New book releases with local ties
Here are some recently published books by authors with ties to the area.
"Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed" by Matthew Futterman (Doubleday)
This was one of the most enjoyable books I've read all year. It's a nonfiction account of the extraordinary distance running coach Bob Larsen. He grew up as a dirt poor farm boy in the Midwest. After moving to California, he became a good runner in the 1950s, but what made him such a memorable character was how he revolutionized the training of long distance runners. He went on to be an excellent coach at the high school and junior college levels before becoming the head coach UCLA. He is the reason why America's long distance runners are once again achieving Olympic medals. Futterman, who graduated from Union College, is a sports reporter for The New York Times, and he knows how to tell an exciting story.
"The Tyranny of Virtue: Identity, the Academy, and the Hunt for Political Heresies" by Robert Boyers (Scribner)
Boyers, a professor of English at Skidmore College, has written an intellectually stimulating series of essays about the decline of civility and academic freedom, which he blames largely on political correctness. He describes himself proudly as a liberal, but he disdains what he sees as the intolerance of many of his fellow liberals and an erosion of political and intellectual diversity at many top academic institutions. He will be speaking about the topic when he visits the New York State Writers Institute at 4:15 p.m. on Oct. 17.
"Son of Prince Edward County" by Twitty J. Styles (Durance Publishing)
This is an inspiring memoir about Styles, who grew up as an impoverished black child in segregated Prince Edward County in Virginia. Despite all the racism he saw...