Features
Profiles
Departments
UB EVENTS CALENDAR
Archives
Join the Alumni Association
UBAA on Facebook
To stop receiving the print version and read UB Today online, > click here
Or to download a PDF version of this issue > click here
Seen Read Heard
Books
-
Burned: A Memoir
“Burned: A Memoir” chronicles the nightmare of an explosion on Cape Cod in 1954 that severely burned the author’s parents when she was 4 years old and her sister, 6. After the tragedy, she and her sister lived on a farm in Sherburne, N.Y., while her mother endured 37 operations and her father suffered from clinical depression. After nine months, the family reunited in New York City amid scars and love. “A deeply moving, beautifully written and transforming story,” says Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea.” (Atlas and Co., 2010)
-
Does This Make My Assets Look Fat?
The goal of this book is to enhance the financial literacy of women by making the unfamiliar, familiar. Susan Hirshman, a managing director at JP Morgan, accomplishes this by explaining investing and personal finance through the prism of dieting. As the author sees it, the rules of successful dieting also apply to successful money management. In this upbeat and informative guide, she offers women a three-phase, personalized plan to help them understand their finances. (St. Martin’s Press, 2010)
-
The Imagined Field
The author’s first book of poems, “The Imagined Field,” “can best be described as wrought, with all the blisters, calluses, sweat, smoke and force the word carries with it,” according to the publisher. Sean Patrick Hill was awarded the Zoland Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center for 2010. (Paper Kite Press, 2010)
-
The Only Prescription for Healthcare Reform: A Physician’s Inside Perspective of the Real Problems Plaguing the System
Perplexed about the 2010 Affordable Care Act and all the thorny issues that preceded its enactment and continue today? This book discusses the vital issues and answers common questions: Will you be able to continue seeing a “real” physician, or will the primary care physician become extinct? How did our health care delivery system evolve to such disarray? The author is a board-certified physician specializing in internal medicine. (AuthorHouse, 2009)
-
An Unashamed Defense of Coffee
Subtitled “101 Reasons to Drink Coffee Without Guilt,” this book takes a look at coffee’s health benefits, as well as the social, physiological and economic plusses of coffee. Santos runs a research unit on coffee and health at South University, where she is assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences. (xLibris Corporation, 2009)
-
Form, Power, and Person in Robert Creeley’s Life and Work
By any measure, Robert Creeley (1926-2005), former SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of Poetics at UB, was a literary giant—an outstanding, irreplaceable poet. This is the first book to treat Creeley’s career as a whole. The collected essays consider a variety of characteristic formal qualities in Creeley’s work, along with the pressure exerted by emotions, gender issues and politics, and his unique artistic project of constructing a person. (University of Iowa Press, 2010)
-
Present Perfect: A Mindfulness Approach to Letting Go of Perfectionism and the Need for Control
In “Present Perfect,” psychologist Pavel Somov presents a mindfulness approach that people with perfectionism, obsessive compulsive personality disorder and related controlling tendencies can use to overcome their fear of failure. (New Harbinger Publications, 2010)
-
Paul Kurtz: Exuberant Skepticism
This book collects essays by Paul Kurtz, UB emeritus professor of philosophy and founder of the modern skeptical movement. Editor John R. Shook is vice president for education and research and a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry/Transnational, as well as a research associate in philosophy at UB. (Prometheus Books, 2010)
Sensibility and Sense: The Aesthetic Transformation of the Human World
“Sensibility and Sense” offers a philosophically comprehensive account of humans’ social and cultural embeddedness encountered, recognized and fulfilled as an aesthetic mode of experience. The guiding idea of pervasive interconnectedness, both social and environmental, leads to an aesthetic critique of the urban environment, of the environment of daily life, and of terrorism, and has profound implications for grounding social and political values. The author is professor emeritus of philosophy at Long Island University. (Imprint Academic, 2010)
-
The International Tin Cartel
Based on a wide range of archival sources, “The International Tin Cartel” examines how one of the most powerful commodity cartels of the 1930s operated to regulate a volatile market in the interests of both consumers and producers. Although the United States forced the termination of the cartel in 1946, it was probably one of the most successful attempts at intergovernmental economic cooperation, and illustrates the best way to deal with the problems inherent in international commodity markets. The author is professor emeritus at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. (Routledge, 2010)
-
The Joy of Life Cookbook
With healthy, delicious and easy-to-prepare recipes, this latest book from Robert S. Swiatek offers humorous anecdotes as a bonus for his readers. Cooking should be fun, Swiatek states, as he presents 56 recipes for meals that run the gamut from very simple (how to pan-fry a steak) to more complicated fare, such as bulgur pilaf. The author stresses variety and meals that everyone will eat with a minimum of preparation time and cost. (Swiatek Press, 2010)
-
The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You
This book guides readers through the phases of being a mentee and provides answers to many frequently asked questions about how to make the most of a mentoring relationship, while providing strategies for success. By encouraging a focus on goals that are specific, measureable, action-oriented, realistic and timely, the authors help mentees get more out of their mentoring relationships. Lois J. Zachary is president of Leadership Development Services LLC, a Phoenix-based consulting firm. (Jossey-Bass, 2009)
-
New York Workers’ Compensation Handbook, 2010 Edition
Attorneys, claim adjusters, physicians, self-insured employers and vocation rehabilitation workers will find this volume a valuable tool for understanding New York State’s workers’ compensation issues. The edition covers the impact of the 2007 reforms on numerous aspects of New York’s workers’ compensation law, including maximum benefit rates and caps on permanent partial disability awards. Co-author Ronald Balter is an attorney who has practiced in the field of workers’ compensation for more than 25 years and is past chair of the New York State Bar Association’s tort insurance and compensation law’s workers’ compensation division. (LexisNexis, 2010)
-
Smash Hits, Volume One
This CD presents the greatest hits package of the band moe., which formed in Buffalo 20 years ago when guitarist Chuck Garvey and bassist Rob Derhak were UB students. The band has since toured the world, enjoying multifaceted success. “moe. did us proud,” wrote Buffalo News critic Jeff Miers of the band’s performance at Erie Canal Harbor in June. (Fatboy Records, 2010)
Music
Attention Alumni Authors
UB Today publishes notices on recent books, films and CDs by alumni. Send brief, factual descriptions of the book or CD, along with copies of the publisher's or producer's blurb and critical reviews, if desired. Include the full name of the publishing house or recording company, year of publication or production and the author's UB degree(s) and the year(s) received. Indicate where the author now lives and any current credentials that relate to the subject matter of the book, or the content of the CD or film.
To accompany each listing, camera–ready book jacket or CD cover art, or the book or CD itself, may be sent to UB Today, 330 Crofts Bldg., Buffalo, NY 14260, and will be returned if requested. High–resolution digital book cover art (scanned at 300 dpi) is preferred for the print edition and may be sent, along with a description of the book, film or CD, to whitcher@buffalo.edu. Preference is given to titles of wide general interest.
All submissions are subject to editing for length and clarity. Please include a daytime telephone number for verification.