Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh:
Plants of the Bible and the Quran
By Lytton John Musselman’65
Forward by Garrison Keillor
Timber Press, Inc.
Portland, Ore., 2007
This richly illustrated book celebrates the plants of the Old and New Testaments—including the Apocrypha—and of the Quran. From acacia to wormwood, more than 100 plants in these sacred texts have true botanical counterparts.
Grounded in reverence for the region, this handy reference covers plants in a broad geographic range beyond Israel, including the biblical Holy Land from southern Turkey to central Sudan and from Cyprus to the Iraq border.
Musselman is a distinguished American botanist who has studied Bible plants in their native habitats for three decades and published widely on their identification, symbolism, and use in holy writings. He is Mary Payne Hogan Professor of Botany and chair of the department of biological sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.
By Frank Agin’84
BookSurge, LLC, 2006
Frank Agin’s novel Out of the Comfort Zone is a work of fiction, but its inspiration clearly comes from the author’s experiences playing football for Coach Ed DeGeorge at Beloit College. “Despite playing for an average team, in a mediocre league (Midwest Conference), at the lowest level of college football (Division III), this was one of the most inspiring times of my life,” Agin writes in his introduction.
The story follows a year in the life of three college football players and the profound influences of their coaches, teammates, and the sport. Anyone who knows Beloit will recognize the familiar terrain.
Agin wrote this book in 1986, not long after graduating; then went to graduate school, started a career, and raised a family. The project was sidelined until Agin returned to Beloit in 2005 to see DeGeorge coach his last football game before retirement. “In a certain respect, this is a very long-winded thank you,” Agin says.
Our Lord Was Baptized, You Know:
Reflections on a Spiritual Adventure
By Marta Sutton Weeks’51
iUniverse, Inc.
Lincoln, Neb., 2007
Marta Sutton Weeks was raised on two continents, studied at Beloit College and later Stanford University, traveled the world, raised children, engaged in the family business, then became an ordained Episcopal priest at the age of 62, at a time when few women took such paths.
From Antarctica to Russia, Panama to Utah, Atlanta to Paris, Weeks takes readers along on her spiritual journey. Her memoir recounts the twists and turns of her life, from its conflicted familial roots in the Mormon Church to a reawakened spirituality that eventually led her to the seminary.
Along the way, this memoir offers a glimpse into a fascinating life that includes unexpected fortune in the petroleum industry and the particular challenges of a woman seeking her place in the world.
Learning to Cook in 1898:
A Chicago Culinary Memoir
By Ellen FitzSimmons Steinberg’69
Wayne State University Press
Detroit, Mich., 2007
Part culinary memoir, part cookbook, part window into the lives of German immigrant families in 1890s Chicago, this book chronicles the efforts of a young middle class woman named Irma Rosenthal to educate herself about cooking, nutrition, and household management in the late 19th century.
Rosenthal’s parents emigrated from Germany, but she was born in Chicago and avoided learning how to cook until she planned to be married in her late 20s. It was then that her mother taught her to make traditional meals. Rosenthal translated those cryptic recipes into English in a notebook titled “First Cook Book,” along with clippings from contemporary magazines and newspapers.
Steinberg, a writer and anthropological researcher who was born and raised in Chicago, discovered Rosenthal’s crumbling notebook and other papers in a used bookstore. This is the second book that collection has inspired. Readers will also find recipes in the back of the book, which were adapted from Rosenthal’s notebook by Eleanor Hudera Hanson.
