Editor’s Picks

ROBERT CHRISTGAU ’62
Is It Still Good to Ya?
Duke University Press
Dozens of music icons including Etta James, Willie Nelson, Sinatra, Bowie, Fela Kuti, and Eminem get insightful appraisals in 87 essays from The Village Voice's longtime music critic. He also offers his “Ten-Step Program for Growing Better Ears,” which originally appeared in DAM. (No. 10: “Spend a week listening to James Brown’s ‘Star Time.’ ”)

DENNY EMERSON ’63
Know Better to Do Better
Trafalgar Square Books
This “tool box for horse owners, riders, and trainers” offers insight from a world-class equestrian and Dartmouth athletic hall of fame member. Subtitled “Mistakes I Made with Horses (So You Don’t Have To),” the book offers advice on everything from horse selection and management to how they are affected by riders’ character traits.

OMAR KHAN ’80
Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj
Mapin Publishing
Lovers of all things Indian will relish this 350-page coffee table tribute to romantic Edwardianera postcards that showcases more than 500 images of religious spectacles, palaces, maharajahs, and Himalayan vistas culled from 10,000 postcards amassed by the author through 30 years.

JENNIFER M. DIXON ’99
Dark Pasts
Cornell University Press
The Armenian genocide and the Nanking massacre claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. Dixon, a Villanova political scientist, untangles the evolving web of political pressures that led to official Japanese apologies and the “impunity” of Turkey’s steadfast rejection of wrongdoing.

CAL NEWPORT ’04
Digital Minimalism
Penguin
Ditch your phone. You’ll be happier. That’s the advice from a computer science professor who offers digital decluttering tips and tales of people who turned off, tuned out, and dropped their blood pressure.

Find additional alumni books here.