Bookshelf

(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: Hachette, 2018).
Drawing from 25 years of experience in both conventional psychology and alternative methods, the author offers advice for seeing the teen years as an opportunity for growth and positive relationship changes. Santangelo, an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, asserts that “parents have a far greater impact on conflict with their teen than they may realize, metaphorically handing parents back the power to shift the situation to harmony.”

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2018)
The advertising industry has used dance to sell items long before iPods. The author, a professor of dance at California State University, Long Beach, presents an analysis of dance commercials to illustrate how the art form informs and reflects U.S. culture. One reviewer noted, “Written with playful enthusiasm, this book demonstrates how dance matters in contexts of commodities, marketplace, and the social lives of American consumption across three generations.”

(New York: Ballantine, 2018)
As a New York Times best-selling author noted: “A devoted teacher and his driven students provide something like a perfect picture of what it means to be human: striving with a noble purpose, failing with resilience, and always finding humor and humanity even in the face of tremendous pressure. Both teacher and students will surely teach you many things, but perhaps more important than the lessons is the sheer wonder inhabiting these pages.” The author has worked as an Emmy-winning producer for CBS News and as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, Time, and Newsweek.

(Sag Harbor, N.Y.: Permanent Press, 2018).
Former Chicago homicide detective Jack Starkey is lured out of retirement on Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast when two dead bodies are found shot execution-style aboard a sailboat drifting in the sound. Little does he realize that his leisurely lifestyle will now include an investigation involving offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, corrupt state politicians, a Russian oligarch, and the angry father of a boy who’s not getting much Little League playing time.

(Birch Tree Books, 2018).
The third book in the “Charles and Louise” series finds the senior secret agents embarking on a trip to the Netherlands, at the request of the U.S. president, to harass a terrorist cell living in a houseboat. The author, now retired from his career as a speech pathologist, has published some 50 articles and nine books including Stuttering, co-authored with his wife, Janet Givens, which made Choice magazine’s 1996 list of Best Academic Books.