WILLIAM ZINSSER ’44 wrote a series of essays for his blog Zinsser on Friday for the website of The American Scholar magazine. The Writer Who Stayed (Paul Dry Books) is a collection of those pieces, covering topics including the craft of writing, culture and the arts, his travels to distant places, and modern life. In one essay he discusses the benefits of downtime; in another, why he doesn’t use email. Zinsser  is the author of 17 other books, ­including On Writing Well.

In her collection of lyric poems, Possessive (Louisiana State University Press), SALLY VAN DOREN ’84 examines love and relationships as well as loss, disappointment, illness, and anger. Her first book of poetry, Sex at Noon Taxes, won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets.

WILLIAM H. JANEWAY ’65 describes his career path in venture capitalism and looks at how financial markets and government invest­ment have led to technological innovations in Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy (Cambridge University Press). He explains how financial bubbles and crashes can lead to technological advance­ments. Janeway is a senior adviser and managing director at Warburg Pincus and was director of its tech­nology-investment team.

In The Orchestra: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press), D. KERN HOLOMAN *74 describes the history of the symphony orches­tra. He explores topics ranging from the life of a musician and venues for concert music to financial challenges, and describes the orches­tra’s important role in cultural diplomacy. Holoman is a music professor at the University of California, Davis.