Just in time for holiday gift giving, the latest offering from Ohio University Press features a compact disc of musical recordings by African musicians. "Intonations: A Social History of Music and Nation in Luanda, Angola, from 1945 to Recent Times," by Marissa J. Moorman, showcases 14 recordings of popular songs from the period.

In her study, Moorman shows musical performances during Angola's late colonial period helped define a national identity and frame a vision of political independence. Popular songs, Moorman suggests, were perhaps more galvanizing among the people, particularly the urban poor, than were overt political efforts.

In addition to "Intonations," the press also offers another publication with supplemental music for the aficionado on your gift list. "Power Play: Wayang Golek Puppet Theater of West Java," by Andrew N. Weintraub, also includes a CD of musical performances.

For more information on "Intonations," including downloadable songs, visit www.ohioswallow.com/book/Intonations

Other recent Ohio University Press titles:

• "The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896–1939," by Sheila Skaff. The first comprehensive history of the country's film industry before World War II reveals the complex relationship between nationhood, national language, and national cinema.
  www.ohioswallow.com/book/The+Law+of+the+Looking+Glass
  
  
  
• "Heretical Hellenism: Women Writers, Ancient Greece, and the Victorian Popular Imagination," by Shanyn Fiske. Fiske uncovers the many ways that Victorian era women acquired knowledge of Greek literature, history, and philosophy without formal classical training.
  www.ohioswallow.com/book/Heretical+Hellenism
  
  
  
• "Madness in Buenos Aires: Patients, Psychiatrists, and the Argentine State, 1880–1983,"  by Jonathan Ablard. Examines the interactions between psychiatrists, patients and their families, and the national state in modern Argentina.
  www.ohioswallow.com/book/Madness+in+Buenos+Aires
  
  
  
• "The Complete Works of Robert Browning, Volume XI," edited by Michael Bright. This is the 11th of 17 projected titles collecting all of Browning's works in chronological order.
  www.ohioswallow.com/book/The+Complete+Works+of+
  Robert+Browning%2C+Volume+XI
  

Other Ohio University Press notes:

In other news, a poem by Hollis Summers Poetry Prize winner Joshua Mehigan appeared in the Nov. 4 post-election edition of The New York Times. The poem, "The Polling Place," was one of five selected for the Times' Election Day Op-Ed section. Other poems were by John Ashbery, Mary Jo Bang, August Kleinzahler, and J. D. McClatchy.

Also in November, "Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946–1958," by Elizabeth Schmidt, won the African Politics Group's Best Book Award.

In recent weeks, Ohio University Press titles have been reviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, West Virginia History, Journal of British Studies, Englewood Review of Books, Appalachian Journal, Asian Ethnology, Journal of Global History, Aethiopica, H-Appalachia, Missiology, Akron Beacon Journal, CHOICE, The Ethicurean blog, York News-Times, Year's Work in English Studies, NOBS Newsletter, The Weekender (South Africa) and African Studies Review.