PSU Magazine Spring 2002

T H E Hard Fought Victories: Women Coaches Making a Difference By Sara Gogol MA '81, MA '82, Wish Publishing, 2002. Marlene Piper spent the '70s coaching volleyball at PSU. In Hard Fought Victories, Piper remembers being more adept at women's basketball, but says, "I was hired as a volleyball coach because it did– n't mean any– thing anyway. Women's sports didn't matter at the time." Piper went on to coach volley- ball at Willamette University and to see women's programs gain in prestige and respect. Sara Gogol, a professor at Portland Community College, te lls the stories of women coaches from across the nation. PSU softball coach Teri Mariani is included along with such strong women sports advocates as Tara VanDerverr, the 1996 O lymp ic basketball coach, and ice hockey coach Digit Murphy, who was involved in the groundbreaking Title IX lawsuit against Brown Univer– sity. The Unspeakable and Others By Dan Clore '95, Wildside Press, 2001. Weird tales and essays of dense description and elaborate sentence structure make up the more than 40 pieces in Dan C lore's book. "The Unspeakable" refers to Clore's main character, Lord Weyrdgliff, a n ight– marish creature who hates mankind. In his misanthropic actions, Weyrdgliff provides some tru ly horrific scenes, but a macabre humor surfaces. C lore paro– dies science fiction, fairy tales, and even himself in the tales. Along with 6 PSU MAGAZINE SPRING 2002 S H E L F original material in the book, he includes some pieces chat appeared in publications such as Black October Magazine and Deathrealm. The intro– duction to The Unspeakable and Others suggests the book will leave readers "unsure whether to question the author's sanity or our own." Pacific Asia? Prospects for Security and Cooperation in East Asia By Mel Gurtov (political science and inter– national studies faculty), Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002. Prof. Mel Gurtov takes issue with the pessimism, power-politics orientation, and American centeredness that guides so much analys is of East Asian security. In Pacific Asia? he stresses a definition of security that focuses on basic human needs, social justice, and environmental protection. He argues for new efforts at regional dialogues based on mu ltilateral cooperation, sensitivity to Asian nationalism, and a ro le for Japan as a "global civil ian power." The question mark in the book's title is answered in the first chapter, when Gurtov cakes on the debated question: Is there an Asia Pacific or an East Asian identity? The answer is important to our understand– ing of security in the region. Ida B. Wells-Barnett & American Reform, 1880-1930 By Patricia Schechter (history faculty), University of North Carolina Press, 2001. Ida B. We lls-Barnett was an African American journalist who is best remembered for taking on the fight against lynch ing in the late 1800s. Prof. Patricia Schechter gives us a broader look at this woman and her times by includ ing the social activism of the day as well as Wells-Barnett's influence on the civil rights move– ment in general and the cause of African American women in particu– lar. Though forced into the shadow of black male leaders and ignored by white women reformers, Wells-Barnett nevertheless successfully enacted a rel igious ly inspired, fema le-centered, and intense ly po litical vision of social betterment and empowerment for African American communities throughout her adult years. On the Cave You Live In By Philip Jenks (university studies faculty) , Flood Editions, 2002. Growing up in West Virginia and receiving advance degrees in creative writing and political science gives Prof. Philip Jenks license to experi– ment with some rarified topics in his poetry. On the Cave You Live In is his first fu ll-length collection of poems, and they are both intimate and strange. He encompasses h is personal history as well as such subjects as the politics of Appalachia, Baptists speak– ing in tongues, and Kentucky coa l mines. Jenks has said that what mat– ters to him when it comes to poetry "is the wild encounter with the imagina– tion, a free space without limits and with infinite possibility." Other books & recordings Ethics in Community Mental Health Care, edited by Patricia Backlar (phi– losophy faculty) and David Cutler, Kluwer Academic, 2002. The Material Culture of Sex, Procre– ation, and Marriage in Premodern Europe, edited bv, Anne McClanan (art history facu lty) and Karen Encarnacion, Palgrave, 2002. 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 to kenreichm@pdx.edu , or fax to 503- 725-5799, or mail to Portland State University, PO Box 1151, Portland, OR 97207-0751.