Brandeis Magazine

Former South African judge Richard Goldstone was revered for his anti-apartheid work, and for prosecutions that held Yugoslavian and Rwandan leaders accountable for mass atrocities. Then a flawed investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel in Gaza called his reputation into question. Terris, dean of the Al-Quds Bard College of Arts and Sciences, and director emeritus of Brandeis’ International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, takes a fresh look at the Jewish jurist’s principled career.

Part of a series on East Asian popular culture, this volume of essays, co-edited by fine arts professor Wong, surveys the garments, accessories and fabrics of modern Asia. Tailored for a wide range of readers, including students of visual culture and art history, the book touches on topics as diverse as school uniforms in modern Japan and ladies’ fans in Republican China.

Assistant professor of music Desmond explores the French ars nova, the revolutionary style that transformed music in the late Middle Ages. This so-called new art, she finds, grew out of innovations in music notation that made good on what was then an astonishing claim: Whatever can be sung can also be written down.

A glowing New York Times review and favorable comparisons to “The Catcher in the Rye” have greeted this debut novel, a first-person coming-of-age tale set in the 1990s. Lucy Adler, a cynical, sensitive 17-year-old at an elite Manhattan prep school, is most herself making shots and talking trash on the public basketball courts, until unrequited love forces her to see life through new eyes.

National Book Award-winning novelist Ha Jin pens a biography of Li Bai (701-762), a romantic poet who enjoyed rock-star status during the Tang Dynasty and is wildly popular in China still. Though the truth was likely more prosaic, legend holds that Li Bai drowned after drunkenly trying to embrace the moon’s reflection on a river. Luckily for readers, his sublime verse endures.

In a sequel to his novel “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” Albom revisits maintenance man Eddie and Annie, the little girl whose life Eddie saves in the first book, imagining their reunion in the afterlife. In heaven, Albom writes, we may finally “realize how much we all affect one another, every day of this life.”

On fire to make your own sambal oelek, Sriracha, Thai red curry paste or gochujang? Then hotfoot it out to get this cookbook, which tells you how to whip up a variety of Asian chili sauces and gives you plenty of recipes to use them in. A piquant follow-up to Kuan’s 2012 “The Chinese Takeout Cookbook.”

American surgeon Natalie March believes her Ukrainian grandmother died in a Stalin-era gulag. Then a Russian ballerina who claims to be Natalie’s cousin turns up to drop the news that the grandmother is still alive. With that, the wheels of this thriller engage, plunging Natalie into a frightening whirl of family secrets and political intrigue, as she’s hounded by Russian agents and CIA operatives alike.

Eminent scholars choose locations related to the Civil War — contemporary photographs show us what those sites look like now — and explain why they mattered to the conflict’s outcome and the course of American history. Places selected include Devil’s Den at Gettysburg, Burnside Bridge at Antietam and the McLean House in Appomattox. Gallman is a history professor at the University of Florida.

America has divided into deeply partisan camps. But when did the chasm appear, and why has it gotten so wide? Should we blame technology? The disappearance of working- and middle-class jobs? Historian Zelizer and his co-author sift through the past 45 years for answers to our political, economic and social disunion.

Kopley, emeritus professor of English at Penn State DuBois, authors a targeted study of “centers” found in works of fiction over the past 180 years, from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Zadie Smith. Observant readers, Kopley reminds us, look for words or dramatic actions that mirror each other, because they often frame passages that are rich with meaning.

Ibson, emeritus professor of American studies at Cal State, Fullerton, explores the about-face that ambushed many World War II soldiers, when the close bonds they developed with one another during wartime were mocked and derided once they got home. This negative reaction to male same-sex intimacy, the author asserts, had a powerful impact on notions about masculinity and homophobia in the second half of the 20th century.

A producer for Public Radio’s “Living on Earth” program, Lender tells the true story of a bold seagull who makes daily visits to the author’s house for food, announcing his arrival by firmly knocking on the front door with his beak. Written in rhyme and animated by vivid illustrations, this is a charming book for young bird lovers.

According to current public-health recommendations and the women who follow them, healthy pregnancies begin long before conception. But when women eat, drink and exercise with their future babies in mind, do they really reduce their reproductive risks? And might these pre-pregnancy pressures represent an unhealthy obsession with controlling women’s bodies? Waggoner, a Florida State sociologist, considers the complexities.

In the early days of modern reproduction technology, sperm and egg donors rarely knew their far-flung offspring, and siblings were often unaware of siblings. Today, social media are helping strangers trace their shared genetic ties, which are being woven into a new kind of family, as Hertz, professor of sociology, and women’s and gender studies at Wellesley, and her co-author document.

Three generations of women in a New England family try to maintain appearances while their lives are roiled by the cruelty of the clan’s patriarch. This first novel, which earned the University of New Orleans Press Publishing Lab Prize, is raw with anger, memory and heartbreak.

Essayists put the election of President Donald Trump into historical context, with an emphasis on what the campaign revealed about gender and race issues in America. Commentaries range from “Trump in the Land of Oz: Pathologizing Hillary Clinton and the Feminine Body” to “How to Turn a Bernie Bro Into a Russian Bot.” Mandell is associate professor of communication at Rochester Institute of Technology.

This memoir by Rosetree — known as Laura Rosenbaum during her Brandeis years — is both personal memoir and an account of a purpose-driven spiritual quest. By the time the book ends (when the author is a young newlywed), she has survived a difficult mother, thrived at Brandeis, practiced meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Ram Dass, and located her confidence as a poet.

Packing the emotional resonance of a fairy tale, this true story of a small feral cat who traded a precarious existence for a warm welcome into DesPres’ home will captivate readers 3 to 8 years old. Some of the proceeds from the sale of the book will help support animal shelters across the U.S.

Veteran career consultant Asinof and her co-author help job seekers and speed-daters develop artful responses to the universal conversation starter “Tell me about yourself.” In addition to explaining how to create personal introductions that work, the authors reveal the secrets of writing effective personal bios.

The world’s first Muslim superhero (who made his inaugural appearance in a 1940s adventure comic) suits up again in a 160-page full-color graphic novel. This time around, Kismet augments his powers with 21st-century technology as he attempts to knock out bigotry, greed and ignorance. Author Lewis has a PhD in religion and literature from Boston University.

As Moses leads the exodus out of Egypt, an Israelite boy collects the small beautiful things he spots along the way — glittering stones, bug wings, bits of string — and finds a way to use his treasures to honor God. An inspiring biblical story for readers ages 3-8.

A composition rhetoric-reader for first-year college students, organized around the “writing about writing” approach, which emphasizes reading and writing about writing itself. Pieces by Anne Lamott and Donald M. Murray are among the essays included. McMillan is chair of Pace University’s English and modern language studies department.

This military history of the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah analyzes the strategic and operational innovations and adaptations both sides have developed during the ongoing strife. Marcus, a fellow in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, is an expert in organizational learning.

In the decades following World War II, state governments often outpaced the national government in their determination to address five issues: urban planning and redevelopment, mass transit and highways, higher education, subsidized housing, and the environment. Bloom, a social science professor at New York Institute of Technology, focuses largely on initiatives undertaken in New York, led by then-governor Nelson Rockefeller.

Hardin, an anthropologist at Pacific University, studies how Samoans who are Pentecostal Christians deal with cardiometabolic disorders like type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, which have been exacerbated by globalization and the islanders’ changing diets. Pentecostal teachings and social connections formed at church have a positive effect on how actively Samoans address their health needs, she finds.

Spero, a professor of international politics at Fitchburg State, takes a look at how medium-size states under thoughtful, strategic leadership can not only survive but thrive, and even make pivotal contributions to their region’s stability. He pays particular attention to three dissimilar countries on different continents: Poland, South Korea and Bolivia.