Spartan Bookshelf
Deceit and Other Possibilities by Vanessa Hua
Navigating America
O, The Oprah Magazine called 2013–2014 Steinbeck Fellow Vanessa Hua’s collection of short fiction, Deceit and Other Possibilities (Willow Publishing, 2016), a “searing debut” and the San José Mercury News dubbed Hua a “writer to watch.” Hua’s portrayal of the immigrant experience in a “new America” is “exactly what we need to be reading right now and probably always,” reported Bustle, including Hua’s book in the magazine’s list of the “Best Literary Debuts By Women in the Last Five Years.” “O’Neal does poetry, music and visual art,” Cox says. “She also runs a community center to provide services to orphans in Tanzania. I take pride in bringing an event to campus that celebrates not just the black community, but our entire community—and to bring perspectives to students that they otherwise wouldn’t have.”
Columbus Radio by Mike Adams
Radio, Radio
In his newest book, Columbus Radio (Arcadia Publishing, 2016), Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre Professor Emeritus Mike Adams investigates how radio got its start in his Ohio hometown and credits “two professors and a preacher” as the city’s radio pioneers. “It’s my mission to write stuff about radio, and there’s a certain ‘gee whiz’ about 1920s radio,” Adams told the Columbus Dispatch. “Radio became the first social media.” Adams’s previous broadcast history research has been recognized with the AWA Houck Award, the RCA Ralph Batcher Award and the TCA Stokes Award.
Negotiating Socialism in Rural China by Xiaojia Hou
China’s Road to Collectivization
Department of History Assistant Professor Xiaojia Hou’s Negotiating Socialism in Rural China: Mao, Peasants and Local Cadres in Shanxi 1949–1953 (Cornell University Press, 2016) explores the Chinese Communist Party’s launch of agricultural collectivization, the Utopian Commune Movement and the devastating famine that followed. The first monograph in English on the beginnings of China’s agricultural collectivization, Hou’s text challenges the conventional wisdom that Mao Zedong was solely responsible for the national policy, arguing that complex interactions between the peasants and local and regional bureaucracies spurred collectivization.
How to be a Working Actor by Mari Lyn Henry & Lynne Rogers
How to Succeed in Show Biz
How To Be A Working Actor, co-authored by teacher, career coach, Henry Downey Talent Management partner and SJSU alumna Mari Lyn Henry, ’66 Theatre Arts, continues its bestselling reign in its new 30th anniversary edition, published by Back Stage Editions. A favorite go-to source for actors both neophyte and seasoned, Henry’s how-to has been lauded as “one of the most comprehensive books on show business” by Tony winner Joe Mantegna and described as a “treasure trove of useful information … and informed guidance” by actor/director/producer Darryl Hickman.
Photo illustrations created by Monica Bosque and Alex Martinez
