Spartan Bookshelf
Photo: Muhamed Causevic, ’15 Graphic Design
“Decorative” plus
In Forget Me Not—The Rise of the British Literary Annual, 1823-1835 (Ohio University Press, 2015), Associate Professor Katherine Harris, Department of English and Comparative Literature, examines the origin and popularity of the literary annual. Initially published in small, decorative volumes, literary annuals thrived in the 1820s, sold briskly during each holiday season and were accused of inspiring an “unmasculine and unbawdy age.” Dr. Harris’s research specialties also include textuality and digital humanities.
Froggy knows best
Froggy’s Birthday Wish (Viking Books for Young Readers, 2015) is the 25th book in an immensely popular children’s book series by alumnus Jonathan London, ’69 BA, ’70 MA, Social Science. London began publishing the Froggy series, inspired by stories he shared with his two young sons, in 1992. His first title in the series, Froggy Gets Dressed, made the New York Public Library’s “100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know” list. To date, he has published more than 100 picture books for children.
The itch to wander
The stories in Steinbeck Fellow Charles McLeod’s new collection, Settlers of Unassigned Lands (University of Michigan Press, 2015), range in locale from the Midwest to California and feature characters estranged from their beginnings. Author Jillian Weise calls the collection “supremely innovative, prescient and cruel.” McLeod is also the author of a novel, American Weather, and an earlier short fiction collection, National Treasures.
Gigantic kelp
Professor Emeritus Mike Foster, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, co-authored The Biology and Ecology of Giant Kelp Forests (University of California Press, 2015), a scholarly review and synthesis of research devoted to Macrocystis, the largest of seaweeds as well as the fastest growing plant found on earth. Notes the publisher: “This volume promises to be the definitive treatise and reference on giant kelp and its forests for many years, and it will appeal to marine scientists and others who want a better appreciation and understanding of these wondrous forests of the sea.”
