Meryl Weinsaft Cooper ’92 
and Jessica Kleiman, Be Your 
Own Best Publicist 
(Career Press, 
January 2011)

Be Your Own Best Publicist focuses on helping job seekers — as well 
as those who are currently employed — market themselves in the workplace. The authors 
believe that anyone can use basic public relations skills to land a new job, attract freelance assignments, stay essential in a current position, or obtain a promotion.  

Cooper is managing director of the home and lifestyle division of the communications agency, DeVries Public Relations. She also oversees the firm’s digital marketing and 
social media strategies.

John DiLeo ’82, Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors (Hansen Publishing Group, 2010)

DiLeo’s fourth book takes a unique approach to examining films adapted from one of America’s greatest playwrights. Instead of simply analyzing the films, DiLeo focuses on 11 actors (such as Marlon Brando and Geraldine Page) who appeared in more than one of Williams’s movies and their mostly successful — but occasionally questionable — interpretations of his characters.

DiLeo is a contributing book reviewer for the Washington Post Book World and writes DVD and film-book reviews for three other publications. 

Cathi Brese Doebler ’95, Ditch the Joneses, Discover Your Family: How to Thrive on Less Than Two Incomes! (Brese Doebler, 2010)

Doebler attempts to debunk the myth that it takes two incomes for a family to survive in today’s economy. Using faith-based views and values, Ditch the Joneses helps parents balance their financial life with maintaining realistic ideals for a healthy and solid family. Doebler supplements Ditch the Joneses with a CD workbook that includes audio of a personal coaching session with the author.

Doebler brings her business coaching and training experience to teaching family-oriented financial responsibility and decision making. She lives with her family in upstate New York.

Mike Faber ’82, 52 Greatest Business Development Questions Card Deck (Broadcast Your Best Publishing, 2010)

This companion deck of 
cards reinforces many of the ideas 
developed in 
Faber’s books, 89 Seconds to Sales Success and 89 Seconds to Leadership Success. Each suit of the card deck contains 13 questions that hone sales skills, including tips on how 
to determine a customer’s circumstances, needs, budget, and decision-making priorities.

Faber is the founder and CEO of Faber Communications. He works as a keynote speaker and coach, sharing his more than 30 years of experience in sales, broadcasting, and communication with 
a variety of organizations and businesses.

Ian Gurvitz ’74, Deconstructing God: A Heretic’s Case for Religion (Create-Space, 2010)

Deconstructing God takes an alternative view on faith by breaking down conventional Western views of god 
and religion and arguing in favor of shifting the experience of religion away from blind faith to direct human experience.

Gurvitz resides in Los Angeles and works as a TV writer and executive producer. He maintains a blog and is a regular contributor 
to the Huffington Post.

Leslie Harrison ’07, A Year in 
Ireland (Maxfield Music, 2010)

New Time Ensemble is a quartet that was formed in Ireland while the four musicians were attending the University of Limrick. The group features a guitar, fiddle, cello, and flute (Harrison), an unconventional instrument grouping for traditional Irish music, which gives the band its distinctive sound. The band’s new 11-track CD includes a collection of traditional tunes, jigs, and reels that the group arranged.

Harrison holds a master’s degree in flute performance from New York University, where she developed her interest in applying classical techniques to Irish music.

Mark Holdren ’65, Back Roads of the Finger Lakes: A Journalist’s Sketch Book (Powell Hill Press, 2010)

Holdren’s 
illustrated collection of 18 stories takes readers on a jaunt through the beautiful Finger Lakes countryside with a variety of colorful characters from the region. Back Roads features writing by Holdren and 
illustrations by award-winning 
Finger Lakes artist Elaine Verstraete.

Holdren has been honored by the Associated Press and New York News Publishers Association for his feature writing in the Canandaigua Daily Messenger.

Caroline Kang, M.M. ’04, Zappa Symphonies (PentaTone Classics, 2010)

Cellist Kang is featured as the soloist on this recording of 
a selection of 18th-century Dutch music. She teams 
up with the New Dutch Academy, 
a baroque orchestra from The Hague, Netherlands, for this unique glimpse into the orchestral history of the Dutch royal court in The Hague.

Kang lives in the Netherlands and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and France as a chamber musician and orchestral player on both modern and 
baroque cello. She studied at the Eastman School of Music before Ithaca College.

Matthew Litt ’99, Christmas 1945: The Greatest Celebration in American History (History Publishing, 2010)

In 1945, President Truman 
declared a four-day Christmas weekend for 
federal employees to celebrate the recent peace achieved by the end of World 
War II. Christmas 1945 explores the many stories of that celebration and commemorates the depth of the American spirit in 1945 and the importance of community connection.

Litt is a practicing attorney 
and a member of the United 
States Supreme Court Historical Society and the Historical Society of the Courts of the State of 
New York.

Frank Meredith '78, The Battle 
of Gettysburg as Seen by Two Teens: 
The Stories of Tillie Pierce and Daniel Skelly (Create-Space, 2010)

Meredith’s 
second book on the Civil War is nonfiction and includes full reprints of the first-person accounts of the famous battle by two civilian teenagers who were eyewitnesses, as well as related maps and historical photos.

Meredith is a music teacher, musician, and a dedicated Civil War buff.

Steve Perrine ’86 and Heather Hurlock,The New American Diet (Rodale Books, 2009)

The book 
introduces new evidence about obesity-causing chemicals called “obesogens” that are present in the American diet. The chemicals are thought to disturb hormonal systems and trigger weight gain. Perrine challenges conventional thinking about diets and suggests ways to keep obesogens out of our bodies — not by 
restricting food intake but by making simple food swaps.

Perrine is editor-at-large at Men’s Health magazine.

Josh Rathbun ’01 Crash Cadet (Joshua Rathbun/Crash Cadet, 2010)

Rathbun completed this album while working on his master’s degree in architecture at Boston Architectural College. His inspiration derives from a variety of musical styles, ranging from ambient soundscapes to modern electronica to full orchestral pieces. Rathbun also provides vocals for this 16-track CD, which focuses on the “demise of American towns” and the “futility of architecture in a world dominated by economics, not design.”

In addition to composing and producing music, Rathbun writes soundtracks for movies and games and creates independent works under the name Crash Cadet.

Karen Rockower ’00, Whales Standing (Mark Turrigiano, 2010)

After releasing two albums as the front woman for the New York City rock trio, Bugs in the Dark, Whales Standing is Rockower’s debut solo album. 
The 12-track CD is inspired by her “real adventures and rich dream life.” Urban Outside calls it “brash, uninhibited, melodic, and intimate.”

Rockower taught herself to play piano and guitar by ear and feel. She lives in Brooklyn, and when she’s not writing or performing, she works as a tattoo artist.

David Seigerman ’88 and Pat Kirwan. Take Your Eye off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look (Triumph Books, 2010)

Take Your Eye 
off the Ball teaches football fans how to make sense of the apparent chaos on the field and better understand the game they’re watching. Seigerman and Kirwan take readers into the coach’s mind by identifying key matchup advantages and analyzing a game so that everyone can understand it.

Seigerman is a veteran sports journalist who has worked in both print and broadcast media. He coauthored and coproduced the documentary, The Warrior Ethos: The Experience and Tradition of Boxing at West Point.

David Shapiro, Caged Writing (Xlibris Corporation, 2010)

In Caged Writing, 18 incarcerated individuals respond to written assignments given by Shapiro when he was teaching a creative writing and critical thinking course in an Arizona prison. More than half the students are serving life sentences for murder. Their insightful writing has a raw quality to it that is as profound as it is painful.

Shapiro taught at Ithaca College as an assistant professor of communications from 1992 to 2002. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, and continues to develop creative writing and critical thinking programs for prisons.

Heidi Skolnik ’83 and Andrea Chernus, Nutrient Timing for Peak Performance (Human Kinetics, 2010)

For Skolnik and Chernus, timing is everything. The sports nutritionists write that consuming nutrients at the right time and in appropriately-sized servings can bring fitness and performance to a new level for both elite athletes and ordinary people.

Skolnik is a New York State certified nutritionist and president of Nutrition Conditioning, a nutrition consulting practice.

Michael Smith ’78 (editor), Citizenship across the Curriculum (Indiana University Press, 2010)

Smith is a proponent of teaching students “how to develop a greater sense of empathy and see issues from a variety of perspectives so they can civilly discuss and disagree.” This collection of essays urges higher education institutions to include civic engagement in the curriculum and provides methods to help teachers assess how well their students grasp the subject matter.

Smith is an associate professor of history at Ithaca College with a dual appointment in environmental studies.

Mark Volker ’96, Elemental Forces (Centaur Records, 2010)

Composer and guitarist Volker’s newest CD features a number of Central New York musicians, including Ithaca College faculty member and flutist Kelly Covert. The CD features “Deep Winter” for flute and interactive electronics, the chamber works “Ghost Signals” and “Painted on the Firmament,” and an organ suite, among other selections.

Volker is an assistant professor of music and coordinator of composition at the Belmont University School of Music in Nashville, Tennessee.

Harvey Warren ’73, Drop Debt (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2010)

Drop Debt offers solutions for people who find themselves at the end of their financial rope and don’t know where to turn, what to do, or who to trust. Warren shows that other options exist for people struggling with debt besides declaring bankruptcy.

Warren is a member of the Writers Guild of America and makes frequent appearances on television and radio programs, commenting on the consumer debt crisis in America.