Lucianovic just published her first book, “Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater’s Quest To Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate”(Perigee Books 2012). “Suffering Succotash” is a non-fiction narrative and a heartfelt and humorous exposé on the inner lives of picky eaters which Scientific American called “hilarious” and “the perfect popular science book for a reader that doesn’t think he or she wants to read a popular science book.”

Lucianovic is a culinary school grad and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Popular Science, msnbc.comm, and cnn.com. Her food writing at www.grubreport.com was featured in Best Food Writing 2005. She also worked on the Williams-Sonoma cookbook series and in the back kitchen for Jacques Pépin’s cooking show. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her mathematician husband, three-year-old son, and assorted cats.

My new novel “Wedding Haircut” (Westbow, 2011) is a fictionalized version of events and persons leading up to 9/11 based upon my real-life encounters with Arabs in Jordan and in San Diego. In interest of full disclosure, I met my first Middle Easterners while volunteering at the U-M International Center. Previously my published academic books researched the peaceful contacts of non-Muslims with Muslims. This novel is about two weddings where the hero undergoes the full body shave for his wedding with his beloved Mexicana beauty. His San Diego roommate practices for a heavenly wedding that will follow his self-sacrifice for his fanatic cause. There’s more romance than terror in “Wedding Haircut,” subtitled “a prenuptial rite of passage for 9/11,” as I mix modern anthropology and theology, which I have pursued since leaving U-M in 1956. For example, the reader is given a glimpse of how the three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, interpret the intended martyrdom of the Prophet Abraham’s son. Texts as varied as the King James Bible, the Qu’ran, and Ernest Hemingway are sprinkled throughout the book which is available at bookstores and online.

is the co-author of “Outraged: How Detroit and the Wall Street Car Czars Killed the American Dream” with Tammy Darvish, a Maryland dealer and co-leader of the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights. The book covers the collapse of the domestic auto industry and dire effects of the government restructuring of GM and Chrysler on key stakeholders such as auto dealers and entrepreneurs. It represents the thousands who had their lives shattered and dreams destroyed in the economic upheaval of 2009.

Editor: Yesterday, July 30, I wrote a brief review of my latest book, a novel, Wedding Haircut. Perhaps it is in your hands but I might have omitted the second word in the anti-spam image clue word. Could you email a reply indicating that you have received this text? David

M.M. (violin) ’58, led the Tampa Bay Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in his final concerts as Music Director of the Tampa Bay Symphony in St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida. After a 25 year tenure with the orchestra, Heller retired and was named Conductor Laureate. He retains his position as professor emeritus at the University of South Florida School of Music, where he plans to spend time on his research interest in language and music cognition research.

and his wife, Linda Raber, have just published their first novel, “Face of the Earth.” A Navajo child dies of smallpox in New Mexico, and secrecy reigns as powerful figures in Washington, D.C., propose a retaliatory attack against Iran. A cross-country race against the clock represents America’s only hope of averting a nuclear war.

Written by scientists, “Face of the Earth” is fiction firmly grounded in fact. It is frightening because everything in it could happen.

Find out more about this book and future releases at the authors’ website: www.raberbooks.com

James Manganello, ’09, recently collaborated with his brother Paul Manganello, ’11, to found Fratellanza, a creative effort to generate live theater with physical rigor and imagination. The brothers recently teamed with Ypsilanti’s New Theatre Project and fellow alum Josh Berkowitz, ’10, to produce The Mute Quire, which explores the circumstances around the creation of Shakespeare’s First Folio. The show runs June 17-July 1, 2012. Info: www.thenewtheatreproject.org.

I recently published my second book on boomers and retirement. This one should really hit home for graduates my age as well as those younger and older. It is called “Too Much Togetherness: Surviving Retirement As A Couple,” and deals with those unspoken but important issues we confront in retirement.

I have been speaking about this issue around the country and on radio and television. The book is available online and at any bookstore, though you may have to special order it. You can also check out the website toomuchtogetherness.com.

Paul Gogulski returns to Doha, Qatar to deliver his 4th seminar on the Construcion Claims Process, and introduces a few new thoughts on reducing the enormous cost of litigation in the Middle East and elsewhere.