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Professor White's Trees
Do you love the Diag, with its criss-cross paths and canopy of trees? If so, you have one man to thank. The story of Andrew White, who nurtured intellects and seedlings alike.
Most emailed stories
- Exactly how much housework does a husband create?
- U-M Heritage: How to date women, circa 1943
- Dalai Lama to visit University
HEALTH
Spring cleaning for your nose
Allergies? Sinus problems? A good schnozz-cleaning is literally just what the doctor ordered. Here's how to do it.
Talking about words
Trophies
Our language guru considers "signes of victorye" from the Stanley Cup to Ashton Kutcher.
Talking about movies
The talkies' first great screenwriter
Dudley Nichols gave John Wayne some of his best lines, and his screwball writing for Hepburn and Grant remains hilarious. If you want to know movies, you need to know about Nichols.
U-M IN THE WORLD
An undeclared crisis
The US now incarcerates more people than any other country. More than one percent of the US population is behind bars. U-M profs say there's a better way.
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Alumni books and arts
The Soul of Creative Writing
by Richard Goodman
"The Soul of Creative Writing" (Transaction, 2008) by Richard Goodman is a guide to understanding the tools and devices of great writing. It explores the elements of language, style, rhythm, sound, and choice. It has ten passion-fueled essays, including "In Search of the Exact Word," "The Music of Prose," and "The Nerve of Poetry." The poet and memoirist Molly Peacock has this to say about the book, "Richard Goodman's marvelous book, 'The Soul of Creative Writing,' will instruct, delight, edify, challenge, reassure, and guide any student of writing to a personal best. 'The Soul of Creative Writing' is a wonderbook of meditative instruction. Goodman's sympathy for the writer's dilemma, the warmth of his urging, the brightness of his enthusiasms all remind us that courage lies inside encouragement. We can find courage to write here, and support from all Goodman's tips and insights. Like the best teaching from the most inspired teachers, it's simply invaluable."
My Secret Life on the McJob: Lessons from Behind the Counter Guaranteed to Supersize Any Management Stylee
by Jerry M. Newman
What really happens after you place an order for a Big Mac or a Whopper with Cheese? Jerry M. Newman, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the University at Buffalo School of Management, knows because he worked undercover in seven fast food restaurants across the country, observing operations from the top down—from the biggest management whoppers to the smallest fries at the fry station. "My Secret Life on the McJob" takes readers behind the scenes at Burger King, Wendy's, Arby's, Krystal, and McDonald's, and serves up, with keen insights into management techniques, wise lessons that can be applied to companies with 6,000 locations, or just six employees.
Madapple
by Christina Meldrum
In "Madapple" the secrets of the past meet the shocks of the present. Aslaug is an unusual young woman. Her mother has brought her up in near isolation, teaching her about plants and nature and language—but not about life. Especially not how she came to have her own life, and who her father might be. When Aslaug's mother dies unexpectedly, everything changes. For Aslaug is a suspect in her mother’s death. And the more her story unravels, the more questions unfold. About the nature of Aslaug’s birth. About what she should do next. About whether divine miracles have truly happened. And whether, when all other explanations are impossible, they might still happen this very day. Addictive, thought-provoking, and shocking, Madapple is a page-turning exploration of human nature and divine intervention—and of the darkest corners of the human soul.
The Wednesday Sisters
by Meg Waite Clayton
Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton's beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.
"This generous and inventive book is a delight to read, an evocation of the power of friendship to sustain, encourage, and embolden us. Join the sisterhood!" - Karen Joy Fowler, author of "The Jane Austen Book Club"
How (Not) To Have a Perfect Wedding
by Arliss Ryan
Library Journal says: "The skillful use of multiple narratives elevates this novel above the usual women's wedding fiction. It's Allison and Mead's wedding day, and the ceremony and reception will be held at a swanky mansion. Too bad the mansion's hostess received her divorce papers that morning; the bride's mother is still bitter about the divorce and her ex's new arm candy…the bridesmaids get wind of an indiscretion that could derail the marriage before the wedding; and no one's seen the flower girl in quite some time. Ryan...blends humor and poignancy with a light hand, taking a serious look at weddings and marriage, friendship and family, without taking it all too seriously."
All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture, 1830-1900
by Martha S. Jones
The place of women's rights in African American public culture has been an enduring question, one that has long engaged activists, commentators, and scholars. All Bound Up Together explores the roles black women played in their communities' social movements and the consequences of elevating women into positions of visibility and leadership. Martha Jones reveals how, through the nineteenth century, the "woman question" was at the core of movements against slavery and for civil rights.
Figured Dark
by Greg Rappleye
The voices in Greg Rappleye's Figured Dark call across a vast landscape of myth, memory, and horrific wreckage. He is a poet who refuses easy categories. These poems are by turns wise, elegiac, ironic, and wickedly funny. Here are dreamy raptors, dome-lighted Firebirds, flaming bodies, junk cars, deadly archangels, the musician Brian Wilson, and a young John Berryman. Poet Dan Gerber says that Rappleye's poems "come from an imagination without peer. There is nothing predictable about them."
Time Leaves
by Barbara Bialick
Read about:
- the Jewish mailman who worked in Detroit's inner city
- a World Peace Tree growing in Massachusetts
- poets' jewelry, a silvery spiral
- the play of the soil as the play of the soul
This new chapbook collection of poetry by Detroit native and Newton, Mass., resident Barbara Bialick contains thought-provoking poems that are tied together by multiple levels of time and thyme
Defeating the 8 Demons of Distraction: Proven Strategies to Increase Productivity and Decrease Stress
by Geraldine Markel
Geraldine Markel exposes the distractions that plague everyone's efforts to get ahead in Defeating the 8 Demons of Distraction: Proven Strategies to Increase Productivity and Decrease Stress (Managing Your Mind, LLC, 2007). Dr. Markel identifies the lurking forces--labeled Demons--that zap one's focus and psychic energy. Readers will recognize the sources and insidious effects of Technology Demon, the Activities Demon, and the Unruly Mind Demon, among others. Markel provides a battle plan to arm workforce employees, independent professionals, and family managers with simple yet powerful strategies to fight back, reduce everyday distractions, and conquer needless mistakes.
Everyday Signs for the Newborn Baby
by Tanya Kuza
Numerous experts have documented the benefits of teaching basic American Sign Language (ASL) signs to hearing infants and toddlers to enhance early communication and language skills. A new series of children's books written by Tanya Kuza offers the solution. Ideal gifts for baby showers, new parents and daycare centers, each sturdy board book presents an entertaining story that children and caregivers love to read, while also enabling them to learn a few key ASL signs along the way.
The Secret Cardinal
by Tom Grace
Inspired by true events, masterful storyteller Tom Grace delivers his most provocative novel yet. In The Secret Cardinal, ex-Navy SEAL Nolan Kilkenny returns in an adventure that races from the grandeur of the Vatican across the vastness of Asia, ultimately involving China, the Mafia, and the conclave of cardinals that will elect the next pope.
The Animal Girl
by John Fulton
The five heartbreaking and radiant stories in John Fulton's "The Animal Girl" explore the awkwardness of situations in which grief and erotic love collide. Here are people in extremis, struggling mightily, and often failing, to keep it together. In the Pushcart Prize–winning "Hunters," Fulton contrasts the humorous clumsiness of dating with the grim realities of death in the tale of a middle-aged woman who keeps her cancer a secret when she starts a relationship with an avid hunter. In the novella-length title story, a lonely adolescent girl deals with the recent loss of her mother and the alien presence of her father's new girlfriend by taking out her aggression on her boss and on the animals she cares for in her summer job at a research laboratory. The final story in the collection, "The Sleeping Woman," delves into the inner life of Evelyn, a divorced professional woman who falls in love with Russell, a man whose wife is permanently brain damaged and has been unresponsive for years. The ghostly presence of Russell's wife haunts Evelyn as she discovers how her lover has been scarred by his misfortune and searches for ways they might build a long-term relationship in the wake of personal tragedy.
Matrimony
by Joshua Henkin
It is 1987, and Julian Wainwright, aspiring writer and Waspy son of New York City old money, meets beautiful, Jewish Mia Mendelsohn in the laundry room at Graymont College. So begins a love affair that, spurred on by family tragedy, will take Julian and Mia across the country and back, through several college towns, spanning twenty years. Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new millennium, "Matrimony" is about love and friendship, about money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It asks what happens to a marriage when it is confronted by betrayal and the specter of mortality. What happens when people marry younger than they'd expected? Can love endure the passing of time? In its emotional honesty, its luminous prose, its generosity and wry wit, "Matrimony" is a beautifully detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone—to do so when you're young, and to try again, afresh, on the brink of middle age.
No Guns, No Knives, No Personal Checks
by Larry Sager
A witty and suspenseful tale of contrasting characters from the comical to the repulsive host this entertaining and poignant whirlwind tour exploring the underbelly of the most dangerous job in the United States. The narrator and reader explore the seldom experienced sounds, smells, and sights an otherwise sophisticated and beautiful city. The rich and the poor, the sorry and the psychotic; drug dealers, gang members, French tourists, hookers, derelicts, transvestites, muggers, and even other cab drivers share intimate snippets of their lives. Sometimes a snippet is too much. Twelve pen-and-ink illustrations, thirty-two chapters engage two-hundred colorful characters; one excellent read.
98 Miles High: The Ride of a Lifetime Chasing an Obscure Cycling Record
by Eric Durak
"98 Miles High" follows Durak's efforts to break an obscure road cycling world record. Over a one year time frame, he rode 291 days and climbed over 516,000 vertical feet (approx. 98 vertical miles) in over 1,200 miles of riding.
Durak has been involved in the health and wellness industry since graduating from U-M in 1986 (MS, Kinesiology), and has also completed a series of publications for the home healthcare market. The "Wellness @ Home" series is the first series of publication geared toward improving the well-being of persons at home in cooperation with their caregivers. The publications include fitness for cancer survivors, "Sensible Nutrition @ Home," and "Ergonomics and Safety." Durak has also produced an "at home" simple exercise program that can be completed by most seniors who require at home supervision.
Four books on hypnosis
by George Gafner
"Handbook of Hypnotic Inductions" (2000) with Sonja Benson. Addressing the induction phase of clinical hypnosis, this book includes conversational, directive and confusional inductions for adults, along with inductions for children and adolescents.
"Hypnotic Techniques" (2002) with Sonja Benson. This book addresses a range of hypnotic applications and approaches for chronic pain, anger, anxiety and other disorders. It includes techniques for use within formal hypnosis and for conventional psychotherapy.
"Clinical Applications of Hypnosis"(2004). This book delves into unconsciously directed applications of hypnosis for irritable bowel syndrome, trauma and other problems commonly seen in a clinician's practice.
"More Hypnotic Inductions"(2006). Also addressing the induction phase of hypnosis, this book includes an array of inductions for adults, children and adolescents, and includes a comprehensive chapter on insomnia.
Everyday Herbs in Spiritual Life
by Michael J. Caduto
Herbs have been essential to spiritual beliefs and practices throughout time and history. From Christian Scripture to Hindu observances, Jewish ritual to early Islamic literature, Native American traditions to Buddhist symbolism, plants are seen as a blessing from God and a way to remain in harmony with Spirit. "Everyday Herbs in Spiritual Life" is a hands-on guide to incorporating herbs into our spiritual life.
Michael J. Caduto is a renowned author, ecologist, educator and storyteller who has written and coauthored sixteen books, including "Native American Gardening", the "Keepers of the Earth" series, and "In the Beginning: The Story of Genesis and Earth Activities for Children."
The Culture of Collaboration: Maximizing Time, Talent, and Tools to Create Value in the Global Economy
by Evan Rosen
Evan Rosen, communication and collaboration strategist, journalist and author of "Personal Videoconferencing" (Manning/Prentice Hall), now turns his attention to the most pressing question for business as society embraces social networking on the Web: How can organizations maximize time, talent and tools through collaboration?
In "The Culture of Collaboration," Rosen provides a timely and revealing look inside the world's most collaborative organizations including Toyota, Boeing, Procter & Gamble, DreamWorks, The Dow Chemical Company, Industrial Light and Magic, the Mayo Clinic and others. He explains how their methods can create value in almost every industry. Rosen also describes the trend towards real-time, spontaneous collaboration and the "deserialization" of interaction and work.
Rub Up: Musings of a Navy Corpsman
by Mitchell J. Rycus
Mitchell J. Rycus, emeritus professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan, has written his first novel. Rycus's career has run the gamut from aerospace engineering to academia and he is now looking at a new calling in writing fiction. "Rub up: Musings of a Navy Corpsman" tells the story of Mike Rabin, a young U.S. Navy Corpsman who is deployed abroad during the Korean War. The book is published in trade paperback format.