Stuart Rojstaczer's Books

The Mathematician's Shiva

A Novel

By: Stuart Rojstaczer

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING DEBUT FICTION For readers of This Is Where I Leave You and Everything Is Illuminated, “a brilliant and compelling family saga full of warmth, pathos, history and humor” (Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here) When the greatest female mathematician in history passes away, her son, Alexander “Sasha” Karnokovitch, just wants to mourn his mother in peace. But rumor has it the notoriously eccentric Polish émigré has solved one of the most difficult problems in all of mathematics, and has spitefully taken the solution to her grave. As a ragtag group of mathematicians from around the world descends upon Rachela’s shiva, determined to find the proof or solve it for themselves—even if it means prying up the floorboards for notes or desperately scrutinizing the mutterings of her African Grey parrot—Sasha must come to terms with his mother’s outsized influence on his life. Spanning decades and continents, from a crowded living room in Madison, Wisconsin, to the windswept beach on the Barents Sea where a young Rachela had her first mathematical breakthrough, The Mathematician’s Shiva is an unexpectedly moving and uproariously funny novel that captures humanity’s drive not just to survive, but to achieve the impossible.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

383

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0698152204

ISBN 13

9780698152205

Gone for Good

Tales of University Life after the Golden Age

By: Stuart Rojstaczer

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Gone for Good

Tales of University Life after the Golden Age

By: Stuart Rojstaczer

Amid the clamorous debates on political correctness, the Western canon, and alcohol abuse on campus, many observers have failed to notice the most radical change in the American University: the Golden Age of massive government funding is gone. And, as Stuart Rojstaczer points out in this incisive look at higher education, the consequences are affecting virtually every aspect of university life. Laced with humorous and insightful anecdotes, Gone for Good is a highly personal tour of the university system as it has evolved from the glory days of phenomenal post-WWII growth to the financial stresses that now beset it. Stuart Rojstaczer, professor of Hydrology at Duke, shows how almost unlimited funding during the Cold War years encouraged universities to become unwieldy behemoths--with ever-enlarging faculties and administrative staffs, an explosion of new buildings that are proving costly to maintain, and a parade of programs designed largely to impress other universities. Rojstaczer asserts that despite the scarcity of new funding sources, universities continue to strive for unlimited growth--with disastrous results: skyrocketing tuition (well over $20,000 per year at top tier schools); desperate attempts to increase enrollments (lower standards, inflated grades, and new majors in some rather implausible areas of study); and increasing pressure on faculty who already spend more time researching than teaching to raise more money through research grants. The time has come, Rojstaczer argues, to abandon an outmoded idea of growth and create a leaner university system more beneficial to both students and society. For parents, students, and anyone interested higher education, Gone for Good offers a vivid account of the crossroads where universities now stand--and a compelling argument about which path they should take.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

200

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

019535205X

ISBN 13

9780195352054

From Inquiry to Academic Writing

A Text and Reader

By: Stuart Greene,April Lidinsky

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

From Inquiry to Academic Writing

A Text and Reader

By: Stuart Greene,April Lidinsky

Academic writing is a conversation — a collaborative exchange of ideas to pursue new knowledge. From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader demystifies cross-curricular thinking and writing by breaking it down into a series of comprehensible habits and skills that students can learn in order to join in. The extensive thematic reader opens up thought-provoking conversations being held throughout the academy and in the culture at large. Read the preface.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

946

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0312601417

ISBN 13

9780312601416

Until Proven Innocent

Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case

By: Stuart Taylor,KC Johnson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Until Proven Innocent

Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case

By: Stuart Taylor,KC Johnson

What began that night shocked Duke Universityand Durham, North Carolina. And it continues to captivate the nation: the Duke lacrosse team members‘ alleged rape of an African-American stripper and the unraveling of the case against them. In this ever-deepening American tragedy, Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson argue, law enforcement, a campaigning prosecutor, biased journalists, and left-leaning academics repeatedly refused to pursue the truth while scapegoats were made of these young men, recklessly tarnishing their lives. The story harbors multiple dramas, including the actions of a DA running for office; the inappropriate charges that should have been apparent to academics at Duke many months ago; the local and national media, who were so slow to take account of the publicly available evidence; and the appalling reactions of law enforcement, academia, and many black leaders. Until Proven Innocent is the only book that covers all five aspects of the case (personal, legal, academic, political, and media) in a comprehensive fashion. Based on interviews with key members of the defense team, many of the unindicted lacrosse players, and Duke officials, it is also the only book to include interviews with all three of the defendants, their families, and their legal teams. Taylor and Johnson‘s coverage of the Duke case was the earliest, most honest, and most comprehensive in the country, and here they take the idiocies and dishonesty of right- and left-wingers alike head on, shedding new light on the dangers of rogue prosecutors and police and a cultural tendency toward media-fueled travesties of justice. The context of the Duke case has vast import and contains likable heroes, unfortunate victims, and memorable villains—and in its full telling, it is captivating nonfiction with broad political, racial, and cultural relevance to our times.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

702

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1429961090

ISBN 13

9781429961097

Mismatch

How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It

By: Richard Sander,Stuart Taylor Jr

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Mismatch

How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It

By: Richard Sander,Stuart Taylor Jr

The debate over affirmative action has raged for over four decades, with little give on either side. Most agree that it began as noble effort to jump-start racial integration; many believe it devolved into a patently unfair system of quotas and concealment. Now, with the Supreme Court set to rule on a case that could sharply curtail the use of racial preferences in American universities, law professor Richard Sander and legal journalist Stuart Taylor offer a definitive account of what affirmative action has become, showing that while the objective is laudable, the effects have been anything but. Sander and Taylor have long admired affirmative action's original goals, but after many years of studying racial preferences, they have reached a controversial but undeniable conclusion: that preferences hurt underrepresented minorities far more than they help them. At the heart of affirmative action's failure is a simple phenomenon called mismatch. Using dramatic new data and numerous interviews with affected former students and university officials of color, the authors show how racial preferences often put students in competition with far better-prepared classmates, dooming many to fall so far behind that they can never catch up. Mismatch largely explains why, even though black applicants are more likely to enter college than whites with similar backgrounds, they are far less likely to finish; why there are so few black and Hispanic professionals with science and engineering degrees and doctorates; why black law graduates fail bar exams at four times the rate of whites; and why universities accept relatively affluent minorities over working class and poor people of all races. Sander and Taylor believe it is possible to achieve the goal of racial equality in higher education, but they argue that alternative policies -- such as full public disclosure of all preferential admission policies, a focused commitment to improving socioeconomic diversity on campuses, outreach to minority communities, and a renewed focus on K-12 schooling -- will go farther in achieving that goal than preferences, while also allowing applicants to make informed decisions. Bold, controversial, and deeply researched, Mismatch calls for a renewed examination of this most divisive of social programs -- and for reforms that will help realize the ultimate goal of racial equality.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

370

Publisher

Basic Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0465030017

ISBN 13

9780465030019

Gone for Good

Tales of University Life After the Golden Age

By: Stuart Rojstaczer

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Gone for Good

Tales of University Life After the Golden Age

By: Stuart Rojstaczer

This entertaining inside view of American universities argues that the disappearance of the glory days of government funding is a blessing in disguise.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

200

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195126823

ISBN 13

9780195126822

The Mathematician's Shiva

A Novel

By: Stuart Rojstaczer

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Mathematician's Shiva

A Novel

By: Stuart Rojstaczer

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

383

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0698152204

ISBN 13

9780698152205

Book's by Stuart Rojstaczer

The Mathematician's Shiva

The Mathematician's Shiva

Gone for Good

Gone for Good

From Inquiry to Academic Writing

From Inquiry to Academic Writing

Until Proven Innocent

Until Proven Innocent

Mismatch

Mismatch

Gone for Good

Gone for Good

The Mathematician's Shiva

The Mathematician's Shiva

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email