Thumbnail reviews of new publications from the Wellesley community.

Anthropologist of the Aztec

Merilee Serrill Grindle ’67
In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl: Zelia Nuttall and the Search for Mexico’s Ancient Civilizations
Harvard University Press
400 pages, $32.95

Merilee Serrill Grindle ’67, former director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, tells the gripping story of Zelia Nuttall, pioneering 19th-century anthropologist, who threw herself into the study of Aztec customs and cosmology, eager to use the tools of the new science to prove that modern Mexico was built over the ruins of ancient civilizations. Nuttall’s exploration of Aztec cosmology, rediscovery of ancient texts, and passion for collecting shaped our understanding of pre-Columbian Mexico.

When Women Go to War

Bina Shah ’93
The Monsoon War: A Novel
Delphinium Books
306 pages, $37.50

In an unnamed Middle Eastern country, government leaders maintain a stranglehold over women’s lives and freedoms. But in a neglected southern province, a secret female resistance movement has been forming for years—and the women are preparing for a final battle. In this novel, Bina Shah ’93 deepens her consideration of the issues of women’s freedoms she explored in the dystopian Before She Sleeps. Shah is a journalist and political satirist based in Karachi, Pakistan.

Taming the “Violation Machine”

Alice Marwick ’98
The Private Is Political: Networked Privacy and Social Media
Yale University Press
384 pages, $32.50

As principal researcher at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Alice Marwick ’98 explores the intersection of technology and society. In this book, she reports that current legal and technological frameworks are woefully inadequate in addressing issues of privacy for everyone. But the “violation machine” of social media and big data disproportionately disadvantages particular communities—including immigrants, the poor, people of color, LGBTQ+ populations, and victims of online harassment.

Your Money or Your Life?

Manisha Thakor ’92
MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your “Enough”
Harper Business
208 pages, $28.99

Financial planner Manisha Thakor ’92 works with clients to examine the relationship between their money, their time, and their happiness—all limited resources. What is enough? Will having more make you happy? Thakor wrote MoneyZen “for anyone who has ever felt like they needed to earn more, do more, be more in order to prove their worth.” Through practical advice and personal stories, she invites readers to reimagine their relationship with work and money to create time for what really matters—to have enough.