Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Editor’s Note
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Review
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Review

Editors’ Picks for September and October

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
October 5, 2019
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

In the Attic of My Mind

Chris Van Curan and Bonzo Serizio

Looking back over a lifetime of memories, Chris Van Curan ’54, with his coauthor, has put together an autobiography of over 50 short stories that are spun from his time growing up in White Plains, N.Y., attending Middlebury, serving in the Army, earning an MBA, working in a bank, founding the Lincoln Canoe Company, and so much more. Funny, heartwarming, and intimate, the stories are told in a colloquial fashion that makes one feel like they are sitting in Van Curan’s living room, listening as he recalls the memories of his life.

A Day in June

Marisa Labozzetta

In this poignant, thoughtful, and witty novel, Marisa Labozzetta, Spanish ’71 weaves together the stories of three millennials caught up in a web of deception that puts an entire town on its ears. When a young resident of the town suggests a contest offering a free wedding in town to boost the economy, and the winner finds herself without a fiancé because he has decided to become a priest, events begin to snowball. Part love story and part philosophical discourse, the novel twists and turns its way to a satisfying ending.

Love Letters from a Voluptuous Sexagenarian

Miguel Delibes
Trans. Teresa Boucher

Teresa Boucher, MA Spanish ’88, MA French ’89 has translated from Spanish this epistolary novel by prolific and award-winning writer Miguel Delibes. Appearing for the first time in English, the novel is comprised of letters written by a 65-year-old retired Castilian newspaperman to a 56-year-old widow from Seville, whose son is writing a graduate thesis on censorship of the press in the 1940s under Franco. In a mono-dialogue fashion, the story weaves a comic love story with an unwitting exposé of the state of journalism under an authoritarian regime.

One Rough Life

Robert D. Bethke

This ethnographic and musicological book is the first to be devoted to a northern New York State lumberjack, who was an unaccompanied traditional singer of folk ballads and other songs circulated in lumber camp bunkhouses and area ballrooms. Robert Bethke ’67 has pulled together texts, tunes, and annotations for 35 British, Irish, and American folk ballads and songs learned by Ted Ashlaw mainly through oral tradition from about 1900 to 1950. The book comes with two CDs of original field recordings.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
March 2, 2022

Cult Fiction

With absurdist, yet endearing dramedies dominating popular culture, a couple of recent Midd grads have added a new title to the canon with the wonderful Youtube series The Deli People.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photographs courtesy of L.T. Stenello Productions
February 4, 2022
Abstract illustration of a person with correspondence letters floating in the wind surrounding them.

Dear Friends . . .

On writing through grief.

By Bianca Giaever ’12.5
Illustration by Nicole Xu. Photographs by Paul Dahm
May 11, 2021

Dispatches

Sonic Art

What began as an attempt by Matthew Evan Taylor to collaborate with fellow musicians during the isolation of the pandemic ended up being a yearlong project that culminated in an evening performance at the Met.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Josiah Bania
April 15, 2022

Poetry, In Exile

After fleeing civil unrest in her native Venezuela, a Middlebury Institute graduate student turned to poetry to help make sense of it all.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustrations by Anonymous
January 21, 2022

Inside the Ant Chamber

A visit to a Bi Hall lab affords an up-close encounter with an extremely social cohort of insects.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Clint Penick
November 12, 2021

Twenty Minutes, Twenty Years

Reflections on 9/11 as a New Yorker and Muslim American.

By Daleelah Saleh '23
Illustration by Davide Bonazzi
September 23, 2021

It’s in the Wash

Moyara Ruehsen separates fact from creative fiction in the world of criminal finance.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Elena Zhukova
September 9, 2021

From Stage to Screen

Doug Anderson has plenty of experience directing opera. But with his latest production, he faced new and unusual challenges.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Erica Furgiuele
September 2, 2021

Film Feast

The seventh season of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival includes films from talented members of the Middlebury College community.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photo by Mia Fichman ’19
August 19, 2021

Rock On

NASA has grand plans to collect rock samples on Mars and eventually return the material to Earth. And Drew Gorin '16 is part of a team tasked with figuring out where to collect the bounty.

By Andrew Cassel
Illustration by James Yang
July 15, 2021

A Close Study

How an art history course dedicated to an 11th-century masterpiece concluded with an unusual assignment.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Andrew Cassel
June 30, 2021
View All

Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Wired for Service

Examining the myriad ways Middlebury students and alumni continue to engage in an enduring tradition: giving back to others.

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
November 11, 2021

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

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

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Editors’ Picks for March and April

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 4, 2022

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

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

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020
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.

© 2022 Middlebury College Publications.