The Core Blog

Time again for a Core summer tradition: a book give-away.

We invite you — student, alumni, and friends of the Core — to peruse the list of books below. If you would like any of them, they are yours for the asking!

All you have to do is email the Core office, letting us know what book you want, and to what mailing address we should send it. (Or if you’re in the Boston area or plan to be soon, you can let us know that, and we’ll set the book aside for you to pick up in person.

If you’re feeling particularly thankful for the free book(s) from Core,we would be grateful if you’d consider making a donation to the EnCore alumni fund. By doing so, your donations to BU will go directly to support our community life programs, including the intellectual social activities of the undergraduate Word & Way Society, the monthly book club meetings of the alumni association, and the annual Devlin Award book prize for undergraduate writing. This donation isentirely voluntary;these books are genuinely available with no strings attached.It isn’t the amount that you donate that matters as much as that you donate at all. Alumni giving sends a powerful message to the University officers, that Core provides an experience for students that they stay connected to even long after graduation. To that end, even a donation of $5 is worth it.

BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR FREE:

1. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller by Carlo Ginzburg
2. The New Oxford Annotated Bible w/ the Apocrypha
3. New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities by Kenelm Burridge
4. Mambu Paperback by Kenelm Burridge
5. Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism by Hayden White
6. Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People 1st Edition by Jean Comaroff
7. French Feminist Thought 1st Edition by Toril Moi (Editor)
8. Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation by Paul Ricoeur
9. Encounter: A Novel of Nineteenth-Century Korea (Voices from Asia)  by Moo-sook Hahn (Author), Ok Young Kim Chang
10. The Aesthetics of the Japanese Lunchbox by Kenji Ekuan
11. Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification by Bruce Lincoln (no longer available, claimed by Rania E.)
12. The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory by Bryan S Turner (no longer available, claimed by Rania E.)
13. Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology by Rosemary Radford Ruether (no longer available, claimed by Raja B.)
14. Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality by Sherry B. Ortner and Harriet Whitehead (no longer available, claimed by Raja B.)
15. Wisdom Teachings of the Dalai Lama Paperback by Matthew E. Bunson (no longer available, claimed by Raja B.)
16. Buddhist Women Across Cultures by Karma Lekshe Tsomo (no longer available, claimed by Raja B.)
17. The Buddha: A Short Biography by John S. Strong (no longer available, claimed by Raja B.)
18. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity by Peter Brown (no longer available, claimed by Raja B.)
19. Saffron Days in L.A.: Tales of a Buddhist Monk in America by Bhante Walpola Piyananda and Dalai Lama (no longer available, claimed by Raja B.)
20. Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan by William R. LaFleur (no longer available, claimed by Shanti K.)
21. The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan by Eiko Ikegami (no longer available, claimed by Jace M.)
22. Flowers Fall by Hakuun Yasutani (no longer available, claimed by Jace M.)
23. Devi: Goddesses of India by John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff (no longer available, claimed by Christian R.)
24. The Revolutionary Origins of Modern Japan by Thomas Huber (no longer available, claimed by Jace M.)

To make a donation to Core directly, please visit this Giving Form on the BU alumni website; this link has been configured to indicate that your donation is meant for the Core Curriculum alumni fund. If you prefer to pay by check, send your check payable to Boston University to:

The Core Curriculum Fund
College of Arts & Sciences
595 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 700 West
Boston University, Boston, MA 02215

In the memo line, write this instruction: “for fund 9300010343.”You have the option to also write on the check whether you want to give “in memory of James Devlin” (or some other individual); otherwise, your donation will be counted as a general donation to the alumni fund.

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We have hundreds more books available, and will be posting updates to the list of give-away titles via Facebook, Twitter, and email. If you’d like to be sure you are notified when a new batch is announced, visit our Alumni page to make sure your contact information is up-to-date.

These books come to Core as donations from faculty and alumni, and it is our pleasure to put them into your hands if you can give them a good home. In addition to our give-away scheme, we’re also selling some donated books for their cash value. Check out the list of the books on sale at Amazon; if you buy one there, proceeds will go directly to the Core as well.