Richard Fein professor in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts has a new book, The Baby Boomer’s Guide to the New Workplace.   People are living longer than ever, & many find that the retirement age of 65 leaves them feeling restless, & may even leave them without enough money to maintain their accustomed lifestyle.   Accordingly, Fein's book is an upbeat, yet realistic, guide for people who plan to work during their senior years.   Fein is author of many books, including 95 Mistakes Job Seekers Make...& How to Avoid them, 100 Great Jobs & How to Get Them, & First Job: A new Grad’s Guide to Launching Your Business Career.   (2006)

Amherst resident R. Todd Felton has a new book out, A Journey into the Transcendentalist’s New England.   Beginning with Transcendentalism’s birth in Boston & Cambridge, this lavishly illustrated volume examines the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement & explores the places that inspired them.   Creating a vivid sense of New England in the nineteenth century, from its idyllic countryside & sleepy towns to its bustling ports & burgeoning cities, the book is divided into geographical chapters, each focusing on a town or village famous for its relationship to one or more of the Transcendentalists.   Felton is a professional writer & prize-winning photographer.   (2006)

R. Todd Felton has a new book—due out in late May—in his literary travel series.   This one’s about Ireland: A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival.   This engrossing, illuminating, & beautifully illustrated guidebook explores the personal & professional histories of writers such as W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge, & Sean O’Casey & examines their relationships with the people, culture, & landscapes of Ireland.   From Galway & the Aran Islands, to County Mayo & County Sligo, & from Dublin to Wicklow, this guide to the places that inspired Irish Literary Revival showcases the locations where many of Ireland’s finest writers shaped an enduring vision of the country.  (2007)

Amherst College professor, Jeffrey Ferguson has a new book: The Sage of Sugar Hill: George S. Schuyler & the Harlem Renaissance.   A popular journalist in black America, Schuyler wielded a sharp, double-edged wit to attack the foibles of both blacks & whites throughout the 1920s.   Ferguson presents a new understanding of Schuyler as public intellectual while also offering insights into the relations between race & satire during a formative period of African-American cultural history.   (2005)

Drawing on her experience as an adult literacy tutor, Amherst College professor Judith Frank's first novel traces the difficult & sometimes hilarious connection between two butches of different generations—a middle–class, thirty–something adult literacy teacher & her older, working–class student.   With a disparate group of adult learners as the backdrop, Frank examines, with warmth & wit, the relationship between education & gender, class & racial identity. Crybaby Butch is a nominee for the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for debut fiction.   (2005)

When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening by Amherst resident, Jan Frazier, is Frazier’s day–by–day account of the shift in consciousness & its alteration of her life which began in 2003 when fear fell away from her, & she was immersed in a state of causeless joy that has never left her.   While she has continued her life as writer, teacher, & mother, she has discovered it is possible to live a richly human life free of suffering.   Her wish now is to communicate the truth that within every person is a pool of calm well–being that waits patiently to be stirred to life.  (2007)

Hadley resident Dina Friedman has a new book for young readers.   While Friedman has published extensively, & been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize for her short fiction, Escaping into the Night is her first book geared toward a younger audience.   Based on historical events, this gripping tale sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: the underground forest encampments that saved several thousand Jews from the Nazis.   (2006)