News from RH Academic Resources

NOVA Explores Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:26:12 -0500

]]>Throughout his career in neurology, Dr. Oliver Sacks has encountered myriad patients who are struggling to cope with debilitating medical conditions. While their ailments vary, many have one thing in common: an appreciation for the therapeutic effects of music. Dr. Sacks's latest book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, explores what music can tell us about our minds. NOVA's new show follows the BBC's Alan Yentob on an intercontinental quest—from New York to England and Ireland—to meet individuals like those chronicled in Musicophilia, bringing Sacks's latest work to life through their intimate and phenomenal stories. The original PBS broadcast date will be June 23, but check your local listings for repeat air times. Click here for more information and a video extra about the program.

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Alice Munro Wins the 2009 Man Booker International Prize

Wed, 27 May 2009 10:37:58 -0500

]]>Alice Munro is the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize. The prize is awarded once every two years to a living author for a body of work that has contributed to an achievement in fiction on the world stage. Munro's latest collection of short stories, Too Much Happiness, will be published this fall by Knopf. Her previous books can be found here. Judge Jane Smiley says, "Her work is practically perfect. Any writer has to gawk when reading her because her work is very subtle and precise. Her thoughtfulness about every subject is so concentrated." She will be presented with a trophy and a check for £60,000 at a ceremony at Trinity College in Dublin on June 25th.

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In Memoriam: David Herbert Donald

Wed, 20 May 2009 10:02:01 -0500

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln biographer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, died Sunday in Boston at the age of 88. Among other books, he is the author of the classic in Lincoln scholarship, Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era.

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Sidney Hillman Foundation Journalism 2009 Book Award

Wed, 13 May 2009 14:51:50 -0500

The Sidney Hillman Foundation Journalism 2009 Book Award winners are Jane Mayer for The Dark Side (Doubleday) and Stephen Greenhouse for The Big Squeeze (Knopf). James Green, author of Death in the Haymarket (Anchor), won the Sol Stetin Award for Labor History.

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Williams College honorary degree

Tue, 12 May 2009 14:30:21 -0500

Astronaut and senator John H. Glenn, writer Tracy Kidder, and historian James M. MCPherson are among six luminaries to be awarded an honorary degree from Williams College in June of this year. Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. For more information, click here.

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The Dark Side

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:25:39 -0500

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer has won the 2009 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. The book is a study of the use of torture and other secret methods employed by the Bush administration in the name of the war on terror. Established in 1987, the Bernstein award, presented annually to a journalist whose work has brought public attention to important issues, includes a $15,000 prize. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins was a finalist.

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2009 PEN Literary Award Winners

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:31:29 -0500

]]>Cormac McCarthy has won the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. McCarthy received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Road (Vintage), and his 2005 novel No Country for Old Men (Vintage) was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Click here for more titles by Cormac McCarthy.

Donald Ray Pollack has won the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers, which honors a fiction writer of a first novel or collection of short stories, for Knockemstiff (Doubleday).

Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday), was a finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction.

Sam Shepard received The PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Drama Master Playwright Award.

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Orange Prize Shortlist

Fri, 01 May 2009 17:10:02 -0500

Samantha Harvey was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for her novel The Wilderness (Nan A. Talese). The winner will be announced in June.

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John Francis's Earth Day Planetwalk

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:48:32 -0500

Coinciding with Earth Day and the trade paperback release of Planetwalker, author Dr. John Francis is conducting a 5-day expedition in East Central Ohio, April 22-27, 2009, during which time about 12 participants will continue to develop the environmental curriculum, Planetlines. The goal of the walk to raise awareness of the human environment and how each person can make the difference in preserving Planet Earth. On April 23, Dr. Francis will make a live satellite presentation from the road to the Missouri State University Public Affairs Conference on Sustainability in Springfield.
Read more about the Earth Day Planetwalk here.

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Our 2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:11:01 -0500

]]>Random House, Inc. books were awarded 2009 Pulitzer Prizes in three of the five book categories:

Fiction
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)

Biography
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)

General Nonfiction
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday)

Finalists included Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by H.W. Brands (Doubleday) for Biography, Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age, by Arthur Herman (Bantam Books) for General Nonfiction and This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust (Alfred A. Knopf) in the History category.

Click here for more information about the 2009 Pulitzer Prize.

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Free Book Download

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:00:00 -0500

]]>Random House is offering, for a limited-time-only, a completely free download of the book Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas.

In addition to the full text of the book, the free download also includes: a letter and two essays from the author, a Teacher's/Discussion Guide for Funny in Farsi and an excerpt from Firoozeh's latest book Laughing Without An Accent.

Click here now to download your free copy!

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Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:24:29 -0500

With sadness, we report the death of John Hope Franklin at the age of 94. His acclaimed textbook, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, was originally published by Knopf in 1947, and has been the foundation work of African-American history for over 60 years.

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Drew Gilpin Faust Wins the 2009 Bancroft Prize

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:58:08 -0500

]]>Drew Gilpin Faust has won the 2009 Bancroft Prize for her book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. One of the most coveted honors in the field of history, the Bancroft Prize is awarded annually by the trustees of Columbia University to the authors of books of exceptional merit in the fields of American history, biography and diplomacy

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Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:49:26 -0500

White Heat by Brenda Wineapple is the winner of the Washington Arts Club National Award for Arts Writing and Jane Mayer has won the Harvard Kennedy School's Goldsmith Prize and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Dark Side.

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Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:23:09 -0500

The Forever War by Dexter Filkins is a finalist for the Bernstein Book Award for Journalism, presented by the New York Public Library. The book has also won the $5,000 Colby Award, which recognizes a first work of fiction or nonfiction that has made a significant contribution to the public's understanding of intelligence operations, military history or international affairs.

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