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Author: DANNA STAAF
Dive deep into the fascinating world of cephalopods—octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, and the mysterious nautilus—to discover the astonishing diversity of this unique group of intelligent invertebrates and their many roles in the marine ecosystem.
Organized by marine habitat, this book features an extraordinary range of these clever and colorful creatures from around the world and explores their life cycles, behavior, adaptations, ecology, links to humans, and much more.
Authors: Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee
The Covid pandemic quickly led to the greatest mobilization of emergency powers in human history. By early April 2020, half the world’s population were living under quarantine.
People were told not to leave their homes; businesses were shuttered, employees laid off, and schools closed.
The most devastating pandemic in a century and the policies adopted in response to it upended life as we knew it.
In this book, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee examine our pandemic response and pose some provocative questions.
Author: Yoko Ogawa
Japanese novelist Yoko Ogawa, renowned for her beautifully crafted narratives in “The Housekeeper and the Professor,” and “The Memory Police,” brings her storytelling style to her latest translation to English, “Mina’s Matchbox.”
Both of those previous works showcase her ability to weave intricate tales that explore human emotions and relationships, albeit in very different contexts. This latest offering, however, presents a more intimate and poignant exploration of family dynamics through the eyes of a child.
In “Mina’s Matchbox,” translated by Stephen Snyder, we meet Mina, a young girl who leaves Tokyo to live with her aunt in a sprawling coastal house.
The narrative unfolds from Mina’s perspective, allowing readers to experience the world through her innocent yet observant eyes. As she navigates her new environment, Ogawa deftly reveals the underlying tensions and complexities within her aunt’s family.
The house becomes a character in its own right — a vast, almost labyrinthine entity that mirrors the confusion and fragility of familial bonds.
Ogawa’s prose is often described as dreamlike; there is a magical quality in the way the author constructs her sentences, drawing readers into a world that feels both familiar and surreal. Her unpretentious style captures the subtleties of emotion with remarkable clarity.
As Mina grapples with her feelings of displacement and belonging, the narrative unfolds to reveal the cracks in the family’s facade. The story serves as an incisive analysis of how external pressures can threaten the stability of family life.
Ogawa’s portrayal of the characters is nuanced, allowing their vulnerabilities and strengths to shine through, making them relatable and deeply human.
In many ways, “Mina’s Matchbox” reflects the themes found in Ogawa’s previous works, yet it stands apart as a distinct exploration of childhood and familial collapse.
The juxtaposition of Mina’s innocence against the adult world’s complexities creates a hauntingly beautiful narrative that lingers long after the last page is turned.
Ogawa continues to enchant readers, proving once again her mastery of the written word.
Author: Ilana M. Horwitz
In the increasingly competitive world of academia, simply mastering your discipline is no longer enough to guarantee career success or personal fulfillment.
The Entrepreneurial Scholar challenges scholars at all stages—from doctoral students to tenured professors—to break free from conventional academic pathways by adopting an entrepreneurial mindset.
What opportunities can you create based on who you are, what you know, and who you know?
Drawing on her experiences in higher education, startups, and management consulting, as well as interviews with a range of academics and entrepreneurs, Ilana Horwitz provides a road map for those stifled by traditional academic norms and expectations.
This book calls on scholars to create ideas—not just consume them. It offers strategies to thrive in academia with limited resources and in the face of uncertainty. Embracing an entrepreneurial mindset entails viewing yourself as a knowledge producer, enhancing collaboration, creatively identifying resources, and effectively sharing your ideas.
Eve L. Ewing’s “Original Sins” shows how US schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize” Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor.
By demonstrating that its in the DNA of American schools to serve as an effective and underacknowledged mechanism maintaining inequality, Ewing makes the case for a profound reevaluation of what schools are supposed to do, and for whom.
Neil Shubin’s “The Universe Within” takes an expansive approach to the question of why we look the way we do.
Shubin turns his gaze skyward, showing us how the entirety of the universe’s 14-billion-year history can be seen in our bodies and pointing out how the evolution of the cosmos has profoundly marked our own bodies.
