{"id":17879,"date":"2022-04-22T16:20:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T16:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=17879"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:41:17","slug":"books-spring-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/books-spring-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Books: Spring 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Comic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Asian Languages and Cultures professor and chair Rivi Handler-Spitz turned to a beloved old hobby to cope with the uncertainty and worry she was feeling: one day in March 2020, she sketched her fears about her parents\u2019 exposure to the virus. The next day, she drew again. Before long, her daily drawing became routine, and Handler-Spitz started sharing her work with friends and family via email. Then she committed to keeping her daily project going for at least a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, ten of her comics were featured in The COVID <\/em>Chronicles: A Comics Anthology<\/em>, a collection of graphic narratives from artists around the world, edited by Kendra Boileau and Rich Johnson. In November, The Washington Post<\/em> featured the anthology on its \u201cBest Graphic Novels of 2021\u201d list. And most days, Handler-Spitz still draws. \u201cIn the beginning I thought I\u2019d need a reserve of ideas to keep this up,\u201d she says. \u201cBut over time, I realized there\u2019s never any dearth of material. Sometimes it can be cathartic to realize I\u2019ve come to understand a problem better by drawing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Marlon James<\/strong>, Moon Witch, Spider King<\/em> (Riverhead Books, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the second book of his Dark Star trilogy, James coaxes beauty from dark thoughts, leaving readers with a concaved, mystical, and African-inspired world that begins in free-fall. . . . In a world as thoroughly imagined as J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s, no detail seems spared. Full figured and richly drawn, Moon Witch, Spider King<\/em> is the bridge of a trilogy and also a creation that, like James\u2019 talent, stands alone.\u201d \u2014Natashia De\u00f3n, Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gretchen Legler \u201984<\/strong>, Woodsqueer: Crafting a Sustainable Rural Life<\/em> (Trinity University Press, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter my dip in the pond, I felt a profound physical sense of wellbeing\u2014cool, dry, rejuvenated. Ruth and I sat on a rustic wooden bench in the woods and talked about our days. It came to me suddenly, inexplicably\u2014a powerful yes! I could live in this place, in the woods of rural Maine, for a long time. Maybe even forever. I tested the feeling\u2014pushed against it\u2014like a goat testing a fence. I didn\u2019t have to stay here, but I didn\u2019t necessarily want to leave. That seemed like something new. Other places I\u2019d inhabited, other lives I\u2019d lived, didn\u2019t feel quite right. I\u2019d felt hemmed in by them, constrained; \u2018trapped\u2019 might be a better word. But this place, this landscape of woods and pastures, dirt roads, barns, stone walls, ponds, and old mountains, finally felt like it could be home. And so, when Ruth said she\u2019d found us an almost perfect house, a house we could make perfect for us, I was willing to make a commitment. For better or worse, we felt as if we were ready\u2014for each other, for the house, for the land, and for a farming, gardening, and foraging way of life. I had no idea in the beginning how that commitment would be tested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Tim Paulson \u201975<\/strong>, Forty Years of Making <\/em>\u2018Good Trouble\u2019: The <\/em>Selected Labor Writings <\/em>of a San Francisco Labor <\/em>Leader<\/em> (Senders Publishing, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Paulson \u201975 recently retired after a career that included being the first person to lead the over 150 unions of both the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. Over the years, his efforts included collective bargaining, policy research, legislative campaigns, and get-out-the- vote efforts. \u201cEverything I did was for people to have a voice at work,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making History<\/strong>: Our labor council ran a legislative campaign for a bill called the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance, to get employers of more than twenty people to provide health care. [US Representative and Speaker] Nancy Pelosi brought it as part of the national legislation that became the Affordable Care Act. That all started here in San Francisco, and I\u2019m pretty proud of the campaign we developed to make it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formative Lesson<\/strong>: When I was a young organizer, some construction workers told me they\u2019d like to join our union. We did a very thorough campaign with the workers, and almost all of them signed cards pledging to join. I was a monitor at the union election, and as they walked past me, I could tell something was askew\u2014they wouldn\u2019t look me in the eye. All of their votes flipped, and I found out later that the boss and foreman had gone to their houses and threatened their employment, which is against the law. That changed how I approached union elections. We started trying out other tactics: getting out on the street, threatening boycotts, bringing in politicians and people from faith communities, doing media campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advice for Organizers<\/strong>: I tell organizers that it\u2019s not about you\u2014you\u2019re not coming in as a knight in shining armor. It\u2019s about the workers. Harry Bridges, who led a citywide strike in San Francisco in the 1930s, said, \u201cWe don\u2019t do anything unless the workers want it.\u201d You have to always listen to the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Voices<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Leo \u201986<\/strong>, Medical Neuroanatomy for the Boards and the Clinic<\/em> (Springer, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathleen West \u201999<\/strong>, Home or Away<\/em> (Berkley, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jillian Scudder \u201909<\/strong>, Astroquizzical: Solving the Cosmic Puzzles of Our Planets, Stars, and Galaxies: The Illustrated Edition<\/em> (MIT Press, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter LaBatte <\/strong>Jr. \u201970<\/strong> and Teresa Peterson, Voices from <\/em>Pejuhutazizi: <\/em>Dakota Stories <\/em>and Storytellers <\/em>(Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katya Tylevich <\/strong>\u201906<\/strong>, author of Gus Van Sant: <\/em>The Art of Making <\/em>Movies<\/em> (Laurence King, 2021) and editor of The <\/em>Marina Abramovic <\/em>Method: <\/em>Instruction Cards <\/em>to Reboot Your <\/em>Life<\/em> (Laurence King, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heidi Waterhouse <\/strong>\u201999<\/strong>, Jared Bhatti, Zachary Sarah Corleissen, Jen Lambourne, and David Nunez, Docs for <\/em>Developers: An <\/em>Engineer\u2019s Field <\/em>Guide to Technical <\/em>Writing<\/em> (Apress, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corina McKendry <\/strong>\u201998<\/strong> and Nik Janos, editors, Urban Cascadia <\/em>and the Pursuit <\/em>of Environmental <\/em>Justice<\/em> (University of Washington Press, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"81<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kris Amundson <\/strong>\u201971<\/strong>, 81 Questions <\/em>for Parents: <\/em>Helping Your <\/em>Kids Succeed in <\/em>School<\/em> (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate Bowler <\/strong>\u201902<\/strong> and Jessica Richie, Good <\/em>Enough: 40ish <\/em>Devotionals for a <\/em>Life of Imperfection <\/em>(Convergent Books, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lei X. Ouyang <\/strong>\u201997<\/strong>, Music as <\/em>Mao\u2019s Weapon: <\/em>Remembering the <\/em>Cultural Revolution <\/em>(University of Illinois Press, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan Leon \u201902<\/strong>, Arrian the Historian: <\/em>Writing the <\/em>Greek Past in the <\/em>Roman Empire <\/em>(University of Texas Press, 2021)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books recently published by Macalester alumni, faculty, and staff.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":17932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17879"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30787,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17879\/revisions\/30787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}