Bookshelf

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2016)
This book explores central questions at the heart of amateur and professional sports: Does the corrupt side of sports compromise their potential to deepen our moral lives? Are the virtues of sports even certain? The author, a leading sports philosopher, has published previously on such issues as gender equity, comparable worth, moral judgment, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

(self-published, 2022)
The author writes, “What do you do when you lost what matters most? Who are you when the people or things that define you are taken away? Burning Faith is the story of a congregation that loses its church. However, this novel is not so much a story of loss as it is about discovery. A parish loses a building but find its faith. An ambitious minister loses his legacy but finds his hope. This is not only the journey for a church in New England. It’s also the journey of anyone seeking an authentic spiritual life. The people of St. John’s Church have something important to teach us about what such a journey requires — and how God shows us every step of the way.”

(Paris: Présence Africaine, 2022).
The French edition of the author’s novel written in 2004 places a woman as head of state in Africa, before this became a reality in Liberia. “This new version comes with a preface by writer Maryse Condé, a 2018 Alternative Nobel Prize winner. The honor of being published by Présence Africaine and prefaced by Maryse Condé is very humbling to me,” Mwantuali says.

(Washington, D.C.: Pen Women Press, 2022)
A finalist in the 2019 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing competition in the novel category, this book takes the reader into the life of a writer. One reviewer provided this summary: “A group of fledgling writers confront the suicide of their literary hero and nemesis, Adrian Gerd Wahl. Wahl is a writer’s writer, and his enviable career stands in stark contrast to these young writers’ quotidian realities. Listening to their voices, we enter into the world of writers, their habits and routines, triumphs and travails, failures and successes. As they reflect on their relationship with Wahl, speculating, emailing, texting, and tweeting about their idol, we come to know this widely published and highly celebrated author, and we share their wonderment and curiosity about the events leading up to his death. Dafoe has written a must-read — for those of us consumed with the question of why we read and why we write.”

 (Fabius, N.Y.: Standing Stone Books, 2022).

This father-daughter collaboration is filled with beautiful images that capture the ever-changing beauty of the Outer Cape Cod landscape, from beaches to grasslands to waterways. The Colley family have been longtime seasonal visitors to the cape and their stunning book was featured in the August 2022 edition of Cape Cod Life. “I feel as if I’ve been at Bob Colley’s side on his walks, noticing what he notices, watching him see. His gift — the lovely, deceptive quietude of his images — invites me to pause and make my own discoveries,” noted Gregory Heisler, Distinguished Professor of Photography at Syracuse University.

(Colfax, Wis.: Hayriver Press, 2022).
This beautiful volume appeals not only lovers of nature and ethnic photography, but also to those fascinated by the North America’s ancient origins and living legacies, as embodied in its sacred sites and native peoples who revere and preserve them. According to the publisher, “The book — a collection of Butler’s photographs — uniquely draws together the apparent disparate qualities of our modern age with North America’s prehistoric roots. It achieves this unusual synthesis with magically evocative photography of sacred sites. Far more than any documentary style, Lynn Butler’s photographs capture the elusive spirit of traditionally holy locales. These include Wisconsin’s Black River Fall, with its secret rock art, disclosed to the outside world for the first time since the last Ice Age, some ten thousand years ago.”

(self-published, 2022).
This book is a how-to guide for supporting a loved one with anorexia, complete with personal notes from both the author (who holds a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling) and his daughter. As one reviewer noted: “Loved the personal notes from father/daughter describing their journey as a family, including strategies and details of what did and didn’t work from both perspectives.”

(Little Cottage Press, 2022).
Written in rhyme and beautifully illustrated by Nur Efsan Topcu, this picture book, following Once in a Full Moon, is the second in a series about nature. “Its lively stanzas encourage young children to use their imaginations when looking up at the sky. From rainbows to constellations to pictures in the clouds, Kaufman believes there is much to see if only they lift their eyes,” the author says.

(New York: Rizzoli Electa, 2022).
Published to accompany a retrospective at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., this book features more than 150 works by photographer and conceptual artist Rosamond Purcell. In addition to lavish images of her “strangely beautiful, often unsettling photographs of objects from the natural and man-made world,” the book contains “thoughtful and insightful texts from an eclectic list of critical voices — including the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Errol Morris and the writer Christoph Irmscher — and features an interview between Purcell and fellow contemporary artist Mark Dion.” Wilkins is gallery’s Robert M. Walker Curator of American Art.

(Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2022).
This book tells the untold stories of ordinary people who did extraordinary things in defense of liberty and freedom. “On D-Day, when transport planes dropped paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions hopelessly off-target into marshy waters in northwestern France, the 900 villagers of Graignes welcomed them with open arms,” notes the publisher. “These villagers — predominantly women — provided food, gathered intelligence, and navigated the floods to retrieve the paratroopers' equipment at great risk to themselves. When the attack by German forces on 11 June forced the overwhelmed paratroopers to withdraw, many made it to safety thanks to the help and resistance of the villagers.” This book is the author/historian’s 13th and is especially close to his heart. His father was one of the D-Day paratroopers.