Indiana University Press blog

Enter to win a free copy of 'Showers Brothers Furniture Company'

In anticipation of our "Town and Gown" event at Bloomington's City Hall next week, we're giving away a free copy of Carrol Krause's new book Showers Brothers Furniture Company! To enter the contest, send an email to winiupress@gmail.com with your name and mailing address. Entries will be accepted through May 11 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Winners will be notified by email and books will ship via USPS.

Find out more information about the book and the event on our blog.

May author events for Matthew Tully

Matthew Tully, author of Searching for Hope and award-winning political columnist for the Indianapolis Star, has the following events scheduled for this month:

May 8
Tully will discuss his book and the education system at the Bloomington Rotary Club meeting. His talk begins at noon at Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union. This event is open to rotary club members and their guests. 

May 12
Tully will discuss his book with Project Home Indy, a non-profit organization that helps homeless teenage girls who are pregnant or parenting to gain self-sufficiency. The speech will begin at 2:00 p.m. at the Indiana Landmarks Center in Indianapolis.  

May 15
Tully will speak about his series of columns on Manual High School at the Marion County Central Library in Indianapolis at 6:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Copies of Searching for Hope will be available for purchase, and a booksigning will follow the event.

May 23
Tully will be the featured speaker at the Avon Education Foundation's 5th Annual Community Breakfast. The breakfast will be held from 7:45 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Serendipity @ Metropolis in Plainfield. Tickets are available at the Avon Community School Administration Center between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Cost is $25 per person or $300 for corporate tables of eight.

For more information on these events, visit Tully's 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.

Celebrate Bloomington history at a 'Town and Gown' booksigning for two new IU Press books

On May 16, from 4 to 6 p.m., IU Press and the City of Bloomington present “Town and Gown,” a celebration of the release of two historically significant books—Showers Brothers Furniture Company by Carrol Krause and Herman B Wells by James H. Capshew.

The event, a part of Historical Preservation Month activities, will take place in City Hall Atrium and is free and open to the public. Mayor Mark Kruzan and IU Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Tom Gieryn will introduce the authors who will read from and sign books. Books will be available for purchase at a 20% discount.

When the Showers family arrived in Bloomington, IN, the railroad had only recently come to town and a modest university was struggling to survive. Having spent the prior 18 years moving from place to place, the family decided to settle down and invest its modest resources to start a furniture company. The business proved to be extremely profitable and a stroke of good fortune for the small community. The company’s success strengthened Bloomington's infrastructure, helping to develop new neighborhoods, and the philanthropic acts of the Showers family supported the town’s continued development. The family’s contributions helped Indiana University through difficult times and paved the way to its becoming the largest university in the state. In The Showers Brothers Furniture Company, Carrol Krause, a member of Bloomington’s Historic Preservation Commission and a Herald-Times columnist, tells the story of a remarkably successful collaboration between business, town, and gown.

Energetic, shrewd, and charming, Herman B Wells was the driving force behind the transformation of Indiana University—which became a model for American public higher education in the 20th century. A person of unusual sensitivity and a skilled and empathetic communicator, his character and vision shaped the structure, ethos, and spirit of the institution in countless ways. Wells articulated a persuasive vision of the place of the university in the modern world. Under his leadership, IU would grow in size and stature, establishing strong connections to the state, the nation, and the world. His dedication to the arts, to academic freedom, and to international education remained hallmarks of his 63-year tenure as President and University Chancellor. Wells lavished particular attention on the flagship campus at Bloomington, expanding its footprint tenfold in size and maintaining its woodland landscape as new buildings and facilities were constructed. Gracefully aging in place, he became a beloved paterfamilias to the IU clan. A faculty member of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at IU Bloomington, and former Wells house boy, James Capshew shows how Wells built an institution, and, in the process, became one himself.

For more information on the event, contact Nancy Hiestand, Program Manager Historic Preservation, at hiestann@bloomington.in.gov or 812-349-3507.

Celebrate National Short Story Month with Robin Hemley!

May is National Short Story Month! Founded by Dan Wickett at the Emerging Writers Network, this month brings attention to an often overlooked but important literary art form.

In celebration of this month, we're offering a reading selection from the work of IUP author Robin Hemley. His third short story collection, Reply All, will be released later this month. Take a sneak peek inside the book and enjoy National Short Story Month!

To learn more about Robin's writing, listen to this IU Press podcast or visit his website, robinhemley.com

New releases for May

Herman B Wells
The Promise of the American University
James H. Capshew

"This much-needed biography gives Herman B Wells his rightful place in the sun as an important university leader." —John R. Thelin, University Research Professor, University of Kentucky and author of A History of American Higher Education

Now in paperback
Being Lucky
Reminiscences and Reflections
Herman B Wells

Both lighthearted and serious, Wells’s reflections describe in welcome detail his approach to his presidency at Indiana University and other aspects of his life. Being Lucky is a nourishing brew of the memories, advice, wit, and wisdom of a remarkable man.

Showers Brothers Furniture Company
The Shared Fortunes of a Family, a City, and a University
Carrol Krause

"Author Carrol Krause has chosen a very interesting subject and writes with an especially good eye for 'telling detail' and for imagining sounds, images, and smells of long ago. The illustrations combined with the engaging style will attract an enthusiastic local audience." —James H. Madison, author (with Will Counts and Scott Russell Sanders) of Bloomington Past and Present

A Guide to Caves and Karst of Indiana
Samuel S. Frushour in conjunction with the Indiana Geological Survey
With a contribution by Julian J. Lewis and Salisa L. Lewis

"A practical guidebook with something to offer both beginning and experienced spelunkers. Readers interested in the geology or topography of the region will also find it worth a look." —Library Journal

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945
Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe
Volume II
Geoffrey P. Megargee, General Editor
Martin Dean, Volume Editor
Introduction by Christopher R. Browning

"[A] staggering achievement. . . . at around 2,000 pages it’s an even more impressive compendium of scholarly research and editorial enterprise than Volume I . . . Without the efforts of this consortium of international contributors, most of these places . . . might have disappeared from historical memory and slipped into oblivion." —The Jewish Daily Forward

Stoic Pragmatism
John Lachs

"A direct attack on fundamentalisms of all sorts and on aggressive fanaticisms. . . . Lachs's recommendations for philosophy and for life are rooted in a deeply thought-out individualism that is not individualistic . . . a program for philosophy and a program for life." —Robert E. Innis, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Postmodern Philosophy and the Scientific Turn
Dorothea E. Olkowski

"This book is beautifully written, engaging throughout and captivating. . . . Authoritative and intelligent without being arrogant." —Claire Colebrook, The Pennsylvania State University

Yearning for the New Age
Laura Holloway-Langford and Late Victorian Spirituality
Diane Sasson

This biography of an unconventional woman in late 19th-century America is a study of a search for individual autonomy and spiritual growth. Diane Sasson underscores the significant role played by cultural mediators like Holloway-Langford in bringing new religious ideas to the American public and contributing to a growing interest in eastern religions and alternative approaches to health and spirituality that would alter the cultural landscape of the nation.

Racial Imperatives
Discipline, Performativity, and Struggles against Subjection
Nadine Ehlers

This in-depth analysis examines the constructions of blackness and whiteness cultivated in the U.S. imagination and explores how individuals become racial subjects.

Tambú
Curaçao's African-Caribbean Ritual and the Politics of Memory
Nanette de Jong

"Examines the practice of Tambú that is associated with the syncretic religious tradition of Montamentu using memory as a framing device for understanding the African-derived cultural values, musical expressions, and socio-politically resistant behaviors against dominant European-based ideals of acceptability." —Michael Largey, Michigan State University

Rice Talks
Food and Community in a Vietnamese Town
Nir Avieli

"Readers with an interest in Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, and Asian cuisines and/or the influences of colonialism on local foodways will find the work useful. . . . Filled with descriptions of meals and dishes likely to get the culinarily-minded reader drooling." —Robyn Eckhardt, author of EatingAsia

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.

Memoir examines Vietnamese man's experience in war

Thirty-seven years ago today, the Viet Nam war ended when Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. But the memory of the war lives on for one man who served in the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam. In Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars, Nguyen Cong Luan recalls his experience of the wars of Viet Nam from the time he was old enough to be aware of war in the 1940s until his departure for America 15 years after the collapse of South Viet Nam. This honest and impassioned account is filled with the everyday heroism of the common people of his generation.

Read an excerpt about the fall of Saigon

Mother's Day recipe from 'Paradise Kitchen' + 40% off cookbooks!

Looking for a Mother's Day gift? The surest way to your mom's heart is through her stomach! But you can save yourself the headache of battling the Mother's Day crowds at a restaurant by creating a culinary delight in your own kitchen. Whip up a batch of these delicious Banana Waffles from Chef Daniel Orr's cookbook, Paradise Kitchen, and your mom will be wowed! We can't guarantee that they'll look as pretty as Daniel's picture, but they'll taste just as yummy. :)

If you like this recipe, then check out our 40% off cookbook sale! Order by May 6 to ensure delivery by Mother's Day. Use code MOTHER at checkout. Sale ends May 13. Shop now!

Banana Waffles with Passion Fruit Rum Syrup and Mango Butter
(Download PDF of recipe)

For 4–6 friends
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. instant oatmeal
3 T brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1-1/4 c. buttermilk
2 bananas (1 very ripe, 1 medium-ripe), diced
1 T vegetable oil
2 T butter, melted additional butter as needed for cooking
2 fresh passion fruits, seeds and pulp
syrup of your choice

In blender, combine flours, sugar, and baking powder. Add egg, milk, ripe banana, oil, and butter; process until mixed. Fold in remaining banana.

Heat waffle iron until hot; add butter to lightly grease. Spoon batter evenly into waffle iron and cook until golden brown. Keep on a platter in the oven covered lightly with aluminum foil until all waffles are ready.

Serve with Mango Butter (see recipe below) and your favorite syrup. I like warm maple syrup with a little rum, butter, and fresh passion fruit stirred in.

Mango Butter

1 lb. butter (room temperature)
1 c. mango pulp
2 T sugar
1 pinch salt
juice of one lemon

Puree mango, lemon juice, sugar, and salt in a blender. Add butter and pulse to combine. With a piping bag, pipe butter in curls on parchment paper and freeze until hard. Remove to container and seal. Store in freezer or refrigerator until needed.