BOOKS BY FACULTY, STAFF, AND ALUMNI

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

In The Explosive Child, Ross W. Greene (psychology M.S. '86, Ph.D) offers some help and insight to parents of children who are easily frustrated, inflexible, or prone to tantrums. Greene, a child psychologist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, examines and explains the thought processes that trigger conflicts. These children, he says, are predisposed to have difficulty responding to the world in an adaptable, flexible manner. Frustration leads to a mental lock, compounding the frustration of the child, and leading to conflict with others. In 14 chapters, The Explosive Child outlines problems particular to inflexible, explosive children and offers alternatives to the popular reward-and-punishment discipline strategies, which don't always work with these children. The book is published by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10 E. 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

COMPUTERS
	Michael Harden (sociology '74) tackles the looming problem computers will face on Jan. 1, 2000. The Y2K bug is explained and diagnosed in Failure Is Not An Option and Millennium Minefield. Both books look at the problems, risks, solutions, and contingencies of the coming year change. Millennium Minefield is a 50-page overview of the problem, embedded systems that may malfunction in the new millennium; Failure Is Not an Option takes a more in-depth look at approaches within the organizational context--assessment, triage, project management, outsourcing, and vendorsin 97 pages. Both books are published by Century Technology Services, Inc., 1313 Dolly Madison Blvd., Suite 203, McLean, VA 22101.

COOKBOOK

Karen Culpepper (management, housing and family development '75) was already a great cook as a Virginia Tech student, says her husband James Culpepper (animal science '75) on the back cover of her new cookbook, My Favorite Recipes from the Shenandoah Valley. The book is the result of 25 years of collecting recipes, adjusting them to the tastes of her family, and distilling them into one volume. Culpepper's collection ranges from quick red velvet cake to fruit pizza, crab quiche, and peanut butter eggs. Not only does this versatile cookbook include the standard meal-course categories, but a special section tells you how to create a herbal hair rinse, make doggie biscuits, temper a too-salty dish, fire-proof your Christmas tree, and much more. The book is published by Morris Publishing, 3212 E. Highway 30, Kearney, NE 68847.

FICTION

Could Elvis Presley worship be the foundation of a new religion? University physician Dr. Bill Yancey (general science '71) plays with this idea in his novel, Elvis Saves, a mixture of fantasy, science-fiction, and crime. The world has its share of Elvis worshipers who can be exploited, and the right strategy could separate them from their money. So thinks an enterprising Elvis impersonator, who rides around the country with a crony he calls Colonel. But the plot twists. Even the schemers have reason to wonder if Elvis has been reincarnated. This book is published by Xlibris Corp., P.O. Box 2199, Princeton, NJ 08543. It can also be downloaded into a Palm Pilot computer from http://www.pilotlibrary.org

HISTORY
In honor of its bicentennial, the Town of Blacksburg published A Special Place for 200 Years: A History of Blacksburg. The photo-laden volume charts the course of the town from the earliest settlers in the 1740s through the present. It examines not only the history of the area, but the architecture, customs, education, and businesses that culminated in the Blacksburg of today. Edited by Clara Cox (English M.A. '84), Virginia Tech manager of public service communications, the book contains writing by professors James Robertson and Peter Wallenstein, retired faculty Will McElfresh, Dorothy Bodell (clothing and textiles '54) and mayor Roger Hedgepeth (mechanical engineering '52, M.S). Alumni J. Daniel Pezzoni (architecture '84, M.Arch.) and Ken Singletary (political science '88) contributed chapters; alumna Meg Nugent (art '89) designed the 188-page volume. The book is published by the Town of Blacksburg, 300 S. Main St., Blacksburg, VA 24060.
On the heels of the Soviets successful launch of the Sputnik satellite in October 1957, former President Dwight Eisenhower received a top-secret report from a committee of the nation's leading scientific, business, and military experts emphasizing the inadequacy of U.S. defense measures. Historian David Snead (history '90, M.A.) examines the role of this committee in detail in The Gaither Committee, Eisenhower, and the Cold War, arguing that it provided the American government with a blueprint for waging the Cold War. During the remaining Eisenhower years, the arms race accelerated, dramatically raising the stakes of any potential conflict. The Gaither Committee, named in recognition of its first chairman, Rowan Gaither, was at the center of debates about U.S. security and relations with the Soviet Union. The committee's recommendation led to the development of our nuclear arsenal. Snead's book, the first to examine the role of the Gaither committee in detail, is published by Ohio State University Press, 1070 Carmack Rd., Columbus, Ohio. 43210.

MEMOIR

Nearly 50 years ago, Henry Miller (electrical engineering '54) met Florencia, a strong-spirited, deeply religious Filipino woman, while he was serving there in the U.S. Army. Her triumph over adversity and her deep faith eventually won the young man over, they married, and moved to the United States. While the tale has the drama of fiction, the Millers' book, When My Father and My Mother Forsake Me, is the true story of Florencia, a child who left her unloving mother at age 5 and wandered for six months before finding a caring home. Then the child loses her adoptive mother when the Philippines are bombed during WW II. Later, Florencia herself is prematurely pronounced dead after a car accident. Throughout her trials, Florencia draws heavily upon her religious convictions. The book is published by ELDRA Publications, P.O. Box 199, Webster, N.Y. 14580-0199.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Virginia Tech management professor Christopher Neck sets the tone for Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence in his dedication when he thanks those who taught him "my only limitations are those I place on myself." The book is a mixture of motivational reading and leadership techniques. The focus is on the inner resources, offering strategies for handling tough situations and people by understanding and adjusting your own feelings and reactions. The book is not all work and no play; Neck spends almost a fifth of the pages discussing the joys of "natural rewards." The book, written with Charles Manz of the University of Massachusetts, is its second edition with publisher, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J. 07458.

If you are an alum, faculty member, or staff member and have written or edited a book that you would like to have considered for review in the Virginia Tech Magazine, send e-mail to vtmag@vt.edu. Please include your name, the book title and publisher, and the name and phone number of the person who can get us a review copy.