Search Results

Spring 2004

All Abraham’s Children: Changing Conceptions of Race and Lineage

This thoroughly documented study of race and identity within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints unravels various ways Mormons have constructed and negotiated their identity throughout history. Armand Mauss, professor emeritus of sociology at Washington State University, makes the intriguing argument that Mormonism provides a unique case in which religious prejudice or particularism actually undermines secular prejudice. While Mormon relations with other races have not been without difficulty, documentation provided here demonstrates that in specific cases, Mormons hold less prejudicial attitudes than other white Americans.

This is due, according to Mauss, to a theology linking Mormon lineage with other ethnic groups. Believing Native … » More …

Spring 2002

Two Worlds

As a longtime teacher of multicultural children, Marietta Taylor Barron (’45 Home Econ.) observed the struggles of Mexican-Americans to overcome poverty and prejudice. She was determined to tell their story simply and visually for all youngsters to understand.

Two Worlds is the account of a pre-teen Mexican-American boy who challenged the system of school segregation in the California mining town where he and his family lived. The story is based on Barron’s own recollections. The author brings out the dramatic contrasts between the Latino barrio and the white section of town from a young person’s viewpoint.

A young Mexican boy decides, without any legal authority, … » More …

Winter 2007

Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning

If you’re a parent seeking a quality model for secondary education for your child, you will be intrigued and encouraged in reading Robert Littlejohn ’83 and Charles T. Evans’s Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning. If you’re a Washington State University grad, you’ll want to see what a Cougar Ph.D. in botany-plant physiology (Littlejohn) contributes to the educational arena, specifically in providing a Christian paradigm for classical learning. What makes this book valuable is the credibility it brings to a field often littered with well-meaning attempts at Christian education that lack either the faith dimension or the balanced educational dimension. Littlejohn brings … » More …

Winter 2005

Windfalls

To be a mother or an artist? Or both?

Anyone interested in women’s quest stories that explore these central questions will find Jean Hegland’s second novel, Windfalls, to be essential reading. Readers who know the Palouse will enjoy her vivid descriptions of Spokane and eastern Washington. Indeed the entire book seems to cast a golden-red glow on the lives of its struggling main characters, Cerise and Anna, like the “last ruddy light. . . , burnishing the fields and illuminating the roses, deepening the crimson” in a Palouse sunset.

Hegland (B.A. ’79) earns a solid place for Windfalls in the tradition of women’s quest novels … » More …

Summer 2008

Wiggle Like a Fish

Tory Christensen ’01
CD Baby, 2007

Sometime in the 1970s or ’80s, when National Public Radio was airing a program called Folk Festival USA, I recorded a concert from one of those broadcasts by a singer named Sam Hinton. Among the songs Hinton performed was one called “Barney McCabe.” It was about “a wise child” who went off in search of an evil witch and ultimately destroyed her with the help of three canny dogs—Barney McCabe, Doodleydoo, and Soo Boy. He also sang a song in Yiddish … » More …

Winter 2003

I Only Smoke on Thursdays

What would Audrey Hepburn do? Look no further than the timeless class, spirit, and wit of the late actress for tips on dating and living as a modern woman. That’s part of the advice of Seattle author Georgie Nickell (’94 Comm.) in her debut novel, I Only Smoke on Thursdays.

Nickell chronicles the Valentine’s Day dumping of her heroine by The One—she annoyingly capitalizes His every reference—and the three years that follow of dating, smoking, going to bars with names like the “Fruit Fly” and “Cha-Cha Hut,” and drinking vodka tonics with extra lime. Smoke on Thursdays is the how-to manual of a single Seattle twenty-something … » More …

Spring 2008

The Way I Feel Tonight

For a lot of musicians, recording a second CD is typically a tough proposition. Do you take your music in a new direction, or do you maintain some aspects of the first CD that garnered attention and fans? Jennifer Lynn ’03 manages to do both on her sophomore effort, The Way I Feel Tonight.

From the opening track, “Waitin’ On A Pretty Girl,” you know you’re in for a change in this CD. The subtle acoustic-guitar intro quickly gives way to a boot-stomping country rocker, full of blazing country chicken-pickin’ guitar and feisty vocals. Shifting between the blues-inspired “You Got Me Where I Want Me” … » More …

Fall 2002

Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism

In the beginning, radio was his second choice. After a journalistic teething in the service of the ANETA news agency in the Netherlands, Daniel Schorr wanted to be a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. When he fell victim to the Jewish-owned paper’s self-imposed quota on Jewish reporters, Schorr went to work for Edward R. Murrow at CBS in 1953.

The signal that he had made the grade came on New Year’s Day 1956, as “Murrow’s Boys” made the transfer to television. Schorr had left his post in Russia to join Howard K. Smith, Richard C. Hottelet, Eric Sevareid, and Murrow’s other far-flung correspondents … » More …

Fall 2004

Is Self-Employment for You?

Anyone can start a business, but only a few can sustain one. That’s the premise of Paul. E. Casey’s new book, Is Self-Employment for You?

Casey Communications Inc., the company he founded in Seattle in 1988, is still going strong. He attributes his success in selling and placing broadcast and print advertising to hard work, continuous “cold calls,” and “street smarts.” In his book, he shares some of the mistakes those in business for themselves make, and discusses how those pitfalls can be avoided.

It’s not the business plan that dictates whether you will be successful, but rather your experience—particularly life experiences, Casey contends. Some … » More …

Spring 2008

Salt Lick

Anyone familiar with Brian Ames’s three books of short stories⁠—Smoke Follows Beauty, Head Full of Traffic, and Eighty‑Sixed⁠—will know that he’s a writer of imagination and depth. His stories explore the boundaries between everyday existence and the chaos that lurks beneath the surface of ordinary life. Some of his characters are shaken when they glimpse the reality that underlies the world of appearances, as when Dr. Mullenix, in “A Taste Like Fear” (SFB), discovers a murdered angel half buried at the edge of an African watering hole. Others slip through the fissures that open beneath their feet and are lost—sometimes literally, as in the title … » More …