New book releases with local ties include Ann Putnam's 'Full Moon at Noontide: A Daughter's Last Goodbye'

New releases

"Full Moon at Noontide: A Daughter's Last Goodbye" by Ann Putnam (Southern Methodist University Press, $22.50). This memoir by a teacher of creative writing and gender studies at the University of Puget Sound addresses the deaths of her parents and her "dashing, bachelor uncle," with an emphasis on "how pure love becomes when it is distilled through such suffering and loss."

"Moving the Rock: Poverty and Faith in a Black Storefront Church" by Mary E. Abrums (Rowman & Littlefield, $32.95). An anthropologist and associate professor in the nursing program at the University of Washington, Bothell, traces "several generations of African American women whose families migrated from the South to the Pacific Northwest in the 1940s and 1950s."

"The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference" by Alan Boyle (Wiley, $22.95). The science editor for MSNBC recounts Pluto's discovery in 1930 and its recent demotion from planetary status in this "tale of a cosmic underdog."

"Spy Games" by Gina Robinson (Zebra, $5.99). A Kent author's novel about an athlete/model/sportswear executive who takes a survival course to ward off her frightening ex-boyfriend — and falls in love with one of her fellow students while she's at it.

" 'Spur Up Your Pegasus': Family Letters of Salmon, Kate, and Nettie Chase," edited by James P. McClure, Peg A. Lamphier and Erika M. Kreger (Kent State University Press, $70). The correspondence of an Ohio senator, governor, secretary of the Treasury (under Lincoln) and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court with his daughters, one of them prominent on the Washington, D.C., social scene, while the other avoided public life. Co-editor Kreger is graduate school director of development at the University of Washington who writes about women's literary history.

"Blake's Margins: An Interpretive Study of the Annotations" by Hazard Adams (McFarland, $39.95). A University of Washington professor emeritus of comparative literature critiques poet William Blake's commentaries on Emanuel Swedenborg, Francis Bacon, William Wordsworth and others.

"The Best American Poetry 2009," edited by David Wagoner (Scrib-

ner, $16). Poet and UW emeritus professor Wagoner selects the finest verse of 2009, including work by locals Caleb Barber, Fleda Brown, P. Hurshell, Michael Johnson, Martha Silano and Carolyne Wright.

Seattle Times staff

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