Bookshelf

(Harvard Education Press, 2024).

Drawing on extensive research and case studies, the authors outline successful strategies for whole child and whole community support that can help school systems meet broader student needs in times of disruption. They focus on Integrated Student Support (ISS), an approach to education policy and practice in which schools focus on attending to students’ basic physical, social, and emotional needs before learning occurs.

According to the publisher, the book “highlights how the planning, flexibility, and wraparound services central to ISS improve the capacity of education systems to confront a wide variety of emergency situations, from natural disasters to longstanding socioeconomic pressures such as unemployment, addiction, food scarcity, homelessness, and poverty. … Distilling the ISS model into actionable steps, from assessing community needs through maintaining a cohesive network of community assets, the work prepares educational institutions to help students, families, and communities weather the turbulence of challenging events.”

 Levine is a clinical professor and director of the Education Policy Program in Drexel University’s School of Education, where he cofounded the online Community Schools Hub.

 (She Writes Press, 2024).

Klara Lieberman is 49, single, a professor of archaeology at a small college in Maine — a contained person living a contained life. That was before she receives an unexpected letter from her estranged mother, Bessie, with the long-overdue news that her father is dead. What prompts her mother’s timing? The Polish government is giving financial reparations for land it stole from its Jewish citizens during World War II, and Bessie wants the money. Klara, on the other hand, wants answers about her father. She flies to Warsaw, determined to learn more.

Thus begins a journey — a story of family and heritage and self-discovery, of family ties and friendship, of second chances and healing told by Friedman, a psychotherapist with a specialty in women’s issues, family therapy, and trauma-focused therapy. This is her first novel.

As one reviewer aptly notes: “In this page-turning novel, Susan Weissbach Friedman integrates her experience as a trauma therapist with her gifts as a storyteller to share a beautiful story of healing and transformation. Klara’s personal journey is embedded seamlessly into a background that captures the traumatic impact of the Holocaust on Polish Jewish families. Friedman guides the reader back and forth from the depths of Klara’s wounded heart to the history of Poland beyond World War II, instilling hope in the reader that both the individual and the nation are capable of moving beyond a past of devastation toward a more optimistic future.”

(Cambridge University Press, 2024).

According to the publisher, “The study of gesture — the movements people make with their hands when talking — has grown into a well-established field, and research is still being pushed into exciting new directions. Bringing together a team of leading scholars, this handbook provides a comprehensive overview of gesture studies, combining historical overviews as well as current, concise snapshots of state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary research. … Attention is given to different theoretical and methodological frameworks for studying gesture, including semiotic, linguistic, cognitive, developmental, and phenomenological theories and observational, experimental, corpus linguistic, ethnographic, and computational methods. It also contains practical guidelines for gesture analysis along with surveys of empirical research. Wide ranging yet accessible, it is essential reading for academic researchers and students in linguistics and cognitive sciences.”

(Business Expert Press, 2024).

“Both our work and private lives require us to build new institutions or renovate old ones, from launching a business in your home to creating a new corporate division at work, from establishing a local charter school to organizing an athletic club with friends,” notes the publisher. But how does one ensure that all the resources necessary for a successful building project are within reach?

In The Institution Builder’s Toolbox, the author expertly advises readers on how to negotiate each of seven developmental phases necessary to build a robust institution, from articulating a clear vision to securing the resources to make it happen. 

 Salacuse is dean emeritus and distinguished professor emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. The author of 20 books, he has served as dean of two university graduate schools, president of three national professional organizations, and chair or lead director of 15 companies. 

(New York: Hachette Go, 2024).

 “How do I build a brand in today’s social media world?” That’s the question the author, the real estate broker and star of Bravo network’s Million Dollar Listing New York, answers in this, his third book. While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated that 50% of the workforce will be the gig economy by 2027, Serhant says no one is being taught the skills or ideas to be successful in this new marketplace. “They are being trained for the jobs of a decade ago or a world where there weren’t personal brands or so many small businesses that need to brand and market themselves,” he says.

(Albany, N.Y.: King Jesus Press, 2024).

This book asks the question: “If you’re invited to the party and it’s not jumping, do you leave or stay and make the party?” Breland, the former longtime director of Hamilton’s Opportunities Programs, offers lessons for those seeking positive change to “embrace themselves, create new habits, and live the new behaviors that bring them incremental change they can believe in.” In other words, this book is a compilation of lessons to keep the party going.

(Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Special Publications, 2024).

The author, trustee professor of English emeritus at Ohio University, explores his life as a champion of the Bard and a fan of the Detroit Tigers. According to the publisher, “He saw his first Tigers game in the summer of 1950 (Hal Newhouser beat the Chicago White Sox) and his first Shakespeare play in 1953 (Alec Guinness as Richard III at Ontario’s Stratford Festival) and has spent almost 75 years enjoying and writing about the pleasures of play that each provides.

(self-published, 2022).

Written for children 7 years of age and younger, this book encourages interaction by posing questions the reader is asked to answer by drawing from their own experiences and knowledge. The story documented is true, and the characters in the book are real. The author reminds young readers not to tell anyone who is the guest, so that others will also be excited to find out “who came from nowhere.”

(Los Angeles: TKO Studios, 2023).

This colorful and engaging hardcover graphic novel by Orlando and Andrés, a chef and humanitarian, shares stories of the people involved with World Central Kitchen, an organization that has provided over 300 million meals to communities in times of crisis. Dynamic illustrations by Alberto Ponticelli bring to life the work of World Central Kitchen as its people travel into natural disasters across the world to bring food and hope to those most affected by natural disasters, man-made crises, and humanitarian emergencies.

(North Charleston, S.C.: Palmetto Publishing, 2023).

In this, his first novel, the author crafts a compelling tale of intrigue and romance set in pre-World War II New York, Italy, and The Vatican. The protagonist, Tommy “Mac” McCabe Martin — who has something in common with Morelli: they are both lawyers — finds himself plucked from his Wall Street law firm and thrust into the world of international espionage.

“As a counsel to the Vatican, Mac’s descriptive reports about Italy, its people, and their sentiments toward Fascism and America earn the attention of President Roosevelt,” notes the publisher. “Yet amidst the political tension, Mac’s heart is ensnared by two women: the mysterious Slavic spy, Sara, who vanishes as swiftly as she appears, and the enchanting Italian belle, Carla, whom he weds in a ceremony worthy of royalty. As Mac’s world is further embroiled in the war’s turmoil, their lives take unexpected turns, from the glitzy world of Broadway to the dangerous frontlines in Sicily. With vivid portrayals of iconic settings like the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Little Italy, and the glamorous steamship journeys across the Atlantic, Morelli paints an immersive tapestry of love, betrayal, and destiny.”