Alumni Bookshelf

Robert A. Cassella, MA ’97, wrote Project Management Skills for Kids (Trafford, 2004) to help students develop organizational skills. Guidance also is given to teachers and parents as to how they can help students with time management and project planning. “I have realized that learning how to plan, manage, and execute work often is at least as important as the work itself,” Cassella says.

The latest Christmas carol compilation from Ron Clancy, BA ’68, is the comprehensive Children’s Christmas Classics. A three-in-one collection of Christmas carols and holiday classics designed for the amusement of children and families, the set features a CD of 26 tracks, along with lyrics of carols and holiday songs, and a collection of 58 images, many in full-page color. Clancy designs the compilation as a gift package that combines history, art, carol and song lyrics, and a music CD into one product. Children’s Christmas Classics follows two of his earlier releases of music, song lyrics, and art, American Christmas Classics and Best Loved Carols. For more information, visit www.christmasclassics.com.

Karen Coats, MPhil ’97, PhD ’98, is the author of Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature (University of Iowa Press, 2004). The work explores the theories of subjectivity and desire of Jacques Lacan, the French psychoanalyst who gained an international reputation as the original interpreter of Sigmund Freud’s work. Coats offers close readings of modern and traditional children’s classics such as Charlotte’s Web and Holes and explains why these texts are influential in constructing a child’s sense of self. She is an assistant professor of English at Illinois State University.

A senior editorial writer and columnist for the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, Calif., Steven M. Greenhut, BA ’82, is the author of Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain (Seven Locks Press, 2004). Greenhut says his book traces the legal cases that have allowed some cities to abuse eminent domain not to build highways or schools, as the Constitution allows, but to build stores, shopping malls, and auto dealerships. He covers the plight of homeowners and small business owners who have been forced out of their homes and offers a blueprint to help property owners to fight back.

Brian Hayden, CCMD ’98, offers an archaeological perspective on the evolution of religious behavior from prehistoric times to the present in Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints (W.W. Norton, 2004). The work explores the emotional foundation and ecological factors that shaped and shape the evolution of both “traditional” religions—those passed on orally or experientially—and “book” religions—those based on scripture and moral code. Hayden has lived among traditional religious peoples in Australia, Mesoamerica, and Southeast Asia, and has witnessed many secret ceremonies and shamanic séances while engaged in research. He is professor of archaeology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.

An entertainment and sports lawyer in Philadelphia, Howard Jaffe, BA ’88, is the co-author of The Philadelphia Flyers Encyclopedia (Sports Publishing, 2003), a chronology that documents the history of the hockey team game by game, score by score. It features player profiles, team photos, narrative of team milestones, and statistics. Jaffe can be reached at jaffelawrep@aol.com.

Malcolm Lawrence, BA ’48, MA ’51, was a featured author at the Barnes & Noble Bethesda Literary Festival in Bethesda, Md., in April. His book, Something Will Come Along: Witty Memoirs of a Foreign Service Officer with Nine Children (Ivy House Publishing Group, 2003), recounts his childhood in Washington, his days as a swing band drummer, his service as a combat airman in World War II, his days at GW, and beyond.

Politics of Knowledge: Public Schools in the Nation’s Capital (Peter Lang, 2003) by Anna Kinsman, PhD ’02, analyzes Washington’s public school system. Her study draws from 16 years of experience as a high school teacher in the District of Columbia Public School system.

Ben Osborne, BA ’97, tells the story of the first season of the Brooklyn Cyclones from the construction of Keyspan Park at Coney Island to the team’s surprising successes in The Brooklyn Cyclones: Hardball Dreams and the New Coney Island (NYU Press, 2004). The story is told through the eyes of Anthony Otero, who was raised in a Coney Island housing project and had never seen a game in person until the Cyclones landed in his neighborhood, and Brett Kay, a young man from California who had never been to New York until he becomes the team’s catcher. Osborne is a sports journalist whose articles have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. He lives in Brooklyn.

A book of poetry, Songs to the Beloved (M.T.O. Shahmaghsoudi Publications, 2002) by Melvina Noel, EdD ’00, illustrates divine worship. The author says the work is a result of the guidance and instruction from a contemporary Sufi master and teacher.

Natalie Rathvon, PhD ’93, published Early Reading Assessment: A Practitioner’s Handbook (Guilford Press, 2004) to provide a resource for screening and evaluating the reading levels of students in kindergarten through second grade. Rathvon is a psychologist and school consultant in Bethesda, Md., and draws from her experience and individual cases to anchor the book.

A collection of 29 essays by leading anthropologists, Anthropology Explored: The Best of Smithsonian AnthroNotes (Smithsonian 2004, 2nd ed.) was co-edited by Ruth Osterweis Selig, MA ’75. The book covers three major categories: “Human Origins,” “Archaeologists Examine the Past,” and “Our Many Cultures” and spans topics from a discussion of communication with apes to a summary of human evolution. The individual articles are followed by author updates showcasing the latest developments in the subject and illustrating the process of research and discovery.