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What We Want to Read – Summer 2020

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Compiled by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

With the year almost halfway through, it seems likely that 2020 will leave a lasting imprint on our collective memory. We are in a defining moment that is compelling us to examine painful truths about ourselves, our communities, and the larger society that we are citizens of. Hopefully, we will all make a conscious effort to move forward with more compassion, empathy, and respect towards one another so that we can begin to heal the deep wounds that have been inflicted.

It is against this backdrop that my colleagues are sharing with you the books that they plan to read this summer. Whether the selections result from an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of current events, or to serve as a reprieve from the world around us, all of the titles provide a glimpse of the individual who has chosen them.

Below these selections, you will find more information about other titles that you may be interested in. To purchase any of the titles shown along with thousands of others while also supporting the efforts of local, independent bookstores, click on the cover image to open up the Indiebound website. I also invite you to drop us a note and tell us what book(s) you will be reading this summer.

The Great InfluenzaThe Great Influenza by John M Barry

Publisher: Penguin

Why I want to read this book: This book is about the Spanish flu from a hundred years ago. Would be interesting to know what happened then and how history could help us today. Given the advancements in science and medicine since 1918, it is a revelation that things are not that different even today and we are struggling with similar issues.

Human KnowledgeHuman Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits by Bertrand Russell

Publisher:  Routledge Classics

Why I want to read this book:  This has been on my reading list for a long time. In this book, Bertrand Russell questions the reliability of our assumptions on knowledge. This was quite a controversial piece of work when it was published (1948). It examines the relation between individual experience and the general body of scientific knowledge. The perplexities of philosophy are beautifully explored. A gem of a read, pretty relevant today.

MonaSelections chosen by: Mona Tiwary, Director of Publishing Services, WPS India

Olive, AgainOlive Kitteridge followed by Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Publisher: Random House

Why I want to read this book: Olive Kitteridge is one of my favorite books, but it’s definitely been a few years since I read it, so I plan to revisit it before reading Strout’s follow-up book, which was published recently (a decade after the first book!). I cannot wait to sink back into Strout’s beautiful depictions of the interior workings of her characters. If the new book is anywhere near as good as the first one, I’ll be happy!

Selections chosen by: Ashley Moore, Copyeditor

 

The Address BookThe Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth and Power by Deidre Mask

Publisher: Profile Books

Why I want to read this book: This was recommended by a pal who works at Profile Books in London, where the staff there have raved about it. There are dozens of quirky, ‘How Pudding Lane got its name’-type novelty/gift titles out there. This book, however, is a far more thought-provoking and global approach to the influence and political and socio-economic importance of addresses. The author is an academic who attended Harvard and Oxford Universities, as well as the National University of Ireland.

Tim DSelected by: Tim Davies, Managing Director, Westchester Publishing Services UK

 

All the DevilsAll the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

Publisher: Minotaur Books (Macmillan)

Why I want to read this book: Her Inspector Gamache series is always a great read. Good mystery plot-lines and memorable characters. I’ve become a Louise Penny junkie, and get absolutely giddy when I see a new one coming. This one should release by the end of summer.

Tina MingolelloSelected by: Tina Mingolello, Customer Service Representative

 

Measure for MeasureMeasure for Measure by William Shakespeare

Publisher: Pearson, Bevington editor

Why I want to read this book: I read one of Shakespeare’s plays each summer as I have since high school. This play focuses on morality and justice.

 

The Old Curiosity ShopThe Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Publisher: Wordsworth Classics Edition, Hardcover

Why I want to read this book: Read along with G.K. Chesterton’s “biography,” one sees the changing of the times so beautifully encapsulated in his novels.

Eighth Day of CreationThe Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology by Horace Freeland Judson

Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Why I want to read this book: This is one of the better books on science but definitely the best book on molecular biology as told by the scientists involved in the 20th century understanding of DNA, RNA, and Protein structures and functions.

Tim YetzinaSelections chosen by: Tim Yetzina, Senior Supervising Editor, STEM, Westchester Education Services

 

City we becameThe City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

Publisher: Orbit

Why I want to read this book: One of my most favorite things in a book is when the setting becomes its own character, and that’s the case for The City We Became, which takes place in New York City. I’ve enjoyed previous books by this author and this book is the first in a planned series, so I’m looking forward to reading it!

 

Kim GSelected by: Kimberly Giambattisto, Senior Production Editor

 

CrawdadsWhere the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Why I want to read this book: A lyrical mystery! Set in the marshes of the North Carolina coast, the book uses beautiful language to explore the marsh and nature while it tells the story of a reclusive Marsh Girl, Kya Clark, who is abandoned by her family, the school system, and the whole town. Read it before the movie comes out.

Selected by: Anne Riccio, Senior Supervising Editor, Literacy & Humanities, Westchester Education Services

Marching PowderMarching Powder by Rusty Young

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Why I want to read this book:  It is based on the true story of  Thomas McFadden, who was apprehended in 1996 in Bolivia with five kilos of cocaine in his suitcase and imprisoned in San Pedro prison. This book is a memoir of unusual prison conditions and drug traffickers who ran tours inside Bolivia’s famous San Pedro Prison.

Selected by: Rishi Arora, Project Manager, WPS India

Whistling VivaldiWhistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company

Why I want to read this book: In every aspect of my work, with Westchester and beyond, I find myself up against stereotypes in myself and others. I am interested in understanding how human beings see one another and how we can work with our human wiring to broaden our horizons.

StampedStamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

Publisher: Nation Books

Why I want to read this book: History is one subject (math is the other) I passed through schooling without mastering, which has left great holes in my understanding of the world. Racism is pervasive in our culture in the U.S. and in many cultures globally, and one step in understanding how to dismantle it is understanding how our culture and society has been built around racist ideas. I bought this book some time ago, and started it, then put it down. This summer, I intend to finish it.

On the BoundariesOn the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam by Dr. Sherman A. Jackson (translated from Faysal al-Tafriqa Bayna al-Islam wa al-Zandaqa by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali)

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Why I want to read this book: Al-Ghazali was an 11th century philosopher, who is one of the most influential Muslim philosophers of all time. I started reading this text for a class on pastoral care,  and was astounded at the depth of wisdom present in it. Although written centuries ago, it contains principles and processes that are still relevant today in our modern context. As a Muslim who grew up in a conservative Muslim family in the West, I found in my brief interaction with this classical text, liberation of thought that I haven’t seen anywhere else in modern Muslim culture.

NiloferSelections chosen by: Nilofer Ali, Resources Manager, Westchester Education Services

 

Night CircusThe Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Publisher: Doubleday

Why I want to read this book: Oftentimes I pick up a book to get away from reality for a bit. In recent years, because of the everyday routine of work, motherhood, and the many events we had planned every weekend, I’ve had little time to read for enjoyment. Then, in March of this year, there was more time to do some of the activities I love. I could finally begin to tackle the stacks of books that are laying on my bookshelves waiting to be devoured. But where to start? What better way to escape the reality of a global pandemic than to delve into a dark fantasy book with a bonus love story? I have an image of Cirque du Soleil mixed with The Umbrella Academy, both of which I love, and I’m looking forward to discovering what kind of magic this novel has in store for me.

MelodySelected by: Melody Negron, Senior Production Editor

There ThereThere, There by Tommy Orange

Publisher: Knopf

Why I want to read this book: Tommy Orange is a Native American author (he’s a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations of Oklahoma). The book is set in Oakland, California and in it, Orange explores the lives of a large cast of characters, each grappling with what it means to be Native American in an urban setting. It highlights the many challenges presented with being a non-white in a predominantly white society. Though I’m not far into it yet, the prose is elegant, haunting, and electric and I’m looking forward to delving deeper.

KevinSelected by: Kevin J. Gray, President & Chief Content Officer, Westchester Education Services

 

Dowry MurderDowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime by Veena Talwar Oldenburg

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Why I want to read this book: I want to read this book to understand the reason of dowry and how it came into existence. The Hindu custom of dowry has long been blamed for the murder of wives and female infants in India. In this highly provocative book, Veena Oldenburg argues that these killings are neither about dowry nor reflective of an Indian culture or caste system that encourages violence against women. Rather, such killings can be traced directly to the influences of the British colonial era.

Bitter FruitBitter Fruit: The Very Best of Saadat Hasan Manto, Edited and Translated by Khalid Hasan

Publisher: Penguin India

Why I want to read this book:  I first read Saadat Hasan Manto as a teenager. I was too young to understand the intricacies of his stories but I enjoyed what I read and craved for more. I love Manto because he was honest. He was a bluntly true writer and he created his own peculiar tell-all style. He didn’t write only the good qualities of his characters. Bitter Fruit is for all those who love reading the accounts of reality and want to experience the pain of partition. This book is a sheer treat to those who love reading.

NiteshSelections chosen by: Nitesh Sharma, Senior Project Manager, WPS India

 

WhittlingWhittling the Old Sea Captain, Revised Edition by Mike Shipley

Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing

Why I want to read this book: When my wife and I bought our house years ago, it was very much a fixer-upper.  A deck to repair, appliances in need of updating, windows to seal and paint, rooms to insulate and sheetrock, and so on. At the time, my late father was elderly and battling multiple myeloma. He’d visit, sit in a chair, puff a cigar, and whittle figurines for his grandkids and nephews while I reenacted the last verse of “Cats in the Cradle”, and was too busy to whittle along with him while I tackled household projects, but chatted with him the whole while. He had grown up in a maritime community and figurines of old ship captains were a favorite of his. That and more Santa Claus figurines than our trunk of Christmas decorations can hold. During the pandemic, being stuck at home, I turned to cleaning and organizing to fill some of the time. I nearly Marie Kondo’d a box of books I had read to Goodwill, until finding that underneath some old paperbacks were a ton of woodcarving books from Fox Chapel and Schiffer Publishing that my father had left me when he passed. So, I plan to try to recapture some of that lost time, sit in a chair, and whittle away. While my time on the ocean as a boy is a more distant memory than it was for him, I may even try my hand at an old sea captain figurine. Maybe one with a beard and cigar like my old man…

TMCSelected by: Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

 

Our friends at Mint Editions host a virtual book club, and their June selection is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. You can follow them on Instagram for more information about joining the book club and downloading a copy of the ebook.

Looking for more reading ideas? One of these lists is sure to have a title that interests you:

5 Summer Books and Other Things To Do At Home – Bill Gates

Publishers Weekly Editors’ Picks for Summer Reads

20 Best Summer Books to Have On Your 2020 Reading List – Travel & Leisure

New York Times Book Review – 10 New Books We Recommend – may require login

25 Best Summer Books to Read 2020 – Good Housekeeping

 

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

virtual conferenceUniversity Presses have been key partners of Westchester Publishing Services for decades, and were a primary impetus for us to launch our Domestic Full Service operation in Danbury, Connecticut, our India Direct Full Service operation in Noida, India, and our UK operation in Stratford upon Avon.  From Cambridge, Massachusetts to London, England to the campuses of small state universities and large research, land grant private universities, Westchester works with each partner to identify the right editorial and production options to support our partners with books and journals ranging from simple monographs to complex, 4-color textbooks.

Usually, this time of year, I’d be just wrapping up my Spring travels to England for the London Book Fair and ALPSP’s biennial UP Redux conferences, where the university presses we support gather globally to discuss the state of the industry, efforts to improving diversity at presses and within the voices represented in their lists, considerations for printing and distribution, and more.

With the pandemic impacting travel and business, many of our partner organizations are innovating and re-purposing content that had been intended for presentation at conferences as virtual meetings or webinars.  Last week, ALPSP debuted the first in a series of free webinars to substitute for the canceled UP Redux conference, with the first session focused on Open Access, titled “Monographs, open access and public policy: UKRI OA consultation 2020.”  Speakers included: Sarah Faulder (Chief Executive, Publishers’ Licensing Services), Richard Fisher (Vice Chair, Yale University Press), and Helen Snaith (Senior Policy Advisor, Research England).  A recording of the session is provided here, and key topics included the current state of the UK open access policy, trends around open access at university presses and in scholarly publishing, and the general state of affairs for university presses at this time.  I highly recommend checking out the above recording and the pending Q&A info that will be posted at the same link soon.  Upcoming webinars will cover balancing a press’ mission and money, as well as more topics on open access following the UK’s review period of its open access policies.

AUP also wisely chose to move its annual conference to a virtual model.  Keep your eyes on this page for news about the format of the virtual event to be held in June.  We’ll miss the chance to visit our friends and colleagues in person in Seattle, but are confident the program will be as engaging as the typical AUP annual conference.

Other organizations have been putting together compelling virtual meetings, including recent sessions from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Copyright Clearance Center about how publishers and content organizations are looking beyond the current crisis to new opportunities around their content, Digital Book World’s “DBW.fm” session tomorrow about the “three-headed monster” of audiobooks, podcasts, and voice assistants, and other industry groups’ state of the union types of sessions about how the pandemic is impacting segments of our industry from printing to distribution and more.

Westchester will also soon be launching a new video about our Client Portal – and how it can help you manage your Westchester projects while you work from home.  We also have webinars planned for the next two months about the topics our clients are raising not just about our services but about the industry in general.  Stay tuned!

What virtual meetings have you found useful?  How are you considering the impact of the pandemic on the university press space?  Contact us to talk about trends you’re seeing, and any thoughts you have on how our industry is evolving.  My colleagues and I look forward to hearing from you.

Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

Like so many of you reading this, in mid-March the entire staff at Westchester’s offices around the world transitioned to a work from home setup. For most of our team, this was a significant change from the office environment we’re accustomed to and for some of us, there was the added factor of guiding our children through establishing their own routine so they could continue their education remotely.

We also kept our clients informed as we were making this necessary transition, detailing the steps we were taking and to making sure the changes would have minimal to no impact on the jobs we were working on for them.

Additionally, we knew how important it is for everyone within our team to maintain the social connections we have as colleagues while we are physically dispersed.  To address this, along with the department meetings each manager conducts with their individual reports, we periodically gather together as a large group for a virtual Happy Hour. We use this time both as an opportunity to get caught up on what is happening around the company as well as have some virtual water cooler talks that help our mental well-being by sharing our experiences about what working from home is really like. Based on this article from Society for Human Resource Management, we’re on to something here!

 

 

 

 

 

Many of us have shared stories about our newest officemates during these Happy Hour gatherings. We’ve discovered some are enthusiastically jumping into their new roles, while some are lazy slackers that lay around sleeping all day. A few are even downright cattish, while others just bark out their demands. We’ve discussed appropriate remediation strategies to encourage better behavior, but these co-workers sure have a mind of their own! Thankfully, some are thrilled that we almost never leave but a few seem to be annoyed that we are around pretty much all the time. Maybe we just need to give them a little more time to understand our work habits.

 

Shifting to a way of life that is keeping us at home nearly all the time has meant different things for everyone, including spending more time with family, taking up new activities or renewing hobbies that had been forgotten due to competing demands for limited free time. Some of us are doing a really great job of maintaining our distance while communing with nature, too.

Tyler Carey Bookmask

We are also trying to help out our industry by participating in the Publishers Weekly Books Are Essential campaign and you can join in, too. Simply post a picture with a book up to your face like a facemask, then using the hashtag #Booksareessential, tag Publishers Weekly on Instagram at @pwpics, Twitter at @publisherswkly, or Facebook at @Publishers Weekly. Pictures can also be submitted to PW’s Picture of the Day portal, for potential inclusion in the magazine or newsletters. Our Chief Revenue Officer, Tyler Carey, shows us his bookmask in the picture to the left.

What are some of the ways you and your team are staying connected while you are in multiple locations? Send us a message and let us know!

Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

We are only four months into the year, but it’s clear that 2020 will be profoundly transformative. The coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching impacts on the way our clients and colleagues conduct business that was unimaginable a few months ago. Westchester’s global workforce has transitioned to a distributed model in order to fully support our clients’ needs as they respond to rapidly evolving changes within the supply chain.

Below are several ways that we have worked with our clients and the industry, prior to and during the crisis.

Publishing transitions to working from home

In mid-March, recognizing the seismic relocation every company was experiencing at nearly the same time, we hosted a webinar that gathered together several publishing industry professionals to share their insights and useful ideas about ways publishers could help their staff – some who had never before worked from home – transition to a distributed workforce. You can watch the video presentation or download the slide deck and a printout of all the questions that were answered during and after the webinar. We have also curated a resources page with links to a variety of informational and educational content for you and your family.

Westchester K-12 gets a new name

In early January, we shared the exciting news that Westchester K-12 Publishing Services had changed its name to Westchester Education Services. This new name is a more accurate reflection of the expanded range of product development areas that our team is able to provide support in for educational publishers and ed tech companies. Along with the updated name comes a new and improved website.

BETT 2020

Tim Davies, Kevin J. Gray, and Walter J. Henderson, Jr., at the WES BETT BoothLater in January, Westchester Education Services attended the BETT Show which took place at London’s ExCeL Convention Centre. Our team members from the US and UK enjoyed having the opportunity to meet with education publishers and ed tech companies from across the globe and share information with them about the various ways we could help them conceptualize and bring their projects to market. Kevin Gray, President and Chief Content Officer, prepared this blog post of conference highlights.

West Margin Press

West Margin Press logoMint Editions is a recently launched imprint that is part of Ingram’s West Margin Press, and one of the newest client publishers Westchester has begun working with. As we do with all of our more than 200+ clients, we listened to the needs the Mint Editions team expressed and worked with them to customize an effective production approach that met their requirements. As West Margin’s publishing director Jennifer Newens shared, “It has been a wonderful experience working with Westchester on our book production needs for these titles!” Let us know how we can help you with the editorial and production phases of your publication process.

Denise Hart appointed at Westchester Education Services UK

In early March, we announced the appointment of Denise Hart as Operations and Project Lead at Westchester Education Services UK. Denise has extensive experience and expertise in UK educational publishing, having previously been Content and Operations Director at Rising Stars / Hodder Education; latterly advising UK educational publishers in her role as an independent Publishing Operations Consultant. Working with Tim Davies, Westchester’s UK Managing Director, Denise will be supporting Westchester Education Services UK in its continued growth in both the UK and international educational and ELT publishing sectors, as well as its work with EdTech companies worldwide. Contact Tim to arrange a convenient time to discuss your product objectives and how we can help.

Westchester Education Services DEI Mission

Nilofer and Jalen at UD Career Fair Winter 2020Nilofer Ali, Westchester Education’s Resources Manager has been very busy during the past few months. February brought the announcement of a partnership with Dayton Young Black Professionals, intended to increase awareness of career paths for publishing in the Greater Dayton area. Shortly after that, Nilofer and Jalen Turner, a University of Dayton student who also interns with Westchester, participated in the campus Career and Internship Fair to bring attention to the opportunities in educational publishing. If you haven’t visited our website recently, I encourage you to see the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion section and review the resources that Nilofer has compiled with the intention to foster a dialogue within the educational publishing industry about this important topic.

Westchester Supports UK Book Trade Awards

Further expanding its extensive sponsorship programme, Westchester Education Services UK announced its sponsorship of a key category in both of the two most prestigious 2020 UK book trade awards programmes:

  • The Independent Publishers’ Guild Award for ‘Education Publisher of the Year’.
  • The British Book Award for ‘Academic, Professional, and Education Publisher of the Year’

Keeping you informed with relevant content

We host webinars periodically, including our next one on April 28 that will be moderated by Walter J. Henderson, Jr., Senior Supervising Editor of ELT at Westchester Education Services, about supporting the needs of ELT students while they are out of school. Complete this 1 minute survey to tell us what topics you would like Westchester to provide more information on.

 

All of us at Westchester hope you, your family, and your colleagues will continue to be safe and in good health. As a business that has worked alongside publishers on their evolving publication needs for more than fifty years, we remain ready to help our industry partners. Our entire team is available to help our customers — along with anyone else in the industry with editorial, production, or other tasks related to your publishing program or online content. We invite you to give us a call, send an email, visit our website, or follow us on LinkedIn to remain connected during these unprecedented times.

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

We are all learning to adapt to a new, temporary normal during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  In publishing, specific issues arise for publishers that are not used to working in a distributed Work from Home (WfH) environment.  And even for those publishers that built their operations as WfH from the bottom up, the general disruptions of COVID-19 like having the kids home from school for an extended period are making this less of a typical WfH experience.

On Thursday, March 19th, Westchester Publishing Services gathered a panel of our partners in the industry to share about what they’re seeing in their markets, methods for successfully adapting to working from home, and more.  Speakers and Panelists included:

  • Nicole Tomassi, Westchester Publishing Services, Marketing & Conference Manager
  • Michael Jensen, Westchester Publishing Services, Director of Technology
  • Terry Colosimo, Westchester Publishing Services, Director of Operations
  • Kevin J. Gray, Westchester Education Services, President & Chief Content Officer
  • Cev Bryerman, Publishers Weekly – Publisher and Executive Vice President
  • Cathy Felgar, Princeton University Press – Publishing Operations Director
  • Rich Portelance, CareerPath Mobile – Founder and CEO
  • Andy Wilson, Dropbox – Global Director, Media Technology

Over the course of the webinar, we covered practical measures like how to handle tasks that were rote in the office but now need new solutions remotely, technology solutions for file sharing and communications, and the empathy needed when working and managing remotely in our current environment to adapt to different challenges than we might normally encounter in the office or WfH.

Key considerations covered in depth in the below links include the following practices and ideas:

  • Take Inventory of your associates at home computer equipment – don’t assume all have appropriate equipment – PC, printer, etc.
    • Quite likely they do not have all the software they need to work from home, so consider IT support that will be needed
    • Follow up with your associates as their needs may change as they become settled into their new routine
  • Take Inventory of your associates’ internet connectivity from home – be sure to consider impact on bandwidth of school age children doing classes from home
  • How do your associates connect to the company’s email system from home?
    • Get your associates’ phones set up with company email access
  • Be sure to collect cell phone numbers for all associates –  and circulate the list
    • Confirm with each that they receive text messages – for urgent communications
  • Centralize Documentation like the above phone numbers and processes —critical information should be centralized in a common location. Consider Dropbox Paper so comments can be made as procedures may change
  • Consider how associates will access documents on company servers/systems which they must print at home
    • Small size documents can be transferred via company email from the server to the local machine
    • Large documents (i.e. <3mb) can be transferred via file sharing services such as DropBox
  • Consider how your associates will mark-up and communicate edits/comments to manuscripts/documents
  • Schedule regular (perhaps daily, but at least every other day) team conference calls – video conferencing if possible – so your associates stay and feel connected
    • Remember this is physical distancing not social distancing. Use video conferences for social interactions like lunch together with your team. Those watercooler interactions you’re used to in the office are on hiatus, and video can help fill that void.
  • Show Understanding and Be Flexible – Empathize – many of your associates are doing this, work from home, for the first time – and this is a foreign experience – they need time to adjust
  • Good News – the publishing business can continue and be successful without everyone being in one physical office location – a period of adjustment, yes – but will quite likely lead to real and permanent changes in how we do business, and cost savings

Here are the links for: the Webinar recording, the Presentation in PDF format, and a PDF of Questions & Answers from the webinar.

We have also compiled this list of articles and videos with helpful information about working remotely. Please use the Contact Us form to reach out with any feedback, needs we can help with, or ideas for working from home during these times. Westchester Publishing Services will provide further webinars in the coming weeks and months, and welcomes your input.