UC Davis faculty and alumni have recently published books on everything from bears to Beethoven, along with poetry collections and novels. Here is a sampling. 

Arts and letters

“This Present Moment” by Gary Snyder (Counterpoint, $24, 96 pages). In his first collection of new poems in a decade, distinguished professor emeritus of English Snyder creates a poetic map that travels — as he has — from the Dolomites to Lake Tahoe to the shrine at Delphi.

“Red Epic” by Joshua Clover (AK Press/Commune Editions, $16, 84 pages). In his newest poetry collection, Clover, an English professor and author of the acclaimed book “1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About,” invents a volatile poetry for a world on fire, written to illuminate the wreckage of the most recent gilded age.

“Wagner, Schumann, and the Lessons of Beethoven's Ninth” by Christopher Alan Reynolds (UC Press, $65, 232 pages). Music professor Reynolds examines the influence of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on composers Richard Wagner and Robert Schumann.

“Ark: Post-Asteroid Eden” by Thomas A. Cahill (EditPros, $17.95, 236 pages). In the last volume of his trilogy, the physics professor tells the story of a band of Californians who survive the collision of a large asteroid with the Earth.

“Watch Me Go” by Mark Wisniewski (Penguin Random House Putnam, $26.95 cloth, $16 paperback, 320 pages). In this new novel by Wisniewski, who holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis, the main character earns a hard, but honest living hauling junk. When he finds a body in a salvaged oil drum, he becomes a murder suspect.

“Under a Painted Sky” by Stacey Lee (Putnam, $16.99, 384 pages). In this story for young readers set in the 19th century, a Chinese-American girl runs away with the help of a slave girl, both seeking freedom on the Oregon Trail. Lee is a graduate of the School of Law.

“Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain's Asia and Comparative Racialization” by Hsuan L. Hsu (New York University Press, $24, 248 pages). Mark Twain is well known for his critiques of race involving African-Americans, but in this book Hsu, an associate professor of English, uncovers his lesser known writing about Asians and the relationship of the U.S. to China and the Philippines.

“Indian Baskets of Northern California and Oregon” by Ralph Shanks (University of Washington Press, $39.95, 168 pages). The book gives the history and tradition of basket making by a dozen tribes with 200 previously unpublished images of works from museums and private collections in the U.S. and Europe. Shanks is an anthropology department research associate.

“Egyptian Oedipus: Athanasius Kircher and the Secrets of Antiquity” by Daniel Stolzenberg (University of Chicago Press, $30, 320 pages). Kircher was one of Europe’s most inventive scholars in the 1600s, infamous for his quixotic attempt to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Stolzenberg, an associate professor of history, presents a new interpretation of Kircher’s hieroglyphic studies, placing them in the context of 17th-century scholarship on paganism and Oriental languages.

Nature and the environment

“Humankind: How Biology and Geography Shape Human Diversity” by Alexander H. Harcourt (Pegasus, $27.95, 368 pages). A professor emeritus in anthropology, Harcourt looks at how the evolution of the human species has been shaped by the world around us, from anatomy and physiology, to cultural diversity and population density.

“The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest” by Audrey DeLella Benedict and Joseph K. Gaydos ($24.95, 160 pages). This journey through the Salish Sea, located on the western border of the U.S. and Canada, combines a scientist’s inquiring mind, beautiful photographs and a lively narrative about this intricate marine ecosystem. Gaydos is a wildlife veterinarian with the School of Veterinary Medicine and director of the SeaDoc Society, which conducts research in the Salish Sea.

“Speaking of Bears: The Bear Crisis and a Tale of Rewilding from Yosemite, Sequoia, and Other National Parks” by Rachel Mazur (Globe Pequot Press/Falcon Guides, $18.95, 272 pages). Mazur, who earned her doctorate in ecology from UC Davis, examines how national parks in California created a human-bear problem so bad that there were 2,000 incidents in a single year, and how park employees used trial-and-error, conducted research, invented devices and found funding to get the crisis under control.

“Fylling's Illustrated Guide to Pacific Coast Tide Pools” by Marni Fylling (Heyday, $15, 96 pages). This scientifically accurate and charmingly illustrated field guide to the Pacific coast intertidal zone introduces readers to a world populated by spectacular wildlife. Fylling, a science illustrator, writer and educator, holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from UC Davis.

Social sciences

“Bread from Stones: The Middle East & The Making of Modern Humanitarianism” by Keith David Watenpaugh (UC Press, $34.95, 272 pages). Watenpaugh, an associate professor in religious studies, analyzes genocide and mass violence, human trafficking and the forced displacement of millions in the Eastern Mediterranean as the background for this exploration of humanitarianism’s role in the history of human rights.

“Sustainable Innovation: Build Your Company’s Capacity to Change the World” by Andrew Hargadon (Stanford University Press, $35, 248 pages.) The professor in the Graduate School of Management shows why the development of financially viable products that support a healthy environment and communities are so difficult to achieve when compared to creating the next Internet ventures or mobile apps.

“Sustainability for a Warming Planet” by Humberto Llavador, John E. Roemer and Joaquim Silvestre (Harvard University Press, $45, 336 pages). Silvestre, a professor of economics, and his co-authors propose fair ways to share resources made scarce by global warming.

“A Place for Utopia: Urban Designs from South Asia” by Smriti Srinivas (University of Washington Press, $45, 224 pages). Srinivas, a professor of anthropology, explores designs for utopian living around the world during the past century.