Books by Mount Holyoke
Alumnae and Professors: QR

Mixed Race Students in College: The Ecology of Race, Identity, and Community on Campus By Kristen A. Renn '86 SUNY Press. 2004. Mixed Race Students in College offers a new perspective on racial identity in the United States, that of mixed-race college students making sense of the paradox of deconstructing racial categories while living on campuses sharply divided by race and ethnicity. Focusing on how peer culture shapes identity in public and private spaces, the book presents the findings of a qualitative research study involving fifty-six undergraduates from a variety of institutions. Renn uses an innovative ecology model to examine campus peer cultures and documents five patterns of multiracial identity that illustrate possibilities for integrating notions of identity construction (and deconstruction) with the highly salient nature of race in higher education. Kristen A. Renn is an assistant professor of higher, adult, and lifelong education at Michigan State University. Her books include Women in Higher Education: An Encyclopedia (2002) and Roads Taken: Women in Student Affairs at Mid-Career (2004)

Cleopatra By Ellen E. Rice '73 Sutton Publishing. 1999. Cleopatra ruled Ptolemaic Egypt from 51 to 30 BCE, the last Macedonian ruler of that country. She first ruled jointly with her brothers/husbands Ptolemy XIII and XIV, but her romantic liaisons with two of the most famous Romans of their day ensured Cleopatra's undying fame and place in history. Her relationship with Julius Caesar established her firmly on the throne. When he was assassinated, she returned to Rome from Egypt and began an ill-fated love affair with brilliant but self-indulgent Roman commander Marc Antony. Their relationship was bitterly opposed by his brother-in-law Octavian, who declared war on Egypt in 32 BCE. A decisive naval defeat at Actium sent the lovers back to Egypt, where they committed suicide and Octavian captured the city. E. E. Rice is senior research fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University, and lecturer in classical archaeology at Hertford College, Oxford. She is a specialist in military history, topography and the social history of the Hellenistic Greek world.

Alexander the Great By Ellen E. Rice '73 Sutton Publishing. 1998. King Alexander III "the Great" of Macedonia, as conqueror of the Persian Empire, was one of the greatest military commanders the world has ever known, and has been a mythical figure since his own time. This book seeks to dispel some of the myths that have grown up around him, while providing an up-to-date account of Alexander's life. Rice also gives an assessment of Alexander's personality and a summary of his legacy to the Western world. Alexander the Great is dedicated to Rice's MHC professor Betty Nye Hedberg Quinn '41, who died as Rice was writing the book.

A Field Guide to Contemporary American Architecture By Carole Lewis Rifkind '56 Dutton. 1998. Presents a thorough and comprehensive view of American architecture since the 1940s. Organized by type (e.g., private houses, public housing, art museums, religious buildings, office towers, etc.). Text is enhanced with over 300 photos and 112 graphic images of interior and exterior views as well as building plans. For browsing or serious study. Carole Rifkind is a curator, teacher, civic activist and consultant. She lives in New York City.

Nutrition For Dummies By Carol Ann Rinzler '59 IDG Books Worldwide. 1997. An up-to-date guide to nutrition, filled with practical advice about everything from fad diets to eating disorders to understanding metabolism. A noted authority on health and nutrition, Carol Ann Rinzler is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the National Women's Health Network. She has authored numerous health-related books.

Women's Health Products Handbook: Smart Buys for Healthy Bodies By Carol Ann Rinzler '59 Hunter House Publishers. 1997. Provides women with information to evaluate the huge variety of available health products and decide which items will work best for them. Includes insightful historical background. Carol Ann Rinzler, a frequent contributer to publications ranging from American Health to the New York Times, is the author of sixteen other books.

Estrogen and Breast Cancer: A Warning to Women By Carol Ann Rinzler '59 Macmillan Publishing Company. 1993. The incidence of breast cancer in America has risen eighty percent over the past fifty years. The reason, says the author, is the growing exposure to estrogen in the form of oral contraceptives and post-menopausal estrogen replacement therapy. Twenty-six million American women take these drugs. Documenting the American medical community's promotion of estrogen as a "safe" and "natural" hormone since its introduction over sixty years ago, the author recommends a safer course of action for the future. Carol Ann Rinzler has written a dozen books on health and medicine and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines ranging from American Health to Family Circle.

My Life and Battles By Jack Johnson; translated by Christopher Rivers Greenwood Press. 2007. African American Jack Johnson (1878-1946), whose defeat in 1910 of heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries, who was white, spurred race riots across the country, has been called "the first African American pop culture icon." My Life and Battles uncovers Johnson's depictions of his colorful life and battles as well as the "color line" in boxing and American society in general. Christopher Rivers is a professor of French at Mount Holyoke. He is writing a book on Georges Carpentier, the celebrated French boxer of the pre- and post-World War I era.

Mademoiselle Giraud, Ma Femme By Adolphe Belot English translation by Christopher Rivers The Modern Language Association of America. 2002. First published in 1870, Mademoiselle Giraud, My Wife chronicles the suffering of a naive young man whose new bride will not agree to consummate their marriage. Eventually, he learns from an acquaintance that their wives are lovers. The novel, a huge commercial success, was reprinted thirty times in the decade following its publication. In his introduction, Rivers argues that the protagonistıs attitude toward lesbianism is ironically linked to his intimate homosocial bonds with men. Christopher Rivers is an associate professor of French at Mount Holyoke.

New Species: Gender and Science in Science Fiction By Robin Roberts '79 University of Illinois Press. 1993. This study examines the history of gender and science fiction and discusses science fiction pulp magazines' images of women as well as postmodernism and feminist science fiction. The author begins with Shelley's Frankenstein, in which a female alien appears, and continues through H. G. Wells, the 1950s pulp SF magazines, Doris Lessing and feminist utopias, and the new generation of science fiction writers, including Joan Vinge, Sheila Finch, Vonda McIntyre, Ursula Le Guin, and Octavia Butler. Robin Roberts is an assistant professor of English at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

Am I the Last Virgin?: African American Reflections on Sex and Love By Tara Roberts '91 Simon and Schuster. 1997. A collection of poignant stories celebrating the sexual coming-of-age experiences of young black women. Tara Roberts is lifestyles editor for Essence magazine.

Christian Sisterhood, Race Relations, and the YWCA, 1906-46 By Nancy Marie Robertson '78 University of Illinois Press. 2007. Robertson has written a "thorough history that while focused on the YWCA, tells a larger story of interracial work," says a reviewer in the American Historical Review. Robertson finds that even in one of the most progressive organizations of the time - the YWCA ended its own policy of segregation in 1946 - the history of civil rights was not one of inevitable progress but of continuing tension and negotiation. Nancy Marie Robertson is associate professor of history and philanthropic studies at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, where she also directs the women's studies program.

Fires in the Middle School Bathroom: Advice to Teachers from Middle Schoolers By Kathleen Cushman and Laura Rogers '72 The New Press. 2008. Diverse student voices offer teachers insights into how their instructional practices actually play out in the middle-school classroom. Talking to forty students in five cities, the authors offer new teachers, especially, insights into how to forge better relationships with adolescents. Hint: be nice and be strict. Laura C. Rogers is a school psychologist and lecturer in the education department at Tufts University.

The Artist, Society, and Sexuality in Virginia Woolf's Novels By Ann Ronchetti '71 Routledge. 2004. This book explores the relationship between aesthetic productivity and artists' degrees of involvement in social and sexual life, as depicted in Virginia Woolf's novels. Ann Ronchetti locates the sources of Woolf's lifelong preoccupation with the artist's relationship to society in her family heritage, her exposure to Walter Pater and the aesthetic movement, and the philosophical and aesthetic interests of the Bloomsbury group. Engaging and readable, Ronchetti's book should be of interest to anyone who reads Woolf or is interested in women's issues and matters of creativity. Ann Rochetti received her Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a bibliographer for English, French, and Italian languages and literatures and the performing arts at the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library.

Death and Strudel By Dorothy Schack Rosen '38 and Sidney Rosen Academy Chicago Publishers. 1999. Feisty amateur detective Belle Appleman is on the trail of evildoers in 1930s Boston. President Roosevelt is working hard to make the Great Depression go away. While Belle is working at a neighborhood drugstore - where everyone drops in for a nickel ice cream cone and free advice - a young girl dies. Belle suspects foul play, so she and an Irish cop friend team up to find the killer. Dorothy Rosen '38 is an author and editor. Sidney Rosen is professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

At the Center By Norma Gangel Rosen '46 Syracuse University Press. 1996. "Required reading for anyone who wants to confront the abortion issue today," according to the New York Times Book Review. It humanizes an issue which has been denatured too long by adversarial irrelevancies. ... Powerful and runs deep." Norma Rosen is the author of critical works, short stories, and several novels. She was a participant in the original Genesis Seminar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.

Biblical Women Unbound: Counter-Tales By Norma Gangel Rosen '46 Jewish Publication Society. 1996. A series of lively midrashic readings of selected biblical texts in which the author captures the voices of a number of women who are often silenced in the traditional biblical tales in which they appear. Norma Rosen is the author of critical works, short stories, and several novels. She was a participant in the original Genesis Seminar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.

The Messy Self By Jennifer Rosner Paradigm Publishers. 2007. This edited volume of essays, poems, plays, and short stories challenges the idea of a coherent, harmonious self and offers a diversity of perspectives on creativity, love, and understanding. Originally published as a special edition of The Massachusetts Review, the book includes a previously unpublished play by Wendy Wasserstein '71, who died in 2006. Psyche in Love is examined in a prologue by Jane Crosthwaite, MHC professor of religion. "I chose to read it through a certain kind of ethical lens that saw how Wendy had collapsed time and different eras, had worried about the fickleness and constancy of life and love, and had used her insightful wit to suggest that we could live without confusion and without strictly imposed absolutes," writes Crosthwaite. "Wendy's death has left us all bereft and lost without her good humor - that is, her use of humor for our common 'goodness.'" Jennifer Rosner is a Five College associate and has published numerous articles on the self in academic journals. She has taught philosophy at MHC.

Reflections of the Weaver's World By Anne Lane Hedlund Denver Art Museum. 1992. An accompaniement to the exhibit of Gloria Frankenthaler Ross '44's collection at the Denver Art Museum, this catalogue includes color photographs and descriptions of each piece (dimensions, materials, weaving techniques used, and provenance). The exhibit focuses on thirty-eight pieces woven since 1980 and includes six older weavings to show developments arising from historical events or weavers' family relationships. The author, a weaver and anthropologist, also includes photos of the artisans in their workplaces and biographical essays based on personal interviews.

The Lifetime Guide to the Jewish Holidays By Lesli Koppelman Ross '72 Jewish Legacy Press. 2003. This National Jewish Book Award winner, based in classic Jewish teachings, offers an array of ways to bring the joy, meaning, and relevance of Jewish holiday celebrations into readers' homes and hearts, whether they are observing them for the first or fiftieth time. For each holiday, the book presents important information such as its history, what ritual items are used, traditional foods, and fine arts and music, as well as references for further exploration into the tradition. Ten percent of the book's proceeds is donated to Jewish educational charities. Lesli Koppelman Ross - www.leslikoppelmanross.com - has written for Hadassah Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and the Christian Science Monitor.

Celebrate!: The Complete Jewish Holidays Handbook By Lesli Koppelman Ross '72 Jason Aronson. 1994. This nondenominational, comprehensive guide and reference book provides historical perspective and details the religious and personal importance of Jewish holidays. Observance, preparation, religious laws, customs, traditional foods, songs and stories are presented in a lively and user-friendly manner. Lesli Koppelman Ross is a writer and artist in Chicago.

Pinstripes & Pearls: The Women of the Harvard Law Class of '64 By Judith Richards Hope Scribner. 2003. Pinstripes and Pearls chronicles the history-making Harvard Law class of 1964, which included fifteen women who became some of the most prominent members of their generation. They include former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder and University of Chicago bioethicist Ann Dudley Goldblatt, as well as Rosemary Cox Masters '61, Barbara Margulies Rossotti '61, and Grace Weiner Wolf '61. The book tells the story of the fifteen pioneering and gutsy women who worked together to overcome discrimination, break into a male-dominated profession, and establish a network of friendships and alliances that survives to this day. Judith Richards Hope, a member of the Harvard's legendary class of '64, became the first female associate director of the White House Domestic Council in 1975. In 1981 she cofounded the Washington office of the Paul Hastings law firm, where she was the first female partner and first female executive committee member.

Literature and the Land: Reading and Writing for Environmental Literacy, 7-12 By Emma Wood Rous '66 Boynton/Cook. 2000. For Emma Rous, the natural environment offers countless ways to engage students in significant reading, writing, and thinking. She breaks down barriers between school and life. She raises complex ethical questions. She creates a course of study her students care about. This book inspires teachers to help students become environmentally literate and provides the tools to make it happen. It explores a wealth of nature-writing activities, the history of people's relationship with nature, case studies of current environmental issues and action projects, environmental themes in fiction and poetry, and the potential of outdoor adventure. Master teacher Emma Rous has taught for twenty-eight years at every level from pre-school to college. She has also worked in curriculum development and as a workshop presenter on nature writing.

Hinsonville, a Community at the Crossroads By Marianne H. Russo '57 and Paul A. Russo Susquehanna University Press. 2005. Seeking to reconstruct Hinsonville - a tiny rural village of free black property owners who lived in southeastern Pennsylvania during the antebellum times - the late Paul Russo researched the story of the community. Marianne Russo has now placed it in the context of nineteenth-century African American history. Torn by tensions that troubled blacks everywhere, the dozen families of Hinsonville grappled with many of the important issues of the day: white vs. black, slavery vs. freedom, and rootedness vs. restlessness. By the early 1870s, forty years after the first black man had bought land there, Hinsonville's residents watched as Lincoln University, the oldest black college in the country, ironically devoured the very farms whose owners had initially provided a safe haven for the institution. Marianne Heinemann Russo and her late husband both taught at Lincoln University (Pa.) during the 1960s and '70s. Marianne still lives within a mile of the original site of Hinsonville.

Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II By Marisabina Russo '71 Atheneum Books forYoung Readers. 2005. Rachel's grandmother has two picture albums. In one, the photographs show only happy times - from after World War II, when she and her daughters came to America. The other album includes much sadder times from before - when their life in Germany was destroyed by the Nazis' rise to power. For as long as Rachel can remember, Oma has closed the other album when she's gotten to the sad part, but today will share it all. Rachel will hear about what her family endured and see how the power of its love gave the family the strength to survive. Marisabina Russo is the author and illustrator of numerous books for children, including The Line Up Book, which won an International Reading Association Children's Book Award. Always Remember Me is based on her family's survival story.

Under the Table By Marisabina Russo '71 Greenwillow Books (children's). 1997. Under the table is a good place to be - for thinking, playing or just being alone. But there are some things the young heroine of this story cannot do, and drawing on the furniture, even on the underside, is one of them. Understanding parents make this abundantly clear. Marisabina Russo has written and illustrated several popular picture books.

When Mama Gets Home By Marisabina Russo '71 Greenwillow Books. 1998. Ages 4 and up. A young narrator, her brother and sister anxiously await their mother's return home from work. They complete their daily chores so that they may spend quality time with their mom and share with her the events of their day. Marisabina Russo has written and illustrated many books for children and has illustrated several by other authors.

A Unique Life: An Autobiography Complete with Misdeeds By Mildred D. Rust '52 Dorrance Publishing. 2005. Born with a handicap, Mildred Rust began her life knowing that she would have to work hard to succeed. In A Unique Life, the retired psychiatrist chronicles her life's events, detailing how she overcame having clubfeet and was able to attend medical school, marry, and have two daughters (one attended Mount Holyoke). She has also been able to travel in her retirement. Rust's work is the result of taking a course in autobiographical writing; she also wanted to have a record of her life for her grandchildren. Rust tells a story of ambition and determination, and her life serves as an inspiration for those who have had to overcome a disability to succeed. Mildred Moore Rust, M.D., is a retired psychiatrist who resides in East Brunswick, N.J. She is active in the Unitarian Church and the East Brunswick Senior Center.