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Chats in the Stacks: Don Rakow on Nature Rx: Improving College-Student Mental Health

By Greg Keeler | 3 weeks ago

Life today is full of stressors, and this is especially true for college and university students. To improve students’ mental and physical well-being, Don Rakow, an associate professor in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell, recommends a prescription of fresh air. In a book coauthored with Gregory T. Eells, Nature Rx: Improving College-Student Mental Health (Cornell University Press, 2019), Rakow argues that campus programs encouraging students to spend more time outdoors can reduce the stress and anxiety of academic, social, and relationship pressures, particularly for those also dealing with mental health issues, trauma, or substance abuse. In this Chats in the Stacks talk, Rakow will discuss the value of Nature Rx programs and present a step-by-step formula for constructing and sustaining them on college campuses. This book talk is supported by the Mary A. Morrison Public Education Fund for Mann Library.

book reading

Chats in the Stacks: Michael Fontaine on How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing

By Greg Keeler | 2 weeks ago

The wisdom of the ancients might be applicable to beer pong. In 1536, alarmed by a rising culture of binge drinking and competitive excess in sixteenth-century Germany, humanist and neoclassical poet Vincent Obsopoeus wrote De Arte Bibendi [The Art of Drinking] urging moderation while also offering tips for giving good toasts and winning drinking games—all based on his extensive personal experience. In this Chats in the Stacks book talk, Michael Fontaine, professor in the Department of Classics and the associate vice provost of undergraduate education at Cornell, will share his commentaries and insights on How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing (Princeton University Press, 2019), his new translation of Obsopoeus’s work. This book talk is sponsored by Olin Library. Light refreshments will be served.

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One Man’s Daring Mission Shared

By Michael Mroziak | January 22, 2020

A Polish resistance fighter who sought to gather intelligence about the Auschwitz concentration camp complex by infiltrating it.

detail from the cover of The Book of Collateral Damage by Sinan Antoon

In ‘The Book Of Collateral Damage,’ A New York Author’s Accounting Of What Baghdad Lost

By NPR News | July 9, 2019

The novelist and poet Sinan Antoon, raised in Iraq and now living in New York, returned home following the 2003 U.S. occupation. That experience inspired his new work of fiction.

Fred Bass, who passed away in 2018, and his daughter Nancy Bass Wyden sort used books at the Strand Bookstore on Feb. 21, 2007.

New York And The Strand Bookstore Are Not On The Same Page

By NPR News | June 16, 2019

Nancy Bass Wyden, the Strand’s owner, is protesting New York City’s decision to preserve the bookstore as a historic city landmark. She thinks the move will hurt, not help her business.

The sign for a Barnes & Noble bookstore hangs above the entrance to one of its locations in Brooklyn earlier this year. The book retailer and Elliott announced Friday that they have agreed to a sale price of about $683 million.

Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To New York Hedge Fund For $683 Million

By NPR News | June 7, 2019

That price tag includes all of the book megachain’s debt. Elliott’s acquisition of the largest retail bookseller in the U.S. comes less than a year after it bought Waterstones, the largest in the U.K.

In ‘City Of Girls,’ The Breezy, Bold Best Days Of Our Lives

By NPR News | June 5, 2019

Elizabeth Gilbert’s new novel is set in the New York theater community of the 1940s — an effervescent golden age for the women who congregate at the offbeat Lily Playhouse.

Theodor Geisel — Dr. Seuss --holds a toy of the Cat in the Hat, one of his most famous character creations.

‘Becoming Dr. Seuss’ Reveals Theodor Geisel As A Complicated New Yorker

By NPR News | May 7, 2019

Using personal papers, telegrams, biographies, unpublished interviews and letters, author Brian Jay Jones gives readers a comprehensive view of the complex, multifaceted creator who became a giant.

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Sarah Vowell Speaker Series Live-stream

By NPR News | April 1, 2019

Acclaimed author to offer her unique take on changing literary and information landscape on eve of National Library Week. PBS Books and U-M Penny Stamps Speaker Series present the livestream Thursday, April 4, at 5:10 p.m.

In ‘The Dakota Winters,’ A New York Story About John Lennon

By NPR News | December 15, 2018

Tom Barbash’s new novel is set in the famed Manhattan apartment house where Lennon spent the last year of his life — and where, in this telling, he befriends a washed-up talk show host and his son.