Boston College alumna Leslie Bilodeau Placzek has written a book titled The Audacious Adventures of Zazoo Plazz: Part-Time Superhero, Full-Time Mom, a humorous collection of vignettes that capture the quirky imagination of her alter ego, Zazoo Plazz. The stories follow Zazoo from her childhood in Connecticut to her mid-life as a wife, mother, and career woman. Placzek says she hopes her stories honor the superhero in all women. In an interview with the Journal Inquirer in Connecticut, Placzek said her book is timely given the pandemic. “Both humor and nostalgia play an important role during tough times, strengthening our immune system, and reminding us we came through trying times before, with the help of our communities and loved ones.” You can follow Placzek on Facebook.
The humor of Zazoo
At God’s right hand
D. Clint Burnett, who earned a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Boston College, has published Christ’s Enthronement at God’s Right Hand and Its Greco-Roman Cultural Context (De Gruyter | 2021). From the publisher: “Psalm 110:1 is the most referenced Old Testament verse among the documents that make up the New Testament. While most scholars have focused on why the earliest Christians fixated on this verse, little attention has been paid to why Ps 110:1 and its application to Jesus’s exaltation became so widespread in early Christianity. Burnett’s study shows that the Greco-Roman practices of temple and throne sharing contributed to the widespread Christian use of Ps 110:1.” Burnett is a New Testament scholar who teaches at Johnson University in Tennessee. His previous book is Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions: An Introduction (Hendrickson, 2020).
Holistic nursing
Boston College graduate Mary A. Blaszko Helming, a board-certified advanced holistic nurse, is one of the editors of the eighth edition of Dossey & Keegan’s Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice (Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2021). Helming, professor emerita of nursing at Quinnipiac University, has been a family nurse practitioner for 40 years, specializing in family and internal medicine practice, urgent care, and student/occupational health. The first edition of Dossey and Keegan’s Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice, a comprehensive textbook based on key concepts of holistic nursing, was published in 1988. The other editors of this eighth edition are: Deborah A. Shields, Karen M. Avino, and William E. Rosa. The text focuses on theories, research, and evidence-based/evidence-informed practices supporting holistic nursing as a recognized nursing specialty. Dossey & Keegan’s Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice carries the American Holistic Nurses Association Seal of Distinction.
Father and son
My Good Son, a new book by Boston College alumna Yang Huang, is winner of the University of New Orleans Publishing Lab Prize. In the novel, Huang explores both the deep power and the profound burdens of parental love through the story of Mr. Cai, a tailor in post-Tiananmen China, and his only son Feng. Like many of his generation, Mr. Cai’s most fervent desire is for his son to succeed. He manages to get Feng to pass his entrance exams, and turns to an American customer, Jude, to sponsor his studies in the States. This scheme, hatched between the older Chinese man and a handsome gay American ex-pat, exposes readers to the parallels and differences of American and Chinese cultures—father-son relationships, familial expectations, sexuality, social mobility, and privilege. Huang grew up in China’s Jiangsu province and participated in the 1989 student uprisings. She graduated with an M.A. in English from Boston College. Her other works include in My Old Faithful (winner of the Juniper Prize for fiction) and Living Treasures (winner of the Nautilus Book Award silver medal in fiction). Learn more in this Q&A with the author (scroll down).
Catherine the Great, a Dutch Golden Age masterpiece, and a shipwreck
In 1771, a merchant ship out of Amsterdam, Vrouw Maria, crashed off the stormy Finnish coast, taking her historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The vessel was delivering a dozen Dutch masterpiece paintings—including The Nursery by Rembrandt’s student Gerrit Dou—to Catherine the Great. The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure (Simon & Schuster | Pegasus Books, 2020), a new book by Boston College scholar Gerald Easter and travel writer Mara Vorhees, combines art, history, and maritime mystery into a gripping tale of the loss and recovery of Vrouw Maria. Easter is a professor of political science who teaches and writes about Russian/East European politics and history. The book was highlighted by Smithsonian magazine. An excerpt was published by the Daily Beast.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged art, nonfiction, Political Science department, Russia
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Christianity’s earliest mystic
In the new book Paul: Christianity’s Premier Apostolic Mystic (Cascade Books, 2021), Boston College Professor Emeritus of Theology Harvey Egan, S.J., a renowned scholar of Christian mysticism, writes about Saint Paul the Apostle, Christianity’s earliest mystic. Fr. Egan focuses on Paul’s mystical consciousness and mystical life—the explicit and direct consciousness of the immediate and direct presence of the Trinity and/or Jesus-Messiah. It underscores mystical experience not only as discrete, individual experiences but also as experience in the sense that an experienced musician instinctively knows and loves music. From the light issuing from the risen Jesus-Messiah, whom he encountered on the Damascus road, Paul mystically read the Jewish Scriptures and comprehended that God consummated Israel’s history through the sending of Jesus-Messiah and the Holy Spirit. Fr. Egan taught at BC for 40 years. He is the author of several books, including Soundings in the Christian Mystical Tradition, Karl Rahner: Mystic of Everyday Life, and Christian Mysticism: The Future of a Tradition, and he produced a multimedia lecture series called “The Christian Mystical Tradition.” He also recently published an article titled “Ignatius, Prayer and the Spiritual Exercises” for The Way, an international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality, published by the British Jesuits.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Catholic, Jesuit author, Theology Department
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Writings from Maxim D. Shrayer
BC Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Maxim D. Shrayer writes about his foray into the labyrinth of Russian bureaucracy in the essay “A Return to Kafka” for Tablet, a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture. He also conducted a Q&A with Cynthia L. Haven about her new book, The Man Who Brought Brodsky into English: Conversations with George L. Kline, via 3 Quarks Daily. Earlier this year, on the occasion of his father David Shrayer-Petrov’s birthday, he published an English translation of Shrayer-Petrov’s short memoir of Russian chansonnier Alexander Vertinsky, in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Shrayer is an author, editor, and translator whose publications include Of Politics and Pandemics: Songs of a Russian Immigrant, Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story, Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, and Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature, among other titles.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Eastern/Slavic/German Studies Department, Russia
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Losing touch
In a new book, Charles Seelig Professor of Philosophy Richard Kearney offers a timely, clarion message about importance of the sense of touch, an essential essence of our humanness. Touch: Recovering Our Most Vital Sense (Columbia University Press, 2021) captures Kearney’s meditation on what he calls touch hunger, exacerbated by our digital age. He says that people have forgotten how important touch is, but that tactile communication—to touch and be touched—is absolutely fundamental to our physical and mental well-being. BC News | GBH Radio
The Sun and the Moon
Boston College alumnus Chuck Abdella has published a new young adult fantasy novel titled The Sun and the Moon. From the author: “Centerton seems like a typical suburb with a normal high school, filled with ordinary students, but that’s only half the story. The world is more complicated than anyone at Centerton High might believe. The world is in danger—possibly two worlds.” Abdella is also the author of the four-book fantasy series The Outcasts. He teaches history at a high school in Massachusetts.
Learning to Pray
James Martin, S.J., who received the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 2018, has written a new book that offers a comprehensive guide to prayer for everyone from the doubtful skeptic to the devout believer. Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone (Harper One, 2021) looks at ways to pray, what happens when you pray, and challenges in the life of prayer. Prayer, according to Fr. Martin, is open and accessible to anyone and has the power to transform those who make it a regular practice. Fr. Martin is a bestselling author whose previous works include The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, Jesus: A Pilgrimage, and Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, among other titles. Fr. Martin talks about his new book in this video.
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