Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Essays
    • Q&A
    • Podcasts
    • Review
    • Videos
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Review

Editors’ Picks for May and June

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 10, 2023
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

TERRA NOVA

Henriette Lazaridis

In her latest novel, Terra Nova, Henriette Lazaridis ’82 has channeled her lifelong fascination with Antarctica into a rich and compelling story about exploration of that continent coupled with life for a woman artist in 1910 London. With intense and beautiful descriptions, Lazaridis tells the harrowing story of Watts and Heywoud, who are racing to be the first men to the South Pole. Meanwhile, Heywoud’s wife, Viola, who harbors love for both men, is active in London as a photojournalist capturing in photographs the heroic women of the suffrage movement, who are striving toward their own goals. The narrative moves provocatively back and forth between these two worlds with convincing, visceral detail as the men and Viola independently follow their ambitious paths. But when the men return triumphant from the South Pole, the intersection of the stories bristles with lies and a deception that changes everything believed and achieved. Lazaridis has created a tale about risks, love, art, and agonizing choices, which make for a rich, suspenseful novel that will keep you intrigued to the end.

JOTA SETE

Jason Ennis

Jazz guitarist Jason Ennis ’97 became intrigued with Brazilian music over a decade ago, and his interest led him to adopt as his primary instrument the seven-string classical guitar, which is uniquely Brazilian. Now as the leader of his own jazz group, he has released his debut album, Jota Sete. While being influenced by a wide range of Brazilian music, he has developed his own sound on the guitar, finding, as he says, “that balance between drawing upon and emulating elements of the formidable Brazilian tradition of Sete Cordas and finding my own voice in, and my own approach to, the instrument.” He has succeeded, with his band members, in producing a beautiful album that shows its Brazilian influence but stays true to his own vision. As jazz guitar legend Gene Bertoncini states, “Every composed and improvised note throughout this entire recording is infused with creativity, beauty, and sincerity. This recording is a joy to listen to!”

RAFAEL JEROME

Tobias Maxwell

Prolific author Tobias Maxwell, Japanese ’85 has published a new novel titled Rafael Jerome. When two strangers meet accidentally on the streets of Paris, they discover they have a connection through Rafael Jerome, the father of one of the men, and an acquaintance of the other. For Gary Silverman, his encounter with Rafael in 1949 has led to a lifelong sense of loss, and for Jeremy Jerome, knowledge of his father’s misadventures in flashy Hollywood of the late ’40s leads to a determination to unearth his father’s true legacy. He sets out for Ottawa, Canada, then Calgary to find answers to a decades-old family secret. Maxwell’s compelling narrative and well-drawn characters weave a story of love and loss and how complicated family loyalties can be.

SHE LOOKED TO THE SKY

Frances Dean Nolde

Memoirs abound on bookshelves these days as people sort through their lives and write about their experiences, good and bad. But the story by Frances Nolde, MA English ’76, told in She Looked to the Sky, is more of a biography of an extraordinary woman who achieved remarkable milestones in the aviation world—Nolde’s mother. While Nolde does reflect on her own part in her mother’s life and what it meant to her growing-up years, the accomplishments she chronicles are intriguing. After attempting a career in show business, and starring in a 1930s radio serial, Nolde’s mother married, raised seven children, and began learning to fly at age 39. She became a pilot, served as a commander in WWII for the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), won a transcontinental all-women’s air race, and eventually became a colonel in the CAP in charge of the women’s program. After moving to Washington, she became responsible for planning how America’s civilian airplanes would defend the country if the Cold War became heated. She accomplished all this in a time when women were expected to be stay-at-home mothers. Nolde’s engaging story weaves family history with the exploits of a pioneering woman ahead of her time.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Stories

Features

A Dog’s Life

A filmmaker takes us into the minds of the animals who are part of our families.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Randal Ford
April 4, 2025

On Parenting

Caitlin McCormick Murray ’05 has some thoughts on what it means to be a good mom.

By Frederick Reimers ’93
Photograph by Justin Patterson
March 15, 2025

Object Lessons

Curator Rebekah Irwin sees Middlebury's Special Collections as a laboratory, where antiquities meet utility.

By Caroline Crawford
Photograph by Adam Detour
August 23, 2024

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

How one alumna is embracing a distinctive reforesting technique that promotes accelerated ecological benefits.

By Elena Valeriote, MA Italian '19 in conversation with Hannah Lewis '97
Illustrations by Karlotta Freier
August 16, 2024

Dispatches

Thanks for the Memories

A student-curated exhibit explores the Middlebury experience through more than a century of undergrad scrapbooks.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photographs by Todd Balfour
May 5, 2025

Fear Factor

A scientific model—and work of art—warns of the next pandemic.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Jonathan Blake
April 4, 2025

From NESCAC to NFL?

Thomas Perry '25 has a shot at playing football on Sundays.

By Matt Jennings
Photograph by Rodney Wooters
March 11, 2025

Words in Space

A NASA interpreter bridges the language gap, one mission at a time.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustrations by Davide Bonazzi
February 15, 2025

Keeping Her Stick on the Ice

An alumna’s passion for ice hockey puts her in the record books.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Connie Noble
January 26, 2025

Watch Party

Henry Flores ’01 builds a community of collectors.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Hubert Kolka
January 15, 2025

A Man of Letters

The art of letter writing may be in decline, but one alumnus has kept it alive in a unique way.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph used with the permission of Melvin B. Yoken
October 9, 2024

If the Sneaker Fits

Adam King ’05 brings an Asian aesthetic—and celebrates Asian American culture—with his startup, 1587 Sneakers.

By Jessie Raymond ’90
Photograph by Sasha Greenhalgh
August 22, 2024

Jacob Shammash and the Gift of the Torah

A story of two journeys.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photographs by Paul Dahm
April 21, 2024
View All

Essays

Shear Madness

A yarn shop owner with no livestock experience takes an unlikely detour.

By Lindsey Spoor, MA French ’08
Illustration by Ben Kirchner
April 4, 2025

Q&A

37 Minutes with Lorraine Besser

The professor and philosopher talks about the three elements of the “good life”—especially the one happiness culture overlooks.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Oliver Parini
April 4, 2025

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

The Exit Interview with Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton

With her presidency at Middlebury coming to an end, the host of this podcast becomes its final guest.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
December 18, 2024

The Monterey Trialogue: A Distinct Take on Superpower Diplomacy featuring Anna Vassilieva and Peter Slezkine

Our guests for episode six of season three are Anna Vassilieva and Peter Slezkine, the folks behind the Monterey Trialogue—which brings together leading experts from the United States, China, and Russia for in-depth discussions of their countries' interests and concerns in the vital regions of the world.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
July 19, 2024

Education as the Great Equalizer, featuring Annie Weinberg ’10

Our guest for episode five of season three is Annie Weinberg '10, the founder and executive director of Alexander Twilight Academy, an educational catalyst program in Boston, Massachusetts, that supports students from under-resourced backgrounds.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
March 14, 2024

Review

Editors’ Picks for March and April

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 10, 2025

Editors’ Picks for January and February

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
February 14, 2025

Long Live Brazenhead

Out of a secret bookstore comes a unique literary review.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Todd Balfour
January 13, 2025

Videos

Creating Community Through Hip Hop

For three days in March, the sounds, styles, and fashions of global hip hop converged on Middlebury for an electric symposium.

By Jordan Saint-Louis '24
April 17, 2023

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2025 Middlebury College Publications.