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.

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 th

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 quie

The Moon Juice Cookbook, Cosmic Alchemy for a Thriving Body, Beauty, and Consciousness by Amanda Chantal Bacon 00’s? The Moon Juice Cookbook makes healthy eating mouthwatering and stunningly beautiful. Amanda explains that she got into the world of food preparation in an effort to maximize fee

Girldrive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism by Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein early 2000's. Over Bloody Marys, two young women hatch the idea of a cross country road trip during which they will take the pulse of the American woman, listen to her stories, and find out how

Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas by Paul Chevigny 50’s is the story of police abuse of power, whether unnecessary deadly force in the street or torture behind closed doors. Paul Chevigny examines police departments in Los Angeles and New York City in the US and then Sao Paulo Bra

Moby-Duck, the True story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them , by Donovan Hohn ff. The title seems to tell it all but it neglects just one or two items – like the hilarity, the quirky

Atlas of the North American Indian by Carl Waldman ’65. Anything that can be tracked down about the native Americans from time immemorial to the Twenty-First Century can be found in this thorough and amazingly researched tome. The many maps (this is an atlas, after all) show the movement of groups

Split Image, The Life of Anthony Perkins by Charles Winecoff ’78. Split Image is a remarkably researched and compellingly written story of an actor we think we know – after all, he’s very famous and we’ve all seen him in Psycho – but whose life turns out to be charged with complexity. Meant t

On the Sea of Memory, A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering by Jonathan Cott ‘62 . This book begins as a critique of electroconvulsive therapy, which robbed the author of fifteen years of memory, but ends up being a deep dive into the science of memory, memory disorders, the reliability of mem

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 everyo

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,

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, authorit

Dependent States, The Child’s Part in Nineteenth Century Culture by Karen Sanchez-Eppler 70’s This work provides a close, scholarly look at the role of the child in the American culture in the 1800’s. Karen sees children as both assimilators of cultural norms (since they are dependent on adults)

wd 50: The Cookbook by Wylie Dufresne circa '88 with Peter Meehan. Art and science combine in this wildly original cookbook to make dishes that amaze the eye as well as the palate (I'm sure, though I have never tasted them. Unfortunately, I was already in Florida when wd-50 was going strong). Wy

Running Time: Films of the Cold War by Nora Sayre 60’s. The Fifties were a time when movies reflected and interacted with politics and international rivalry dominated American culture. The house on Un-American Activities Committee and the McCarthy investigations effected a cold war within the sta

Aging Famously by Elizabeth Meade Howard, Middle school in the 50’s. Elizabeth introduces us to upwards of 30 old people who are not letting age cramp there zest for life and achievement. The cover undoubtedly represents the cupcake Obama gave to journalist Helen Thomas when she turned 89. He al

Gutsy, the Food-Mood Method to Revitalize Your Health Beyond Conventional Medicine by Nan Gaines Foster circa ’80. Propelled by her own health crisis, Nan has become an expert on healing through nutrition and delved into the science behind improvement through lifestyle change, making it her life w

The Philadelphia Chromosome, A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and a Life Saving Treatment by Jessica Wapner ’92. Here is an exciting story of the arduous path from the discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome, a mutation, in 1959, to the clinical trials and finally widespread use of a drug, Gle

The Measure of Injury, Race, Gender, and Tort Law by Martha Chamallas & Jennifer B. Wriggins ?. This book helps define some new ways of thinking about injustice embedded in tort law and how to remedy it. Who knew that tort law could be so riveting? The authors seem to be pulling us from what the

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 podcast

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,

Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir by Geoffrey O’Brien ’66. When Geoffrey looks behind those paperback covers of seductive dames (or maybe they’re dishes) in various stages of undress, sometimes terror-stricken and sometimes just plain dead, he finds a fresh way to look a

Buy Now Pay Later by Hillel Black late 40’s? I grew up in the forties when it was customary to save up for something if you wanted to buy it. Not that our parents were so virtuous; there was just no other way. By the time Hillel Black wrote this book, published in 1961, an explosion had occurre

Prison Transformations: The System, the Prisoners, and Me by Stephen Chinlund ’51. Here is the story of an Episcopalian priest who is attracted to monastic life but finds a higher calling in helping the incarcerated find ways to transform their lives. In the early 60’s, he was hired at Saint Au

The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. Wikipedia tells me he went to Friends Seminary, so he must have attended in the 19thcentury. Elsewhere I read that he was homeschooled. When I lived in NYC, I often took guests to his home on 20thStreet. It certainly would have been convenient for his fam

The Big 50: Boston Red Sox: The Men and Moments that Made the Boston Red Sox by Evan Drellich circa ’04. This little hobby of mine, reading Friends works, often brings me to unfamiliar territory. I grew up with plenty of baseball around me because my brother loved baseball, and some of the names

Dr. Ruth’s Guide to Teens and Sex Today by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Pierre Lehu ’67. Pierre has linked up with Dr. Ruth again, this time to help parents negotiate the tricky waters of sex and teens. Parents will find the authors’ practical approach reassuring. Traditional values (sex should occur

Obselete, An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By, by Anna Jane Grossman ’98. Well it was quite a thrill to see that Anna Jane had written a book. Obsolete is a very funny book about those objects and ways of doing things that have moved from the spotlight to the dark wings. There’s

Fast Forward, How Women can Achieve Power and Purpose by Melanne Verveer and Kim K. Azzarelli (’88?). This book records the strides women have made and the work left to do in the struggle to make women coequal economic and political members of the human race. With a forward by Hillary Clinton, the