Explore Forum

The Inner Coast by Donovan Holn ff.    Donovan proves that it is not the subject matter that counts in the creation of a great essay. Rather it is a mind pitted against a puzzle. In the tradition fathered by 16thcentury Montaigne, the essays in this book invite you to examen with the author from eve

Quiet Violet Finds her Voice by Gabrielle Nidus ’93?  If you were a quiet child or if you are the parent of a quiet child, you will be heartened by this gift of loving kindness.  Violet’s longing to be visible to her peer group is countered by her inherent bashfulness.  She is a talented cook and wh

Winning Fixes Everything by Evan Drellich ‘04 This book is about baseball, but don’t expect a romance about the boys of summer or the field of dreams.  Baseball, it turns out, is a business and a rather cut-throat one at that. The front office, where every trick imaginable is dreamed up to bring a

America on Two Wheels, Biking Coast to Coast in Search of Human Stories by David King ’96.  Human stories are actually what David King finds as he bikes across the country from San Diego to Miami.  What he seeks takes a number of forms during his introspective musings as he pedals along: adventure,

In Captivity by Camille Guthrie ff. Inspired by the Medieval tapestries of the Hunt of the Unicorn in the Cloisters, Camille frames human experience as a hunt in various forms, some obvious and some shrouded in ambiguity. Mesmerizing and complex, this collection of poems captivates the reader with

Conversations with People who Hate Me by Dylan Marron ’06. The internet came along too late for me. I use it, of course, to get information and to contact people, but when I encounter a book that is steeped in this alternate universe I begin to see the possibilities it offers. Dylan does podcasts

Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr. Having loved the team Caleb put together in his novels situated in the late nineteenth century, The Alienist and Angel of Darkness, I was curious about this novel. What kind of mystery would show up in the twenty-first century and who would solve it?

Domina Virgin Mater Trix: The Kaleidoscopic Identity of Women by Christel Johnson f. Christel’s book is a copiously researched scholarly study, that shows how stereotypes rearrange themselves like DNA (her metaphor) generating unique literary and real-life heroines. The title refers to four femal

Alma Presses Play by Tina Cane ff. Tina Cane, former French teacher at Friends and present poet laureate of the state of Rhode Island, offers a fresh look at what it feels like to be thirteen. Alma is a New York kid living in the East Village; her world begins with her family, a Chinese mother and a

Castaways of the Image Planet by Geoffrey O’Brien “67. This collection of essays each first published in The New York Review of Books, the Village Voice and other periodicals over a roughly 20-year period explores a wide range of movie lore. You will come away from this book knowing Orson Welles, B

Ngongo Chronicle by Ron Singer te. This is the third in a trilogy about Africa.  The other two works, commented on at this site, are Uhuru Revisited and The Real Presence. This book has not yet been published but I was lucky enough to get a copy in advance and hope it will be available to readers ve

What is Juneteenth?  By Kirsti Jewel Peters f. This book will put young readers on a path toward reading to find answers to questions.  Now that Juneteenth has become a national holiday, they (and many adults) will wonder why is it so important?  Where did the word “Juneteenth” come from?  How shoul

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas, maybe’03. Idlewild is a small Quaker school on Fifteenth Street in Manhattan.  Fifteenth, Sixteenth, who’s counting? It would be tempting to treat this novel as a roman a clef, and once in a while communal moments at Friends Seminary do poke through the fictional sc

There’s a Mystery There, The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak by Jonathan Cott ’62.  Maurice Sendak was a great admirer of Melville, so it is fitting that Jonathan Cott takes the title of this work, which is mostly about Sendak’s Outside Over There, from Melville’s Redburn. There is enough mystery in

Listening is an Act of Love, A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project by Dave Isay. StoryCorps is among the most significant and far-reaching accomplishments of any Friends Seminary Alum. In addition to the many uplifting, heart wrenching and captivating stories in this volume, t

The Matrix, Poems: 1960-1970 by N. H. Pritchard ff. When I first came to Friends Seminary, Norman Pritchard was Poet in Residence. I don’t know of anyone else who ever served in that capacity. He floated about the school in a long white robe; I thought of him earlier this year when I passed throu

The Mailbox Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Greatest Corruption Case in Hawaii History by Alexander Silvert ’76. I literally couldn’t put this book down. Here is a story with good guys and very bad guys and at the center, a public defender who felt compelled to pursue every detail. I hope the

Flower Diary, In which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries, and Opens a Door by Molly Peacock ff. The beauty of Flower Diary is not confined to its poetic prose; the tactile and visual elegance of the book itself is a complementary pleasure. The exquisite paintings reproduced in each chapter

The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World by Dave Zirin ’91. When Colin Kaepernick took a knee, his action sent ripples out through the social atmosphere provoking and revealing unexpected courage, cowardice, bigotry and tolerance. All across the land, high school football players,

Silence by Janet Gibbs (over the years Janet had many roles in the school: sewing teacher, chair of the arts department, and head of guidance) Silence is a collection of devotional texts which extol the value of silence, “silence with the self, silence with others, and silence with God.” The quiet

Sisters by Michael Polowetzky 70’s or 80’s.  Sisters is a prequel to Michael’s earlier book, Messenger.  Again we are in the world of devout and intelligent women who are eager to devote their lives to service to God and humankind.  The story unfolds mainly in a convent in the Pyrenees.  The charact

Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity by Sarah F. Derbew.  If you think that scholarship, particularly scholarship of ancient relics and literary works, is dry and tedious, think again.  Sarah Derbew’s journey back and forth through time will acquaint you with, among many other things, clay artifa

Getting Over Tom by Abigail Thomas ’59. If you have read anything I have written about Abigail Thomas, you know that I am a fan.  I want to read everything she has written.  This book of short stories, the first volume she published, probes the subtleties and complexities of being part of families t

Children of Light, Friends Seminary 1786-1986 by Nancy Gibbs ’77. This invaluable history of the school sprang from a happy coincidence: Joyce McCray’s tenure as principal at the time of the bicentennial of the school and the availability of such a promising young writer and alum as Nancy Gibbs.

More Light, Collected Masonic Writings 2017-2021 by Austin Shifrin. These thoughtful essays originally appeared in a Masonic periodical and touch on matters important not just to Masons but to the general reader curious about this oldest of fraternities. They reflect on issues of concern to everyon

Little Wade and Watchtower, Abigail and the Great Gang Trap by Sean Mullan aka Sean March. This novel tumbles young readers (and the rest of us) into the exciting and dangerous world of late nineteenth-century New York, where natural and supernatural forces converge, bringing on a cosmic battle of

Diamonds, Poems by Camille Guthrie ff. With Diamonds, Camille Guthrie lets her hair down. If Mrs. Maisel and T.S. Eliot had a love child, it would be Diamonds. I laughed my way through many of these poems but still took care to keep my iPad handy. After all, there was plenty to check up on: Picts

The Wakeful Wanderer’s Guide : To Disillusionment by Jim Infantino.’83 This is the second volume of the story of the northeast after a giant wave has collapsed civilization as we know it, submerging urban centers and driving people farther west. New trouble was brewing in the first book; now it h

Afterimage: A Brokenhearted Memoir of a Charmed Life by Carla Malden. I read this book some time ago and didn’t write it up until now because in the book Carla stated that she had been in school in California since first grade. I saw this book mentioned in an old Class Notes but then wondered if c

Glitch Feminism, A Manifesto by Legacy Russell. The world is set up with social constructs that seem to work for some but for others just don’t apply. Legacy posits the glitch as a way to make space, to assert visibility, and to break through to liberation. She does this with erudition, authority