Books by UMW Alumni
Fear the Drowning Deep
Fear the Drowning Deep
By Sarah Glenn Peters Marsh ’10, M.Ed. ’11
Skyhorse Publishing, October 2016
Sixteen-year-old Bridey Corkill has hated the sea since she saw something lure her granddad off a cliff and into a watery grave. NPR critic Caitlyn Paxson said the author paints a portrait of an Isle of Man fishing village “where people are disappearing and mythical creatures may be to blame.…When [Bridey] finds a mysterious young man washed up on the beach, she will have to put aside her terror of the sea to protect her loved ones.” NPR named Fear the Drowning Deep among its best books of 2016.
Pretend We Are Lovely
Pretend We Are Lovely
By Nicole L. “Noley” Reid ’95
Tin House Books, July 2017
Set in Blacksburg, Reid’s debut novel details a summer in the life of a Virginia family seven years after the tragic and suspicious death of a son and sibling. Kirkus, in a starred review, wrote of “prose that ambulates between stark, hallucinatory, fuddled, and chewy according to the guiding character’s point of view.” Publishers Weekly named it a “Best Book of Summer” and Oprah Magazine a “Book to Pick Up Now.”
Virginia Wine
Virginia Wine: Four Centuries of Change
By Andrew A. Painter ’02
George Mason University Press, October 2017
Painter’s book chronicles the personalities, places, and personal and political struggles that have helped establish Virginia as one of the nation’s preeminent wine regions.
Untold Journey
The Untold Journey: The Life of Diana Trilling
By Natalie Robins ’60
Columbia University Press, May 2017
Robins explores the life that literary critic, author, and New York intellectual Diana Trilling led with literary critic Lionel Trilling. Ms. Magazine recommended the book in its
“10 feminist books to read this summer.”
Beholder’s Eye
Beholder’s Eye
By Kelly Cherry ’61
Groundhog Poetry Press, August 2017
Cherry’s travels in the United States, Germany, Poland, Russia, Hungary, western Europe, Finland, and elsewhere inspired this collection. Her poems are clear and deftly crafted, sometimes profound, and often witty.
Weather
Weather
By Kelly Cherry ’61
Rain Mountain Press, September 2017
Cherry explores weather in poems such as Birds on the Patio Feeders, No. 19, Sleet, Tornado in Wisconsin, Indian Summer, Snow, and Wind. She ventures light years out into the cosmos and returns to the intimacy of thrushes at the feeder and the fluff of her dog’s coat.
Another Bungalow
Another Bungalow
By Maura Payne Way ’94
Press 53, September 2017
Way’s poems explore how home and the small moments of our days imprint memory, meaning, and perspective on our lives.
Book by Faculty
The American Middle Class
The American Middle Class: An Economic Encyclopedia of Progress and Poverty
Volumes 1 and 2
Edited by UMW Professor of Economics
Robert Rycroft
Greenwood, May 2017
This two-volume textbook argues that the American dream is not rising to the top 1 percent of society in wealth, but instead is joining the great middle class through hard work and self-discipline. Booklist, in a starred review, called it an excellent resource for high school, public and academic libraries, and anyone doing research in the social sciences.