PSU Magazine Fall 1999

Flirting on the Margins By Robert Everhart (education faculty), Hampton Press, 1998 . What is a middle-age teacher in a poverty-ridden public school supposed to do as his students fail and his personal life loses meaning? He embrace a way of teaching that's new to him and his colleagues. However, it is not new to the book's author, former dean of the PSU School of Education. Everhart uses the novel to effectively tell a story of his own research and experience on the best way to reach kids. Screenwright: The Craft of Screen Writing by Charles Deemer (English faculty), Xlibric Corp . , 1998. Forget about the great American novel; writing the great American screenplay is today's dream, writes Deemer in his guide to writing and marketing the Hollywood screenplay. He knows. Thirty-nine of his plays have been produced and six of his screenplays optioned. Learn the essen– tials of character, structure, economy, format, and concept from Deemer's book, which grew out of his classroom work at PSU. Women's Voices from the Mother Lode by Susan Butruille '77, Tamarack Books, 1998 In Butruille's third book in the "Women's Voices" series, the reader enters the world of the California Gold Rush. A parade of characters tell their tales: proper "ladies" from the East Coast, a French woman impris– oned for wearing pants as she panned for gold, women who grew rich running boarding houses, and ch ildren lost and abandoned as the gold fever takes their parents. Political Terrain: Washington, D.C. By Carl Abbott (urban studies faculty), University of North Carolina Press , 1999. Washington, D.C., has been a tidewater town, a southern city, a fought-after prize between the states, an extension of the Boston-New York megalopolis, and an international metropolis. The city's many identities as seen through to the eyes of business boosters, architects, blues artists, map makers, and politicians are explored in Abbott's newest book. D Other books by alum n i Women in the Milieu of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, by Wayne Chapman '72, MA '77 and Janet Man on '70, MA '77, Pace Uni versity Press, 1998. Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion, by June Melby Benowitz '81, MA '88, ABC-CLIO, 1998. Reviews are of faculty and alumni books, recordings, and Web publica– tions. To have a work considered for this page, please submit pertinent information to Mary Ellen Kenreich, PSU Library faculty, via e-mail kenreichm@pdx.edu , by fax at (503 ) 725-5799, or mail to Portland State University, PO Box 1151 , Portland, OR 97207-115 1. Planet Champions: Adventures in Saving the World by Jack Yost MA '71. BridgeCity Books, 1999. Editors note: A new book by one of PSU Magazine's own is cause for celebration or at least a notable presence on this page. Jack's excellent feature articles each magatine issue are only a prelude to the thought-provoking writing in his book. I eagerl'Y awaited its publication this past year and was not disappointed. In the new century, the sovereignty of the world's people will triumph over the absolute sovereignty of nations, argues Yost. Already, more than 60 percent of humankind live under democratic governments, and despite setbacks, the cause of human rights is making dramatic gains every year. Part book of ideas, part memoir, Planet Champions links together promising new strategies for transforming global politics and economics with a story of individual discovery. Following the author's own quest over 17 years to find a meaningful role as an educator and peace activist, the book profiles the champions he met along the way: everyday people working quietly and effectively for the good of the planet. Yost's journey began with his work founding a small peace education group at PSU's Campus Ministry in 1982 and led him, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the United Nations in New York. Among the changes he chronicled there: a planet-wide movement of individuals, citizens groups, and progressive govern– ments who are fundamentally challenging the power of big corporations and big governments to shape the future. Yost calls the new role of citizens unprecedented. "The peace movements from the '70s and '80s have evolved into an extremely soph isticated worldwide force. Through the Internet and modem communica– tions, small grass roots groups fighting for the environment or human rights can link up with each other and with large international organizations and form powerful coalitions to have a real impact," he says. Among the radical notions the book explores are an Oregon-inspired plan for making the environment the top priority in economic planning and a growing movement to share the earth's resources equitably. Yost is scheduled to read from his new book on Tuesday, November 30, 7:30 p.m. at Powell's Books, 1005 W Burnside, Portland. FALL 1999 PSU MAGAZINE 7