Homecoming

smartoneAlumna Jennifer Close has published a new novel, The Smart One (Knopf Doubleday). It’s the story of Weezy Coffey and what happens when her adult children’s various missteps drive them back to their childhood home. Close recently wrote about the topic of adults moving back home for Huffington Post. Close’s previous novel was the bestseller Girls in White Dresses.
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Six millennia of the Phoenicians

6000yearsA new book translation by Franck Salameh, assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies, Arabic, and Hebrew, has been published by Editions de la Revue Phénicienne, Lebanon’s oldest Francophone press. The book, 6000 Years of Peaceful Contributions to Mankind, is an annotated critical translation of Charles Corm’s 6000 ans de génie pacifique au service de l’Humanité. The text is based on Corm’s conference on the Phoenicians he gave at a 1949 UNESCO general assembly. Salameh, the first Western researcher to be given access to Corm’s Beirut archives and unpublished papers, has supplemented Corm’s text with a foreword, introductory chapter, and historical commentary. One of the book’s chapters references the work of two BC Jesuits, Fr. Doherty and Fr. Ewing, and their BC students, who are credited with being the first to have systematically excavated and studied Ksar Akil, the Paleolithic site north of Beirut. In addition, Salameh has a book on Corm, Intellectual Biography of Charles Corm (Rowman and Littlefield), forthcoming in 2015.
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The changing nature of service

service processesWhy are some self-service options, such as ATMs, more successful than other options, such as self-service retail checkouts? A new book by Carroll School of Management Associate Professor of Operations Management Joy Field takes a look at how technology and other factors are changing the dynamic between service providers and customers and changing the service process design landscape.  Listen to Field discuss Designing Service Processes to Unlock Value with Claire O’Leary of BC Libraries.
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Book awards for Gaillardetz

GaillardetzRTwo publications from Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology Richard R. Gaillardetz have recently earned book awards. The Association of Catholic Publishers will present  Excellence in Publishing Awards to When the Magisterium Intervenes (Liturgical Press), edited by Gaillardetz, for first place in the theology category and to Keys to the Council: Unlocking the Teaching of Vatican II (Liturgical Press), co-authored by Gaillardetz and Catherine Clifford, for third place in the general interest category. Keys to the Council also was named a winner of an Annual Midwest Book Award in the category of religion/philosophy category by the Midwest Independent Publishers Association. Read more
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Book review: Sacred Dread

cornilleIn America magazine, Newton College Alumnae Professor of Western Culture Catherine Cornille pens a review of Sacred Dread by Brenna Moore. Cornille, chairwoman of BC’s Theology Department, calls the work: “a remarkable achievement” that “weaves history, biography and theology together in a profoundly captivating narrative that is both interesting and inspiring.” Book review
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Art of the book

book artBooks hand-decorated and sewn by Bookbuilders of Boston scholarship recipients Juliette San Fillipo ’13 and Jennifer O’Brien ’13 and Burns Library conservation lab assistants Anna Whitham ’15 and Josh Rosenfeld ’13, under the direction of Burns Conservator Barbara Hebard, are on view in an online exhibit sponsored by the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers, a first for BC students. News Release| BC Libraries
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Big battle over a little fish

snail darterMore than 30 years after arguing one of the nation’s most significant environmental law cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, Boston College Law School Professor Zygmunt J. B.  Plater has published an account of the iconic story of the legal battle to save the endangered snail darter, the little fish that blocked completion of a Tennessee Valley Authority dam. Plater and his law students won the TVA v. Hill case—the U.S. Supreme Court’s first interpretation of the then new Endangered Species Act. In The Snail Darter and the Dam: How Pork-Barrel Politics Endangered a Little Fish and Killed a River, Plater separates fact from fiction in the story of a landmark case that he says has been mischaracterized by politicians and the media.
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Global justice

global justiceBoston College Law  School Professor Frank J. Garcia has a new book out titled Global Justice and International Economic Law: Three Takes (Cambridge University Press). Garcia is a scholar known for his work in international economic law, social justice and globalization. From the publisher: “In this compelling new book, international legal scholar Frank J. Garcia proposes a radically new way to evaluate, construct, and manage international trade – one that is based on norms of economic justice as well as comparative advantage and national interest.”
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Chasing Ice

ice bookThe Arts Festival will host a book-signing by alumnus and noted nature photographer James Balog on Apr. 25 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall. He will be signing copies of his book, ICE: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers, a visual chronicle of the world’s majestic ice formations and the effects of climate change. The book is part of Balog’s multimedia project involving scientists, videographers, photographers, and a team of extreme-weather expedition specialists called Extreme Ice Survey, designed to document changes in the glacial landscape. Through EIS, images are captured in Greenland, Iceland, the Nepalese Himalaya, Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, the French and Swiss Alps, Canada, Iceland, and Bolivia. The resulting documentary, “Chasing Ice,” winner of Sundance’s Excellence in Cinematography Award for U.S. Documentary Filmmaking, will be screened after the book-signing at 8:00 p.m. in Devlin, Room 008. A discussion will follow. Sponsors: the Institute of Liberal Arts, BCEEAN, the Environmental Studies Program, the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, EcoPledge, and the Arts Council. Free registration required.
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Arts Festival to honor Polito

politoPoet, essayist and biographer Robert Polito will be presented with the 2013 Alumni Award for Artistic Achievement on Apr. 26 at Boston College’s annual Arts Festival. Polito is being honored by the University’s Arts Council for his distinguished career in the arts which includes his collections of poetry, Hollywood & God and Doubles. His book Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson received the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award in Criticism. This summer, he will become president of the Poetry Foundation. On Apr. 25, Polito will give a public reading of his work on campus at 6:30 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 305.
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