Indiana University Press blog

40% off select field guides this month!

Now that spring is here, it's a great time to explore the outdoors (especially before the sticky summer weather sets in!). And we have several books to help you identify the natural world in Indiana! Now through May 31, 2012, we're offering 40% off select field guides. Use code GUIDES at checkout. Visit our sale page for more details.

Staff pick: A Guide to Caves and Karst of Indiana by Samuel S. Frushour

Reviewed by production assistant, Laura Hohman

Those familiar with the geology and landscape of southern Indiana may know what karst topography is. Caves, sinkholes, springs, and disappearing streams and rivers all make the landscape both spectacular and fascinating. Utilizing these karst features and ecosystems is an amazing variety of unique (and often rare or endangered) wildlife. Humans are only occasional visitors to these underground worlds, but having once visited these subterranean landscapes, they may crave more extensive knowledge of how they are formed and what lies within.

A Guide to Caves and Karst of Indiana by Samuel S. Frushour gives the reader an excellent overview in a convenient to carry field guide sized book. Contained within its pages is a general overview of all things related to Indiana karst—cave formation, features, fauna, information on tourist and wild caves, and safe/ethical caving practices. It is everything the beginning cave enthusiast wants or needs to know about our local caves. The color photos, detailed cave maps, and the durable book design are merely a bonus to the information provided.

Sam Frushour, the retired Head of the Field Services Section of the Indiana Geological Survey is what the caving community refers to as a "big name caver." I’ve known Sam for years (and I’ve gone caving with him more than once), so I can assure you of the reliability of his knowledge base. His expertise with respect to caves is extensive, and he’s exactly the person you would go to with questions about caves—geology, biology, history, conservation, cave rescue, etc.

Scott Russell Sanders to speak at Plainfield Library tomorrow

Tomorrow, May 1, at 7 p.m. Scott Russell Sanders (author of Earth Works) will give the 2012 Kidwell Memorial Lecture at the Plainfield-Guilford Public Library in Plainfield, IN. The event is free, but you must register by calling (317)-838-3800. Books will be on sale at the event with a booksigning following. For more information, visit the library's website.

Green reading selections for Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! In honor of this occasion, we offer the following green reading selections:

Earth Works
Selected Essays
Scott Russell Sanders
Read excerpt

"Collectively, these essays invite the reader to gaze more clearly at the world outside his own window—a reminder, as Sanders puts it, that all there is to see 'can be seen from anywhere in the universe, if you know how to look... " —The Barnes & Noble Review

A Conservationist Manifesto
Scott Russell Sanders
Read excerpt

"Insightful essays . . . original and intriguing. . . . Sanders offers a 40-point Conservationist Manifesto, which, in its thoroughness, thoughtfulness and inclusion of environmental justice issues would serve the environmentalist community well." —Publishers Weekly

The Land, the People
Rachel Peden
Drawings by Sidonie Coryn
Foreword by Nancy R. Hiller
Read excerpt

"Ms. Peden's writings remind us that we have not only survived the challenges and fed upon the beauty of the land, but we have thrived as a people by drawing strength from our humble country roots." —Farm and Dairy Magazine

Rural Free
A Farmwife's Almanac of Country Living
Rachel Peden
Drawings by Sidonie Coryn
Foreword by Jennifer Meta Robinson
Read excerpt

"To all who care about nature and the changing seasons, reading it will be a satisfying experience." —Harper's Magazine

Speak to the Earth
Pages from a Farmwife's Journal
Rachel Peden
Foreword by Scott Russell Sanders
Read excerpt

"The insightful forward by Scott Russell Sanders and inviting drawings by Sidonie Coryn are lovely companions for this collection of brief essays. It is best savored slowly, read aloud in companionship with another or alone, for the sheer pleasure of hearing voice give flight to well-crafted prose." —NUVO

Earth Day podcast with Scott Russell Sanders

OK, so technically it's a couple of days before Earth Day, but I couldn't wait to bring you this fantastic IU Press podcast with award-winning writer Scott Russell Sanders. On this episode, we discuss Sanders's new book Earth Works and why he considers himself an "Earth writer."

'Mammals of Indiana' author to speak at Sassafras Audubon Society meeting

Mammals of Indiana author John O. Whitaker Jr. will be the featured speaker at the Sassafras Audubon Society’s spring meeting and dinner March 25 at Grazie! Italian Eatery in Bloomington.

Whitaker will discuss Indiana bats and the challenges in bat preservation, including white-nose syndrome and wind farms.

The evening begins at 5:30 p.m., with dinner at 6. Reservations are required. To reserve your spot, email Julia Ferguson at fluvialjulia@gmail.com by March 21.

Staff recommendations for 50% off spring book sale

Today is the first day of spring, and we're celebrating with a 50% off book sale! It can be a daunting task to make a selection from our 2,000+ titles, so we surveyed our staff to see which books they recommend to jump-start your spring reading. We hope you find something you like from the list below, which includes a wide range of interests from American History to Women's Studies! Check out the IU Press website for a complete list of books. Our sale ends March 22, so don't delay purchasing your favorite titles at half off!

American History

• Defeating Lee
  Dave Hulsey, Director of Sales and Marketing
• The Darkest Dawn
  Rich Pierce, Systems Analyst/Programmer
• Somebody’s Darling
  Bernie Zoss, Production Director
• Dillinger: The Untold Story
  Rhonda Vander Dussen, Sales and Marketing Assistant
• A Life is More Than a Moment
  Mary Lou Shelly, Senior Customer Service Representative

Anthropology

• Connected in Cairo
  Angela Burton, Managing Editor
• The Art of Loving Krishna
  Marvin Keenan, Project Manager

Art & Photography

• Contemporary Quilt Art
  Linda Bannister, Journals Marketing Manager
• Saving the Big Cats
  Kate Matthen, Marketing and Sales Coordinator
• Real Stories of Big Cat Rescues
  Mary Beth Haas, Sales Manager

Education

• Searching for Hope
  Mandy Clarke, Trade Marketing and Publicity Manager
• Conversations with Great Teachers
  Rebecca Tolen, Sponsoring Editor

Film & Media

• The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies
  Dan Pyle, Production Coordinator and Vendor Liaison
• The Magazine Article
  Joy Andreakis, Electronic and Serials Publishing Manager

Literature & Essays

• Earth Works
  Laura Baich, Electronic Marketing Manager
• Rural Free
  Jennifer Witzke, Marketing Designer
• Petersburg
  Peter Froehlich, Rights Manager

Books from the Global African Voices series:

• Little Mother
  Dee Mortensen, Senior Sponsoring Editor
• Life and a Half
  June Silay, Project Manager
• Murambi, The Book of Bones
  Jennifer Coyle, Customer Service Representative

Book from the Break Away Books series:

• The Glimpse Traveler
  Sarah Jacobi, Assistant Sponsoring Editor

Book from the Library of Indiana Classics series:

• A Girl of the Limberlost
  Kathy Stout, Accounting Associate

Music

• Debussy Redux
  Raina Polivka, Sponsoring Editor
• Beethoven in America
  Pam Rude, Senior Book Designer

Nature

• Wildflowers and Ferns of Indiana Forests
  Linda Oblack, Sponsoring Editor
• 101 Trees of Indiana
  Nancy Lightfoot, Project Manager
• Fishes of Indiana
  Steve Carter, Warehouse Manager
• Mammals of Indiana
  Laura Hohman, Production Assistant
• Perennials Short and Tall
  Dan Nichols, Operations Director
• The Natural Heritage of Indiana
  Tony Brewer, Composition Coordinator

Politics

• Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate
  Janet Rabinowitch, Director

Railroads

• Moonlight in Duneland
  Mary Blizzard, Book Designer
• The Indiana Rail Road Company
  Jamison Cockerham, Book Designer

Science

• Dinosaurs of Eastern Iberia
  Bob Sloan, Editorial Director
• Why You Can Never Get to the End of the Rainbow And Other Moments of Science
  Ted Boardman, Technology Director

Women’s Studies

• A Home of Her Own
  Judith Caldwell, Journals Production Manager
• To Write Like a Woman
  Darja Malcolm-Clarke, Project Manager

World History

• Last Folio
  Mollie Ables, Marketing Services Coordinator
• The Style of Paris
  Theresa Halter, Publicity Coordinator

Book reviews: Earth Works

"In language that’s patient, probing and precise, Sanders, who is based in Bloomington, has, over the past 30 years or so, built a body of work articulating what it means to live during this time on planet Earth and, particularly, that part of the planet called the American Midwest." —NUVO

"Earth Works, which collects twenty-one of Sanders's essays from previous books and adds nine others that haven't appeared in book form, is a chance for newcomers to see what they've been missing —and for longtime admirers of the writer to reconnect with a favorite voice." —Barnes and Noble Review

"By turns somber and snap-out-of-it buoyant, these elegant artifacts of restless inquiry cover subjects as intimate as the author's sexual awakening and his father's alcoholism, as broad as the origins of the universe and the disarray of contemporary hyper-urban society." —Indianapolis Star

Author event: Mike Homoya to lecture at Anderson Public Library

Mike Homoya will lecture at the Anderson Public Library about his book, Wildflowers and Ferns of Indiana Forests March 17. The lecture runs from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and is sponsored by Madison County Master Gardener Association and Madison County Purdue Extension.

Staff pick: Earth Works by Scott Russell Sanders

Reviewed by electronic marketing manager, Laura Baich

Have you ever connected with an author's writing so much that you wished you could become friends in real life? That's the way I feel about Scott Russell Sanders. Earth Works, his latest collection of essays, is the third book I've read by him, and I'm sure it will not be the last.

The book begins with an essay on essays. Sanders calls this kind of writing "a brash and foolhardy form...which relies on the tricks of anecdote, conjecture, memory, and wit to enthrall us." And enthrall us is exactly what Sanders does as a master craftsman of the essay.

Sanders covers a variety of topics In the book's 30 essays, including his Midwestern background, his father's drinking, his opposition to war, the ideology of consumerism, and our connection to each other and the Earth. But the common thread woven throughout all the essays is Sanders' contemplation of life—not only his, but all life on the Earth—and what it means to be part of the world. 

And this is why I keep returning to Sanders. Because, as he writes in the preface, the sources of many of his essays are questions that "must occur to every inquisitive soul." He eloquently examines thoughts I've had about living a good life, our role in the universe, and our connection to anything eternal. Sanders says that the answers he "come[s] up with are always partial and tentative, subject to rethinking in light of new knowledge or further reflection." But for me, the pleasure in reading the essays comes not so much from discovering his answer to a perennial question of life, but more from learning about the journey he took to get there.

So why else should you read Scott Russell Sanders? The members of the "What Would Scott Russell Sanders Do?" Facebook group sum it up best:

"If ever in need of life guidance, consider: WWSRSD? The man, the myth, the legend... Scott Sanders dispenses wisdom like it's his job—OH WAIT, IT IS."