinkle examined war records and drew from the insight
of modern-day Lexington Minuteman Charles H. Price Jr., who portrays
Estabrook in re-enactments, for this historical account of Estabrook's
experience in the war. The book includes information on other
black patriots and Massachusetts' Black Patriots' Trail.
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"Mommy
Poems" compiled by John Micklos Jr., BSJ '78, and illustrated
by Lori McElrath-Eslick ($15.95, hardback, Boyds Mills Press).
Micklos
is a strong believer that one of the most important ways parents
can help their children develop effective reading skills is by
reading with them on a regular basis, so he set out to write children's
poetry books. His latest, "Mommy Poems," celebrates
the love and laughter that mothers and children share. The book
includes original poems by Micklos as well as those by such noted
poets as Lee Bennett Hopkins and Nikki Giovanni.
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"The
Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Era" by Walter
Brasch, PHD '74 ($35, hardback, Mercer University Press).
Clinton
left office with one of the highest approval ratings any president
ever earned for his work and one of the lowest ever recorded for
personal moral conduct. Brasch examines one of the nation's most
dynamic and effective presidents and looks at what happened in
and to America during the eight years he was in office.
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Mom's
true confessions Come Mother's Day, most of us are busy making
Mom breakfast in bed or picking up flowers. Or we find ourselves
on the receiving end of such gestures. But things were different
in the Brown home last year.
That
was the day Patricia Brown, BSHS '73, released her first book,
"Momma Culpa" ($15, journal, Columbus Alive),
an only half-joking apology to her 23-year-old son, Wynn, for
her years of parenting faux pas. "You forget the 75 million
things you've done right and remember the 80 things you did wrong,"
she says. "I figure Wynn can save millions of dollars in
psychotherapy bills. He can walk in, hand them this and they can
tell him he is perfectly sane!"
Brown
extends apologies for the decisions she and husband Steve made
that hampered Wynn's teen social life and for the white lies they
told him as a tot. No, shots do not feel like mosquito bites,
she now admits.
The
book, intended to be given by mothers to their kids, features
tips and extra space for moms to jot down their own mistakes.
"I think it's good for high school- or college-age students
to read," she says. "It gives them a sense of humor
about their parents."
So
what does Wynn think of the journal? "At first I was mortified,"
he says. "But now I can look at it and laugh. It's no big
deal."
But
it was a big deal when the University of Toledo football team
got a hold of it. Wynn, a senior at Toledo, is an equipment manager
for the team, whose members got a charge out of pictures like
the one of Wynn holding Styrofoam cups over his ears.
Wynn passes off his parents' endless stories about his childhood with a shrug of his shoulders, though a hint of crimson comes to his cheeks when Mom and Dad start to get a little too personal. "They're crazy, I'm telling you," he kids.
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| Katie Fitzgerald |
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