Faculty Bibliography

David Oshinsky reviews "A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America," a book by John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Evan Mandery

"The taboos have worked in my favor," she writes. Body parts from heart to hair to brain to genitals have been written about by others. But chewing? Spit? Fistulas? Flatulence? Excrement? As she puts it, in no-nonsense style: "The pie hole and the feed chute are mine." And to anyone who would say, "Wow, that [Mary Roach] has," to paraphrase, sent her head up her rectum in writing "Gulp," she has a perfect rejoinder: "Only briefly, and with the utmost respect." Never has Ms. Roach's affinity for the comedic and bizarre been put to better use. Among the sources she mentions are the articles "A Lexicon of Pond-Raised Catfish Flavor Descriptors," "Fecal Odor of Sick Hedgehogs Mediates Olfactory Attraction of the Tick" and "The Psychology of Animals Swallowed Alive," and the book "Feeding per Rectum," whose author calls it "more interesting than any romance." Ms. Roach's ear for names leads her to identify this author as Bliss, but she also encounters people named Spitz, Grime, Terdiman, Flushing, Fardy and Crapo. And she collects words that belong in a latter-day version of "Jabberwocky": grumous, glabrous, periblepsis, for starters. "Should circumstance prevent a man from carrying his cigarettes and cellphone in his pants pocket," she writes, "the rectum provides a workable alternative." One inmate earned the nickname "OD," for Office Depot, by transporting "two boxes of staples, a pencil sharpener, sharpener blades and three jumbo binder rings."

David Oshinsky reviews "Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame," a history of Jewish sports figures edited by Franklin Foery and Marc Tracy

The puzzling part, for some, is that Richards never held national office, served a largely uneventful single term as Texas governor, and left behind a state Democratic party that is, as this season's elections will likely demonstrate, all but dead. Richards proved herself a fine county commissioner, focusing on improved services for the poor and overseeing the construction of the Loop 360 bridge spanning Lake Austin, now a city landmark

David Oshinsky reviews Joseph Crespino's "Strom Thurmond's America," which Oshinsky calls "a deft portrait of the senator's interminable career."

David Oshinsky reviews "Fenway Park: 100 Years: The Official, Definitive History of America's Most Beloved Ballpark."