These works can be found on our New Book shelf in Bailey/Howe, an ever-rotating sampling of things we’re adding to our collection. You can also review all our newest books online, and subscribe via RSS to receive alerts about acquisitions, by discipline.
ANIMAL GRIEF
How Animals Grieve, by Barbara J. King
From the time of our earliest childhood encounters with animals, we casually ascribe familiar emotions to them. But scientists have long cautioned against such anthropomorphizing, arguing that it limits our ability to truly comprehend the lives of other creatures. Recently, however, things have begun to shift in the other direction, and anthropologist Barbara J. King is at the forefront of that movement, arguing strenuously that we can—and should—attend to animal emotions. With How Animals Grieve, she draws our attention to the specific case of grief, and relates story after story—from fieldsites, farms, homes, and more—of animals mourning lost companions, mates, or friends.
BIG HEARTS
An Enlarged Heart: A Personal History, by Cynthia Zarin
A New York City writer shares episodes from her life that reflect the cyclical nature of the past and her relationships with a range of people and places, from an energetic tailor and a twice-married mom to literary co-workers and the patrons of vanished restaurants.
SMALL THINGS
The Miniature Wife and Other Stories, by Manuel Gonzales
In slightly fantastical settings, Gonzales illustrates very real guilt over small and large marital missteps, the intense desire for the reinvention of self, and the powerful urges we feel to defend and provide for the people we love. With wit and insight, these stories subvert our expectations and challenge us to look at our surroundings with fresh eyes. Brilliantly conceived, strikingly original, and told with the narrative instinct of a born storyteller, The Miniature Wife is an unforgettable debut.
BRAIN IN A JAR
Brain in a Jar: A Daughter’s Journey Through Her Father’s Memory, by Nancy Stearns Bercaw
In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Nancy Stearns Bercaw (a staff member with UVM Libraries) recounts her life with Dr. Beauregard Lee Bercaw, who became a neurologist in response to watching his own father deteriorate and die of Alzheimer’s. For many years Beau kept an autopsied brain in a jar on the desk in his office as a constant reminder of the struggle that he waged against the disease first with his patients, and ultimately for himself as he succumbed to its effects. This is also the story of the author’s own struggle to establish her identity and to navigate the treacherous and ever-changing emotional terrain of her relationship with her father, as she literally traveled the world in her quest to make sense of both of their lives.
