Bill Israel, professor in the Journalism Department at the University of Massachusetts will have a new book in October 2007: Stealing Reality: The Rise of the Right, the Fracture of News, the Lessons of Karl Rove.   In his new book, Israel contends that Karl Rove is the leading practitioner in a long & deliberate enterprise, the national impact of which is greater & more enduring than the effects of the Bush administration alone.   The Right, with Karl Rove as exemplar, has refined the use of political communication not only to win elections but to steal reality, in order to shift the American electorate politically & culturally to the right & cement a new political alignment.   (2007)

Amherst resident Maureen Jones has written a story by William Thiel, A Promise Fulfilled: One Couple’s Journey Through Misdiagnosis, Breast Cancer & Advocacy.   It is the story of Thiel’s wife who found a lump in her breast & was told not to worry about it, that she had common cysts or fibrocystic disease.   Unfortunately, the diagnosis was late & incorrect.   Thiel writes with impassioned energy, to tell her story, to educate women about what killed his wife, & to explain what they must do to prevent it from happening to them.   (2007)

A new book by Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth, The Dot & the Line, & Otter Nonsense, is always an event on that all-too rare Richter Scale of whimsicality.   Now, with his first picture book, The Hello, Goodbye Window with illustrations by Chris Raschka, we get the story of a magic kitchen window, which acts just like a mirror, except that it's not in the bathroom, & through which you can see anyone come along when you least expect it.   (2005)