Explore Forum

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.

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 everyon

Little Wade and Watchtower, Abigail and the Great Gang Trap by Sean Mullan aka Sean March. This novel tumbles young readers (and the rest of us) into the exciting and dangerous world of late nineteenth-century New York, where natural and supernatural forces converge, bringing on a cosmic battle of

Diamonds, Poems by Camille Guthrie ff. With Diamonds, Camille Guthrie lets her hair down. If Mrs. Maisel and T.S. Eliot had a love child, it would be Diamonds. I laughed my way through many of these poems but still took care to keep my iPad handy. After all, there was plenty to check up on: Picts

The Wakeful Wanderer’s Guide : To Disillusionment by Jim Infantino.’83 This is the second volume of the story of the northeast after a giant wave has collapsed civilization as we know it, submerging urban centers and driving people farther west. New trouble was brewing in the first book; now it h

Afterimage: A Brokenhearted Memoir of a Charmed Life by Carla Malden. I read this book some time ago and didn’t write it up until now because in the book Carla stated that she had been in school in California since first grade. I saw this book mentioned in an old Class Notes but then wondered if c

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, authority

The Real Presence by Ron Singer te. Demographics are important. The Real Presence takes place mostly in Nigeria, the most populace country in Africa with over 200,000,000 inhabitants. The continent has a population of more than 1.3 billion. I point this out because even though Africa has gained a

All the Living, A Novel of a Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by Henrietta Buckmaster. To depict a figure as illustrious a Shakespeare in a work of fiction requires a courageous writer. Buckmaster tackles this task with energy; scenes spring to life and a very human Will emerges. Lit

The Lion in the Stone by Henrietta Buckmaster (novel). The secretary-general of the UN is the protagonist of this post-Vietnam war novel. Devan Moragodo, a Ceylonese diplomat, heads up this powerful international body and is pleased to preside over what appears to be a moment of peace, one

In Captivity by Camille Guthrie ff. Inspired by the Medieval tapestries of the Hunt of the Unicorn in the Cloisters, Camille frames human experience as a hunt in various forms, some obvious and some shrouded in ambiguity. Mesmerizing and complex, this collection of poems captivates the reader with

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 podcasts

Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr. Having loved the team Caleb put together in his novels situated in the late nineteenth century, The Alienist and Angel of Darkness, I was curious about this novel. What kind of mystery would show up in the twenty-first century and who would solve it?

Domina Virgin Mater Trix: The Kaleidoscopic Identity of Women by Christel Johnson f. Christel’s book is a copiously researched scholarly study, that shows how stereotypes rearrange themselves like DNA (her metaphor) generating unique literary and real-life heroines. The title refers to four femal

Alma Presses Play by Tina Cane ff. Tina Cane, former French teacher at Friends and present poet laureate of the state of Rhode Island, offers a fresh look at what it feels like to be thirteen. Alma is a New York kid living in the East Village; her world begins with her family, a Chinese mother and a

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, B

My Last Days by Lou Rowan ff. When I began reading this autobiography of Superman, I thought of Candide, another of literature’s great innocents who filter their alarm at the evils so prevalent in human behavior through their ever-surprised naiveté. In this case, our wholesome extraterrestrial sup

Flight to Freedom, The Story of the Underground Railroad by Henrietta Buckmaster. Eighteen years after Buckmaster wrote Let My People Go, she wrote this work, which concerns much of the same material but which is geared toward younger readers. Chapters are shorter and less detailed and her style is

All About, Sir Walter Raleigh by Henrietta Buckmaster. This is Buckmaster’s contribution to a series of books (the All About series) for young readers. Sir Walter Raleigh emerges as a complex, heroic individual whose life of adventure is marked by great highs and lows. The book is an exciting r

Wait Until Evening by Henrietta Buckmaster (novel). The title comes from a quote from Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex: “One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.” The title gives hope that the protagonist, Catherine Mills, will find solace at the end of her challenging ordeal

Listening is an Act of Love, A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project by Dave Isay. StoryCorps is among the most significant and far-reaching accomplishments of any Friends Seminary Alum. In addition to the many uplifting, heart wrenching and captivating stories in this volume, t

The Matrix, Poems: 1960-1970 by N. H. Pritchard ff. When I first came to Friends Seminary, Norman Pritchard was Poet in Residence. I don’t know of anyone else who ever served in that capacity. He floated about the school in a long white robe; I thought of him earlier this year when I passed throu

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 the

Flower Diary, In which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries, and Opens a Door by Molly Peacock ff. The beauty of Flower Diary is not confined to its poetic prose; the tactile and visual elegance of the book itself is a complementary pleasure. The exquisite paintings reproduced in each chapter

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,

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 quiet

Earth Squad: 50 People who are Saving the Planet by Alexandra Zissu ’92. I can well imagine this book making its way into the curriculum of a place like, well, Friends Seminary. I would love to see every fifth grader (random choice) prepare a Power Point on one of these individuals and figure out h

Let My People Go by Henrietta Buckmaster. This seems to have been Buckmaster’s first book. It came out in 1941, and recounts the highly dramatic and complex story of slavery in America, of the forces that sought to hold onto it and the forces that wanted to abolish it. Here is history where congr

The Seminole Wars by Henrietta Buckmaster. The story of the conquest of Florida is full of valiance and betrayal, colorful chiefs with curious names such as Wild Cat, Osceola, The Prophet, and Tiger Tail, and American military men who treated their adversaries with the gamut of postures – from admi

Paul: A Man who changed the World by Henrietta Buckmaster. As a Lutheran minister’s daughter, I grew up hearing a reading from Paul’s letters every Sunday in church. Like Buckmaster, I found Paul’s epistles compelling. Who can forget his “faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is