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Bookmarks: Recent publications from Furman writers


Last updated June 3, 2013

By News administrator

CATHERINE CLAIRE LARSON ’98, Waiting in Wonder: Growing in Faith While You’re Expecting (Thomas Nelson, 2012). The publisher says, “With Waiting in Wonder, readers are guided through the weeks of pregnancy with devotions for reflection and guided questions for pondering deeper into their experiences both spiritually and physically. Each devotion includes Scripture and journaling space for writing personal thoughts, prayers, dreams, even love letters to the growing baby.” Larson lives in Ashburn, Va., and is the author of As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda. Visit catherineclairelarson.com.

HEATHER WILLIS ALLEN ’95 and Sebastien Dubrell, Alliages culturels: La société française en transformation (Heinle Cengage, 2013). Allen has taught French at the University of Wisconsin since 2011. This university-level textbook about contemporary French culture enriches students’ knowledge of France and French society in the 21st century through the analysis and interpretation of textual artifacts, while simultaneously developing their advanced linguistic abilities.

CHRISTOPHER BUNDY ’88, Baby, You’re a Rich Man (C&R Press, 2013). This novel, illustrated by Max Currie, follows the story of Kent Richman, a down-on-his luck, B-level variety star on Japanese television who is forced to go into hiding when he becomes the target of an escaped prisoner. Kent winds up at a Buddhist retreat where, the publisher says, he embarks on “a journey of mishap, paranoia, desperation, and self-discovery that leads to an illuminating showdown as he attempts to right the wrongs of his past. Rich Man offers a unique look into contemporary Japan and the ubiquitous struggle for a place to call home.” Bundy teaches writing and literature at the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art and Design. Visit christopherbundy.net.

VICTORIA JACKSON ’81, Is My Bow Too Big? How I Went from SNL to the Tea Party (White Hall Press, 2012). The Washington Post once said of the former “Saturday Night Live” star, “If you opened her head, it would be filled with cotton candy.” But Jackson has taken full advantage of her daffy comedic persona, and her autobiography describes how she went from a “Bible-believing, piano-playing, TV-free home in Miami” to Furman on a gymnastics scholarship, and eventually to show business fame. It was on the Furman stage, she once said, that she realized the magic of making people laugh, and in the years since she’s done just that. More recently she’s achieved prominence as a political pundit and “Tea Party Princess.” Visit victoriajackson.com.

LINDA HEATWOLE JACOBS ’74, Jackson Hole Journey (Camel Press, 2013). The fourth novel in the author’s Yellowstone Series is now in paperback after first being released as an audio original in 2010. A finalist in the 2011 Spur Awards from Western Writers of America, Jacobs offers a coming-of-age story about two brothers on a dude ranch whose rivalry comes to a head when a beautiful Italian immigrant arrives on the scene. The book is set against the backdrop of the 1925 Gros Ventre landslide disaster and subsequent 1927 flood. Jacobs, who worked as a geologist for 30 years, lives in New Mexico. Visit readlindajacobs.com.

GAYLE LEWIS CARSON ’68, Wynds over Wylusing (Tate Publishing, 2013). A dying grandmother, Martha Rutledge, decides to reveal her family’s history to her granddaughter. The story begins in the late 18th century at the court of Marie Antoinette, whose second son, Louis-Charles XVII, is smuggled into the United States. From there the book follows the life of the lost Dauphin, his connection to the modern-day Rutledges, and the family mystery that spans two continents and five generations. Carson, a former teacher and business owner, lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C. She based the story on a tale her grandmother told her.

JACK McINTOSH ’52, Don’t Kill All the Lawyers — I’ll Give You a Short List (McIntosh, 2012). From his childhood in Charleston, S.C. — where he says he shared a bedroom with a ghost — to his adventures in the military and law school and, finally, as a small-town lawyer, the author has collected a host of stories and developed plenty of wisdom. He shares his insights and humor in this book, illustrated by award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail. National Public Radio’s Dick Estell featured the book on his “Radio Reader” program in March. Estell said, “Jack tells us that lawyers can be stuffy AND funny, and he writes about his experiences in words even I can understand. He should be proud of this book.”

FACULTY/STAFF

SAMUEL IRVING BRITT, The Children of Salvation: Ritual Struggle in a Liberian Aladura Church (University of South Carolina Press, 2012). The Aladura Church, with nearly one million adherents worldwide, combines traditional Christian liturgy, a theology of the spirit, and creative ritual strategies and social practices. Aladura faith practices emphasize the role of the prophet/healer, who embodies virtue (spiritual power) and guides the faithful along a journey of ritual struggle toward salvation. In his book Britt explores the relationship between worldview and ritual action in the church, as well as the influence of Nigerian and Liberian traditions in shaping its character. In doing so he provides the first in-depth study of an African Initiated Church in Liberia. Britt, a 1973 Furman graduate, is the Gordon Poteat Professor of Asian Studies and Religion and chair of the religion department.

GAIL S. McDIARMID and Marilyn S. McGee, Running for Home (Sundog Enterprises, 2013). McDiarmid is an assistant in the Furman sociology department. Her sister, and co-author, have spent years observing and writing about the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies. Their story, for younger readers, follows the adventures of Chinook the wolf, Wapiti the elk and Mochni the raven. The authors ask, “What happens when an indigenous animal, missing for more than 70 years, is restored to its natural habitat?” The illustrations by Durwood Coffey feature hidden animals for readers to discover. Both authors are on the advisory board for the National Wolf Watcher Coalition.

Image from shutterstock.com.

 

 

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