Nov|Dec Alumni Authors

By Ryan Duffy in Nov | Dec 2017, TXEX on November 1, 2017 at 8:00 am | No Comments

Toxic Apps: A Guide for Parents
by Barry Crutchfield, BA ’90, Life Member

App developer Crutchfield has produced a handy manual for parents to navigate a world fraught with uncertainties and vulnerabilities. Toxic Apps highlights which apps are most dangerous, outlines the perils of cyberbullying, and explains how even the most popular apps—like Twitter and Tumblr—can lead to less than desirable outcomes. Crutchfield’s accessible guide contains important precautions parents can take to ensure safety for their children when and if they decide to engage with the millions of apps in existence.

 

A Rebel Lady in Harlem
by Robert Kent, BS ’72, Life Member

While researching the development of Granbury, Texas, Kent stumbled across the story of the rebellious Josephine Cogdell. Reared by a wealthy family in the Jim Crow era, she moved west, then to New York, marrying George Schuyler, a prominent African-American journalist, along the way. The accomplished interracial couple had a prodigious daughter, Philippa Schuyler, whose life was cut short by a helicopter crash in Vietnam. Shortly after, Cogdell took her own life. Kent goes to great lengths to explore this compelling, untold story of Cogdell’s outsized life.

 

The Primal Teacher: A Caveman’s Secrets to Improving Your Class
by Scott Phillips, BA ’85, Life Member

A middle school math and science teacher since 2008, Phillips imparts his experience using what he calls “primal teaching,” the crux of which is rethinking how kids learn. Through simplifying the classroom experience—without “teaching down” to students—Phillips shows how teachers often overload pupils with information, give soon-forgotten presentations, and otherwise hinder results, while offering hands-on tools to increase success.

 

Durations: A Memoir and Personal Essays
by Carolyn Osborn, BJ ’55, MA ’59, Life Member

In Durations, Osborn weaves together the disparate pieces of a wartime childhood, her formative years, and a subsequent life in motion. World War II and her mother’s mental illness took her from the care of her parents to life with extended family, uprooting her from Tennessee and landing her in Central Texas. Interspersed with tales of travel, family mementos, and the power of relationships, Durations is both deeply personal and a glimpse into the broader experience of a storied generation.

 

The Fourth Book of Five
by R.P. Poe, BA ’77, MEd ’83, Life Member

In Poe’s latest novel, a teenage castaway, Nicolai Tate, is on the run. With the authorities not far behind, he chances upon a fellow homeless companion, Truman Birdsong, at a boarding house for disabled individuals, teeming with intriguing characters. Truman and Tate, aided by a clairvoyant elder named Parfit, stare down pesky probation officers and militia types and foil an anti-government plot hatched by a pair of scheming brothers.

Tags: alumni authors