Bookshelf

(Chicago: Ankerwycke Books, 2018).
Drawing on case studies and stories of companies from P&G; to Harley-Davidson that have successfully implemented brand licensing programs, the author illustrates the potential of brand licensing as a pathway to engage consumers in a world turned upside down by the disruptive forces of digital technology and the internet. Stone is co-founder and chairman of Beanstalk, a global brand extension licensing agency.

(Medford, Mass.: Polity Press, 2018).
The author, emeritus dean of the library and professor of history at the College of New Rochelle, introduces the social and political theories of Alexis de Tocqueville, a French diplomat, political scientist, and historian best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution. By examining essential themes — including Tocqueville’s long-overlooked economic ideas and social reform proposals — Schleifer “sheds fresh light on the enduring relevance of Tocqueville’s writings and why his reflections on democracy continue to be so pertinent, especially in these troubled times,” noted one reviewer.

(Ann Arbor: Hosta Press, 2020)

The Snow Queen is the story of a boy’s friendship with a lonely, ostracized woman who shows him the kindness and understanding missing in his life. Although he can’t fully understand the reasons for their connection, the boy realizes they are somehow alike. Set nearly 30 years later, November Door finds the two unlikely friends from first play reunited when the man returns to his childhood home. The reader learns what’s become of both characters who’ve carried their scars into adulthood and old age. Pratt is the author of numerous works, including most recently the novels Todd Sweeney, the Fiend of Fleet High and Wallaçonia.

(New York: Penguin, 2018).
One Pomporromp grandchild will take it all: a large estate, an important title, a fancy castle. And most of all: unlimited magical powers. Who will win Wizardmatch? With themes of gender equality, favoritism, and sibling rivalry, Kirkus calls this novel for young readers “a stirring yet comedic look at the importance of family.”

(New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2018).
The author is CEO of Kronos, a global provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions used within more than 35,000 organizations in more than 100 countries. According to one reviewer, his book “takes readers step-by-step through principles and practices that have helped Kronos win and grow mainly by inspiring its own workers to realize their full potential and having each other’s backs. Kronos’s bottom-line success is proof positive that Ain’s commitment to creating a satisfying, challenging and kind work environment is a very hard-nosed business strategy indeed. WorkInspired shows us all how to execute it.”

(Seattle: Marrowstone Press, 2018).
Weltner’s latest book of poetry was inspired while he was reading a lot of Horace and Vergil, ancient Greek lyric and tragic poetry, and ancient Chinese poetry. “Many poems, haiku-like, begin in a landscape that branches quickly into primal terrain, textual and sensual, where the past weaves its spell into a present always on the cusp of slipping away.”

(Other Press, 2019).The winner of numerous honors, including a Kirkus Reviews Best Biography of 2019, this book delves into the life of the French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot, best known for his work creating the first comprehensive Encyclopédie. However, as the author notes on his website, “[Diderot’s] most daring writing took place in the shadows. Thrown into prison for his atheism in 1749, Diderot decided to reserve his best books for posterity — for us, in fact. In the astonishing cache of unpublished writings left behind after his death, Diderot challenged virtually all of his century’s accepted truths, from the sanctity of monarchy, to the racial justification of the slave trade, to the norms of human sexuality.”

(New York: SelectBooks, 2018)
“The shelves are heavy with books on yoga, but they do not show, scientifically, the connection between yoga and the DNA,” note the authors, who explore the interconnection of DNA and kundalini (a latent spiritual energy), and how diet, lifestyle, and meditation can help purify the body to its highest potential. Meade is a columnist and author of 30 books.

(Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
The author, an assistant professor of Spanish at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., “explores Queen Esther as an idealized woman in Iberia, as well as a Jewish heroine for conversos in the Sephardic Diaspora in the 16th and 17th centuries” by analyzing retellings of her life found in European and American literary texts.

Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2017)
A compilation of the author’s work described by the publisher as poems “of emotional weather, often wry, sometimes caustic, frequently amusing.” In this, his first full-length collection, “It is clear that when his poems do bulk up, there is a cumulative power and plangency to be had, more than any single poem could possibly offer.”