Bad Choices Make Good Stories: Conversations about Writing is a collection of essays from writer Erin Dionne that offers a window into the craft of writing and the struggles that go along with the writing life. Dionne, a Boston College graduate, shares her experience—peppered with a healthy dose of humor—with readers in this practical, honest, and informative guide. Dionne is the author of several novels and picture books, including Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking, Secrets of a Fangirl, and Balletball.
The writing life
The High 5 Habit
Mel Robbins, a motivational speaker and former host of the daytime talk show “The Mel Robbins Show,” has published a new book, The High 5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple Habit (Hay House, 2021). Using her signature science-backed wisdom, personal stories, and testimonials from people who have followed her advice, Robbins shows readers how to make believing in themselves a habit so that they can operate with confidence and achieve happiness and results. Robbins calls the High 5 Habit a simple yet profound tool that changes one’s attitude, mindset, and behavior. She was interviewed about her book on the Today Show. Robbins is a 1994 graduate of Boston College Law School and is the most-booked woman on the speaking circuit, according to Speaking.com. Her TEDx San Francisco talk has been viewed more than 25 million times on YouTube, and her previous book, The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage, is an international bestseller.
Try a little tenderness
In his new book, Gregory Boyle, S.J., shares moving stories he has collected from his experience as founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 2021) challenges the readers’ ideas about God and about people, by showing how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous and hopeful. Fr. Boyle provides a window into a world filled with fellowship, compassion, and the transformative power of tenderness. His previous books are the bestseller Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir. Fr. Boyle earned a M.Div. degree from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in 1984; Weston Jesuit reaffiliated with Boston College as part of the establishment of the School of Theology and Ministry. Earlier this year, Fr. Boyle was presented with the School of Theology and Ministry’s Alumni Distinguished Service Award.
Posted in Alumni Authors
Tagged Catholic, Jesuit author, School of Theology and Ministry
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The price is right
How do leaders, managers, and proprietors go about the essential task of setting prices? What are some of the biases that drive decisions about pricing? In a new book, Carroll School of Management Associate Professor of Marketing Gerald Smith mixes the academic with the actionable for those in need of smarter pricing strategies. Getting Price Right: The Behavioral Economics of Profitable Pricing (Columbia University Press, 2021) is the first book to apply behavioral economics to managerial price setting. Smith pays attention to the soft skills of pricing (such as price framing, pricing strategy and “nudging”) as well as the hard skills (including value estimation and financial modeling). In Smith’s experience, the pairing of these skills leads to pricing that is more rational and ultimately successful—boosting not only revenue and profitability but also employee productivity and customer satisfaction. An award-winning instructor, Smith teaches strategic pricing management in BC’s MBA Program. He is the author of The Opt-Out Effect: Marketing Strategies That Empower Consumers and Win Customer-Driven Brand Loyalty and editor of Visionary Pricing: Reflections and Advances in Honor of Dan Nimer. Read more from the Carroll School.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged business, Carroll School of Management, marketing
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Challenging patriarchy in Pakistan
Urwa Hameed, who was accepted to Boston College at age 14 and will graduate this month with a degree in political science and international studies, has published Steering Towards Change: Women Politicians Challenging Patriarchy, Class and Power in Pakistan. Hameed was born in Pakistan, a democratic nation based on Islamic principles yet deeply rooted in traditional conservative cultural practices. The book is based on in-person interviews Hameed conducted with 45 female politicians in Pakistan. The politicians spoke to her about the role education, religion, and financial dependence played in their political journeys. Hameed was moved by the personal stories of women who had overcome poverty, patriarchal oppression, and abuse to achieve their political goals, and she hopes Steering Towards Change will serve as an inspiration for girls and young women. The book has been published in English and Urdu. Hameed plans to attend law school and envisions working as a global advocate for immigrant and women’s rights. Read more from BC News.
One hiker’s exploration of the Appalachian Trail
Over the course of 11 years, Alan Richardson, a professor of English at Boston College, hiked the entire Appalachian Trail (AT), a nearly 2,200-mile journey that extends from Georgia to Maine. His approach was unique. Rather than hike from one end to the other, Richardson “jumped and danced around,” backpacking the AT in sections and out of order. From 2004 to 2015, he explored the AT via 47 different trips. He captured his experiences in the new book, Breakfast with Salamanders: Seasons on the Appalachian Trail (2021). “Hiking the AT in sections, rather than thru-hiking it from end to end allowed me to experience the trail in every season and in all weathers…seeing an unusual variety of mosses and wildflowers, birds and mammals, and nearly every atmospheric condition you can imagine,” he writes in the book’s preface. Breakfast with Salamanders is also informed by Richardson’s practice of Zen Buddhism. He notes: “I have tried to give a sense of what mountains and rivers and the footpaths that wander through them can still mean to us at a time when the concept of nature is being challenged and the natural environment itself has come under unprecedented stress.” An expert in British Romantic literature, Richardson has taught at BC for more than 30 years. He grew up in Washington State where he would backpack and mountain climb in the North Cascade and Olympic ranges.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged English Department, environment, nature, travel
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War diary of a Boston College Jesuit
A new digital publication provides an eyewitness account of war from a Boston College Jesuit priest who served as a chaplain in the North Africa and Pacific theaters during World War II. John P. Foley, S.J., who temporarily left his post as dean of admissions and assistant dean of freshmen and sophomores at BC in 1942 to serve in the U.S. Navy, recorded his observations and experiences in a notebook. He documented horrors and heroism alike while chronicling the life and times of the young men he served, comforted, and buried. His journal has been developed into a digital work, For God and Country: The War Diary of Lieutenant Commander John P. Foley, S.J. Fr. Foley relates encounters and conversations—from the casual to the in-depth—with various officers and enlisted men and gives often vivid descriptions of the places he saw, such as the beautiful yet battle-ravaged Solomon Islands and the ruins of Tokyo. Other entries are of a more personal nature, in which he reflects on larger questions of faith and muses on the joys and sorrows of his job: helping an enlisted man sort out his complicated emotions about being in combat; giving last rites to soldiers for whom he had said Mass earlier that same day; writing letters to families informing them of a loved one’s death. For God and Country, which includes photographs and explanatory footnotes, was edited by retired Boston College Magazine Editor Ben Birnbaum and retired BC senior administrator Joseph P. Duffy, S.J., a devotee of 20th-century Jesuit history who discovered the diary in the Society of Jesus New England Provincial Archive. Read more from BC News.
Nazis in Boston
Boston College Associate Professor of History Charles R. Gallagher, S.J., has written a new book about American terrorists who, in the name of God, conspired to overthrow the government and formed an alliance with Hitler. Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front (Harvard University Press, 2021) tells the story of members of the Christian Front, who imagined themselves as crusaders fighting for the spiritual purification of the U.S., under assault from godless Communism. Fr. Gallagher chronicles the evolution of the Christian Front, the transatlantic cloak-and-dagger intelligence operations that subverted it, and the mainstream political and religious leaders who shielded the Front’s activities from scrutiny. According to the publisher, “Nazis of Copley Square is a grim tale of faith perverted to violent ends, and a warning for those who hope to curb the spread of far-right ideologies today.” A Boston Globe book review called Nazis of Copley Square “a searing examination of how [Boston] … played host to a group whose leading figures spoke favorably of Nazi Germany.” Fr. Gallagher discusses Nazis of Copley Square in this Q&A. His book is also the subject of a Commonweal podcast.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged antisemitism, Boston, History Department, Jesuit author
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Cybersecurity
Mike Steinmetz, a faculty member in the Woods College of Advancing Studies’ M.S. in Cybersecurity Policy & Governance program, has authored two chapters in the new Oxford Handbook of Cyber Security. The volume taps experts from around the world to discuss the identification, avoidance, management, and mitigation of risk in, or from, cyber space. The risk concerns harm and damage that might occur as the result of everything from individual carelessness, to organized criminality, to industrial and national security espionage and, at the extreme end of the scale, to disabling attacks against a country’s critical national infrastructure. Steinmetz’s professional background includes 25 years of service within the U.S. Department of Defense, and more than 12 years in the private sector serving in various positions inside the international aerospace defense arena where he worked on numerous cyber and cybersecurity capabilities, solutions, and international cyber business strategy. A decorated combat veteran, Steinmetz is a committee member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Classified National Information Security Program for State, Local, Tribal, and Private Sector Policy Advisory Committee.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged cybersecurity, Woods College of Advancing Studies
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Remote work is here to stay
Remote work became a necessity for many during the pandemic, and some workplaces are looking to permanently incorporate remote work into their regular operations. But remote work comes with challenges. Employees want to know how to build trust, maintain connections without in-person interactions, and strike a proper work/life balance. Managers want to know how to lead virtually, how to keep their teams motivated, what digital tools they’ll need, and how to keep employees productive. In her new book, Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere (2021, Harper Collins Business), Tsedal Neeley, a leading expert in virtual and global work, provides compelling, evidence-based solutions to pressing issues surrounding remote work, enabling workers and employers to successfully use remote work to benefit themselves, their groups, and ultimately their organizations. Neeley is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and a 1991 graduate of Boston College. She is also the author of the award-winning book, The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations. She has published extensively in leading scholarly and practitioner-oriented outlets and her work has appeared in media outlets such as BBC, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist. Neeley answered the most pressing questions about the shift to hybrid work in this piece for the Harvard Business Review.
BC Bookmarks 