Book Report

The Scorpio Races By Maggie Stiefvater ’03 The Scorpio Races, winner of a Michael L. Printz Honor for excellence in teen literature and the Odyssey Honor for best audiobook for young adults, combines an island setting, dangerous horse racing, and a budding teenage romance that pits the players against death. The Los Angeles Times said of it, “A thrilling book that’s as unusual as it is alluring.” Published by Scholastic Press, October 2011 So There! By Nicole Louise Reid ’95 A collection of nine short stories about defiant women and girls standing at the edge of rebirth. Published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press, October 2011 Masculinity in Children’s Animal Stories, 1888- 1928: A Critical Study of Anthropomorphic Tales by Wilde, Kipling, Potter, Grahame and Milne By Wynn William Yarbrough ’91 This text examines the role of masculinity in the enduring animal tales produced around the turn of the 20th century. Published by McFarland Press, June 2011 … [Read more...]

Secure the Shadow By Claudia Emerson, UMW professor of English and Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry Death comes calling in Claudia Emerson’s Secure the Shadow. But as the poetry collection – dedicated to the memory of her father and brother, who both died within a three-year span – delves into the darkness of demise, it also illuminates the idea of conservation. It “may seem to be about death, the brother’s death, the father’s death, everyone’s death,” wrote Virginia Poet Laureate Kelly Cherry ’61. “Yet the poems themselves…are the poet’s brilliant argument for life.” Emerson’s words explore cultural and historical aspects of dying through everything from a burning home to the slaughter of farm animals, and, most profoundly, through the loss of her own family members. But, as its title – an old ad for postmortem images – suggests, the work extols preservation, and the author pays homage to the children photographed in death who live on in dusty … [Read more...]