Random House 2014 First Year & Common Reading® Catalog by Random House

THE CROWN PUBLISHING GROUP Broadway Paperbacks Crown Archetype Crown Business Crown Forum Crown Publishers Harmony Books Hogarth Image Catholic Books Ten Speed Press Three Rivers Press WaterBrook Multnomah Watson-Guptill THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP Ballantine Books Bantam Dell The Dial Press Del Rey & Spectra Modern Library One World Random House Spiegel & Grau RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHER SERVICES Archie Comics Beacon Press Blue Apple Books Candlewick Press Charlesbridge DC Comics Egmont USA Hatherleigh Press Kodansha Comics Kuperard Melville House Publishing The Monacelli Press National Geographic Society New York Review Books North Atlantic Books Osprey Publishing Other Press powerHouse Books Prometheus Quercus Quirk Books Random House Canada Random House Mondadori Random House UK Rizzoli USA Sasquatch Books Seven Stories Press Shambhala Publications Smithsonian Books Soho Press Steerforth Press Titan Books Verso Vertical, Inc. Welcome Books Wizards of the Coast RANDOM HOUSE DIGITAL PUBLISHING GROUP Books on Tape Fodor’s Living Language Princeton Review Random House Audio RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Includes: Best Practices & Adoption Timeline TM

2014 First-Year Common &Reading New & Recommended Books

RANDOM HOUSE LLC

S www.commonreads.com

______________________ NEW BOOKS INCLUDE: ______________________

™

Dear Common Reading Director: Within these pages, you will find a broad selection of engaging fiction and nonfiction to initiate reflection and discussion among your students, helping them form their own opinions, explore social issues, and develop into better citizens of the world. As your students prepare to discuss the stories of others, they will ultimately become more comfortable with sharing their own. Whatever your needs and interests, we are confident that you will be able to find the ideal book for your program. If you are a professor or a member of a common reading program, you may order examination copies of any of these titles. Simply follow the instructions on our examination copy page: www.randomhouse.com/acmart/requests. Many of our authors are available to visit college campuses as part of a first-year program. Please email me at mgentile@randomhouse.com for more information. Sincerely,

Michael D. Gentile Director, Academic Marketing Random House LLC Tel. (212) 782-8387 ) mgentile@randomhouse.com www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldgentile PS: We invite you to stay connected with us by linking to any one of our social media channels or downloading our app (see bottom of facing page). We often give away free books through these outlets—so you will want to stay connected and check in often.

Photos from the 2013 First-Year Experience ® Random House Author Event Random House Common Reading Advisory Board

Left to right: Tara Coleman (Kansas State University), Rebecca Campbell (Northern Arizona University), Steven Girardot (Georgia Institute of Technology), Jennifer Latino (Campbell University), Jared Tippets (Purdue University), author Gary Shteyngart (Little Failure, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story), Elizabeth Bracher (Boston College), Karen Weathermon (Washington State University), Jeanne Leep (Edgewood College), Daphne Rankin (Virginia Commonwealth University) and Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle.

Elizabeth Bracher, Boston College Rebecca Campbell, Northern Arizona University Tara Coleman, Kansas State University Steven Girardot, Georgia Institute of Technology Jennifer Latino, Campbell University Jeanne Leep, Edgewood College Daphne Rankin, Virginia Commonwealth University Jared Tippets, Purdue University Karen Weathermon, Washington State University

CONTENTS Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography . . . . . . . 10 Fiction to Talk About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Inspiration and Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 History and Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Life and College Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Environmental Studies and Health Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84 Social Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 Order Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 LEGEND HC = Hardcover MM = Mass Market

TR = Trade Paperback

Campus Visit Availability:

NCR = No Canadian Rights

= Audio Available

= e-Book Available

= Author is available and represented by Random House Speakers Bureau (see page 9)

= Discussion Guide Available

= Author is available

= Spanish Language Edition Available

EXAMINATION COPIES Examination copies are available to instructors seeking titles to review for adoption consideration. The exam copy prices are as follows: $3.00 for each paperback priced under $20.00, and 50% off the retail price for all hardcovers and paperback priced at or over $20.00. Examination copies are limited to ten per instructor per school year and can only be mailed to valid U.S. addresses. To order, use the order form at the back of this catalog. Examination copies must be prepaid with a check or money order made payable to Random House LLC or ordered online at www.randomhouse.com/academic/examcopy. Offer only valid in the United States. All requests are subject to approval and availability. Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.

STAY CONNECTED with Random House Common Reads Social Media Common Reads connects freshman year and common reading committees to: • Exclusive author content • Peer feedback on titles • Running program selection news • Free promotional giveaways TM

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Audiobooks For many years, educational leaders have been making the link between listening to audiobooks and developing enhanced literacy skills such as ﬂuency, comprehension, and increased vocabulary. Astute educators and librarians have been integrating audiobooks into their lesson plans to help engage non-readers, level the playing ﬁeld for English language learners, and slow down those voracious readers who don’t read carefully enough for thorough comprehension. With the growth and development of the common reading experience, professors and administrators now have the opportunity to increase participation by adding the audiobook option to their programming, both to better engage non-readers or to simply enhance the reading experience. Audiobook Stats According to the Audio Publishers Association’s annual sales & consumer surveys: H Audiobook listeners are more voracious readers of print books than non-listeners. H Use is primarily in the car, but listeners are increasingly using audiobooks during exercise, cooking, gardening, and at work. H Digital downloads now account for 60% of sales through retail channels. H The younger generation of listeners has a strong preference for downloads. H The unabridged format continues to dominate with 90% of audios sold.

Why Audiobooks? H 30% of people are auditory learners—processing information best through listening. H 85% of what we learn, we learn by listening . . . For students, listening is THE dominant learning medium, fundamental to grasping all other language arts: reading, writing, and speaking. H Audiobooks promote a sense of intimacy and human connection—we listened to stories long before we read them. Audiobooks reinforce good storytelling, an important tradition in human history.

Consider the power of the spoken word to energize 2

Making the link between listening and the First-Year/Common Reading Experience H Movies are adaptations of the text; audiobooks are word-for-word oral versions of the text. H The accessibility of audiobooks makes them a great choice for international students and non-readers, who want to join the discussion, but face some challenges.

Getting Started

Twenty-ﬁrst “ century students have been pushing buttons since the get-go and

Bring Audiobooks into Your Evaluation Process: Examination copies are available (in most cases) on CD, and always as digital downloads. Please contact commonreads@randomhouse.com with your request. Site Licenses Are Available: Audiobook ﬁles can be delivered to students via a download link on a school’s website or intranet. Contact Maren McCamley at mmccamley@randomhouse.com for more information. Share an Audiobook Clip: Clips are available for ALL of our titles at randomhouseaudio.com. From the website, you can download the clips as thumbnails, as well as embed or share them. For example, you can include clips in your newsletters, post them on your website, and insert them into presentations. Contact cherman@ randomhouse.com for special clip requests.

are comfortable and attracted to devices in their learning space. Audiobooks are a satisfying combination of an old-fashioned tradition and today’s technology.

”

—Jon Scieszka, author, www.guyslisten.com

In the ever-changing technological landscape, the art of listening is an essential component in developing literate, critical thinkers.

the learning climate at your college or university. Find this symbol

throughout the catalog when unabridged audiobook is available.

RANDOM HOUSE LLC

SUppORtS yOUR pROgRAM

electing the right title is only the first step toward making your First-year Reading program a success; publisher support is also essential . the Random House LLC Academic Marketing Department is here to ensure that your program runs

smoothly and successfully, and that your needs and requests are handled in a thorough and efficient manner .

We ARe PleASeD TO HelP YOU WiTH THe FOllOWinG: AUTHOR APPeARAnceS We’ll promptly channel your author requests to the appropriate speaker’s bureau or lecture agency to ensure they are attended to quickly .

AncillARY mATeRiAlS Should you need author photos or additional content and materials, we will research the available options and assist you as best as we can .

DiScUSSiOn GUiDeS We continue to develop and make available discussion guides, which may be used as tools by your discussion leaders . Many of these free guides are available in print, and all may be easily downloaded from our website .

DeSk cOPieS Depending upon the method of your order, you are entitled to one complimentary copy of a book per twenty student copies ordered . these complimentary copies are often allocated to group discussion leaders .

cUSTOmizeD cOPieS Want to include a letter from your dean or college president? Imprint the cover with a specialized seal? Or modify the book in some other way? We will connect you to our premium Sales Department to process your request . (please note these orders are not for resale .)

ORDeRinG Although Random House LLC does not sell directly to schools or libraries, we will assist you in placing your order, whether through your bookstore, a local wholesaler, or our in-house premium Sales Department .

RANDOM HOUSE LLC

Questions? MICHAEL D . gENtILE Director, Academic Marketing

Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019 • Tel. (212) 782-8387

u commonreads@randomhouse .com www .linkedin .com/in/michaeldgentile

RANDOM HOUSE LLC

RANDOM HOUSE COMMON READINg

Book Post-Adoption

Timeline

this timeline provides a helpful outline of the steps that compose a successful common reading program

Book is selected

Book PurcHAse

students will purchase their own copy of book

How do students obtain the book? Contact your campus bookstore/distributor to order directly .

What is the estimated length of time between order and delivery? Allow 3–4 weeks for delivery .

ProgrAmming

university is purchasing books as gifts to students (e .g ., during Orientation)

Will you need a custom version? We can print customized editions with your college logo and/or letter from your president .

no customization

Who should the institution contact to obtain a price quote? Contact jlipman@randomhouse .com or 1 .800 .800 .3246 for a price quote . Have available the book title, ISBN, quantity, delivery date, and “ship to” information .

How much time does customization take? Normal delivery time for custom editions is 6–8 weeks from order to delivery .

What is the estimated length of time between order and delivery? Allow 2–4 weeks for delivery .

Author visit? Many of our authors are represented by the Random House Speakers Bureau . to request an author, contact 212 .572 .2013 or rhspeakers@ randomhouse .com . When contacting the RH Speakers Bureau, please know your available budget, desired date of visit, audience size and type, program description, and if there will be book signing opportunities .

other programming ideas (see our Best practices and programming Ideas on pages 6–7)

Visit www .commonreads .com to access an online version of this timeline

BEST PRACTICES AND

Tips from the Random House

3 LAUNCHING A PROGRAM Relax, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of the many resources available to learn about other reading programs. A good starting point is a monograph published by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, Common Reading Programs: Going Beyond the Book. In addition, there are a number of campuses with well-established and successful reading programs, and the professionals who run these programs are usually very happy to share advice and tips (as well as opinions on books they have used in the past). When starting a program, it’s important to include various stakeholders on campus. When it is time to select a book, you will most likely want some type of campus selection committee. The committee should comprise members of a variety of constituencies, including faculty, student services, and academic affairs administrators, as well as students. Think carefully about the scope, mission, learning outcomes, and assessment of your program. For example, will the program be a first-year/new student reading program or a campus-wide (common) reading program? What will be the purpose of the program? This may influence the type of books you will be considering. How will you inform students about the program and when will they be expected to read the book? Again, take advantage of the numerous resources available to help answer these questions.

3 SELECTING A BOOK Think about the following questions when considering eligible books for your program: Does the book tell a good story? Is the book accessible? Will a variety of students at different reading levels and with different interests be able to engage with the book? To this point, consider page count. A good rule of thumb is the “300 Rule”: if possible, choose a book with 300 pages or less. Does it feature a protagonist students can relate to? They might be the same age or be dealing with similar life situations (change, challenge, adversity). Does the book touch on teachable themes, such as inclusiveness/diversity, global engagement, etc.? Do the themes of the book correspond to your university’s strategic mission? Campus engagement and resources will be easier to secure if you make this relationship clear. If having the book’s author speak is part of the plan for your reading program, it is important to consider author availability during the book selection process. Speaking fees and availability can vary considerably. You don’t want to go through all the work to select a book, only to find out that the author’s speaking fee will not work for your budget, or s/he is not available to speak on the dates you need!

3 ENGAGING STUDENTS Use digital and social media to your advantage. Use your university’s existing social media webpage or account (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or create a dedicated page for your common reading program to build a community around the book selection, author visit, and other programming activities. Many authors, publishers, and lecture agencies have existing material that can be posted to your community page. Get students prepared. Consider introducing the book during the spring or summer prior to the next academic year. For example, if first-year students receive the book during Orientation, the Orientation Leaders and various speakers can advertise the program and build a feeling of community around the reading of the text. Also, think about having students turn in questions for the author as part of an assignment and have a moderator pose the questions to the author. This will incentivize students to come up with more original questions, will save on time during the Q&A, and will avoid dreaded “dead air.” Make the questions a contest, such as: “Can you stump the author?” Have students create materials in advance of the author’s visit. Essay collections are a great idea. You may also consider multimedia approaches—such as blogs, videos, or website. Students tend to share more on a personal level when they are not

Have questions for the A dvisory B oard?

PROGRAMMING IDEAS Common Reading Advisory Board

in an open forum and the medium can be anonymous. Another idea is to have students autograph and annotate the author’s book. In addition to brief messages to the author, annotations can call attention to the passages of the book students find most compelling or personally resonant. Authors appreciate different perspectives on and reactions to their work, and they can take home the annotated book as a memento to commemorate the event! Organize campus-wide discussion groups. Some campuses use faculty, some use upper-class students, and some use a combination of faculty, staff, and students to facilitate these discussions. Again, this is a good way for the first-year student to feel that they are a part of the university community. Link the book to as much existing campus programming as possible. Can the Film Studies Dept. co-sponsor a viewing of a film related to your book? Are there plays, arts exhibits, or other speakers coming to campus that you could tie into? Perhaps Student Activities can help as well? Reach out to faculty who teach courses relevant to your book selection, provide them with review copies of the book, invite them to events, and ask them to embed the book in their syllabi and courses. Your book selection committee will be a great resource in making these connections.

3 HOSTING AN AUTHOR Is the author represented by an agency or speaker’s bureau? Most authors will have an agent, and that will be the person to contact about speaking fees and availability. Often, the book’s publisher will have this information. Encourage as many faculty and students as possible to read the book in advance of the author’s visit. In addition to having more enthusiastic readers on campus to help you spread the good word about the book and your program, folks who have already read the book will have more interesting questions for the author, making for a more intelligent and productive discussion. Assign a faculty member or administrator to host the author. While one of the benefits of an author visit is for students to engage with the author, it is important to have a faculty member or administrator act as the dedicated host, someone who has the authority to assertively manage appearances—to turn down requests or move an author to the next location, for example. Sharing is caring! Encourage university departments and divisions to coordinate in advance. Perhaps events may be co-sponsored so the author isn’t pulled in too many directions, and departments can share space, time, money, and other resources. Consider having one large campus talk that is required of all students. This makes the best use of both your programming time and the author’s time on campus. Many authors say that different departments and disciplines actually tend to have questions that are more similar in nature than they are different. Even if that is not the case, a diversity of questions is a good thing; it offers a richer conversation when different interests come together, and students learn more. Mix up the formats of events. The most successful visits offer the author and participants a variety of events to keep things fresh and engaging. Have the author speak at a podium for one event, do an on-stage sit-down Q&A at another, and participate in a group interview with faculty at a third. When hosting an author Q&A, it’s important to appoint a moderator to move the discussion along. The moderator can address basic factual questions upfront, to allow for a more in-depth exchange during the Q&A. The moderator can also be the person who introduces the author. Following a large campus-wide talk, arrange for smaller, more intimate discussions with faculty and students, in which the author and participants can delve more deeply into topics mentioned in the campus-wide talk. All participants should have attended the larger campus talk so that they come to the breakout sessions with at least a basic knowledge of the book. Give authors “a break” (or two)! In order to provide your participants with the best experience possible, foster an environment that makes the author comfortable, and one that allows them to put their best foot forward. Schedule breaks in between sessions and offer some meals “off.” Arrange to have snacks, water, coffee, and meals available as appropriate. If the author is the key attraction at a meal, make sure he or she has ample time to eat. Don’t take it personally. When negotiating your author’s visit to campus, there may be many requirements on the part of the agency for travel, lodging, and “down time.” These are based on the agency’s standard contractual obligations designed to cover a wide variety of celebrities, athletes, and other speakers. However, most agencies and authors understand that you have state and university policies that may constrain what you can offer, and will work with you to meet your needs. Schedule ample time for planning and negotiation. You should also verify with the author’s agent whether events or speaking engagements may be videotaped or recorded. They often have provisions for what is allowable.

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GUY P. HARRISON

Engage Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

FYE Annual Meeting | Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA | Seaport F

©Jen Dessinger

THE 10TH ANNUAL RANDOM HOUSE LUNCHEON

SAMPSON DAVIS, M.D.

JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN

DAVID LEVITHAN

SHERI FINK, M.D., PH.D.

COLUM MCCANN

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014 11:45 am – 1:30 pm

FYE Annual Meeting | Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA | Seaport G/H

Please RSVP at www.randomhouse.com/acmart/invite or pass by Random House Booths #40 & 41

8 If reserving for others, please include their full name and school afﬁliation. 8

SPEAKERS TO GET YOUR STUDENTS TALKING Whether you are organizing a common read program, panel discussion, lecture series, writing festival, commencement, or convocation, the Random House Speakers Bureau has the speakers that will make your event engaging and memorable. Our speakers are some of the most brilliant minds shaping the national conversation—Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times bestselling authors, business leaders, award-winning historians, medical luminaries, and many others.

WHAT UNIVERSITIES ARE SAYING ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS: “‘To speak out or to remain silent is the ﬁrst and most crucial decision we can make,’ Kristen Iversen’s concluding Full Body Burden statement, became our freshman class mantra. Kristen was a gracious and informative guest, spending a day on our campus conversing with sundry student and faculty clusters. Her lecture was not a book rehash—it was a fresh perspective.” —St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, NY

KRISTEN IVERSEN

COLUM McCANN

“Colum was excellent with our students, blending current events and personal anecdotes during his presentation. I have rarely met an author as willing to spend his personal time connecting with our students. He is a true literary scholar and we were grateful for his work enhancing our summer reading program.” —Duke University, Durham, NC

“Charles was phenomenal! He was so easy to work with and the students just adored him. His book and lecture inspired students to think about their own habits and how they impact their daily lives, studies, and even future careers. His visit enriched the lives of so many students, faculty, and staff.” —Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX

CHARLES DUHIGG

“We were delighted to host Jamie Ford on campus for our 2012/2013 Community Read. Not only was his novel an ideal choice, but his visit to campus touched the hearts and minds of our students, staff, faculty and community. His presentation was both meaningful and engaging to so many.” —Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, WA

JAMIE FORD

212-572-2013

RHSPEAKERS@RANDOMHOUSE.COM

WWW.RHSPEAKERS.COM

SHE’S NOT THERE

A Life in Two Genders

Website: www.JenniferBoylan.net Author Video: tiny.cc/2tpcax

By Jennifer Finney Boylan

With an Afterword by Richard Russo

he’s Not There is the unconventional memoir of a person who changes genders, a portrait of a loving marriage that withstands a radical change, and a revealing look at society’s folly in overemphasizing the importance of fixed gender roles.

“After reading She’s Not There, my students asked if we could bring Jenny Boylan to campus. What a huge impact she had on Creative Writing students; Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies students; and students at the Pride Center as well as a the general campus community during her evening reading and commentary. Bringing Jenny to OSU was inspired by students and she was inspirational for them during her visit.” —The Graduate School, Oregon State University “With bluntness and sincerity, Boylan opens up about the 40 years she spent living as a man, about being trapped in the wrong body, the awkwardness of never feeling appropriately dressed, the desire to live outwardly as the opposite gender, and the overwhelming longing to fit in with the mainstream. . . . Often humorous and illustrative and always enjoyable and enriching without being preachy, Boylan selflessly offers the reader all the painful details of her life as sacrifice for a better appreciation of what it means to be transsexual in today’s world. Her book will do more for raising awareness of the transsexual experience than Jan Morris’s Conundrum. Recommended.” —Library Journal Also Available by Jennifer Finney Boylan Broadway | TR | 978-0-385-34697-9 | 352pp. $14.95/$17.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-0-385-34698-6 | $11.99/$13.99 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Discipline: Gender Studies Themes: Family & Relationships; Identity; LGBT Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU

A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders Contribution by Anna Quindlen

Jennifer Finney Boylan, a professor at Colby College and author of She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, has written a new memoir discussing her experience as first a father and then, as she transitioned from being male to female, motherhood. She offers thoughtful meditations on gender and how families are shaped, and includes her conversations on these subjects with Richard Russo, Edward Albee, Ann Beattie, Augusten Burroughs, Susan Minot, and others. “[A] warm, engaging memoir. . . . This informal investigation and her touchingly funny and always candid story work together to reveal the book’s ultimate truth: that ‘to accept the wondrous scope of gender is to affirm the vast potential of life in all its messy, unfathomable beauty’. . . . Genuinely insightful through and through.” —Kirkus Reviews Crown | HC | 978-0-7679-2176-3 | 304pp. | $24.00/$28.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.00 Do not order paperback before 4/22/2014. Broadway Books | TR | 978-0-7679-2177-0 | 304pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-95284-4 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Gender Studies • Identity

About the Author: Jennifer Finney Boylan JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve books, including most recently, Stuck in the Middle With You. She is a regular contributor to the op-ed page of the New York Times and a professor of English at Colby College in Maine.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author “Love Will Prevail”: A Few Words About My Memoir, She’s Not There, and the First-Year Experience® Several years ago, after an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, a reader from Omaha sent me a letter. “The strangest thing about you, Jenny Boylan,” she wrote, “is that you seem almost like a person someone could know.” That letter made me laugh, of course, but I knew what she meant. While the nation has gotten better at discussing diversity in its many forms over the last several decades, there’s something about transgender experience that still sometimes gives even good-hearted people pause. Perhaps it’s that the transgender impulse is less familiar to readers than other ways of being “different,” or that we’re still uncertain how to go about talking about the important but delicate issues around sex and gender. But for many readers, the biggest stumbling block is that sense that a trans person’s story is going be a tale of marginality, or confusion, or grief. In me, however, readers do seem to find “a person someone could know”—a woman more English teacher than revolutionary. My lectures, in fact, don’t primarily focus on the intimacies of transgender transition. Instead, they ask the larger questions that are essential to the lives of young men and women: What does it mean to live an authentic life? What sorts of changes would you accept in the person you love? How do you find the courage, against all odds, to become yourself? And above all, what does it mean to be a man or a woman? She’s Not There is the story of a person changing genders—but it’s also a love story of two people who stood by each other in the face of turmoil and change. It’s also the story of a friendship, in this case mine with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Richard Russo, and how two writers’ relationship changed as we went from a pair of guys to a man and a woman. Most of all, I think it’s the story of how good people can be. I had always hoped, when I was young, that I would be “cured by love.” In the end, love did save me, but not in the way any of us had expected. There were some very hard moments indeed, but on the whole, I was surprised at the generosity and kindness I encountered, sometimes from those from whom I least expected it. When I came out to my eighty-five-year old, conservative, Lutheran mother, for instance, I feared greatly about what might happen, in spite of the fact that when I was young she always used to tell me, “It’s impossible to hate anyone whose story you know.” In the end, she put her arms around me, wiped away my tears, and said that “love will prevail.” That has largely been the case for me, and for my family: love has continued to prevail, in every aspect of our lives. That’s the story I have tried to tell, since my book first came out in 2003 and in its new updated and expanded edition, just published by Random House this spring. It is my hope that readers of She’s Not There will find in my story the love and the courage they need to become themselves. Jennifer Finney Boylan

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

My Year in a Women’s Prison: A Memoir By Piper Kerman

Website: www.PiperKerman.com For author interview, go to: tiny.cc/71s19w

ith a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years ago. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187-424—one of the millions of women who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and arbitrary rules, where the uneasy relationship between prisoner and jailer is constantly and unpredictably recalibrated. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there.

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52339-4 | 352pp. $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-0-385-53026-2 | $11.99/$11.99 Can.

“Don’t let the irreverent title mislead: This is a serious and bighearted book that depicts life in a women’s prison with great detail and— crucially—with empathy and respect for Piper Kerman’s fellow prisoners, most of whom did not and do not have her advantages and options. With its expert reporting and humane, clear-eyed storytelling, Orange Is the New Black will join Ted Conover’s Newjack among the necessary contemporary books about the American prison experience.” —Dave Eggers, author of Zeitoun and co-author of Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated “Moving . . . transcends the memoir genre’s usual self-centeredness to explore how human beings can always surprise you.” —USA Today

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Maryville University and Salem State University

Also Available:

Disciplines: Gender Studies; Social Sciences

(Movie Tie-in Edition) My Year in a Women’s Prison

Themes: Ethics/Decision Making; Gender Issues; Group Dynamics; Identity; Social Justice Campus Visits:

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

By Piper Kerman

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8618-1 | 352pp. $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-53026-2 | $11.99/$11.99 Can.

About the Author: Piper Kerman PIPER KERMAN is vice president of a Washington, D.C.–based communications firm that works with foundations and nonprofits. A graduate of Smith College, she lives in Brooklyn.

www.CommonReads.com

©Sam Zalutsky

Alternative Formats:

A Message from the Author In the early 1990s, I was a graduate from an elite women’s college, a little lost and very much looking for adventure and finding it in an unlikely criminal underworld. In 2004, I was a successful professional standing at the gates of a federal women’s prison, about to start serving time for a ten-year-old drug offense. My book, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, details my plunge into the hidden world of America’s enormous prison system, the women and men I met there, and the profound effect that incarceration has on individuals and communities around the country. The book was adapted into the hit Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. Women are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population—the number of women incarcerated in the U.S. has grown by 800% in recent decades—so the person wearing the emblematic orange prison jumpsuit is more and more likely to be female. In 1980, there were approximately 500,000 people in prison in the United States; today there are 2.3 million. According to the 2008 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are more than 7 million people on parole, on probation, or locked up. America represents 5 percent of the world’s population but incarcerates 25 percent of all prisoners globally. In just one generation an enormous prison system has become entrenched and continues to grow, even as crime rates remain at historic lows. Intense fascination with the story of my year in prison comes from many quarters: criminal justice and law students, those in women’s and gender studies, sociologists, and of course the people who live and work within our nation’s prisons and jails. While I was wearing prison khakis, I often fielded the sly question “What’s the all-American girl doing here?” I found myself part of a remarkable community of women, a handful from a middle-class background like me, the vast majority from this country’s poorest rural and urban communities. Prison is a place with its own codes of behavior and arbitrary hierarchies among prisoners, determined by both them and the correctional system. It’s a place where humor and resilience coexist with despair and the threat of violence, and where the uneasy relationship between prisoner and jailer is constantly and unpredictably recalibrated. Since the book’s release in the spring of 2010, I’ve traveled around the country, talking with readers, students, prisoners, probation officers, public defenders, and advocates. The book has been selected for One Book and Community Reads programs, spurring vigorous debates among the groups who read and discuss the story. College students and seasoned correctional professionals are fascinated to hear about the perspective of a prisoner and the crosscurrents of race and class, motherhood, gender and power, family, and even friendships that shape the experience of incarceration. A first-person narrative offers a view of the experience of life in prison that even the best-researched and -reported academic works cannot capture with the same vividness and immediacy. Since the release of the Netflix series, the response of young people has been overwhelming, as they are moved to delve deeper behind the screen characters who have captured their imaginations. My story is a personal story. I was compelled to write the book in the hopes of offering a more complex and complete picture of who is in prison in this country, why they are there, and what happens to them there. In the U.S. prison life, economy and culture have metastasized in a short time span; we have invested heavily in prisons, while the public institutions that actually prevent crime and strengthen communities—schools, hospitals, libraries and museums, community centers—go without. I wanted to capture this reality by telling not just my own story but also the stories of the other women I met along my journey through the criminal justice system. As a longtime communications professional, it was important to me to present my story in a way that was accessible and engaging, even mixing harsh realities with sometimes surprising humor, as a way to draw many different types of readers into the world of prisons and jails. My talks and appearances on television and radio always spur spirited discussions about transgression, punishment, inequality, rehabilitation, and redemption. My schedule of public speaking engagements can be found at www.piperkerman.com, along with resources for people interested in finding out more and in creating change in the criminal justice system.

Piper Kerman

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

DEAR MARCUS

A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me By Jerry McGill

Author Video: tiny.cc/tje4qw To view the author’s talk at the 2013 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/rlrcax

hen Jerry McGill was growing up in the housing projects on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1980s, his future seemed bright: Though times were tough for a family led by a single mother, McGill was a charming, precocious teenager, already excelling as an athlete and a dancer. But everything changed one night when he was thirteen. Walking home from a New Year’s party with a friend, McGill was shot in the back by an unknown assailant, who was never caught. Soon after, he learned that he would be wheelchair-bound for life.

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8316-6 | 192pp. $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-0-679-64460-6 | $9.99/$11.99 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Defiance College and Morgan State University Disciplines: African American Studies; Philosophy; Sociology Themes: Identity; Perseverance/Personal Strength; Social Justice Campus Visits:

Written as a letter to the man who shot him, whom he decides to call Marcus, Dear Marcus is a reflection on McGill’s childhood, the event that changed his life in an instant, the challenges of living with a disability, and the importance of optimism, forgiveness, and making the most of one’s gifts. In this direct and intimate attempt to explain to his attacker the repercussions of his deeds—how one man’s random decision radically altered the course of another’s life—McGill takes the reader to the streets of New York City in the 1980s, to the hospital where he spent six months recovering, and on his journey to make the most of his new life. He recounts the joys he has experienced traveling the globe and mentoring disabled children, the love and support he has received over the years, and the strengths he has been able to find within himself that he may never have discovered had his life turned out differently. By turns brutally honest and funny, both full of rage and full of heart, Dear Marcus is an inspiring book about the moments in life that shape people—the ones that catch them by surprise, that blindside them, but that present them with opportunities for growth, reflection, compassion, and forgiveness. At some point—to greater or lesser degrees—everyone will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The challenge, though, as Dear Marcus shows, is not to wallow in despair or blame other people, but to rise up and find strengths within. “As I started reading Dear Marcus, I found I couldn’t put it down. This is a compelling marriage of remembrance and forgiveness, absolution and compassion, cynicism and understanding.” —Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore

Alternative Formats:

JERRY MCGILL is a writer, artist, activist, and inspirational speaker. He received a BA in English literature from Fordham University in the Bronx and a master’s degree in education from Pacific University in Oregon. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

www.CommonReads.com

©Jerry McGill

About the Author: Jerry McGill

A Message from the Author Last year I retired from a profession that was probably the most challenging, the most frustrating, and in many ways the most rewarding profession that I’ve ever had. When I rolled my wheelchair out of my high school English classroom for the last time, I had to take a moment to recognize and honor all that I had gained from the experience. My reasons for choosing not to return to the classroom are complex and varied, but one thing is without doubt: to watch a student read, process, and discuss a work of literature is a thing of beauty. I recall so well my freshman class’s heartfelt reactions to the suffering of young Elie Wiesel as we became immersed in the story of Night. Class discussions revolved around the cruelty of humankind and the necessity of hope, and their journals reflected just how engrossed they were in the journey. They experienced a similar reaction when the students (who were, like the school, about 92 percent Caucasian) dove into the life of Richard Wright and his shocking experience of growing up in the Jim Crow South in Black Boy. During our conversations we explored topics such as the use of the “N word,” poverty, racism, religion, and, of course, the cruelty of humanity. Those conversations fed me, and as we went on to read works by Maya Angelou, Frank McCourt, and Amy Tan, a small part of me couldn’t help but wonder: How would my students react to Dear Marcus, my self-published memoir about being shot in the back when I was thirteen? I had sworn never to bring up my book in class, believing it was best to maintain a “professional distance.” Despite my students’ constant prodding (“Are you married, Mr. McGill? Do you have kids? Were you in a car accident?”), I always respectfully declined discussions about my personal life. Then a funny thing happened. Students being students, many of them “googled” me and, lo and behold, discovered that the life story of their mysterious teacher was right there for the entire world to read. Many found ways to purchase my memoir, and soon word about it spread. Whether it was between classes, during lunch break, or in study hall, students would find me and, clutching their copy of my book, would then ask me questions about it. Their questions were soon followed by the inevitable demand that I autograph their copy. Not long after the first students read it, a fellow teacher doing a unit on the African American experience in America asked if I would come speak to two of her classes. When word got out that I had agreed to do it, the teacher had to move the event to an auditorium because so many other students wanted to join the discussion. At first I was apprehensive that disclosing so much about myself would be harmful to the studentteacher relationship, but much to my pleasure it had the opposite effect. Even students whom I knew clear well didn’t like me (I was a pretty demanding teacher and could be a harsh grader) came up to me after the talk to tell me how moved or fascinated they were by my story. In the weeks that followed, I had an untold number of healthy conversations with students about my life and about their own, and about the broader themes that my book touches on: poverty, class, faith, family, loyalty, trust, and destiny—topics that we may not have had a chance to explore in such depth otherwise. For the first time, I began to think, Well maybe, just maybe, someday there could be a place for Dear Marcus on a curriculum. . . . I am so pleased that Dear Marcus will now be available for a wider audience, and it is my sincere hope that educators will find it worthy of sharing with their students. Though it is my own story, it addresses issues of race, class, disability, inner-city violence, the importance of education, the repercussions of our actions on other people’s lives, and, most of all, the importance of hope and perseverance—issues that are relevant and that warrant classroom discussion. Ultimately, I hope that Dear Marcus will help young people see the beauty in their own lives while reminding them that even if things don’t go the way that they expect, they are in control of their futures. Jerry McGill

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

IMPERFECT

Website: www.JimAbbott.net Author Video: tiny.cc/ghcpqw

An Improbable Life

By Jim Abbott and Tim Brown

For reasons that remain a medical mystery, Jim Abbott was born without a right hand. Years later, from atop the mound at Yankee Stadium, he became the 234th Major League baseball pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Tracing Abbott’s improbable and inspiring trajectory, Imperfect is a tale about overcoming daunting odds and pursuing your dreams. “Honest, touching, and beautifully rendered. . . . Far more than a book about baseball, it is a deeply felt story of triumph and failure, dreams and disappointments. Jim Abbott has hurled another gem.” —Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Man

Selected for Common Reading at Archbishop Ryan High School (Philadelphia, PA). Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-52326-6 | 320pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-52327-3 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Inspiration • Perseverance/Personal Strength

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS

By Maya Angelou

Website: www.MayaAngelou.com

“Students . . . find this book plunges them into a passionate, sensitive life in the midst of troubled and sometimes brutal realities. They found Maya Angelou’s spirit and strength a wellspring of pride in womanhood. Students also experienced the book as writers themselves and learned much about the memoir craft.” —Constance Berman, Director of Professional Studies, Southern Vermont College

Selected for Common Reading at Berry College; Green River Community College (Auburn, WA); Luther College; and others. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8002-8 | 304pp. | $17.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Ballantine | MM | 978-0-345-51440-0 | 304pp. | $6.99/$8.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-925-3 | $6.99/$6.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Gender Issues • Inclusiveness • Perseverance/Personal Strength

MOM & ME & MOM

By Maya Angelou

With Mom & Me & Mom, Maya Angelou (one of the U.S.’s most celebrated poets and the acclaimed author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) presents her most personal story to date: that of her relationship with her own mother. Offering a vivid portrait of Vivian Baxter Johnson—nurse, real estate agent, card dealer, parent, and officer in the Merchant Marine— Angelou presents the most intimate and emotional details of her own life, reaching beyond the content of her previously published autobiographies to meditate on the causes and effects of her separation from her mother. Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6611-7 | 224pp. | $22.00/$26.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64547-4 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Family & Relationships • Identity

BUCK

A Memoir

Website: www.MKAsante.com

By MK Asante MK Asante grew up under challenging circumstances. His eccentric father, a revered pioneer in African American Studies, was largely absent. His mother, once a dancer of renown, battled depression and mental illness. And his beloved brother wound up in prison. To cope with these calamities, MK turned to gang life. Buck is Asante’s personal account of overcoming these obstacles and using poetry to heal. “A story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style.” Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-8129-9341-7 | 272pp. | $25.00/$28.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 Do not order paperback before 5/13/2014. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8362-3 | 272pp. | $15.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-6796-4545-0 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Family & Relationships

www.CommonReads.com

—Maya Angelou

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

PUBLIC ENEMY: Confessions of an American Dissident

By Bill Ayers

Website: www.BillAyers.org

Labeled a “domestic terrorist” by the McCain campaign and continually maligned by conservative media, the reality of Bill Ayers is far less shocking. A dedicated father, teacher, and social justice advocate, Public Enemy is an account of Ayers’ emergence from hiding and embrace of public life. From Hollywood red carpets to frequent death threats, Ayers shares his triumphs and challenges with humor and profundity. “The one-time Weather Underground fugitive talks about his life as a political bogeyman. . . . His writing is thoughtful, penetratingly insightful and marvelously lacking in self-pity. No matter how they feel about his politics, readers of this memoir should find the author’s humanity irresistible.” —Kirkus Reviews Beacon Press | HC | 978-0-8070-3276-3 | 240pp. | $24.95/$27.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-0-8070-3293-0 | $24.95/$27.95 Can. Themes: Perseverance/Personal Strength • Social Justice • Transition

THEN THEY CAME FOR ME

Website: www.MaziarBahari.com

A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival By Maziar Bahari With Aimee Molloy

Bahari left London for Iran in 2009 to cover the presidential elections. He was imprisoned for three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, and repeatedly tortured by an interrogator who remained a mystery to him. Bahari clung to memories of his pregnant wife, and drew inspiration from his father and sister, who had also been tortured by the shah in the 1950s and the Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s, respectively. Bahari’s account effectively balances political reportage with personal narrative. “Especially timely given recent events throughout the Middle East, this book is recommended for anyone wishing to better understand the workings of a police state.” —Kirkus Reviews Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6946-0 | 384pp. | $27.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50 e-Book: 978-0-679-60419-8 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. Themes: Human Rights • Perseverance/Personal Strength • Regional: Middle East

FOR ALL OF US, ONE TODAY: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey

By Richard Blanco

Website: www.Richard-Blanco.com

For All of Us, One Today is a fluid, poetic story anchored by Richard Blanco’s experiences as the inaugural poet in 2013, and beyond. In this brief and evocative narrative, he shares for the first time his journey as a Latino immigrant and openly gay man discovering a new, emotional understanding of what it means to be an American. Blanco reflects on his life-changing role as a public voice since the inauguration, his spiritual embrace of Americans everywhere, and his vision for poetry’s new role in our nation’s consciousness. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-3380-7 | 120pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-3381-4 | $15.00/$17.00 Can. Themes: Hispanic American • Immigration • LGBT • Poetry

MY ORANGE DUFFEL BAG

A Journey to Radical Change By Sam Bracken With Echo Garrett

Website: www.MyOrangeDuffelBag.com Author Video: tiny.cc/4cf4qw To view the author’s talk at the 2012 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/gympqw

Despite being abandoned at age fifteen and suffering unspeakable abuse, Sam Bracken overcame the odds to change his life and earn a full-ride football scholarship to the Georgia Institute of Technology. When he left for college, everything he owned fit in an orange duffel bag. In My Orange Duffel Bag, Sam tells his harrowing story of homelessness, poverty, and abuse, and how he was able to reinvent himself. He also shows students how they can turn their lives around by sharing everything he learned about radically changing his life and how anyone can create positive, lasting change. Selected for Common Reading at Louisburg College; Pine Technical College; and Savannah State University. Crown Archetype | HC | 978-0-307-98488-3 | 200pp. | $23.00/$26.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.50 Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Inspiration • Leadership & Motivation • Perseverance/Personal Strength

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

FIST STICK KNIFE GUN

A Personal History of Violence By Geoffrey Canada

To view trailer and official website for the documentary Waiting for ‘Superman,’ featuring Geoffrey Canada, go to: www.WaitingForSuperman.com

Long before President Barack Obama praised his work as “an all-encompassing, all-hands-ondeck anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children” and First Lady Michelle Obama called him “one of my heroes,” Geoffrey Canada was a small, scared boy growing up in the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where “sidewalk boys” learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, knife, and, finally, gun. Fist Stick Knife Gun tells his story. Geoffrey Canada was prominently featured in the 2010 documentary Waiting for Superman. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-4461-2 | 192pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-4450-6 | $14.00/$17.00 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Ethics • Perseverance/Personal Strength Regional: New York/Urban Interest

Also Available as a Graphic Novel Illustrated by Jamar Nicholas

Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-4449-0 | 144pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

ELEPHANT COMPANY

The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II

To request a free advance readers copy, email commonreads@randomhouse.com

By Vicki Croke

Website: www.VickiCroke.com

With a deep and abiding love for animals, it’s no surprise that J. H. “Billy” Williams took a job with the East India Company to work with logging elephants. However, what no one predicted was that Williams and his elephants would become instrumental during World War II, saving refugees and helping to defeat the Japanese in Burma. Do not order before 7/15/2014. Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6933-0 | 368pp. | $28.00/$34.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-60399-3 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. Themes: History & Society • Inspiration

FUNNY IN FARSI

Website: www.FiroozehDumas.com

A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America By Firoozeh Dumas

Winner of the Spirit of America Award (National Council for the Social Studies) and other awards Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Firoozeh Dumas’s wonderfully engaging family, who moved from Iran to Southern California in the 1970s, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of the U.S. “What’s charming beyond the humor of this memoir is that it remains affectionate even in the weakest, most tenuous moments for the culture. It’s the brilliance of true sophistication at work.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Selected for Common Reading at more than 20 colleges including: Gallaudet University; University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Florida International University (Miami). To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/7tpfrw. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-6837-8 | 240pp. | $15.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-43099-1 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Discovering Differences • Global Citizenship • Identity For more books by Firoozeh Dumas, go to: tiny.cc/bpvf9w

MY BRIEF HISTORY

Website: www.Hawking.org.uk

By Stephen Hawking

One of the most important and influential scientists of our time, Stephen Hawking asserts that his early years were undistinguished and undisciplined. However, after his devastating ALS diagnosis, Hawking finds the focus to harness his formidable intellect. My Brief History is a candid and witty memoir, and offers students a glimpse into the physicist’s brilliant mind. Bantam | HC | 978-0-345-53528-3 | 144pp. | $22.00/$25.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-53913-7 | $10.99/$12.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Inspiration • Perseverance/Personal Strength • Science & Society For more books by Stephen Hawking, go to: tiny.cc/dqvf9w

www.CommonReads.com

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

UNBROKEN

Website: www.LauraHillenbrandBooks.com

A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption By Laura Hillenbrand

Finalist, 2011 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction “From the 1936 Olympics to WWII Japan’s most brutal POW camps, Hillenbrand’s heartwrenching new book is thousands of miles and a world away from the racing circuit of her bestselling Seabiscuit. But it’s just as much a page-turner, and its hero, Louie Zamperini, is just as loveable. . . . It is impossible to condense the rich, granular detail of Hillenbrand’s narrative. . . . She restores to our collective memory this tale of heroism, cruelty, life, death, joy, suffering, remorselessness, and redemption.” —Sarah F. Gold, Publishers Weekly

Selected for Common Reading at Avila University; Barton College; and Norwich University. Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6416-8 | 496pp. | $28.00/$33.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00 Do not order paperback before 6/1/2014. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7449-2 | 512pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-60375-7 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: American History • Perseverance/Personal Strength

PRAIRIE SILENCE: A Memoir

Website: www.MelanieHoffert.com

By Melanie Hoffert

Like so many others, Melanie Hoffert left the quiet country home of her childhood in the hopes of trying out a more urban existence. When she returns to North Dakota, the silent prairie that she once called home allows her to hear her own voice in the most unexpected of ways, illuminating her differences and setting her on a journey of self-realization, reconciliation, and acceptance. In this evocative memoir and her coming-out story, Hoffert reveals how places speak to and transform people. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-4516-9 | 248pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-4474-2 | $24.95/$28.95 Can. Themes: Discovering Differences • Gender Issues • Identity • LGBT

FRESH OFF THE BOAT

A Memoir

By Eddie Huang Eddie Huang is the thirty-year-old proprietor of Baohaus—the East Village restaurant where foodies and students come to eat delicious Taiwanese street food late into the night—and one of the food world’s brightest and most controversial young stars. But before he created the perfect home for himself in a small patch of downtown New York, Eddie wandered the American wilderness looking for a place to call his own. Funny, raw, and moving, and told in an irrepressibly alive and original voice, Fresh Off the Boat recasts the immigrant’s story for the twenty-first century. It’s a story of food, family, and the forging of a new notion of what it means to be American. “Bawdy and frequently hilarious . . . a surprisingly sophisticated memoir about race and assimilation in America . . . as much James Baldwin and Jay-Z as Amy Tan . . . rowdy [and] vital. . . . It’s a book about fitting in by not fitting in at all.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8335-7 | 288pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64489-7 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Identity

DECODED

Website: www.AtRandom.com/Jay-Z-Decoded

By Jay-Z

For the millions who know him as the greatest rapper alive and an unparalleled cultural and business icon, Decoded is the story of the legendary Jay-Z, told through lyrics, images, and a powerful and surprising personal narrative. This is an intimate, first-person portrait of the life and art of Jay-Z, organized around a “decoding” of his most famous and provocative lyrics. “A riveting exploration of Jay-Z’s journey. . . . So thoroughly engrossing, it reads like a good piece of cultural journalism.” —The Boston Globe Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8115-5 | 352pp. | $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-1-58836-959-8 | $14.99/$16.99 Can. Themes: African American Experience • Coming of Age • Identity

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

BLACK TITAN

A. G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire

Website: www.CarolJenkinsMedia.com

By Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines A. G. Gaston’s grandparents were slaves, yet he died one of the wealthiest black men in the United States, worth over $130 million. His niece and grandniece, the award-winning television journalist Carol Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines, have written the first biography of Gaston, whose business savvy helped him rise above the crushing confines of racism. Selected for Common Reading at Benedict College. One World | TR | 978-0-345-45348-8 | 336pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-51454-7 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: African American History/Experience • American History • Leadership & Motivation Perseverance

MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS

The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World By Tracy Kidder

Website: www.TracyKidder.com Author Video: tiny.cc/xflbrw To view the author’s talk at the 2009 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/etf4qw

An ALA Notable Book; A New York Times Notable Book Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder tells the true story of medical genius Paul Farmer and shows how one person can effect global progress against seemingly impossible problems— TB, AIDS, poverty—with creativity, knowledge, and determination. Selected for Common Reading at more than 100 colleges including: Mount Holyoke College; University of Washington; and Virginia Tech. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/gbqfrw. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7301-3 | 352pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-334-3 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Science & Society • Service • Social Justice

Also Available in Young Adult Edition: By Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Delacorte Books for Young Readers | HC | 978-0-385-74318-1 | 288pp. | $16.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $8.50

STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS

By Tracy Kidder

Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award In Strength in What Remains, Kidder presents the story of one man’s inspiring American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him. Selected for Common Reading at more than 12 colleges including: Caldwell College; Stanford University; and Western Michigan University. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/dgqfrw. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7761-5 | 304pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-851-5 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Genocide • Global Citizenship • Human Rights • Perseverance/Personal Strength Transition

A MIGHTY LONG WAY

My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School

By Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page Foreword by President Bill Clinton

Website: www.AMightyLongWay.com To view the author’s talk at the 2010 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/yuf4qw

“Carlotta Walls LaNier’s A Mighty Long Way is a riveting account of nine brave high school students and their families in a quest for quality desegregated public education. What happened in Little Rock in 1957 resulted in the U.S.’s greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War. . . . It is a mustread.” —James L. “Skip” Rutherford III, Dean of The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service

Selected for Common Reading at Defiance College; SUNY Potsdam; University of Illinois, Springfield; and others. One World | TR | 978-0-345-51101-0 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-51724-1 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: African American History/Experience • American History • Inclusiveness Regional: Alabama/The South

www.CommonReads.com

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

ALL SOULS

A Family Story from Southie

Website: www.MichaelPatrickMacDonald.com

By Michael Patrick MacDonald

Winner of the American Book Award; New England Literary Lights Award; Myers Outstanding Book Award All Souls takes readers deep into MacDonald’s Southie, the proudly insular neighborhood in Boston with the highest concentration of white poverty in the United States. “[A] guileless and powerful memoir of precarious life and early death in Boston’s Irish ghetto.” —R. Z. Sheppard, Time

Selected for Common Reading at Dean College; Northeastern University; Tufts University; and others. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-7213-4 | 296pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-7198-4 | $2.99/$2.99 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Identity • Regional: Boston

MUCK CITY

Website: www.BryanMealer.com

Winning and Losing in Football’s Forgotten Town By Bryan Mealer

In a town deep in the Florida Everglades, where high school football is the only escape, a haunted quarterback, a returning hero, and a gifted student struggle against terrible odds. Written by the co-author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Muck City is an engrossing portrait of a community mired in a shameful past and an uncertain future, but with the fierce will to survive, win, and escape to a better life. Selected for Common Reading at One Book One Community, Sarasota County (Florida). Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-88863-1 | 336pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88864-8 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Leadership/Motivation • Perseverance/Personal Strength Regional: Florida

THE OTHER WES MOORE

Website: www.TheOtherWesMoore.com Author Video: tiny.cc/y5f4qw

One Name, Two Fates By Wes Moore

Winner of the Black Caucus of the ALA Literary Award for Nonfiction; A Booklist Top 10 Black History Nonfiction Book Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence? Selected for Common Reading at more than 30 colleges including: Florida State University; Gustavus Adolphus College; and University of Akron. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/s112nw. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52820-7 | 272pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-969-7 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Identity • Leadership & Motivation • Perseverance/Personal Strength • Regional: Baltimore/ The Northeast • Service

Also Available in Young Adult Edition: Discovering Wes Moore

Delacorte Books for Young Readers | HC | 978-0-385-74167-5 | 176pp. | $15.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $8.00

READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN

Website: www.AzarNafisi.com

A Memoir in Books By Azar Nafisi

This is the moving story of how Nafisi and her students managed to escape the harsh constraints of their daily lives through the literature they read together every week. “Resonant and deeply affecting . . . an eloquent brief on the transformative powers of fiction, on the refuge from ideology that art can offer to those living under tyranny, and art’s affirmative and subversive faith in the voice of the individual.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Selected for Common Reading at Ashland University; Case Western Reserve University; Ithaca College; Mount Holyoke College; Sweet Briar College (VA); and others. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7106-4 | 384pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-079-3 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Gender Issues • Human Rights • Regional: Middle East

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

ENRIQUE’S JOURNEY: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey

to Reunite with His Mother By Sonia Nazario

Available in Español

Website: www.EnriquesJourney.com Author Video: tiny.cc/r8f4qw

When Enrique was just five years old, his mother, Lourdes, seeing no other way out of their poverty in Honduras, decided to make the hazardous trek north. Enrique and his siblings struggled without their mother, until he finally made his way from the rough streets of Tegucigalpa through Mexico and across the dangerous Texan border. Enrique’s Journey is an award-winning and timely account of one anguished family’s experience with an issue of international scope and urgency—illegal immigration—but it is also a timeless, mythic story of a dangerous journey undertaken to make a broken family whole. Selected for Common Reading at more than 100 colleges including: Texas A&M University; University of North Carolina, Charlotte; and University of Wisconsin, Madison. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/5212nw. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7178-1 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Spanish Language Edition: Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7580-2 | 352pp. | $17.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-602-3 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Immigration • Social Justice

Also Available in Young Adult Edition

Ember | TR | 978-0-385-74328-0 | 288pp. | $8.99/$9.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

FROM THE GROUND UP

A Food Grower’s Education in Life, Love, and the Movement that’s Changing the Nation

Website: tiny.cc/u5s19w

By Jeanne Nolan Foreword by Alice Waters

A high school senior bound for a top tier college, Jeanne Nolan suddenly opted out of her upper-middle-class life to seek meaning and purpose. Ending up on an isolated farm and forced to relinquish her independence, she managed to acquire basic organic farming skills. And, after escaping the commune’s clutches, Nolan used her expertise to become a leader in the sustainability movement. Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-8129-9299-1 | 304pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64447-7 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Environment • Transition

DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A Story of Race and Inheritance

By Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father is a memoir by President Barack Obama, first published in July 1995 when he was preparing to launch his political career. “Provocative. . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.” —The New York Times Book Review Available in Español

Selected for Common Reading at Augustana College; Boston College; California State University–Eastbay; Elmhurst College; LaGuardia Community College; Quinnipiac University; Southern Methodist University; University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Washington; Xavier University of Louisiana; and others. Broadway | TR | 978-1-4000-8277-3 | 464pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Spanish Language Edition: Vintage | TR | 978-0-307-47387-5 | 432pp. | $17.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-39412-5 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Identity • Inclusiveness

Also by Barack Obama

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream “[Barack Obama] strives in these pages to ground his policy thinking in simple common sense . . . while articulating these ideas in level-headed, nonpartisan prose. That, in itself, is something unusual, not only in these venomous pre-election days, but also in these increasingly polarized and polarizing times.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Selected for Common Reading at Endicott College; New York Institute of Technology; and others.

Available in Español

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-23770-5 | 384pp. | $14.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Spanish Language Edition: Vintage | TR | 978-0-307-38711-0 | 400pp. | $17.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-38209-2 | $7.99/$7.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Ethics/Decision Making • Group Dynamics • Service

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LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

SECOND SUNS

Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives By David Oliver Relin

Drs. Geoffrey Tabin and Sanduk Ruit have dedicated their lives to one mission: eradicating preventable blindness on earth. The two have invented a revolutionary, inexpensive style of surgery allowing them to restore sight to thousands of patients around the world. David Oliver Relin provides students with a richly detailed account of this astonishing undertaking. “Second Suns is a hopeful work, a profile of two doctors who have dedicated their lives to bringing light to those in darkness.” —Time Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6925-5 | 432pp. | $27.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50 e-Book: 978-0-679-60356-6 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Inspiration • Science & Society

RAISING CUBBY

A Father and Son’s Adventures with Asperger’s, Trains, Tractors, and High Explosives By John Elder Robison

Websites: www.JohnRobison.com www.JERobison.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/JohnElderRobison www.twitter.com/JohnRobison/John-Robison To view the author’s talk at the 2009 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/2k6kkw

Raising Cubby, John Elder Robison’s third book, is a chronicle about a different boy being raised by a different kind of father—and about coming to terms with being “on the spectrum” as both a challenge and a unique gift. “Funny and moving. . . . A warmhearted, appealing account by a masterful storyteller.” —Kirkus Reviews Crown | HC | 978-0-307-88484-8 | 384pp. | $26.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88486-2 | $12.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Discovering Differences • Identity

Also by John Elder Robison

LOOK ME IN THE EYE

My Life with Asperger’s

According to author John Elder Robison, Look Me in the Eye is about “growing up with Asperger’s syndrome—a high-functioning form of autism—overcoming my limitations, and ultimately becoming a successful adult.” Selected for Common Reading at Defiance College; Moncalm Community College; SUNY Potsdam; and others. Broadway | TR | 978-0-307-39618-1 | 320pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-40572-2 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Discovering Differences • Identity

BE DIFFERENT

My Adventures with Asperger’s and My Advice for Fellow Aspergians, Misfits, Families, and Teachers Broadway | TR | 978-0-307-88482-4 | 304pp. | $14.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88483-1 | $11.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Discovering Differences • Identity

JOSEPH ANTON: A Memoir

By Salman Rushdie

Website: www.Salman-Rushdie.com

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek/The Daily Beast, The Seattle Times, The Economist, Kansas City Star, and BookPage Death threats have a way of throwing your life into tumult. Joseph Anton, Rushdie’s illuminating memoir, addresses the challenges of living under threat, his ongoing fight for freedom of speech, and his yearning for freedom. “A harrowing, deeply felt and revealing document: an autobiographical mirror of the big, philosophical preoccupations that have animated Mr. Rushdie’s work throughout his career.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8260-2 | 656pp. | $18.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64388-3 | $13.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Morality • Perseverance/Personal Strength

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

YES, CHEF

Websites: www.MarcusSamuelsson.com www.VeronicaChambers.com

A Memoir

By Marcus Samuelsson and Veronica Chambers

Winner of the James Beard Foundation Book Award for Writing and Literature Marcus Samuelsson has certainly carved a unique path to the top of the culinary world. Orphaned in Ethiopia, adopted by a Swedish family, and ultimately landing in New York City, Samuelsson managed to achieve success at a remarkably young age. Yes, Chef is a stirring account of his ambition, continual pursuit of flavor, and struggle to find his place in this exceedingly competitive profession. “The pleasures of this memoir are numerous. Marcus Samuelsson’s life, like his cooking, reflects splendidly multicultural influences and educations, and he writes about it all with an abundance of flavor and verve. A delicious read.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Random House | TR | 978-0-385-34261-2 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-440-33881-9 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Perseverance/Personal Strength

KIYO’S STORY

A Japanese-American Family’s Quest for the American Dream By Kiyo Sato

Determined to capitalize on new opportunities, Kiyo’s father relocates from Japan to America, where his hard work yields a successful farm. However, following the outbreak of World War II, the family was forced to abandon their land. Kiyo’s Story chronicles their move to the Poston Internment Camp and subsequent efforts to rebuild their lives. “Touching . . . an important portrait of a shameful period in American history.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Soho Press | TR | 978-1-56947-866-0 | 352pp. | $17.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-56947-714-4 | $17.00/$17.00 Can. Themes: History & Society • Human Rights

WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE

A Memoir

By Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Website: www.Sayrafiezadeh.com Author Video: tiny.cc/qvhbrw

Winner of the Whiting Award for Nonfiction With a profound gift for capturing the absurd in life, and a deadpan wisdom that comes from having survived a bizarre childhood in the Socialist Worker’s Party, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh positions himself perfectly between farce and tragedy. His story is one of a struggle to make sense of oneself in the world and to find a place within a fractured family left behind by history. Dial Press | TR | 978-0-385-34069-4 | 320pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-440-33839-0 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Human Rights • Identity • Social Justice

Also by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ENEMY: FICTION See page 45 for full description.

LITTLE FAILURE

A Memoir

By Gary Shteyngart From the acclaimed author of Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart’s new memoir recounts his immigration from Russia and subsequent (and sometimes futile) attempts to find his place in the world. “Many, many people in this world have received blurbs from Gary Shteyngart, but I happen not to be one of them. So you can trust me when I say: Little Failure is a delight. You ask me if it’s funny? Naturally it’s funny—he’s always funny. But alongside the jokes and the (frankly unbelievable) photos, you’ll find deep feeling on display, and shimmering sentences, and a marvel of a story.” —Zadie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of NW and White Teeth Random House | HC | 978-0-679-64375-3 | 368pp. | $27.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50 e-Book: 978-0-8129-9533-6 | $12.99/$15.99 Can. Themes: Family & Relationships • Fitting In • Immigration For more books by Gary Shteyngart go to: tiny.cc/syv19w

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LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

SON OF A GUN: A Memoir

Website: www.JustinStGermain.com

By Justin St. Germain

Debbie St. Germain was murdered at the hands of her fifth husband, an ex-cop. For her son Justin, life is now starkly divided into two categories: before the murder and after. He moves away, in an attempt to gain distance and a fresh start. However, St. Germain ultimately gets pulled back to the dusty ghost town of his youth as he attempts to makes sense of his mother’s legacy, and his journey will make students reflect on murder and violence. “Taut . . . audacious . . . compelling. . . . Admirably, St. Germain tries to understand how his young adulthood was shaped.” —Kirkus Reviews Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6862-3 | 256pp. | $26.00/$29.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-53874-1 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Family & Relationships • Perseverance/Personal Strength • Transition

OUTCASTS UNITED

An American Town, A Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference By Warren St. John

Website: www.OutcastsUnited.com Author Video: tiny.cc/4fg4qw To view the author’s talk at the 2010 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/khg4qw

Outcasts United is the story of a refugee soccer team, a remarkable woman coach, and a small Southern town turned upside down by the process of refugee resettlement. “Not merely about soccer, St. John’s book teaches readers about the social and economic difficulties of adapting to a new culture and the challenges facing a town with a new and disparate population. Despite their cultural and religious differences and the difficulty of adaptation, the Fugees came together to play soccer. This wonderful, poignant book is highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)

Selected for Common Reading at more than 50 colleges including: Georgia Institute of Technology; Springfield College; and University of Florida. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/barfrw. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52204-5 | 336pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-52959-4 | $13.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Discovering Differences • Group Dynamics • Immigration

Also Available in Young Adult Edition

Delacorte Books for Young Readers | HC | 978-0-385-74194-1 | 240pp. | $16.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $8.50

HALF A LIFE

A Memoir

By Darin Strauss

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography

Website: www.DarinStrauss.com To read an author Q&A, go to: tiny.cc/ijg4qw To view the author’s talk at the 2012 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/94mpqw

“Darin Strauss has spent a good part of his adult life reliving, regretting and reflecting on a single, split-second incident. Half a Life is a starkly honest account of that fateful moment and his life thereafter . . . penetrating, thought-provoking.” —The Washington Post

Selected for summer reading at College of Coastal Georgia; Florida Gulf Coast University; Joliet Township High School (Joliet, IL); and Marquette University. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8253-4 | 224pp. | $13.00/$15.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64382-1 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Ethics/Decision Making • Identity

A HOPE IN THE UNSEEN

An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

Website: www.RonSuskind.com

By Ron Suskind

This is the story of Cedric Jennings, an African American teenager who is ferociously determined to study his way out of the inner city and capture a piece of the American Dream. Author Ron Suskind follows Jennings from his early years in high school through his first year at Brown University. This updated edition includes a new chapter on Cedric Jennings’s postgraduate professional career. Selected for Common Reading at more than 20 colleges including: Babson College; Marquette University; and University of Texas at San Antonio. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/nerfrw. Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-0126-0 | 400pp. | $15.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-76308-2 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: African American Experience/History • Identity • Inclusiveness

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

TELL THE WOLVES I’M HOME

A Novel

Website: www.CarolRifkaBrunt.com

By Carol Rifka Brunt Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Wall Street Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, School Library Journal, and others Winner of the ALA Alex Award

Dial Press | TR | 978-0-8129-8285-5 | 384pp. $15.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-0-8129-9292-2 | $11.99/$12.99 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Discipline: Fiction Themes: Fiction; Coming of Age; Family & Relationships; Loss Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

n this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them. 1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteenyear-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart. At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most. An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.

“[A] transcendent debut. . . . Peopled by characters who will live in readers’ imaginations long after the final page is turned, Brunt’s novel is a beautifully bittersweet mix of heartbreak and hope.” —Booklist (starred review) “Brunt’s debut novel is both a painful reminder of the ill-informed responses to a once little-known disease and a delightful romp through an earlier decade. The relationship issues with parents and siblings should appeal to YA audiences, but adult readers will enjoy the suspenseful plot and quirky characters.” —Library Journal “Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a charming, sure-handed, and deeply sympathetic debut. Brunt writes about family, adolescence, and the human heart with great candor, insight, and pathos.” —Jonathan Evison, New York Times bestselling author of West of Here

CAROL RIFKA BRUNT’s work has appeared in several literary journals, including North American Review and The Sun. In 2006, she was one of three fiction writers who received the New Writing Ventures award and, in 2007, she received a generous Arts Council grant to write Tell the Wolves I’m Home, her first novel.

www.CommonReads.com

©Rose Cook

About the Author: Carol Rifka Brunt

A Message from the Author Here’s a secret: When I first started Tell the Wolves I’m Home I had no idea whether it would turn out to be an adult or a YA book. “Tell the story you need to tell and worry about the rest later.” That was the advice everyone gave me. Good, I thought. I like worrying about things later. So I forged ahead and pounded out a solid first draft. I told a story of a shy, socially awkward, teenager in 1987 and her love for her dying uncle and her secret friendship with the man he loved. I told a story of AIDS and shame and things we hide from other people. Mostly, though, I told a story about love. Looking back, I think that first draft could have made a pretty decent YA novel. It was half the length of the published version and it was a more streamlined unlikely friendship story. Still, it seemed like there was more to say. I kept working and reworking and by the time I’d redrafted several more times I found that I’d added 60,000 more words and several extra layers to the story. At that point I was sure it was no longer really YA, but rather an adult novel with a teen narrator. My agent agreed and Random House published it as adult literary fiction. That was the end of it. Genre questions put to rest. So I thought, anyway. Until the day someone told me I’d written a historical novel. I’d pondered YA or adult, but historical? No way. “Um, I don’t think so,” I said. June, my narrator, is 14 in 1987, three years younger than I would have been. The book is set during my teenage years. I am not historical! The someone in question gave a slow, but certain nod. “1987 was 26 years ago. History.” I felt myself blushing. Could I really have been so unaware of my own and my book’s status? Was it time for me to start wearing slacks and a nice practical blazer? What did this mean? I didn’t really know and so I just told myself it wasn’t true. I hadn’t written a historical novel at all. It was still in the realms of the contemporary and that was that. That’s what I was going to believe. Then I started getting letters from readers. Letters from people my age who shared their memories of fear and confusion during that time, of losing fathers and uncles. There were letters from people older than me, men and women who lost many good friends in the ’80s and ’90s. Those letters broke my heart, but it was the ones from younger readers, readers in their teens and early 20s that finally made me understand what historical meant. It was those readers who wrote to tell me that they couldn’t believe that there was a time when AIDS was perceived with so much panic and misunderstanding. That they couldn’t believe people could have been so inhumane. Really? You really don’t know about that? Until those letters came to me I really thought everybody remembered. But they didn’t. Their memories—the stuff that will be their history in the future—is made of strides forward in gay rights. 2012 was a landmark year in gay rights history. The leaps forward have been astounding. Gay marriage wasn’t even in the universe of things worth dreaming about in the ’80s. It just didn’t seem possible. But now here we are. All of us. Many amazing and wonderful things have happened for Tell the Wolves I’m Home. It’s become a New York Times bestseller and was on many “best of the year” lists. I’m thrilled about all of that, but the most exciting thing of all was having my novel honored with an ALA Alex Award for adult books with special appeal to teens. YA. Adult. In the end it didn’t matter after all. It’s a story that can be shared across the generations. A bridge between what is now and what we still need to remember. A marker of how far we’ve come. The most common thing that readers tell me when they take the time to get in touch is this: After reading your book I felt like I wanted to be kinder to the people I love. And that’s the best reason I can think of for why Tell the Wolves I’m Home would make a terrific common read for your students. Carol Rifka Brunt

Fiction to Talk About

READY PLAYER ONE

Websites: www.ErnestCline.com • www.ReadyPlayerOne.com Author Video: tiny.cc/2ng4qw To view the author’s talk at the 2013 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/vorcax

A Novel

By Ernest Cline

Winner of the ALA Alex Award A School Library Journal “Best Adult Book 4 Teens”

t’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where one can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is part quest and part love story, and is filled with informative trivia on the trends and fashions of the 1980s. It is ideal for freshmen students as they, like Wade, begin their own college quests.

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Kansas State University; University of Massachusetts Amherst; and One Book One Middletown (Connecticut) Discipline: Literature Themes: Fiction/Literature; Coming of Age; Dystopian

“An exuberantly realized, exciting, and sweet-natured cyber-quest. Cline’s imaginative and rollicking coming-of-age geek saga has a smash-hit vibe.” —Booklist (starred review) “Ernie Cline emerged from a Back to the Future DeLorean to the thunderous applause of over four thousand freshmen at UMass Amherst’s Convocation this year. His address to the Class of 2016 was an entertaining combination of self-depreciating humor and personal reflection. Ready Player One, the chosen common read book for this year’s new students at UMass Amherst, dealt with the allure of the virtual world of video games and its benefits but also the irreplaceable authenticity of human exchanges in reality. Later on, hundreds of freshmen engaged in common read discussions of this book in small groups with university faculty, discussing everything from the dystopian future to eco-sustainability. Ready Player One is more than a paperback adventure story; it unites the past and present under an overarching concern about technology’s place in our future.” —Jeanne Horrigan, Director of New Students Orientation, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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About the Author: Ernest Cline ERNEST CLINE is a spoken-word artist, screenwriter, and unrepentant geek best known for creating the cult film Fanboys. Ready Player One is his first novel.

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A Message from the Author The reception my novel Ready Player One has received has been, quite simply, beyond any debut author’s wildest dreams. Much to my amazement, the book spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, showed up on several Best of 2011 lists, and is even in development as a big-budget movie with Warner Bros. But the facet of Ready Player One’s success I’ve found the most surprising—and gratifying—is how much younger readers love the book. More precisely, they seem to be enjoying it not just as a big dumb adventure story. They’re actually thinking about the chewier issues I was thinking about as I wrote it. You see, Ready Player One is in part a love letter to the books, video games, movies, TV shows, and music of my childhood. Although I knew these artifacts would resonate with readers of my generation, I was never sure how younger readers (with no memory of the Big Hair Decade) would respond to them, or if they would respond to them at all. I’ve found dozens of wonderful messages in my inbox from teenage readers who tell me Ready Player One is their new favorite book. I’ve been equally thrilled to hear that Ready Player One was an Alex Award winner, and that it was been selected as the common read for the freshman class at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For some of the teenage readers I’ve heard from, the eighties pop culture in the book seems to work a lot like the references to ancient mythology in an Indiana Jones movie—you don’t have to be familiar with them to enjoy the quest. But better still, many of them read the book with a Web browser open, looking up the references as they go. And it seems that for every teen who gets excited about the Atari 2600 or sticks Ladyhawke in her Netflix queue as a result, there’s another who comes across my loving references to authors like Kurt Vonnegut or Philip K. Dick and gets inspired to pick up a classic and, you know, actually read it. I have a confession to make here: while I never thought it would actually happen, I did always secretly hope that teenage readers would get Ready Player One. I wrote it as the kind of classic good-vsevil, underdog-triumphs-over-all adventure story that I loved reading as a teen. And—also in emulation of my favorite books—I tried to make it touch on some more serious themes too. In short, I tried to write the kind of book I wish I’d been assigned back when I was wearing pegged acid-washed jeans—a book that picks you up and grabs you with spaceships or wizards, with great action or an amazing love story, but sneakily manages to leave you with something more meaningful to chew on as well. Ready Player One takes place in a near future where all-too-plausible social horrors like poverty, disease, and energy crises have run rampant, and I think—or hope—there’s something thoughtprovoking about seeing our futures portrayed that way. Its hero is a loner who’s pretty much given up on the ugliness he sees in the real world and taken refuge in a virtual one—but by the end of the book, he learns that escapism isn’t the panacea he thinks it is, which is a lesson I figured out the hard way growing up. And at the very center of the story is the role technology plays in our modern lives and how it shapes modern identity. I think that subject in particular really resonates with readers who, in the course of growing up themselves, are finding their own identities increasingly defined by the virtual worlds of Facebook, Twitter, and the Web. If I had a time-traveling DeLorean, the first thing I’d do with it is head back to 1986 Ohio and give a copy of Ready Player One to my own teenage self, because the truth is, I really wrote it for him. Sadly, the flux capacitor on my DeLorean isn’t operational, so the closest I can come to fulfilling that dream is asking you to consider the book for your incoming freshman’s FYE. Ernest Cline

Fiction to Talk About

THE DINNER

A Novel

By Herman Koch An ALA Notable Book

ince its initial publication in Holland in 2009, Herman Koch’s psychologically astute and philosophically challenging The Dinner has become a much-discussed international bestseller. Two couples meet for dinner at a high-end restaurant in Amsterdam to address a tragic event: a terrible crime has been committed, and it seems the two fifteen-year-old sons of the two couples are implicated. A police investigation is under way, and the comfortable, insulated worlds of the families are coming apart at the seams. Over the course of the meal, and the novel, civility and friendship disintegrate, as the parents make clear what they are willing to do to protect their children from the consequences of their actions.

Hogarth | TR | 978-0-385-34685-6 | 304pp. $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: | 978-0-385-34684-9 | $9.99/$10.99 Can.

This controversial tale of families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives exposes philosophical and social hypocrisies in which we are all, to a degree, complicit. The popularity of the book speaks to the universal nature of the ethical dilemmas it examines: How far would you go to protect a loved one, even if he or she has committed an unspeakably horrible act? The book is relevant to adolescent readers in that it explores the dark side of connectivity, including YouTube and texting, as well as the generation gap between young people and their parents. The book ultimately forces the reader to confront his or her own deeply held convictions and moral values.

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Clarkson University Disciplines: Literature; Psychology Themes: Fiction/Literature; Philosophy (Ethics)

“This chilling novel starts out as a witty look at contemporary manners . . . before turning into a take-no-prisoners psychological thriller. . . . With dark humor, Koch dramatizes the lengths to which people will go to preserve a comfortable way of life . . . this is a cunningly crafted thriller that will never allow you to look at a serviette in the same way again.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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About the Author: Herman Koch HERMAN KOCH is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories. The Dinner, his sixth novel, has been published in 25 countries, and was the winner of the Publieksprijs Prize in 2009. He currently lives in Amsterdam.

www.CommonReads.com

©Mark Kohn, Hollandse Hoogte

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Excerpt from The Dinner

I looked at my wife. In my thoughts I egged her on, to deliver my brother the coup de grâce. He had set it up, and she could knock it in, as they say. It was just too ghastly, the way he tried to inject his own party platform into a normal discussion about people and the differences between them. Improvement . . . a word, nothing more: crap dished up for the constituency. “I’m not talking about improvement, Serge,” Claire said. “I’m talking about the way we—Dutch people, white people, Europeans—look at other cultures. The things we’re afraid of. If a group of dark-skinned men was coming toward you down the sidewalk, wouldn’t you feel a stronger urge to cross the street if they were wearing baseball caps, rather than neat clothing? Like yours and mine? Or like diplomats? Or office clerks?” “I never cross the street. I believe we should approach every one as equals. You mentioned the things we’re afraid of. I agree with you about that. If we would just stop being afraid, then we could go on to cultivate more understanding for each other.” “Serge, I’m not some debating partner you need to wow with hollow terms like improvement and understanding. I’m your sister-in-law, your brother’s wife. It’s just the four of us here now. As friends. As family.”

Copyright © 2012 by Herman Koch. From the book The Dinner published by Hogarth, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company. Reprinted with permission.

Fiction to Talk About

EVERY DAY

Website: www.DavidLevithan.com

By David Levithan

very day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day. With his acclaimed novel, David Levithan, bestselling co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Northern Arizona University Discipline: Literature Themes: Fiction; Family & Relationships; Gender & Sexuality; Identity; Social Situations Campus Visits:

“Fresh, unique, funny, and achingly honest, Levithan brilliantly explores the adolescent conundrum of not feeling like oneself, and not knowing where one belongs. I didn’t just read this book— I inhaled it.” —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Lone Wolf and Between the Lines “It demonstrates Levithan’s talent for empathy, which is paired in the best parts of the book with a persuasive optimism about the odds for happiness and for true love.” —New York Times Book Review “It’s the rare book that challenges gender presumptions in a way that's as entertaining as it is unexpected and, perhaps most important, that's relatable to teens who may not think they need sensitivity training when it comes to sexual orientation and the nature of true love. ‘Every Day’ is precisely such a book. . . . A story that is always alluring, oftentimes humorous and much like love itself— splendorous.” —Los Angeles Times “Levithan has created an irresistible premise that is sure to captivate readers. . . . [Every Day] is a study in style, an exercise in imagination, and an opportunity for readers themselves to occupy another life: that of A, himself.” —Booklist (starred review) “An awe-inspiring, thought-provoking reminder that love reaches beyond physical appearances or gender.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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About the Author: David Levithan DAVID LEVITHAN is a children’s book editor in New York City, and the author of several books for young adults, including Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares (co-authored with Rachel Cohn); Will Grayson, Will Grayson (co-authored with John Green); and Every You, Every Me (with photographs from Jonathan Farmer).

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author When I was writing Every Day, I was guided by a set of questions. These questions also happen to be the ones I find that readers ask themselves most after reading the book. Who would you be if you weren’t defined by your body? If you had no set gender or race or parentage or clique, if you were purely your inner self, who could you become? How would you define yourself? I will admit to you: I had no idea how Every Day would work as a common reading book. Luckily this past fall I got to go to Northern Arizona University and see firsthand how it went. I am often asked what my favorite part of being a writer is. The conversations I had with the students at NAU—both the peer leaders and the first-years—are perhaps the best answer I could give to that question. The premise of Every Day is simple: the main character, A, wakes up every day in a different body and a different life. But the implications of this premise are far from simple. The NAU students were deeply, meaningfully engaged by that. We talked about how we define ourselves, versus how others define us. We talked about how stereotypes confine us, and how assumptions about other people are convenient but often overlook the more individual truth. We talked about how language—by dividing us into pronouns like “he” and “she”—can often separate us. We talked about the importance of kindness and morality in a world where the temptations of meanness and divisiveness were great. We talked about how sometimes you need to transcend your body in order to be the person you want to be, and transcend the way other people see you in order to find the right path. Many students told me they’d never really had conversations like this before. I certainly had a sense they were going to continue to have them after I left. I didn’t plan out or outline Every Day—I just plunged right in. And when I did, I made an assumption about my main character that proved to be false. I thought that by living in so many bodies and so many lives, A would be obsessed with the differences among us. But I quickly learned that, no, in fact A is much more attuned to our common humanity: If we can see past our bodies and see each other instead as selves, we discover how alike we are in the ways that matter, and how our identities are oftentimes too lost in easy categorization. At a time when you are being exposed to so many new people and so many new ideas, I think the notion that you should be in control of your own definition is hugely important. And from what I saw because of NAU’s excellent FYE program, it is also a notion that’s profoundly welcome. I was and am sincerely honored to have my book used to start such conversations and encourage such thoughts. David Levithan

Fiction to Talk About

A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA

A Novel

Website: www.AnthonyMarra.net

By Anthony Marra A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year National Book Award Longlist Selection | A Washington Post Top 10 Book of the Year An ALA Notable Book of the Year | A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year | A Library Journal Top 10 Book of the Year NBCC John Leonard Prize Winner Named one of the Best Books of the Year by: New York Magazine • Chicago Tribune • Kansas City Star • GQ • NPR Christian Science Monitor • San Francisco Chronicle • Cleveland Plain Dealer

ADOPTION NOTES: Discipline: Literature Themes: Fiction; Human Rights; Identity; Perseverance/Personal Strength; Regional: Russia/Chechnya; War Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

n a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night and then set fire to her home. When their lifelong neighbor Akhmed finds Havaa hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision that will forever change their lives. He will seek refuge at the abandoned hospital where the sole remaining doctor, Sonja Rabina, treats the wounded. For Sonja, the arrival of Akhmed and Havaa is an unwelcome surprise. Weary and overburdened, she has no desire to take on additional risk and responsibility. But over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja’s world will shift on its axis and reveal the intricate pattern of connections that weaves together the pasts of these three unlikely companions and unexpectedly decides their fate. A story of the transcendent power of love in wartime, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a work of sweeping breadth, profound compassion, and lasting significance. Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content from the author.

“A flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles. . . . Here, in fresh, graceful prose, is a profound story that dares to be as tender as it is ghastly, a story about desperate lives in a remote land that will quickly seem impossibly close and important. . . . I haven’t been so overwhelmed by a novel in years. At the risk of raising your expectations too high, I have to say you simply must read this book.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post “Extraordinary . . . a 21st century War and Peace. . . . Marra seems to derive his astral calm in the face of catastrophe directly from Tolstoy.” —Madison Smartt Bell, New York Times Book Review “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is ambitious and intellectually restless. . . . [Marra is] a lover not a fighter, a prose writer who resembles the Joseph Heller of Catch-22 and the Jonathan Safran Foer of Everything Is Illuminated.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times

ANTHONY MARRA is the New York Times bestselling author of a National Book Awards Longlist selection, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. He is the winner of a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, The Atlantic’s Student Writing Contest, and the Narrative Prize and his work was anthologized in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012. Marra holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He has lived and studied in Eastern Europe, and now resides in Oakland, CA.

www.CommonReads.com

©Smeeta Mahanti

About the Author: Anthony Marra

Excerpt from A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Chapter 1 2004 On the morning after the Feds burned down her house and took her father, Havaa woke from dreams of sea anemones. While the girl dressed, Akhmed, who hadn’t slept at all, paced outside the bedroom door, watching the sky brighten on the other side of the window glass; the rising sun had never before made him feel late. When she emerged from the bedroom, looking older than her eight years, he took her suitcase and she followed him out the front door. He had led the girl to the middle of the street before he raised his eyes to what had been her house. “Havaa, we should go,” he said, but neither moved. The snow softened around their boots as they stared across the street to the wide patch of flattened ash. A few orange embers hissed in pools of gray snow, but all else was char. Not seven years earlier, Akhmed had helped Dokka build an addition so the girl would have a room of her own. He had drawn the blueprints and chopped the hardwood and cut it into boards and turned them into a room; and when Dokka had promised to help him build an addition to his own house, should he ever have a child, Akhmed had thanked his friend and walked home, the knot in his throat unraveling into a sob when the door closed behind him. Carrying that lumber the forty meters from the forest had left his knuckles blistered, his underarms sopping, but now a few hours of flames had lifted what had taken him months to design, weeks to carry, days to build, all but the nails and rivets, all but the hinges and bolts, all into the sky. And too were carried the small treasures that had made Dokka’s house his own. There was the hand-carved chess set on a round sidetable; when moved, the squat white king wobbled from side to side, like a man just sober enough to stand, and Dokka had named his majesty Boris Yeltsin. There was the porcelain vase adorned with Persian arabesques, and beside that a cassette deck-radio with an antenna long enough to scrape the ceiling when propped up on a telephone book, yet too short to reach anything but static. There was the eighty-five-year-old Qur’an, the purple cover writhing with calligraphy, that Dokka’s grandfather had purchased in Mecca. There were these things and the flames ate these things, and since fire doesn’t distinguish between the word of God and the word of the Soviet Communications Registry Bureau, both Qur’an and telephone directory returned to His mouth in the same inhalation of smoke. The girl’s fingers braceleted his wrist. He wanted to throw her over his shoulder and sprint northward until the forest swallowed the village, but standing before the blackened timbers, he couldn’t summon the strength to bring a consoling word to his lips, to hold the girl’s hand in his own, to move his feet in the direction he wanted them to go. “That’s my house.” Her voice broke their silence and he heard it as he would the only sound in an empty corridor. “Don’t think of it like that,” he said. “Like what?” “Like it’s still yours.”

Excerpted from A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra Copyright © 2013 by Anthony Marra. Excerpted by permission of Hogarth, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Fiction to Talk About

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN

A Novel

Website: www.ColumMcCann.com

By Colum McCann Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction A New York Times Notable Book A Booklist Editors’ Choice Selection Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

n 1970s New York, against the backdrop of Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, disparate characters seek solace and redemption. A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.

“In McCann’s wise and elegiac novel of origins and consequences, each of his finely drawn, unexpectedly connected characters balances above an abyss, evincing great courage with every step.” —Booklist (starred review) Also Available by Colum McCann Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7399-0 | 400pp. $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-1-58836-873-7 | $9.99/NCR

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN

ADOPTION NOTES:

Selected for Common Reading: Boston College; Duke University; Goucher College; and New York University Discipline: Literature Themes: Fiction/Literature; American History; Immigration Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

TRANSATLANTIC

A Novel

Colum McCann’s latest tour de force manages to span an impressive 150 years. Weaving the tale through four generations of women from a matriarchal clan, this epic novel ingeniously connects an American slave landing in Ireland, the first transatlantic flight, and a U.S. senator crossing the ocean to help achieve peace in Ireland. The most mature work yet from an incomparable storyteller, TransAtlantic is a profound meditation on identity and history in a wide world that grows somehow smaller and more wondrous with each passing year. “A masterful and profoundly moving novel that employs exquisite language to explore the limits of language and the tricks of memory . . . epic in ambition . . . audacious in format.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6959-0 | 320pp. | $27.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.50 e-Book: 978-0-679-60459-4 | $12.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction/Literature • Family & Relationships • Identity • Regional: Ireland

COLUM MCCANN is the internationally bestselling author of many novels including Let the Great World Spin. He has received many honors, including the National Book Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and others. A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing Program.

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©Aksland Publicity

About the Author: Colum McCann

A Note from Boston College In September 2011, Boston College hosted author Colum McCann and featured his novel Let the Great World Spin at the University’s First Year Academic Convocation. This event is a rich tradition at Boston College, assembling the freshmen class in its totality for the first time, and tasking students with the charge to “Go, set the world aflame!” in the spirit of Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. Convocation speakers have featured authors, politicians, and other leaders including Dr. Paul Farmer, Tracy Kidder, Senator John McCain, Jeanette Walls, Ann Patchett, Bill Strickland, and in 2005, then Senator of Illinois, Barack Obama. McCann’s book was selected by an interdisciplinary book committee comprised of Boston College professors and administrators through a rigorous process spanning several months. Ultimately, Let the Great World Spin was chosen for its poignant exploration of love, hope, redemption, the interconnectedness of humanity, and the revelation of God’s Grace even under the most desperate of circumstances. Addressing the Boston College Class of 2015 just days after the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Mr. McCann said, “Much of what I wanted to do with my novel Let the Great World Spin was to find value and grace and meaning and, I hope, recovery, in the ongoing thrum of the world. While much of the book may seem to be about a tightrope walk across the space between the World Trade Center towers, the real core of the book is the intersection of the tiny tightropes that we all walk, sometimes a foot off the ground, sometimes a quarter of a mile in the sky.” His charge to the class was to have faith, to be courageous, to embrace hardship, and to be fiercely kind to one another. As beautifully lyrical as the book itself, Colum McCann’s address was sincere, inspiring, and wonderfully human. Moved to chills and tears, the audience met his speech with profound ovation. Prior to Convocation itself, Mr. McCann participated in a roundtable discussion with faculty and administrators from across the University and graciously shared insights about his book, career, and life with all those in attendance. The dialogue was warm and inviting, a preview of the exceptional delivery he would make that evening. For his gentle demeanor, compelling story, and eloquent command of words, Colum McCann made the 2011 First Year Academic Convocation an event that Boston College and its soaring eagles will not soon forget. Rev. Joseph P. Marchese, Director of First Year Experience, Boston College

Fiction to Talk About

THE TIGER’S WIFE

Website: www.TeaObreht.com Author Video: tiny.cc/nthbrw

A Novel

By Téa Obreht

Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction Finalist, National Book Award A New York Times “10 Best” Notable Book A Library Journal Top Ten Best Book A School Library Journal ”Best Adult Book 4 Teens” An ALA Notable Book for Adults for Fiction

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Georgetown University and New York University Disciplines: History; Literature Themes: Fiction/Literature; Identity; Regional: Balkans

eaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Téa Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation. In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia Stefanovi, a young doctor, is offering medical care to the children in an orphanage when she is informed of her grandfather’s sudden death. She is distraught, given that she had a particularly close relationship with her grandfather, and the circumstances surrounding his death are shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. She crosses the border to visit the place he died, and begins to think back on the tales he often told her of the village he grew up in. Some of these tales are of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man,” who never seems to age. But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—how, after being bombed by the Germans in 1941, the zoo of a nearby city was destroyed, and its resident tiger escaped, eventually befriending a deaf-mute woman trapped in an abusive marriage. This narrative, evolving and weaving its way across the novel, is the legend of the tiger’s wife. The Tiger’s Wife is a meditation on family, history, and how families bear the weight of myth, memory, and trauma across generations.

“Ms. Obreht creates an indelible sense of place, a world, like the Balkans, haunted by its past and struggling to sort out its future, its imagination shaped by stories handed down generation to generation; its people torn between ancient beliefs and the imperatives of what should be a more rational present. In doing so, Ms. Obreht has not only made a precocious debut, but she has also written a richly textured and searing novel.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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TÉA OBREHT was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation’s list of 5 Under 35. Téa Obreht lives in New York.

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©Beowulf Sheehan

About the Author: Téa Obreht

A Note from Georgetown University

In August 2012, Téa Obreht was honored as this year’s Marino Family International Writers’ Academic Workshop author at Georgetown University. The Marino Family International Writers’ Academic Workshop has been taking place at Georgetown since 1995 and has featured authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Margaret Atwood, Dinaw Mengestu (a Georgetown alumnus), and Orhan Pamuk. The Workshop serves as students’ introduction to the academic life at Georgetown and is an integral part of the freshman experience. It affirms Georgetown’s commitment to the highest academic standards and adds a significant international cultural dimension to the academic formation of Georgetown students. Obreht’s talk with the Class of 2016 during New Student Orientation included thoughts about her writing process. Though her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife officially took her three years to write, she said, she realized that she had been writing the book her entire life. She discussed how her own stories, drawn from her childhood in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious household and from the many places she had lived, impacted her writing. Through her writing process, she came to understand that a narrative arc occurs in life as well as in writing, and that everything is connected, even if the connections aren’t immediately apparent. Her lecture was followed by a lively question and answer session with the students, who were interested in learning more about everything from the meaning of the symbols in the book, to the origin of the mythological characters, to how the story relates to Obreht’s own experiences. Many of the questions focused on the actual mechanics of writing The Tiger’s Wife: How do you separate your fiction from your own life? Why do even minor characters have such detailed histories? How do you write such a neutral novel about an area so rife with political and ethnic tensions? Obreht’s candid responses provided valuable insights to the class of young scholars, which surely included a few aspiring novelists. After the lecture, the students broke into small discussion groups led by faculty mentors to comment on and debate the novel’s premises, challenge one another’s interpretations, and discuss their questions. To the pleasure of a handful of lucky students and faculty members, Obreht attended a few of the discussion sections to meet the students and answer a few more questions. Students and mentors alike were thrilled with the selection of The Tiger’s Wife and Obreht’s presentation. Jennifer Smith, Lauinger Library, Georgetown University

Fiction to Talk About

TENTH OF DECEMBER

Website: www.GeorgeSaundersBooks.com

Stories

By George Saunders Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review Finalist, National Book Award

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Colgate University Discipline: Literature Themes: Fiction/Literature; Contemporary Issues; Morality Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

ne of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet. In the taut opener, “Victory Lap,” a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In “Home,” a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders’s signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December— through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit—not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov’s dictum that art should “prepare us for tenderness.”

“Tenth of December shows George Saunders at his most subversive, hilarious, and emotionally piercing. Few writers can encompass that range of adjectives, but Saunders is a true original—restlessly inventive, yet deeply humane.” —Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad

Also by George Saunders:

CONGRATULATIONS, BY THE WAY: Some Thoughts on Kindness See page 50 for full description. Do not order before 4/15/2014. Random House | HC | 978-0-8129-9627-2 | 64pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $7.00

MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow GEORGE SAUNDERS is the acclaimed author of several collections of short stories, including Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, as well as a collection of essays and a book for children. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.

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©Chloe Aftel

About the Author: George Saunders

A Message from Colgate University Colgate had a unique opportunity this year, to connect the summer reading for the Class of 2017 with our Living Writers program—using Tenth of December for both was brilliant. The Living Writers Series recommended Tenth of December for a one-time program, “Colgate Reads 2013,” in which the goal is to have 2013 individuals read a common work. Colgate Reads 2013 seemed like a wonderful way to connect with the Class of 2017 and the larger campus community. First-year students found Saunders’ book to be challenging yet authentic. We were fortunate to have the author on campus for a public reading. Our students enjoyed hearing Saunders’ stories in his own voice and the compassion he showed for his characters as they struggled with the large, small, and occasionally absurd decisions of everyday life in a changing and sometimes cynical world. Beverly A. Low, Dean of First-Year Students, Colgate University

Excerpt from Tenth of December The pale boy with unfortunate Prince Valiant bangs and cublike mannerisms hulked to the mudroom closet and requisitioned Dad’s white coat. Then requisitioned the boots he’d spray-painted white. Painting the pellet gun white had been a no. That was a gift from Aunt Chloe. Every time she came over he had to haul it out so she could make a big stink about the wood grain. Today’s assignation: walk to pond, ascertain beaver dam. Likely he would be detained. By that species that lived amongst the old rock wall. They were small but, upon emerging, assumed certain proportions. And gave chase. This was just their methodology. His aplomb threw them loops. He knew that. And reveled in it. He would turn, level the pellet gun, intone: Are you aware of the usage of this human implement? Blam! They were Netherworlders. Or Nethers. They had a strange bond with him. Sometimes for whole days he would just nurse their wounds. Occasionally, for a joke, he would shoot one in the butt as it fled. Who henceforth would limp for the rest of its days. Which could be as long as an additional nine million years. Safe inside the rock wall, the shot one would go, Guys, look at my butt. As a group, all would look at Gzeemon’s butt, exchanging sullen glances of: Gzeemon shall indeed be limping for the next nine million years, poor bloke. Because yes: Nethers tended to talk like that guy in Mary Poppins. Which naturally raised some mysteries as to their ultimate origin here on Earth.

Excerpted from Tenth of December by George Saunders Copyright © 2013 by George Saunders. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Fiction to Talk About

FICTION TO TALK ABOUT

RUBY

A Novel

To request a free advance readers copy, email commonreads@randomhouse.com

Website: www.CynthiaBond.com

By Cynthia Bond The minute she’s able, Ruby Bell flees the suffocating East Texas town in which she grew up. She sets her sights on the bright lights of 1950s New York. However, the death of a childhood friend eventually compels Ruby to return home. This fateful trip back to Texas forces her relive the devastating violence that colored her past. As she struggles to reconcile memories from the town’s dark history, Ephram Jennings decides to seize opportunity. After all, he’s been pining for Ruby since they were kids. But will Ephram ultimately be able to protect Ruby from those desperate to destroy her? With a sense of poetry and power that evokes Toni Morrison, Cynthia Bond’s Ruby creates a portrait of a man’s dark acts and conveys the promise of the redemptive power of love. Do not order before 4/29/2014. Hogarth | HC | 978-0-8041-3909-0 | 336pp. | $25.00/$29.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-0-8041-3910-6 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction • African-American Experience • Historical Fiction

WORLD WAR Z

An Oral History of the Zombie War

Website: www.MaxBrooks.com

By Max Brooks

The raw, vivid personal war accounts leave a lasting image of survival in a world gone terribly wrong, capturing with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this Zombie apocalypse. “Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast.” —Dallas Morning News

Selected for Common Reading at Florida Southern College; St. Edward’s University; and University of Houston–Victoria. Broadway Books | TR | 978-0-307-34661-2 | 352pp. | $14.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-35193-7 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction/Literature • Ethics

Also Available in Movie Tie-in Edition

Broadway Books | MM | 978-0-7704-3740-4 | 432pp. | $9.99/$11.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

OPEN CITY

A Novel

Website: www.TejuCole.com

By Teju Cole

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award; Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction A New York Times notable book that has also appeared on over twenty best-of-the-year lists, Open City follows Julius, a young Nigerian doctor, as he meanders through Manhattan, encountering people from all walks of life, while meditating on his own profoundly personal relationships. The rich diaspora populating New York City is filtered through the unique perspective of this unforgettable character. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8009-7 | 272pp. | $15.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-60449-5 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. Themes: Fiction/Literature • Coming of Age • Discovering Differences • Identity

AIMLESS LOVE

New and Selected Poems

Website: www.Billy-Collins.com

By Billy Collins

From the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first compilation of new and selected poems in twelve years. Aimless Love combines more than fifty new poems with selections from four previous books—Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, and Horoscopes for the Dead. By turns playful, ironic, and serious, Collins’s poetry captures the nuances of everyday life while leading the reader into zones of inspired wonder. In the poet’s own words, he hopes that his poems “begin in Kansas and end in Oz.” Random House | HC | 978-0-679-64405-7 | 288pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-8129-8465-1 | $13.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction/Literature • Loss • Love • Poetry

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FICTION TO TALK AbOuT

HOMER & LANGLEY

Website: www.ELDoctorow.com For more books by E. L. Doctorow, go to: tiny.cc/nhxbrw

A Novel

By E. L. Doctorow Homer & Langley is a brilliantly conceived, mesmerizing rendering of the lives of New York’s fabled Collyer brothers. One blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged by mustard gas in the Great War, they live as recluses in their once-grand mansion and are fraught with Odyssean peril as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves. “A beautiful and haunting novel. . . . [Homer & Langley is] one of literature’s most unlikely picaresques, a road novel in which the rogue heroes can’t seem to leave home.” —The Boston Globe

Selected for Common Reading at Cornell University. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7563-5 | 224pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-897-3 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction • American History • Identity

HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET

A Novel

Website: www.JamieFord.com

By Jamie Ford

Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Literature Award—Fiction “Jamie Ford’s first novel explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut.” —Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

“A timely debut that not only reminds readers of a shameful episode in American history, but cautions us to examine the present and take heed we don’t repeat those injustices.” —Kirkus Reviews

Selected for Common Reading at more than 25 colleges including: University of Montana-Western; Gustavus Adolphus University; and Villanova University. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cc/21rfrw. Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-50534-7 | 320pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-51250-5 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction/Literature • Coming of Age • Discovering Diﬀerences Regional: Seattle/Northwest

SONGS OF WILLOW FROST: A Novel

By Jamie Ford

Twelve-year-old William Eng currently resides at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage. On a birthday outing to the movies, he catches a glimpse of an actress named Willow Frost. Convinced she is his mother, William and his friend Charlotte escape and go off in search of his past. Set during the Depression, this powerful novel is a story about individuals seeking love, forgiveness, and, ultimately, a home. “The urgency of childhood, the heart-wrenching decisions parents must make, and the trials of poverty give this novel a solid emotional footing.” —Publishers Weekly Ballantine Books | HC | 978-0-345-52202-3 | 352pp. | $26.00/$28.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-52204-7 | $12.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • Family

ENON: A Novel

By Paul Harding

An ALA Notable Book From Paul Harding, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Tinkers, comes the deeply moving Enon. The novel follows one year in the life of Charlie Crosby, as he attempts to make sense of a devastating personal tragedy. Harding’s stunning prose affords students a glimpse into the rich, inner life of his characters as they embark on a tremendous emotional odyssey. “Enon is Joan Didion’s Blue Nights on major meds. . . . Time was the subject of Tinkers as grief is the subject of Enon. The two are related, like father and sons. Read Enon to live longer in the harsh, gorgeous atmosphere that Paul Harding has created.” —San Francisco Chronicle Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6943-9 | 256pp. | $26.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-8129-8460-6 | $12.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction/Literature • Family & Relationships • Transition

Fiction to Talk About

FICTION TO TALK ABOUT

THE LAST MAN STANDING

By Davide Longo Translated by Silvester Mazzarella

Italy is gripped by chaos and the country is teetering towards collapse. The borders are closed, banks are refusing to distribute money and food supplies are rapidly running out. A disgraced writer and professor, Leonardo, is forced to evacuate with his children. Unfortunately, the path to safety requires a quality he’s never shown before: courage. “A searing, dystopian parable. . . . [A] remarkable book. . . . Longo’s characters get in touch with the basest parts of themselves in order to preserve what is denigrated as ‘the most arid.’. . . Visceral and gripping.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) MacLehose Press | HC | 978-1-62365-034-6 | 352pp. | $24.95/$24.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-1-62365-035-3 | $24.95/$24.95 Can. Themes: Fiction/Literature • Family & Relationships

WALKABOUT

By James Vance Marshall Introduction by Lee Siegel A tragic plane crash occurs in the vast, desolate Northern Territory of Australia. Mary and Peter, two children from South Carolina, are the only survivors. Lost in the unforgiving Outback, the siblings are saved by a chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy. Walkabout is a gripping tale about the power of trust, nature, and a meeting of cultures. “A haunting little idyll in the same vein as A High Wind in Jamaica and Green Mansions tells of two children, a boy and a girl, sole survivors of a plane crash in the Australian bush. Their fragile veneer of modern culture clashes with the primitive soul of a black bush boy who is making his tribal ‘walkabout’ —a half-year’s solitary journey in the wilderness to test his fitness to be a member of his tribe.” —Time NYRB Classics | TR | 978-1-59017-490-6 | 144pp. | $12.95/$14.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-59017-505-7 | $12.95/$12.95 Can. Themes: Fiction/Literature • Coming of Age • Transition

A TREATISE ON SHELLING BEANS

By Wiesław Myśliwski Translated by Bill Johnston

A Treatise on Shelling Beans, from celebrated Polish poet Wiesław Myśliwski, is an epic, poignant work of fiction. Students are privy to tales of Nazis, lost loves, travels abroad, and even a visit from a mysterious stranger. Tapping into Myśliwski passion for oral tradition, the novel brilliantly weaves anecdotes, memories, and experiences as characters swap stories over the mundane task of shelling beans. Archipelago | TR | 978-1-935744-90-0 | 450pp. | $22.00/$24.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00 e-Book: 978-0-914671-01-5 | $22.00/$24.00 Can. Themes: Fiction/Literature • Genocide • Perseverance/Personal Strength

FOREIGN GODS, INC.

By Okey Ndibe

Website: www.OkeyNdibe.com

Foreign Gods, Inc. is a story of immigrant life in America, the nature and impact of religious conflicts, and an examination of the ways in which modern culture creates or heightens infatuation with the “exotic.” Ike is a New York-based Nigerian cab driver who, fueled by desperation, sets out to steal the statue of an ancient war deity from his home village and sell it to a New York gallery. Despite a degree in economics, his strong accent has barred him from the corporate world. Unable to afford life as a cab driver, he travels back to Nigeria to steal the statue, where he encounters a mounting conflict between two religions. An exploration of the shifting nature of memory, Foreign Gods is a brilliant work of fiction that illuminates our globally interconnected world like no other. Soho Press | HC | 978-1-61695-313-3 | 336pp. | $25.00/$25.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-1-61695-314-0 | $25.00/$25.00 Can. Themes: Fiction/Literature • African American Experience • Cultural Heritage

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FICTION TO TALK ABOUT

WONDER

Website: www.RJPalacio.com

By R. J. Palacio

A New York Times bestseller, Wonder is narrated by August Pullman, who has a severe facial deformity. About to start fifth grade, he longs to fit in. The point of view gradually expands to include the perspectives of those around him, in this exploration of the meanings of empathy and community. “Few first novels pack more of a punch: it’s a rare story with the power to open eyes—and hearts —to what it’s like to be singled out for a difference you can’t control, when all you want is to be just another face in the crowd.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Knopf Books for Young Readers | HC | 978-0-375-86902-0 | 320pp. | $15.99/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $8.00 e-Book: 978-0-375-89988-1 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. Themes: Fiction/Literature • Bullying • Coming of Age • Discovering Differences Family & Relationships

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ENEMY: Fiction

By Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Website: www.Sayrafiezadeh.com Author Video: tiny.cc/qvhbrw

Set in a nameless American city, Brief Encounters with the Enemy is a gripping short story collection centered on unmoored citizens. Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s protagonists are aimless young men who work dead jobs and push back against the struggles of daily life. Whether writing about frustrating commutes or cruel bosses, Sayrafiezadeh manages to strike a number of universal themes. “An arresting fiction debut. . . . With insightful humor and a keen eye for offbeat details, Sayrafiezadeh, entertaining and political without being heavy-handed, is a force to be reckoned with.” —Booklist The Dial Press | HC | 978-0-8129-9358-5 | 240pp. | $25.00/$28.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-0-8129-9359-2 | $12.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Fiction/Literature • Identity

Also by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE: A MEMOIR

See page 24 for full description.

THE TIN HORSE: A Novel

Website: www.TheTinHorse.com

By Janice Steinberg

Elaine Greenstein’s twin sister disappeared from her neighborhood in Boyle Heights, California, on the eve of World War II in 1939, when she was only eighteen years old. She was never found. Decades later, as Elaine packs her belongings to make the move from her childhood home to a retirement community, she finds a clue to her sister’s whereabouts, triggering memories of her own childhood and the heart-wrenching experiences of her Jewish immigrant family. “Steinberg’s quietly suspenseful novel is compelling by virtue of her sympathetic characters, vivid depiction of WWII-era Los Angeles, and pinpoint illuminations of poverty, anti-Semitism, family bonds and betrayals, and the crushing obstacles facing women seeking full and fulfilling lives.” —Booklist Random House | HC | 978-0-679-64374-6 | 352pp. | $26.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-54028-7 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction/Literature • Identity • Immigration

THE AGE OF MIRACLES: A Novel

By Karen Thompson Walker

Website: www.TheAgeOfMiraclesBook.com

“[A] gripping debut . . . Thompson’s Julia is the perfect narrator. . . . While the apocalypse looms large—has in fact already arrived—the narrative remains fiercely grounded in the surreal and horrifying day-to-day and the personal decisions that persist even though no one knows what to do. A triumph of vision, language, and terrifying momentum, the story also feels eerily plausible, as if the problems we’ve been worrying about all along pale in comparison to what might actually bring our end.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8294-7 | 304pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64438-5 | $11.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Fiction/Literature • Coming of Age • Family & Relationships

Fiction to Talk About

INSPIRATION AND GUIDANCE

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE

Website: www.MitchAlbom.com

An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson By Mitch Albom

After learning of his former professor’s terminal illness, Mitch Albom flew to Brandeis University, reunited with his old friend, and returned every Tuesday thereafter to visit with him. Morrie Schwartz turned these visits into one final “class”: a lesson in how to live. This book is a magical chronicle of Mitch and Morrie’s time together. Selected for Common Reading at Concordia University; SUNY New Paltz; University of Buffalo; University of North Dakota; and others. Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-0592-3 | 224pp. | $13.99/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-41409-0 | $10.99/$12.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Ethics/Decision Making • Identity

HOW TO LIVE

Website: www.SarahBakewell.com

Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer By Sarah Bakewell

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography; Named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine Nearly all philosophical questions stem from one great query—how do you live? It’s a question continually contemplated by many Renaissance writers, none more than Michel de Montaigne. In Sarah Bakewell’s spirited biography, students will delve into Montaigne’s life through close examination of the inquiries he posed and the answers he explored. “This charming biography shuffles incidents from Montaigne’s life and essays into twenty thematic chapters. . . . Bakewell clearly relishes the anthropological anecdotes that enliven Montaigne’s work, but she handles equally well both his philosophical influences and the readers and interpreters who have guided the reception of the essays.” —The New Yorker Other Press | TR | 978-1-59051-483-2 | 416pp. | $16.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-59051-426-9 | $15.95/NCR Themes: Ethics/Decision Making • Morality • Philosophy

WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?

The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question

Website: www.PoBronson.com

By Po Bronson

“What should I do with my life?” Po Bronson was asking himself that very question when he decided to write this book—an inspiring exploration of how people successfully transform their lives, and a template for how anyone can answer this question for themselves. Filled with humor, empathy, and insight, this edition contains nine new stories not included in the hardcover edition. Selected for Common Reading at Rutgers College; Sam Houston State University; and others. Random House | TR | 978-0-375-75898-0 | 432pp. | $16.00/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Ballantine | MM | 978-0-345-48592-2 | 464pp. | $7.99/$10.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-048-9 | $7.99/$8.99 Can. Themes: Ethics/Decision Making • Identity • Life Skills

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT

Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment By Peter Buffett

Website: www.PeterBuffett.com To view the author’s talk at the 2012 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/10mpqw

Buffet makes a case for valuing effort in itself over the end result, and thus embracing a true work ethic, rather than a wealth ethic. He suggests that personal fulfillment, rather than the accumulation of material goods, make for a successful career—something he learned from his father, Warren Buffet. “Peter Buffett has given us a wise and inspiring book that should be required reading for every young person seeking to find his or her place in the world, and for every family hoping to give its daughters and sons the best possible start in life.” —Former President Bill Clinton Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-46472-9 | 272pp. | $15.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-46473-6 | $13.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Identity • Leadership & Motivation

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INSPIRATION AND GUIDANCE

FOLLOWING THE PATH

The Search for a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Joy By Joan Chittister

Everyone wants to find happiness and enjoy meaningful, purpose-driven lives. Amid the hustle and bustle of modern times, however, the path to achieving this is not always clear. In Following the Path, internationally known lecturer and author of The Gift of Years Joan Chittister provides inspirational tips that reveal a new way to find passion, purpose, and joy. With an examination of spiritual calling, change, and fulfillment, this motivational spiritual guide will assist anyone in finding their path toward a life of purpose, and becoming their truest, best self. Image | HC | 978-0-307-95398-8 | 192pp. | $18.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $9.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-95399-5 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. Themes: Inspiration • Life Skills • Service

THE LEDGE

Website: www.SpeakingofAdventure.com

An Inspirational Story of Friendship and Survival By Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan

On a summer day in 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood together at the top of Mount Rainier, celebrating their arrival at its summit. But upon their descent, a snow bank collapsed, causing the men to plunge eighty feet into a glacial crevasse. Mike Price did not survive. Despite severe wounds, Davidson found the strength and the courage to climb an almost vertical ice wall and overcome his surroundings to avoid certain death. Told with the help of award-winning journalist Kevin Vaughan, this nationally bestselling adventure tale is a truly inspiring story of strength and survival. Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-52320-4 | 304pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-52321-1 | $13.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Inspiration • Perseverance/Personal Strength

PEACE: Prayers, Inspirations, and Meditations to Heal Our World

By June Eding

While it certainly feels like a lofty aim, there is perhaps no goal more admirable or desirable than peace. Weaving together inspirational quotes, thoughtful prayers, and helpful guidelines, June Eding explores what it means to live a life of harmony and unity and the impact peace has both individuals and society at large. What is peace? What is its purpose, spiritually, emotionally, and globally? Peace seeks to ground this concept in its cultural contexts and explore it through the thoughts and words of humanity’s greatest peacemakers. Peace is the cornerstone of civilization, allowing all nations to grow and thrive while enabling individuals to learn and develop together. There is no goal more desirable, and many great men and women have given their lives in its pursuit. Peace encapsulates their collected wisdom through quotes, prayers, and thoughtful meditations on the subject of unity. Peace is a book that is not just about peace; it is itself a tool for the promotion of harmony and unity in our lives, in our selves, and in our world. Hatherleigh Press | HC | 978-1-57826-465-0 | 128pp. | $12.50/$15.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $6.25 e-Book: 978-1-57826-466-7 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. Themes: Human Behavior • Inspiration • Philosophy

THE MORE BEAUTIFUL WORLD OUR HEARTS KNOW IS POSSIBLE

Website: www.CharlesEisenstein.net

By Charles Eisenstein

We live in a tumultuous time, plagued by societal ills and crumbling institutions. Hence, we’re more susceptible to cynicism, frustration, and paralysis. The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible serves as a gentle reminder to students that we’re all connected and that the personal choices we make are more effective and far-reaching than we often consider. “This is a revolutionary and interactive book—in the sense that it inspires the reader to think out of the ordinary. Eisenstein will be noted in antiquity as one of the seminal and pioneering storytellers of this new world.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) North Atlantic Books | TR | 978-1-58394-724-1 | 288pp. | $19.95/$22.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58394-725-8 | $19.95/$19.95 Can. Themes: Civilization • Cultural Evolution • Ecology • Future Studies • Human Behavior

Inspiration and Guidance

INSPIRATION AND GUIDANCE

RUNNING WITH THE KENYANS

Passion, Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth

Website: www.RunningWithKenyans.blogspot.com Author Video: tiny.cc/tfi4qw

By Adharanand Finn

After years of watching Kenyan runners win the world’s biggest races, from the Olympics to the major international marathons, Runner’s World contributor Adharanand Finn set out to discover what it was that made them so fast. Packing up his family (and his running shoes), he moved from rural England to the small town of Iten, in Kenya, home to hundreds of the country’s best runners. Once there he laced up his shoes and set out on the dirt tracks, running side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls, and barefoot schoolchildren. “Equal parts cultural examination, cult-of-running treatise, and poignant memoir, Running with the Kenyans thrives on a variety of levels. Like the skilled distance runner he is, Finn paces this book marvelously and then saves the best for the final kick. This book packs all the pleasure and satisfaction—and none of the ancillary pain—of a long training run.” —L. Jon Wertheim, senior editor, Sports Illustrated, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Scorecasting Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-52880-3 | 304pp. | $16.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-53352-4 | $11.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Inspiration • Perseverance/Personal Strength

THE FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY

Website: www.FreedomWritersFoundation.org

How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them By The Freedom Writers With Erin Gruwell

Straight from the front line of urban America, this is Erin Gruwell’s inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students. The “Freedom Writers” movement was born in 1994 from her simple notion: inspire young, underprivileged students to pick up pens instead of guns. Since then the Freedom Writers Foundation has evolved into a renowned charitable organization led by Gruwell, with the unwavering support of the original Freedom Writers. Selected for Common Reading at Austin Peay State University; Bloomsburg University; Indiana University Northwest; and Western New England College. Broadway | TR | 978-0-385-49422-9 | 336pp. | $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-7679-2833-5 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. Themes: Leadership & Motivation • Life Skills • Social Justice

Indiana University Northwest’s Reading Guide is available. Go to: tiny.cc/3ixbrw

Also Available by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell

TEACHING HOPE: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers and Erin Gruwell

Foreword by Anna Quindlen

Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-3172-4 | 384pp. | $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-58921-7 | $13.99/$13.99 Can.

THE REASON I JUMP

The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

By Naoki Higashida Introduction by David Mitchell; Translated by KA Yoshida and David Mitchell Naoki Higashida is severely autistic, with low verbal fluency. As a middle school student, he used an alphabet grid to painstakingly write about his condition. The resulting book, The Reason I Jump, provides incredible and invaluable insight into the inner-workings of a mysterious mind. Through his writing, Naoki quietly works to discredit the belief that autistic individuals lack empathy and understanding. “[Higashida] illuminates his autism from within. . . . Anyone struggling to understand autism will be grateful for the book and translation.” —Kirkus Reviews

* 48

Random House | HC | 978-0-8129-9486-5 | 176pp. | $22.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $11.00 e-Book: 978-0-8129-9487-2 | $11.99/NCR Themes: Communication • Human Behavior • Inspiration

www.CommonReads.com

*David Mitchell available

INSPIRATION AND GUIDANCE

ONE SIMPLE IDEA

How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life

Website: www.MitchHorowitz.com

By Mitch Horowitz

The positive thinking movement is frequently dismissed as philosophical fluff, attracting only New Agers and self-help junkies. One Simple Idea, Mitch Horowitz’s new tome, sets out to correct misperceptions. Drawing on dramatic personalities like Norman Vincent Peale, Horowitz makes the case for a movement that has touched millions. “Mitch Horowitz has written a powerful, perceptive, and enlightening testament to the idea that a single thought can change the world. One Simple Idea is simply a brilliant book.” —Deepak Chopra, M.D. Crown | HC | 978-0-307-98649-8 | 352pp. | $24.00/$27.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-98650-4 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Human Behavior • Inspiration • Philosophy

CHASING PERFECT

The Will to Win in Basketball and Life By Bob Hurley and Daniel Paisner

In Chasing Perfect, St. Anthony High School’s head coach Bob Hurley shares championship strategies he’s developed over forty seasons, helping his team win twenty-six state titles and four consensus championships despite the odds against them. The narrative focuses on each of St. Anthony’s seven undefeated seasons, with sketch profiles of the most memorable players and plays. Hurley also offers empowering insights to help coaches and players elevate their games, while empowering all students to walk a more purposeful path. Crown Archetype | HC | 978-0-307-98687-0 | 336pp. | $26.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 Also Available: e-Book | 978-0-307-98688-7 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. Themes: Inspiration • Perseverance/Personal Strength

CREATIVE CONFIDENCE

Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All By Tom Kelley and David Kelley

Website: www.CreativeConfidence.com

Creative Confidence upends the notion that creativity is simply the domain of artists. Rather, drawing from their own corporate experience, IDEO founder and Stanford d.school creator David Kelley and Tom Kelley, IDEO partner and bestselling author of The Art of Innovation, posit that we all have the ability to unleash and display creativity. “Developing both the courage and confidence to create and the ability to cultivate original insight is of enormous practical importance, and this new book is the first place I send people to learn how it is done.” —Richard Miller, President, Olin College Crown Business | HC | 978-0-385-34936-9 | 304pp. | $29.00/$35.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.50 e-Book: 978-0-385-34937-6 | $14.99/$16.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Decision Making & Problem Solving • Motivational

BEING BOTH

Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family By Susan Katz Miller

Website: www.SusanKatzMiller.com

Mixed faith couples are on the rise. And many face quandaries when it comes to deciding how to raise their children. Susan Katz Miller, a child and spouse of interfaith, is intimately familiar with these challenges and pitfalls. In Being Both, Katz Miller offers her keen insight and champions families who embrace multiple faiths. “A gorgeous and inspiring testament to the power of love to not only transcend the divides of faith and tradition, but to bring faiths together and create wholly new traditions.” —Reza Aslan, author of No god but God and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth Beacon Press | HC | 978-0-8070-1319-9 | 264pp. | $25.95/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-1320-5 | $25.95/$28.95 Can. Themes: Family & Relationships • Identity • Philosophy

Inspiration and Guidance

INSPIRATION AND GUIDANCE

CONGRATULATIONS, BY THE WAY

Some Thoughts on Kindness

Website: www.GeorgeSaundersBooks.com

By George Saunders

Most convocation addresses are delivered and quickly forgotten. Not so with George Saunders’s 2013 speech at Syracuse University. After the transcript was posted by The New York Times, the address went viral. Saunders’s powerful message about living with kindness struck an immediate chord with students. Congratulations, by the Way, which is full of the writer’s trademark wit, offers an expanded version of this highly lauded speech. Do not order before 4/22/2014. Random House | HC | 978-0-8129-9627-2 | 64pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $7.00 e-Book: 978-0-8129-9628-9 | $9.99/$9.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Inspiration • Transition

Also by George Saunders:

TENTH OF DECEMBER: Stories See page 40 for full description.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8425-5 | 288pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

TRYING NOT TO TRY

By Edward Slingerland

To request a free advance readers copy, email commonreads@randomhouse.com

Website: tiny.cc/yct19w

Why is it always so hard to fall asleep the night before an important meeting? Or to be relaxed on a first date? In every case, striving seems to backfire. In Trying Not to Try, Edward Slingerland explores the power of spontaneity—an ancient Chinese virtue that cognitive scientists are only now beginning to understand—and why it’s essential to the well-being of both individuals and society. Drawing from the ancient Chinese concept of wu-wei (an effortless way of being), Trying Not to Try reveals why spontaneity is so elusive and discusses strategies for mastering it. “Trying Not to Try navigates the confluence of two mighty rivers: the burgeoning science of the mind and the classic wisdom of China’s Taoist and Confucian traditions. This is a thoughtful, grounded book about traditions that should be better known—and more often put into practice—in the West.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell Is Human Crown | HC | 978-0-7704-3761-9 | 304pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-7704-3762-6 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Eastern Philosophy • Interpersonal Relationships

FAITHEIST

How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious

Website: www.FaitheistBook.com

By Chris Stedman

Chris Stedman is a man who has firmly stood on both sides of the religious divide. Born into a secular family, his search for meaning led him to evangelical Christianity. Coming out brought him full circle, to atheism. However, as he deftly argues in Faithiest, these experiences have made him uniquely positioned to present a way that atheists and the religious can work together to create a better world. “Agree or disagree with Chris Stedman (and there will be many who do both), no one can deny that he has written a deeply human book—human in its description of his own pilgrimage and human in its call to theists and non-theists alike to seek out common ground. The world would be a better place with more Chris Stedman’s in it and fortunately he has provided us a roadmap to just such a world.” —The Rev. William F. Schulz, President, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Beacon Press | HC | 978-0-8070-1439-4 | 208pp. | $22.95/$26.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.50 e-Book: 978-0-8070-1440-0 | $22.95/$26.95 Can. Themes: Ethics/Decision Making • Identity • LGBT • Philosophy

ZEN MIND, BEGINNER’S MIND

By Shunryu Suzuki; Afterword by David Chadwick Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind serves as a great introduction to the practice of Zen. Author Suzuki Roshi smartly explains the basics, from the correct posture and breathing with zazen to the concept of nonduality. With an updated version (complete with new afterword), this seminal book will reach a new generation of seekers. “One of the best and most succinct introductions to Zen practice.” Shambhala | TR | 978-1-59030-849-3 | 176pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Themes: Inspiration • Philosophy

www.CommonReads.com

—Library Journal

By Bill Strickland With Vince Rause

INSPIRATION AND GUIDANCE

MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE

One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary

Website: www.Bill-Strickland.com To view the author’s talk at the 2010 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/2li4qw

MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award winner Bill Strickland has spent the past thirty years transforming the lives of thousands of people through Manchester Bidwell, the jobs training center and community arts program he founded in Pittsburgh. Working with corporations, community leaders, and schools, he and his staff strive to give disadvantaged kids and adults the opportunities and tools they need to envision and build a better, brighter future. Make the Impossible Possible ultimately teaches us how to build on our passions and strengths, dream bigger and set the bar higher, achieve meaningful success, and inspire the lives of others. Selected for Common Reading at Boston College; Frank Phillips College; Indiana University Pennsylvania; Juniata College; Kendall College; Mt. Union College; North Dakota State University; Penn State–New Kensington; Purdue University; University of New Haven; University of Southern Indiana; Voorhees College; Winthrop University; and others. Crown Business | TR | 978-0-385-52055-3 | 240pp. | $14.00/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-52424-7 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Leadership & Motivation • Service • Social Justice

IF THIS ISN’T NICE, WHAT IS?

By Kurt Vonnegut Edited and Introduced by Dan Wakefield

After the publication of his novel Slaughterhouse-Five brought him worldwide acclaim in 1969, Kurt Vonnegut became one of America’s most popular graduation speakers. “We are performing animals” is one of Vonnegut’s trademark sayings, and he took it to heart when he found himself before an auditorium. Vonnegut was a very funny speaker, but at the same time, he conveyed in these speeches the momentousness of life too. He tells stories and jokes, invokes the figures who inspire him the most—Jesus, Eugene Debs, Bertrand Russell, and Vonnegut’s friend Joseph Heller among many others. Perhaps most importantly, he acts like the young people he is speaking to are going to go out into the world and make a difference. Do not order before 4/8/2014. Seven Stories Press | HC | 978-1-60980-591-3 | 128pp. | $21.95/$21.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00 Themes: Coming of Age • Inspiration • Transition

LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS

Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life By Nick Vujicic

Websites: www.NickVujicic.com www.LifeWithoutLimbs.org

Life Without Limits is an inspiring book by an extraordinary man. Born without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic overcame his disability to live not just an independent, but a rich, fulfilling life, becoming a model for anyone seeking true happiness. Now an internationally successful motivational speaker, his central message is that the most important goal is to find one’s life’s purpose, despite whatever difficulties or seemingly impossible odds stand in the way. Doubleday Religion | TR | 978-0-307-58974-3 | 288pp. | $14.99/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-58975-0 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Peer Group Skills • Perseverance/Personal Strength • Service

Also by Nick Vujicic

LIMITLESS: Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life

WaterBrook Press | HC | 978-0-307-73091-6 | 176pp. | $14.99/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $7.50 e-Book: 978-0-307-73092-3 | $9.99/$11.99 Can.

STAND STRONG: You Can Overcome Bullying (and Other Stuff that Keeps You Down)

Do not order before 4/15/2014. WaterBrook Press | HC | 978-0-307-73093-0 | 224pp. | $17.99/$20.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $9.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-73094-7 | $10.99/$10.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio

UNSTOPPABLE: The Incredible Power of Faith in Action

WaterBrook Press | TR | 978-0-307-73089-3 | 256pp. | $14.99/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-73090-9 | $11.99/$11.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio

Inspiration and Guidance

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS

Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity By Katherine Boo

Website: www.BehindTheBeautifulForevers.com Author Video: www.BehindTheBeautifulForevers.com/video

Winner of the National Book Award; Los Angeles Times Book Prize and American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award Finalist, Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize n this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human. Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.” But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twentyfirst century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Concordia University; Michigan State University; Montgomery Bell Academy; Northeastern University; Rowan University; Skidmore College; University of Delaware; and others. Disciplines: Journalism; Political Science; Sociology Themes: Globalization; Group Dynamics; Human Rights; Regional: India Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

“There is a lot to like about this book: the prodigious research that it is built on, distilled so expertly that we hardly notice how much we are being taught; the graceful and vivid prose that never calls attention to itself; and above all, the true and moving renderings of the people of the Mumbai slum called Annawadi. Garbage pickers and petty thieves, victims of gruesome injustice—Ms. Boo draws us into their lives, and they do not let us go. This is a superb book.” —Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains and Strength in What Remains “I couldn’t put Behind the Beautiful Forevers down even when I wanted to—when the misery, abuse and filth that Boo so elegantly and understatedly describes became almost overwhelming. Her book, situated in a slum on the edge of Mumbai’s international airport, is one of the most powerful indictments of economic inequality I’ve ever read.” —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

About the Author: Katherine Boo KATHERINE BOO is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. She is the winner of a MacArthur “genius” award, a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and the Pulitzer Prize. She has divided her time between the U.S. and India for 10 years.

www.CommonReads.com

©Helen Welvaart

Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6755-8 | 288pp. $27.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50

A Message from the Author As jobs and capital whip around the planet, college students will graduate into a world where economic instability and social inequality are increasing and geographic boundaries matter less and less. Unfortunately, globalization and social inequality remain two of the most over-theorized, under-reported issues of our age. My book is an intimate investigative account of how this volatile new reality affects the young people of an Indian slum called Annawadi. Like young people elsewhere, the Annawadians are trying to figure out their place in a world where temp jobs are becoming the norm, adaptability is everything, and bewildering change is the one abiding constant. Behind the Beautiful Forevers took me three hard years to report, and one thought that sustained me was that I had a unique opportunity to show American readers that the distance between themselves and, say, a teenaged boy in Mumbai who finds an entrepreneurial niche in other people’s garbage, is not nearly as great as they might think. In the two decades I’ve spent writing about poverty and how people get out of it, I’ve come to believe, viscerally, that there are deep connections among individuals that transcend specificities of geography, culture, religion, or class. The problem is that, in a time of high walls and security gates, it’s getting harder for people of means to grasp the struggles of less privileged people. Behind one such high wall, near the increasingly glamorous Mumbai airport, a sensitive girl is studying Othello in a makeshift hut by a vast sewage lake and dreading an arranged marriage that might send her to a rural village. A convention-defying disabled woman is longing to be acknowledged as a valid human being. A smart teenaged boy named Mirchi is resisting the garbage-recycling work that is his family trade. Instead he dreams of being a waiter at a fancy hotel, sticking toothpicks into cubes of cheese. “Watch me,” he snaps at his mother one day. “I’ll have a bathroom as big as this hut!” Over the course of time, as Mirchi and the other residents of the slum apply their imaginations to overcoming corruption and injustice and making better lives for themselves, the broader contours of the market-global age are gradually revealed. Although I’m elated when readers join me in thinking about how to build a fairer world for people, I don’t consider didactic lectures an effective way to engage people—particularly young people—in questions about fairness and justice. Nor do I think young people want mawkishly sentimental or sensationalized nonfiction. Stereotypes put them off, and they know when they’re being manipulated. What they want, in my experience, is good, concrete information from which they can work out what they think for themselves. With a combination of extensive observation and documents-based reporting, I try to pull the reader in close to the lives and dilemmas of the poor while unfolding a story that is powerful and honest enough to keep readers turning the pages. By the last page, I’d like to believe that some young readers will also find themselves wrestling with essential questions of our time: about how opportunity is distributed across the world; about what an individual should be willing to give up to get ahead; about the interconnections between, say, the collapse of investment banks in Manhattan and the price Mumbai waste-pickers receive for their empty plastic water bottles; about whether it is possible to be good and moral in a society that is not good and moral; and about the ultimate value of a human life. Katherine Boo

History and Society

QUIET

The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking By Susan Cain

Website: www.ThePowerOfIntroverts.com Author Video: tiny.cc/qpi4qw To view the author’s talk at the 2013 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/gqrcax

An ALA Notable Book Named a “Best Book” by Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Case Western Reserve University and Rice University Disciplines: Business; College Success Studies; Education; Psychology & Counseling; Sociology Themes: Communication; Discovering Differences; Inclusion; Success Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

t least one-third of the people we encounter are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled “quiet,” it is to introverts we owe many of the great contributions to society—from Van Gogh’s Sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer. Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal over the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects—how it influences everything from how parishioners worship to who excels at Harvard Business School. And she draws on cutting-edge research on the biology and psychology of temperament to reveal how introverts can modulate their personalities according to circumstance, how to empower an introverted child, and how companies can harness the natural talents of introverts. This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts, and, equally important, how they see themselves.

“Cain’s intelligence, respect for research, and vibrant prose put Quiet in an elite class with the best books from Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, and other masters of psychological non-fiction.” —Teresa Amabile, Professor, Harvard Business School “Susan Cain’s Quiet is superb. Based on meticulous research, it is a compelling reflection on how the Extrovert Ideal shapes our lives and why this is deeply unsettling. It will open up a new and different conversation on how the personal is political.” —Brian R. Little, Ph.D., Distinguished Scholar, Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Cambridge University “The talk Susan Cain gave at our school was the best that I have heard in my fifteen years as Dean of two leading business schools. She also drew a record number of attendees. I have used Quiet in all the classes I teach, and one year, in my graduation remarks as well. It is also frequently referenced by nearly all the members of our administrative team.” —Mark Zupan, Dean of Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester

About the Author: Susan Cain SUSAN CAIN is a writer whose articles on introversion and shyness have appeared in the New York Times; The Atlantic; on Time.com; and on PsychologyToday.com. Her 2012 TED talk has been viewed more than five million times. Cain graduated with honors from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. For Cain’s TED talk, go to: tiny.cc/qpi4qw.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author I first thought about the powers and challenges of introversion some twenty-six years ago, when I began my freshman year at Princeton University. From the minute I set foot on campus, I saw that college could be an extraordinary place for introverts and extroverts alike. A place where you were expected to spend your time reading and writing. A place where it was cool to talk about ideas. A place where you could create your own brand of social life. If you were an introvert, you could find friends with common interests and enjoy their company one-on-one or in small groups; if you were an extrovert, the social possibilities were endless, just the way extroverts like them. I was an introvert, and I thrived. Not that it was always easy. At Princeton, as on many campuses, many social and academic structures seemed designed for extroverts. I wondered why the cafeteria was arranged so that the large circular tables, where the most gregarious students sat, were located near the sunny windows, while the booths for quieter chats were off in the shadowy margins of the room. I wondered whether any of my classmates longed to munch on a sandwich behind a newspaper as I did, instead of being expected to participate in a social free-for-all three times a day. I learned to participate in Princeton’s excellent seminars, but privately I preferred lectures where you could soak up knowledge and think your own thoughts instead of having to perform them out loud. Today, after interviewing hundreds of current and former college students, I know I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Not by a long shot. Did you know that one-third to one-half of the population is introverted? That’s one out of every two or three students on campus. But most schools, workplaces, and religious institutions are organized with extroverts in mind—even though many of the achievements that have propelled society, from the theory of evolution to The Cat in the Hat, came from people who were quiet, cerebral, and sensitive. Even in less obviously introverted occupations, like finance, politics, and activism, some of the greatest leaps forward were made by introverts: Eleanor Roosevelt. Al Gore. Warren Buffett. Gandhi. This is no coincidence. There are specific physiological and psychological advantages to being an introvert and I’ll share them with your students through the lens of my book, Quiet. I’ll tell your students how we can all learn from the introverts among us, including how to be more creative, think more carefully, love more gently, and organize our schools and workplaces more productively. Quiet also challenges contemporary myths of human nature, including the belief that creativity is fundamentally collaborative, and our preference for charismatic leaders. But Quiet offers insights and advice for extroverts too, and it gives all students the license to talk about a social dynamic they’ve been living and breathing but have never given voice to. Introversion/extroversion is as fundamental a difference between people as gender, yet until now we’ve lacked the vocabulary—and the cultural permission—to talk about it. I’ve never presented the ideas in Quiet without getting people buzzing about whether they and their friends are introverts or extroverts, and what that means for their relationships, career choices, and life paths. Quiet is sure to spark animated discussions across campus, from the psychology and social-science classroom to the dorm room and dining hall.

©George Wang

I look forward to continuing these discussions around campuses nationwide, as part of your Freshman Experience Programs. Please contact me through my blog, ThePowerofIntroverts.com, to discuss opportunities. Susan Cain with University of Waterloo students.

Susan Cain

History and Society

FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL

Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital By Sheri Fink, M.D., Ph.D.

Website: www.SheriFink.net Author Video: tiny.cc/y7egax

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction (Winner announced March 2014) Shortlisted for the Ridenhour Book Prize (Winner announced March 2014) A New York Times Book Review Best Book of 2013 (Top Five Nonfiction) A Time Magazine Best Nonfiction Book of 2013 | An NPR’s 2013 Great Reads book A Chicago Tribune Top Ten Book of 2013 | A Seattle Times Best Book of the Year A Library Journal Top Ten Book of 2013 | A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013 New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice | An ALA Notable Book

ADOPTION NOTES: Discipline: Social Sciences Themes: Health & Medicine; Medical Ethics; Regional: New Orleans Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

n the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amidst chaos. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing. In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters— and how we can do better. A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis. “What we have here is masterly reporting and the glow of fine writing.” —Sherwin B. Nuland, New York Times Book Review “Dr. Fink more than delivers. She writes with a seasoned sense of how doctors and nurses improvise in emergencies, and about the ethical realms in which they work. The first half of this book, which is well paced, covers the five days of the title. Then the viewfinder shifts to an entwined legal and political story in which state authorities pursue a homicide investigation. That so many people, starkly divided over the question of whether crimes had been committed, come off as decent and appealing makes this book an absorbing read . . . Sheri Fink has written an unforgettable story. Five Days at Memorial is social reporting of the first rank.” —The New York Times

SHERI FINK’s reporting has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award, among other journalism prizes. Most recently, her coverage of Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac received the Mike Berger Award from Columbia University and the Beat Reporting Award from the Association of Healthcare Journalists. Fink, a former relief worker in disaster and conflict zones, received her M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her first book, War Hospital, is about medical professionals under siege during the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

www.CommonReads.com

©Jen Dessinger

About the Author: Sheri Fink

A Message from the Author Memorial Medical was surrounded by floodwaters after the levees failed in New Orleans in 2005, drowning one of America’s great cities. Within hours, all power would fail. The heat rose. Rescue helicopters began arriving. They transported one or two patients at a time, but there were around 250 patients and 2,000 staff and family members. Who should be rescued first? Five Days at Memorial is about what happens when disaster strikes and the systems our lives depend on fail at the moment we need them the most. It is a call to learn from the past and do better next time—and there are no readers more capable of implementing these lessons than young people. This book transports students into the heart of a disaster scenario and makes them ask themselves: “What would I do?” They grapple with triage and end-of-life dilemmas, and face profound questions: Do exceptional times allow us to make exceptions to moral rules—or does a time of crisis call for an even deeper commitment to our fundamental values? The first half of the book recreates the events moment by moment from a variety of perspectives. The second half examines how the legal system and society adjudicates potentially criminal actions—in this case, the intentional hastening of patient deaths—when they take place outside of a normal context. As a teaching tool, Five Days at Memorial contains vital preparedness points for careers in health care, criminal justice, the law, journalism, business administration, environmental science, engineering, and sociology, among others. It reads quickly because of the strong narrative and novelistic pull. Extensive endnotes offer jumping-off points for students to expand their research, building on cross-disciplinary themes including ethical decision-making, disaster preparedness, resilience, leadership, and the history of American race relations. I’m a physician and neuroscientist by training. I’ve delivered humanitarian aid in disasters and conflict zones around the world. What I’ve learned in every disaster is that what matters most in the immediate crisis—when the systems fail, as they almost inevitably do—are the decisions and actions of regular people. Five Days at Memorial tells the story of one of the most gripping and fascinating real-life events I’ve ever reported on, but it also carries an important message: We all have a role to play in preparing for and responding to crises. Thinking through these decisions in advance will better prepare students for making tough choices in reality. When invited to campuses, I work hard to tailor my presentations to fit unique interests and needs. I love meeting with students and faculty. I’d be thrilled for Five Days at Memorial to be considered for your reading project, and would be excited to brainstorm ways to involve the campus and community in discussions.

Sheri Fink speaking at university convocation at Emmanuel College

Visiting your school and engaging with your students as part of your Freshman Experience Program and course adoptions would be a great honor. Please contact me through my website, sherifink.net, to get things started. Sheri Fink

History and Society

SALT SUGAR FAT

How the Food Giants Hooked Us

Website: www.MichaelMossBooks.com

By Michael Moss

rom a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the fascinating story of the rise of the processed food industry and its link to the emerging obesity epidemic. In Salt Sugar Fat, Michael Moss demonstrates how some of the most recognizable and profitable companies and brands of the last half century—including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more—use salt, sugar, and fat to addict consumers. This empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research and is sure to provoke a larger discussion about the food industry and obesity issues in America. “What happens when one of the country’s great investigative reporters infiltrates the most disastrous cartel of modern times: a processed food industry that’s making a fortune by slowly poisoning an unwitting population? You get this terrific, powerfully written book, jammed with startling disclosures, jaw-dropping confessions and, importantly, the charting of a path to a better, healthier future. This book should be read by anyone who tears a shiny wrapper and opens wide. That’s all of us.” —Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8219-0 | 480pp. $16.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-60477-8 | $14.99/NCR Also Available from Random House Audio

“In this meticulously researched book, Michael Moss tells the chilling story of how the food giants have seduced everyone in this country. He understands a vital and terrifying truth: that we are not just eating fast food when we succumb to the siren song of sugar, fat, and salt. We are fundamentally changing our lives—and the world around us.” —Alice Waters “As a feat of reporting and a public service, Salt Sugar Fat is a remarkable accomplishment.” —The New York Times Book Review

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Virginia Commonwealth University and Southwest Virginia Governor’s School Disciplines: Social Sciences/Sociology

“[Michael] Moss has written a Fast Food Nation for the processed food industry. Burrowing deep inside the big food manufacturers, he discovered how junk food is formulated to make us eat more of it and, he argues persuasively, actually to addict us.” —Michael Pollan “A shocking, galvanizing manifesto against the corporations manipulating nutrition to fatten their bottom line—one of the most important books of the year.” —Kirkus Reviews

Themes: Economics; Food; Health Campus Visits:

About the Author: Michael Moss MICHAEL MOSS was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2010, and was a finalist for the prize in 1999 and 2006. He is also the recipient of a Loeb Award and an Overseas Press Club citation. Before coming to The New York Times, he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

www.CommonReads.com

©Tony Cenicola, New York Times

Alternative Formats:

Excerpt from Salt Sugar Fat

Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and seventy pounds of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It’s no wonder, then, that one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese. It’s no wonder that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes, the processed food industry in the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year. In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how we got here. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century—including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more—Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research. Moss takes us inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the “bliss point” of sugary beverages or enhance the “mouthfeel” of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing campaigns designed—in a technique adapted from tobacco companies—to redirect concerns about the health risks of their products: Dial back on one ingredient, pump up the other two, and tout the new line as “fat-free” or “low-salt.” He talks to concerned executives who confess that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality. Simply put: The industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat. Just as millions of “heavy users”—as the companies refer to their most ardent customers—are addicted to this seductive trio, so too are the companies that peddle them. You will never look at a nutrition label the same way again.

Excerpted from Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss Copyright © 2013 by Michael Moss. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

History and Society

SACRED GROUND

Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America By Eboo Patel

Author Video: tiny.cc/bht19w To view the author’s talk at the 2011 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/n3alkw

n the years following the attacks of 9/11, suspicion and animosity toward American Muslims has increased rather than subsided. Alarmist, hateful rhetoric once relegated to the fringes of political discourse has now become frighteningly mainstream, with pundits and politicians routinely invoking the specter of Islam as a menacing, deeply anti-American force. In this timely new book, author, activist, and presidential adviser Eboo Patel says this prejudice is not just a problem for Muslims, but also a challenge to the very idea of America. Sacred Ground shows us that Americans from George Washington to Martin Luther King, Jr. have been “interfaith leaders,” and it illustrates how the forces of pluralism in the U.S. have time and again defeated the forces of prejudice. Now a new generation needs to rise up and confront the anti-Muslim prejudice of our era. To this end, Patel offers a primer in the art and science of interfaith work, bringing to life the growing body of research on how faith can be a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division, and sharing stories from the frontlines of interfaith activism. Pluralism, Patel boldly argues, is at the heart of the American project.

Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-7752-8 | 224pp. $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-0-8070-7749-8 | $24.95/$28.95 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Disciplines: Religion; Sociology Themes: Discovering Differences; Inclusiveness; Youth Activism Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“Interfaith cooperation is one of America’s founding ideals. It still sets us apart from much of the world. Eboo Patel has lived that value and, in this book, spreads that good word. Uplifting and invaluable, Sacred Ground is essential reading for our polarized era.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin Also Available by Eboo Patel

ACTS OF FAITH

The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation Acts of Faith is a remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and coming to believe in religious pluralism, from one of the most prominent faith leaders in the United States. Eboo Patel’s story is a hopeful and moving testament to the power and passion of young people—and of the world-changing potential of an interfaith youth movement. Selected for Common Reading at Amarillo College; Capital University; Colgate University; Franklin College; Loras College, Dubuque Iowa; Luther College; Marywood College; Saint Louis University; University of Saint Francis; and others. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-0622-1 | 192pp. $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-0631-3 | $15.00/$16.25 Can. Themes: Discovering Differences • Inclusiveness Youth Activism

About the Author: Eboo Patel EBOO PATEL is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core and the author of Acts of Faith. He was a member of President Obama’s inaugural faith council and is a regular contributor to the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN, and public radio.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author

College changed me, and it made me want to change the world—especially regarding diversity. I entered as a freshman embarrassed by my brown skin, my strange name, and my mother’s food. I exited with a vision of a nation where people from diverse backgrounds live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty. Sacred Ground is my Muslim eyes on the American project. The book highlights a dimension of America’s diversity that receives far too little attention: faith. America is the most religiously diverse nation in human history and the most religiously devout nation in the West at a time of global religious conflict. We see far too many examples of faith as a barrier of division or a bomb of destruction. Sacred Ground tells a different story—faith as a source of inspiration and a bridge of cooperation. I weave together narratives of historical giants like George Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. with stories of contemporary figures like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, highlighting how their courageous actions in times of religious crisis makes them interfaith heroes. Throughout the book are tales of college students and recent graduates—the next George Washingtons and Martin Luther Kings—who are building bridges of cooperation on their campuses and in their communities. At a time when anti-Mormon, anti-Muslim, anti-gay, and anti-atheist messages are at a fever pitch, the message of Sacred Ground could not be more clear or urgent: Interfaith cooperation is an inspiring story throughout American history. We need a new generation of interfaith leaders to write the next chapter. College campuses are ideal ecologies to nurture this interfaith leadership; college students are ideal people to be these leaders. This is a book aimed at college students and campus communities. I visit about twentyfive campuses a year, giving keynotes on interfaith leadership, and helping campuses design high-quality interfaith programs through partnerships with my nonprofit, Interfaith Youth Core (www.ifyc.org). I’ve spoken everywhere from Yale and Stanford to Luther College and Loyola University. I love them all because of how they change young people, and how those young people go on to change the world. Eboo Patel

History and Society

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS

Website: www.RebeccaSkloot.com Author Video: tiny.cc/2jxbrw

By Rebecca Skloot

Named by more than 60 critics as one of the best books of the year Winner of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine’s Communication Award for Best Book Winner of Wellcome Trust Book Prize Winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction Winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Young Adult Science Book Award

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading at more than 150 colleges including: University of Arkansas; University of California–Santa Barbara; Spelman College; and Virginia Commonwealth University. To view the complete list, go to tiny.cRc/fusfrw. Disciplines: African American; History; Journalism; Medical Ethics; Science Themes: Ethics/Decision Making; Human Rights; Science & Society; Social Justice Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

er name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances in cloning, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions, with devastating consequences for her family. Now Rebecca Skloot takes the reader on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where Henrietta’s children, unable to afford health insurance, wrestle with feelings of pride, fear, and betrayal. “What is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks really about? Science, African American culture and religion, intellectual property of human tissues, southern history, medical ethics, civil rights, the overselling of medical advances? . . . The book’s broad scope would make it ideal for an institution-wide freshman year reading program.” —David J. Kroll, Professor and Chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences, North Carolina Central University “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was an excellent summer reading selection. Over 2,100 first-year students as well as faculty members, research professionals, and university staff took part in over 80 discussion groups during VCU’s Welcome Week. Her message inspired students to become passionate and engaged with both learning and inquiry. Throughout their first semester, the book continued to serve as an excellent model of research writing for our newest students.” —Daphne L. Rankin, Ph.D., Associate Vice Provost for Instruction, Virginia Commonwealth University

Visit the author’s Website at www.RebeccaSkloot.com for the latest book-related special features, teaching guide, and other classroom resources.

About the Author: Rebecca Skloot REBECCA SKLOOT has taught at the University of Memphis, New York University, and the University of Pittsburgh. She has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s RadioLab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; Columbia Journalism Review; and elsewhere.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author I first learned about HeLa cells, and the woman behind them, as a teenager sitting in a freshman biology class. I knew only fragments of Henrietta’s story, but those fragments inspired me to start asking questions—about science and mortality, bioethics, and how I’d feel if my own cells were used in research. I didn’t yet know that her cells had launched a multibillion-dollar industry while her children lived in poverty, or that the cells had devastating consequences for the family. Henrietta’s story captures the imagination of students in any number of disciplines, including the sciences, medicine, African American studies, sociology, philosophy, law, bioethics, journalism, and creative writing. I’ve spoken about HeLa at schools around the country, where students are transfixed by the story. I tell them that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown on a scale they would weigh more than one hundred Empire State Buildings, and that HeLa has been fused with mouse cells to create Henrietta-mouse hybrid cells. It’s the stuff of science fiction, but it’s true, and students love it. Combine that with the story of Henrietta’s family—a tale about science, religion, race, and class—and students’ reactions are powerful. During Q&As, the first question is usually: “Wasn’t it illegal to take her cells and use them in research without asking?” The answer is no—not in 1951, and not in 2011. Today, most Americans have their tissue on file somewhere through routine blood tests or biopsies. And since the late sixties, when testing newborns for genetic diseases became required by law, each baby born in the United States has had blood taken, and those samples are often stored and used by scientists. This means that the majority of college students in this country have tissues of their own being used in research, and neither they nor their parents likely realize it. As a college professor, I always look for books that bring together the many disparate fields that students will study throughout their careers and that allow them to explore the real-world consequences of intellectual discoveries. Other professors tell me The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks does just that, bringing together health, community, family, ethics, religion, science, storytelling, history, business, law, and humanity. Since spring 2010, I have talked about my book at more than one hundred schools nationwide. As a regular guest lecturer who’s also worked as a correspondent for radio and television, I understand the importance of being an engaging speaker, and my talks have been called “moving and engaging of both the heart and mind.” You can visit the events page of my website at RebeccaSkloot.com to see if I’ll be speaking at your school, and you can contact me through the site. I look forward to visiting even more schools as part of their Freshman Experience Programs. As a college biology major, I couldn’t have imagined that Henrietta’s story would lead me to become a writer, or that writing this book would be a ten-year journey. There’s no telling what effect this story could have on students. I can’t wait to find out.

©Rebecca Skloot

©DePauw University

Rebecca Skloot

Rebecca Skloot talks with students and signs books at DePauw University and University of Alabama

History and Society

MADIBA A TO Z

The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela

Website: www.MadibaBook.com

By Danny Schechter

adiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela by Danny Schechter is a book about Mandela’s brilliance, his courage, his tremendous impact in saving his country and its people of all races, but one that also shows how far South Africa still has to go. Madiba A to Z reveals sides of Nelson Mandela that are not often discussed and angles of the anti-apartheid movement that most choose to brush under the table in order to focus on the happy-ending version of the story. The book quotes liberally from Mandela himself, his ex-wives and other family members, global leaders, Mandela’s cellmates and guards on Robben Island, the team behind the movie, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, former president F. W. de Klerk, members of the South African Police, and his comrades including his successor Thabo Mbeki. Each chapter starts with a letter of the alphabet to develop major and minor, unexpected and fascinating themes in Mandela’s life and his impact on others.

Seven Stories Press | TR | 978-1-60980-557-9 | 272pp. $16.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-1-60980-558-6 | $16.95/$16.95 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Disciplines: History; South Africa Themes: Anti-apartheid Movement; Civil Rights; Inequality; Poverty; South Africa

“Here is storytelling that is unique, refreshing, and revealing, and the Nelson Mandela who emerges—more nuanced than I ever understood and even more admirable—is someone you will want to know. You will be both surprised by Mandela’s profoundly complex personality and grateful for Danny Schechter’s creative journalism.” —Bill Moyers, host of Moyers & Company “Danny Schechter’s life-long involvement with the freedom movement in South Africa is very well known and respected. He knows Nelson Mandela’s story deeply and his new book features insights and stories we haven’t heard before.” —Reverend Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader and President of Rainbow PUSH “Madiba A to Z tells the story [of Mandela’s journey] from personal experience and goes beyond the surface with a lively sense of humor and deep caring that even we South Africans can learn from.” —Ronnie Kasrils, former commander in the armed struggle and South Africa’s Minister of Intelligence in the post-apartheid government

Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

DANNY SCHECHTER is an American journalist and a documentary filmmaker who has made six nonfiction films about Mandela and who has worked in South Africa since the 1960s, giving him unprecedented access to insiders. Schechter created a major television newsweekly program called South Africa Now that aired on over thirty stations in the U.S. and in many countries throughout the world during the liberation struggle’s most crucial years, l988–91. Having worked both in public television and for CNN and ABC News, Schechter has been part of the anti-apartheid movement globally as an activist, journalist, analyst, and historian.

www.CommonReads.com

©Joyce Ravid

About the Author: Danny Schechter

A Message from the Author Nelson Mandela was a country boy who became an attorney, who became a revolutionary, who was tried and imprisoned for 27 years as a terrorist, who negotiated his own release from prison, who became his country’s first black president, who achieved political equality in the form of one-man, onevote for all South Africans, who when he died was cited in nearly two billion social media mentions— making him arguably the most famous and respected person that has ever lived, along with Jesus and the Beatles. I had the good fortune of working with Mandela on six films so I got to see him in action. I became a student of Mandela and spoke to many of his closest collaborators and colleagues, especially recently during the making of the film of his life, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris. At times I have felt as if, once he was freed, I became his prisoner as a journalist and filmmaker committed to bringing Americans the news from South Africa. I followed him as he ran for office in the country’s first democratic election. I traveled alongside him in Africa, Europe, and across America, where he packed baseball stadiums and played to cheering crowds of all races. I watched him interact with world leaders and ordinary people. I saw his humility, his larger-than-life aura, and decisive decision-making style. The experience has led me to peer deeply into his past. Did you know that when he was a student he was nearly thrown out of school for fighting against an unjust rule of governance? After Mandela became a lawyer, he represented clients in racially charged cases that taught him the importance of not losing his cool despite the many provocations of officials who called him “boy,” although Mandela at the time was not only a grown man but also a distinguished member of his profession. Later, when he was confined in prison, he helped turn his “hard time” into teaching time by organizing his colleagues to offer courses to their fellow inmates and their jailers in adult literacy as well as literature and political theory. His performance skills were sharpened when he took part in prison plays, playing Creon in Sophocles’ Antigone and even portraying Abraham Lincoln. I am sure his height helped him get that role. Mine is no ordinary biography of Nelson Mandela because he was no ordinary man. Approaching him from twenty-six different directions, one for each letter of the alphabet, I was able to go deeper and show what made his long walk to freedom so exceptional. Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela was launched on a Monday. Nelson Mandela was gone that Thursday. But is he really gone? My hunch is that millions will keep his memory alive. Students, especially, will read about him and study what he could and could not accomplish. The story of the obstacles he overcame and the people’s lives he touched will inspire students to never give up fighting for what is right and just. It was not an easy fight for Mandela, it was full of complexities and personal sacrifices, and it won’t be for an easy fight you either, but the contribution you can make to your community and your fellow humans is invaluable. I hope that you will consider starting on your own long walk to freedom. At the very end of Madiba A to Z, I tell how when Mandela was released from prison people would say to him, “Well, now you’re free.” And he would reply, “No, we’re free to be free.” And that tough sense he had that the things he wanted for his people were still a long way off, that others would have to finish what he started, is also part of Mandela’s legacy. Danny Schechter

History and Society

Spotlight on: Nelson Mandela HIS DAY IS DONE

A Nelson Mandela Tribute

Website: www.MayaAngelou.com

By Maya Angelou

In His Day is Done, acclaimed poet Maya Angelou honors the life and remarkable soul of Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa and Nobel laureate. This poignant work of gratitude and remembrance offers condolences to the resilient people of South Africa on the loss of their beloved “Madiba” and celebrates a man like no other, whose life and work changed the world. Random House | HC | 978-0-8129-9701-9 | 64pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $7.50 e-Book: 978-0-8129-9702-6 | $6.99/$9.99 Can.

REFLECTIONS ON NELSON MANDELA

By Antoinette Haselhorst

The world’s most universally admired politician is celebrated in words and images that span the globe. Internationally renowned photographer Antoinette Haselhorst has captured Nelson Mandela on camera on numerous occasions. This unique book is a reflection on the man himself, and his significance on the global stage. Haselhorst combines her outstanding portraiture of Mandela with a series of tributes from celebrities, as well as lesser-known persons, creating a moving and colorful record of the emotions felt around the world for this very special individual. Titan Books | TR | 978-0-85768-530-8 | 180pp. | $19.95/$22.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

THE BOOK OF HAPPINESS: AFRICA

By Joseph Peter Foreword by Ndaba Mandela

Website: www.JosephPeter.com

Shot over the course of seventy days during the African leg of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour, Joseph Peter’s inspired collection of 150,000 portraits of beautiful, joyous, and spirited African citizens from fifty nations was first presented as an exclusive gift to Nelson Mandela and other heroes. Here, for the first time, these photographs are available to all in a collectible trade paperback edition. The Book of Happiness is a celebration and a tribute to a continent and its people. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-1-4000-6961-3 | 128pp. | $25.00/$29.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-0-679-64540-5 | $14.99/$16.99 Can.

MANDELA’S WAY

Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage By Richard Stengel Preface by Nelson Mandela

We long for heroes and have too few. Nelson Mandela is the closest thing the world has to a secular saint. He liberated a country from a system of violent prejudice and helped unite oppressor and oppressed in a way that had never been done before. In Mandela’s Way, Time magazine editor Rick Stengel, who collaborated with Mandela on his bestselling autobiography and became a cherished friend, distills Mandela’s wisdom into 15 vital life lessons. Woven into these lessons are remarkable stories—of Mandela’s childhood as the protégé of a tribal king, of his early days as a freedom fighter, of the 27-year imprisonment that could not break him, and of his new and fulfilling marriage at the age of eighty. Crown Archetype | HC | 978-0-307-46068-4 | 256pp. | $24.00/$28.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-46069-1 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio

www.CommonReads.com

Spotlight on: Jonathan Kozol JONATHAN KOZOL is the National Book Award–winning author of Savage Inequalities, Death at an Early Age, The Shame of the Nation, and Amazing Grace. He has been working with children in inner-city schools for nearly fifty years.

FIRE IN THE ASHES

Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America

Website: www.JonathanKozol.com For more books by Jonathan Kozol, go to: tiny.cc/zp5kkw

ire in the Ashes is the culmination of the decades that teacher and author Jonathan Kozol (Amazing Grace, Savage Inequalities) has spent studying and interacting with a group of low-income children, who have come of age in one of the poorest communities in the nation, and who are now well on their way to adulthood. Some of them have not been able to overcome the incredibly high odds stacked against them; others have managed to achieve victories and successes that offer a glimmer of hope not only for these individuals, but also for our society as a whole.

“An engaging look at the broader social implications of ignoring poverty as well as a very personal look at individuals struggling to overcome it.” —Booklist (starred review) Broadway | TR | 978-1-4000-5247-9 | 368pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-7704-3595-0 | $11.99/$13.99/Can. Also available from Random House Audio Discipline: Sociology Themes: Coming of Age • Perseverance/Personal Strength • Social Justice

Also Available by Jonathan Kozol

AMAZING GRACE

ORDINARY RESURRECTIONS

SAVAGE INEQUALITIES

Children in the Years of Hope

Children in America’s Schools

History and Society

HISTORY AND SOCIETY

FREEDOM

Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights By Amnesty International USA

Website: www.AmnestyUSA.org

In honor of its fiftieth anniversary, Amnesty International, the notable and noble human rights organization, has brought together several internationally acclaimed writers, asking them to contribute stories inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Empathetic and thought-provoking, but never didactic, Paulo Coehlo, Nadine Gordimer, Yann Martel, Joyce Carol Oates, and many more present ruminations and meditations on struggles for freedom and equality, and efforts against repression and injustice, encouraging an understanding of the victories that have been won and how much more still needs to be done to ensure that the basic rights of all are respected and protected. Broadway | TR | 978-0-307-58883-8 | 432pp. | $16.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-58884-5 | $10.99/NCR Themes: Ethics • Human Rights • Social Justice

ZEALOT

The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Website: www.RezaAslan.com

By Reza Aslan

Jesus of Nazareth is arguably the most influential individual in the history of mankind. Yet, there’s still so much mystery surrounding his life. Reza Aslan sheds great insight on this charismatic preacher by placing him within the context of his time and thoroughly analyzing the testimonies of those who knew him best—his disciples. “Aslan develops a convincing and coherent story of how the Christian church, and in particular Paul, reshaped Christianity’s essence, obscuring the very real man who was Jesus of Nazareth. Compulsively readable and written at a popular level, this superb work is highly recommended.” —Publishers Weekly Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6922-4 | 336pp. | $27.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50 e-Book: 978-0-679-60353-5 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Ancient History • Philosophy • Theology

FRATERNITY

Author Video: tiny.cc/vgj4qw

By Diane Brady

Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Reverend John Brooks searched for African American students to recruit to the College of the Holy Cross. Among the amazing young men he recruited, coached, mentored, and taught were a future Supreme Court justice, a future Pulitzer Prize winner, and a young man who would go on to become one of the country’s most successful attorneys. In this account of the college years of five of these men, Fraternity serves as a testament to the power of education and mentorship, confirming the difference that even a single person can make. “Diane Brady’s book brilliantly shows how the attention and concern of one man changed not only the course of these individual lives but the course of history. This book is a template of how we should all think about both our societal responsibility and the gift of mentorship.” —Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-385-52474-2 | 256pp. | $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-0-385-52962-4 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: African American Studies • Inclusiveness • Inspiration

PROMISES KEPT

Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life

By Joe Brewster, M.D., and Michèle Stephenson, with Hilary Beard

Website: www.www.AmericanPromise.Org

Regardless of how wealthy or poor their parents are, all black boys must confront and surmount the “achievement gap”: a divide that shows up not only in their test scores, but in their social and emotional development, their physical well-being, and their outlook on life. Joe Brewster, M.D. and Michèle Stephenson, the directors of the award-winning documentary American Promise, have written this unprecedented guide to helping black boys achieve success at every stage of their lives—at home, at school, and in the world. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8489-7 | 384pp. | $18.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8129-9449-0 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: African American Studies • Education

www.CommonReads.com

HISTORY AND SOCIETY

ISAAC’S ARMY

A Story of Courage and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland By Matthew Brzezinski

Finalist, 2012 National Jewish Book Award In this narrative nonfiction account, Brzezinski tells the story of a small but courageous group of young Jews who formed one of the most daring underground resistance armies of WWII. From their early efforts in 1939 to the underground exodus to Palestine in 1946, their fight against the Gestapo and heroic efforts to protect their people are documented here, including their role in the worst battles of the Uprising and the most successful human-smuggling operations. Isaac’s Army is the story of these brave underground soldiers—a fierce reminder of their sacrifices, victories, and defeats. Random House | HC | 978-0-553-80727-1 | 496pp. | $30.00/$35.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $15.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64530-6 | $13.99/$16.99 Can. Themes: Human Rights • Inspiration • Perseverance/Personal Strength

LOGAVINA STREET

Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood By Barbara Demick

In this “beautifully rendered portrait” (Mark Danner, New York Review of Books), Barbara Demick records what she saw and heard on one street as a modern city was held under siege. The neighbors of Logavina Street—Muslim, Serb, and Croat—tried to keep their society intact as their country was torn apart by ethnic warfare. “Brilliantly captures the sense of civilian Sarajevo heroism—its pluck, irony, stoicism. . . . Focusing on one Sarajevo street, Demick is able to evoke the reality of life in the city with accuracy and nuance.” —David Rieff, Philadelphia Inquirer

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8276-3 | 272pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64412-5 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Human Rights • Regional: Balkans

NOTHING TO ENVY

Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Website: www.NothingToEnvy.com

By Barbara Demick

Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction; Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction American journalist Barbara Demick interviewed six North Koreans who attempted to build careers, relationships, and lives in North Korea, only to defect when they realized the extent of the government’s deception and abuse of its own citizens. Never before has such a penetrating view of contemporary North Korea been published. Readers will be amazed by this insider’s account of the world’s most isolated state. “Demick’s potent blend of personal narratives and piercing journalism vividly and evocatively portrays courageous individuals and a tyrannized state within a saga of unfathomable suffering punctuated by faint glimmers of hope.” —Booklist (starred review) Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52391-2 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-52961-7 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Discovering Differences • Human Rights • Regional: North Korea/Asia

EIGHTY DAYS

Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World

Website: www.MatthewGoodmanBooks.com

By Matthew Goodman

On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day was Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever. Ballantine Books | HC | 978-0-345-52726-4 | 480pp. | $28.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00 Do not order paperback before 3/11/2014. Ballantine Books | TR | 978-0-345-52727-1 | 496pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-52728-8 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. Themes: American History • Inspiration

History and Society

HISTORY AND SOCIETY

IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS

Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

Website: www.ErikLarsonBooks.com

By Erik Larson

A New York Times Notable Book In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin—and Europe—were awash in blood and terror. “By far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history. . . . Powerful, poignant . . . a transportingly true story.” —New York Times “Larson has meticulously researched the Dodds’ intimate witness to Hitler’s ascendancy and created an edifying narrative of this historical byway that has all the pleasures of a political thriller. . . . a fresh picture of these terrible events.” —New York Times Book Review Broadway | TR | 978-0-307-40885-3 | 480pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88795-5 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Ethics • Genocide • Perseverance/Personal Strength

Also by Erik Larson

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America Finalist, National Book Award

Vintage | TR | 978-0-375-72560-9 | 464pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-4000-7631-4 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio

THUNDERSTRUCK

Broadway | TR | 978-1-4000-8067-0 | 480pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-35192-0 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DIXIE

The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South

Website: www.BruceLevine.net Author Interview: tiny.cc/9qj4qw

By Bruce Levine

In this major new history of the Civil War, Bruce Levine, Professor of History at the University of Illinois, tells the riveting story of how that conflict upended the economic, political, and social life of the old South, utterly destroying the Confederacy and the society it represented and defended. “This book limns the relationship between slavery and the rise and fall of the Confederacy more clearly and starkly than any other study. General readers and seasoned scholars alike will find new information and insights in this eye-opening account.” —James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6703-9 | 464pp. | $30.00/$35.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $15.00 Do not order paperback before 4/1/2014. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7872-8 | 480pp. | $17.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64535-1 | $15.99/$16.99 Can. Themes: American History • Regional: American South

WE BAND OF ANGELS: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan

By Elizabeth Norman

In the winter of 1941, as Japanese bombs began falling on Luzon, American Army and Navy nurses found themselves in the thick of a nightmarish war. Amidst raining shells and shrapnel they tended to devastating injuries. However, when Bataan and Corregidor fell, a handful of nurses were sent to internment camps. We Band of Angels chronicles their suffering and heroism in equal measure. “Gripping . . . a war story in which the main characters never kill one of the enemy, or even shoot at him, but are nevertheless heroes. . . . Americans today should thank God we had such women.” —Stephen E. Ambrose Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8484-2 | 384pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-79957-9 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. Themes: Inspiration • Perseverance/Personal Strength • Women’s Studies • World History

www.CommonReads.com

HISTORY AND SOCIETY

OUT OF ORDER

Stories from the History of the Supreme Court By Sandra Day O’Connor

The Supreme Court is one of our nation’s most essential institutions, yet few individuals truly understand its history and evolution. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, with her candor and wit, provides a fascinating behind the scenes account of the Court’s transformation. Detailing pivotal figures and important cases, Justice O’Connor deftly demonstrates the trajectory from John Jay to John Roberts. “In this delightful collection of tales, Sandra Day O’Connor shows us the personal side of the Supreme Court while reminding us of the critical role the Court plays. It’s a lovely book—and a valuable treasure for all Americans.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8432-3 | 256pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8129-9393-6 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: American History • Ethics/Decision Making

DATACLYSM

Our Life in Numbers By Christian Rudder

To request a free advance readers copy, email commonreads@randomhouse.com

Big Data has been used to spy on people and sell them things they don’t need. In Dataclysm, Christian Rudder, who is president and co-founder of the dating site OkCupid, puts this information to an entirely different use: understanding human nature. Drawing on those terabytes of data, Rudder ranges over the vast terrain of human experience—sex, desire, race, politics, religion, humor, and friendship—to show what our online lives are revealing about society and how this data will transform the science of human behavior. Forthcoming September 2014. Crown | HC | 978-0-385-34737-2 | 368pp. | $28.00/$29.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-34738-9 | $28.00/$29.95 Can. Themes: Social Psychology • Statistics

FIGHT THE POWER!

A Visual History of Protest Among the English Speaking Peoples By Sean Michael Wilson and Benjamin Dickson Illustrated by Hunt Emerson, John Spelling, and Adam Pasion

Fight the Power!, a nonfiction graphic novel, chronicles the history of subjugated people asserting their rights. From the Irish Rebellion and the Boston Police Strike to Rosa Parks’s bus boycott and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the book expertly connects these various protests and argues that there is purpose in fighting the good fight. “An accessible and engaging introduction to protestors in history. If you care about social change, read it!” —Mary Talbot, author of Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes (Costa Biography Award winner) Seven Stories Press | TR | 978-1-60980-492-3 | 192pp. | $19.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60980-493-0 | $19.95/$19.95 Can. Themes: Conflict Studies • Social Justice

COVERING

The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights

Website: www.KenjiYoshino.com

By Kenji Yoshino

Winner of the Myers Outstanding Book Award and the American Educational Studies Association Critics’Choice Award In Covering, one of the country’s most brilliant young legal scholars fashions a new paradigm of civil rights. Drawing on his experiences as a gay Japanese American, Yale law professor Kenji Yoshino argues that the culturally sanctioned suppression of authentic selves is a harm from which the law should sometimes protect people. More profoundly, he also claims that law will be less important to the civil rights of the future than a common culture of authenticity. Selected for Common Reading at Pomona College; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Virginia Commonwealth University; Yale University; and others. Random House | TR | 978-0-375-76021-1 | 304pp. | $15.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-172-1 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Discovering Differences • Identity • Inclusiveness • Social Justice

History and Society

THE POWER OF HABIT

Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business By Charles Duhigg

Website: www.CharlesDuhigg.com Author Video: tiny.cc/3mhbrw To view the author’s talk at the 2013 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/rhscax

n The Power of Habit, behaviorist Charles Duhigg takes us to the forefront of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Along the way students will learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an intriguing argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Charles Duhigg shows, habits aren’t destiny, and by harnessing this new science, students can change their habits and transform businesses, communities, and lives.

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Babson College and Sam Houston State University Disciplines: Business; Education; Psychology; Sociology Themes: Leadership & Motivation; Life Skills

“The Power of Habit is a fascinating read, and Duhigg deftly pulls off exactly what one would expect of a polymath Times reporter: he effortlessly brings us from scene to scene, from finding to finding, from discipline to discipline, transforming a potentially dry subject into a series of peppy narratives—a very readable take on a subject that should matter to everyone.” —Newsweek Daily Beast

“A fascinating exploration of our pathologically habitual society—we smoke, we incessantly check our BlackBerrys, we chronically choose bad partners, we always (or never) make our beds. Duhigg digs into why we are this way, and how we can change, both as individuals and institutionally.” —The Daily

Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

CHARLES DUHIGG is an investigative reporter for the New York Times. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Business School, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.

www.CommonReads.com

©Liz Alter

About the Author: Charles Duhigg

A Message from the Author College saved my life. Or, more accurately, the good and bad habits I learned there saved my life. And since then, nothing has been the same. In 1993, I left Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Yale. Here is what I did not know at the time: that sheets should be washed more than once a semester; that if you stand in the rain for 40 minutes, a shower might be a wise idea; that when a professor says you need to read the book, you need to read the book; that I would develop the best—and worst—habits of my life, and they would shape every major decision over my next two decades. At my freshman assembly, however, I had no idea that all of that was to come. The provost gave the assembled class three pieces of advice: if you are feeling tired, sleep. If you aren’t hungry, don’t eat. And if you are homesick, have a small piece of chocolate and remember that everyone else—no matter how confident they seem—feels the same way. It was great advice. It was—though I didn’t know it at the time—a tutorial in how to create habits by choosing cues (I’m exhausted), routines (go to bed!), and rewards (ahhhh!). And I, of course, ignored it all. Six months later, delirious with exhaustion and 10 pounds heavier, I was on the phone to my mother explaining that a transfer to the University of New Mexico—or maybe a year living in my old room—was a good idea. Luckily, my parents ignored me. And the school slowly, painfully, taught me how to be an adult. Most importantly, my professors and administrators showed me how to shape my urges and passions, and eventually to become a reporter at the New York Times and an author. Each lesson in The Power of Habit is embedded in a narrative—the story of how Tony Dungy led the Indianapolis Colts to the Super Bowl, how Starbucks teaches willpower habits, how Martin Luther King rallied Montgomery to the bus boycott—that seeks to help readers, including undergraduates, experience this same process of self-discovery. There are a few chapters that, I think, would particularly appeal to college students: How to create willpower habits. For decades, we’ve suspected that willpower is like a muscle. But how is willpower strengthened? By making it into a habit. Starbucks, for instance, developed a training program to encourage willpower habits by identifying inflection points when self-discipline is likely to fail. How people—and groups—create habits that change lives. A century ago, almost no Americans brushed their teeth. Then a canny advertising executive added a slight irritant to a toothpaste recipe, and Pepsodent launched a national habit. A 26-year-old clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr. chose to nurture a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, by targeting the city’s social habits—and the contemporary civil rights movement was born. The importance of service to others, and investing in a community. As one Dartmouth psychologist told me, “change occurs among other people. It seems real when we can see it in others peoples’ eyes.” The Power of Habit explains why the friends we choose, the organizations we join, and the contributions we make to our communities matter. Through stories about the Olympian Michael Phelps and the Outkast song Hey Ya!, it explores how communities shape our habits, and we, in turn, shape out communities. Organizational habits, and administrators, professors, and communities. Organizations—like individuals— develop habits that guide how work gets (or doesn’t get) done. The Power of Habit explores why some habits, known as keystone habits, matter more than others and how they shape cultures within universities and companies. I wish I had been exposed to these insights as a freshman. I would be honored if my book helps introduce your students to these ideas. To read the full text of this essay, go to: tiny.cc/s2fomw.

Charles Duhigg

Life and College Guides

THINK

Why You Should Question Everything

Website: www.GuyPHarrison.com

By Guy P. Harrison

his accessible and introductory guide to critical thinking will help students think like a scientist, learn to question everything, and understand how our brains can trip us up. A fresh and witty approach to science, skepticism, and critical thinking, Think challenges everyone to embrace the skeptical life, and improve their critical thinking skills. Think shows students how to better navigate through the maze of biases and traps that are standard features of every human brain. These innate pitfalls threaten to trick us into seeing, hearing, thinking, remembering, and believing things that are not real or true. Guy Harrison’s straightforward text will help them trim away the nonsense, deflect bad ideas, and keep both feet firmly planted in reality. With an upbeat and friendly tone, Harrison shows how it’s in everyone’s best interest to question everything. He brands skepticism as a constructive and optimistic attitude—a way of life that anyone can embrace.

“Harrison’s upbeat style nicely conveys some of the latest scientific research on how the mind functions. . . . [His] inviting style serves the interests of skeptics and scientists who face the onslaught of nonsense, delusion, ignorance, stupidity, and bias that dominates today’s muddled culture. . . . Highly recommended.” —Library Journal Prometheus | TR | 978-1-61614-807-2 | 300pp. $16.95/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-1-61614-808-9 | $11.99/$11.99 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Disciplines: Philosophy; Science Themes: Critical Thinking; Logic Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“A clear and passionate book on skepticism, clear thinking, and a wide range of juicy paranormal claims. A great and fun read for everyone. Harrison succeeds at motivating, inspiring, and indeed haunting the reader. . . . Required reading for anyone who doesn’t want to waste time, health, money, and dignity on things that probably are not real or true.” —Jonathan C. Smith, PhD, professor of psychology, Chicago’s Roosevelt University; author of Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal Also Available by Guy P. Harrison

RACE AND REALITY The concept of race has had a powerful impact on history and continues to shape the world today in profound ways. Most people derive their attitudes about race from their family, culture, and education. Very few, however, are aware that there are vast differences between the popular notions of race and the scientific view of human diversity. Yet even among scientists, who understand the current evidence, there is great controversy regarding the definition of the term “race” or even the usefulness of thinking in terms of race at all. Drawing on research from diverse sources and interviews with key scientists, award-winning journalist Guy P. Harrison surveys the current state of a volatile, important, and confusing subject. Prometheus Books | TR | 978-1-59102-767-6 | 336pp. | $20.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $10.00 Themes: Biodiversity • Race

About the Author: Guy P. Harrison GUY P. HARRISON is an award-winning journalist and the author of 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian, 50 Popular Beliefs that People Think Are True, 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God, and Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know about Our Biological Diversity.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author A Life Lesson for Every Student Students in their first year of college are experiencing a pivotal time in their lives: for the first time they are on their own, making decisions with real implications and seeing their world expand exponentially. Unfortunately, most institutions do not teach courses devoted to critical thinking, and even fewer make them required of students to graduate, despite the fact that critical thinking and logic are applicable to every discipline and are skills that students can use for a lifetime. Our students need to be armed with excellent critical thinking skills, and Think is just the book to teach them. Think presents skepticism as a tool. Thinking like a scientist in everyday life saves time, money, and energy. Being a good skeptic simply means that one asks relevant questions and pauses to think before believing, joining, or buying something. My book shows students how to ask the right questions that will give them the information they need to make good decisions. Contrary to popular belief, skepticism does not have to be negative. My brand of skepticism is constructive and optimistic. It is concerned with weeding out half-truths and delusions so that one can get to more of the good stuff in life. Less time spent on ghosts and Bigfoot means more time to explore, create, and learn. It is not rude or mean to insist that evidence balance the size of a claim. Good skeptics are not closed minded or arrogant; they are honest about unanswered questions and strive to be engaged with the real universe, whatever it may contain. Widespread adoption of skeptical thinking could improve our world overnight, yet it remains missing from popular cultureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s radar. Why? We might consider the last several thousand years of human history to have been an experiment that has yielded more than enough data to conclude that human beings are not so good at discerning fantasy from reality. Our brains are teeming with biases and unexpected cognitive processes. Think explains how our brains can mislead us. The earlier in life one knows about this, the better. Unfortunately, few parents tell their children about it, most teachers never teach it, and politicians never talk about it. Think: Why You Should Question Everything teaches the crucial lesson of how we can do better at separating truth from fiction. In line with the goals of all good teachers who care about their studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; futures, this book is designed to enlighten and motivate for the lifetime benefit of readers. Learn more about Guyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work at www.guypharrison.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarrisonAuthor Twitter: http://twitter.com/Harrisonauthor Guy P. Harrison

Life and College Guides

FINANCIALLY FEARLESS

The LearnVest Program for Taking Control of Your Money By Alexa Von Tobel, CFP

Website: www.LearnVest.com

n Financially Fearless, Alexa Von Tobel, founder and CEO of LearnVest.com, discusses her 50/20/30 plan—50 for essentials, 20 for the future, and 30 for lifestyle. This straightforward method isn’t weighed down by wearisome budgets and helps readers create a more secure financial future. Covering everything from credit scores and mortgages to student loans, and planning for the future to helping aging parents, Financially Fearless contains stories of people who have overcome money struggles, as well as interactive worksheets and quizzes. Von Tobel also shows how to use simple online tools and apps to keep better track of spending and finances, with tips for integrating financial planning into a mobile, digital life.

“Controlling your personal finances means controlling your destiny— and being able to build your own entrepreneurial life. In Financially Fearless, Von Tobel shows you how to get the books of your own financial life in order—so you can live boldly, autonomously, entrepreneurially” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn and author of The Start-up of You Crown Business | HC | 978-0-385-34761-7 | 256pp. $19.99/$22.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $10.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-34762-4 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. Also Available from Random House Audio

ADOPTION NOTES: Discipline: Business & Economics Themes: Life Skills; Money Management; Success Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“If you’re the type of person who’d never be caught dead buying a book on personal finance, pick this up right now. As fearless as the name suggests, von Tobel is a fresh face of a new generation.” —Cathie Black, Former Chairman of Hearst Magazines

Learn more about Alexa and the LearnVest Action Program at learnvest.com. LEARNVEST.COM is an award-winning personal finance platform, which through its subsidiary, the LearnVest Program, provides high-quality, fee-based financial advisory services. The LearnVest Program is redefining the traditional financial planning market with a dynamic, technology-enabled service. Its 7-Step Action Program gives clients nationwide access to unbiased financial advice, straight from Certified Financial Planners™. Since launch, LearnVest has raised over $41 million and has been awarded numerous accolades, including a place on Time’s annual list of “50 Best Websites” and more.

About the Author: Alexa Von Tobel ALEXA VON TOBEL, CFP® is the founder and CEO of www.LearnVest.com, an award-winning financial planning site. A Certified Financial Planner™ who attended Harvard Business School, Alexa has been featured as a financial expert in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Forbes, InStyle, Glamour and on the Today show, Good Morning America, Anderson, Katie, ABC News, Bloomberg News, and more. Her speaking engagements include Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, SXSW, Fortune Most Powerful Women’s Conference, and TEDxWallStreet, and she is a columnist for Cosmopolitan, Inc. Magazine, and Ladies Home Journal.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author If I really think back to the beginning, the story of Financially Fearless starts the year I graduated from college. It was 2006. I was graduating from Harvard College and headed to a job on Wall Street. I was lucky to have a top-notch education, and I was ready to put my years of education to work. I couldn’t wait to set out into the “real world,” and dive right into my post-college life. But there was a moment that gave me pause. I realized that despite the many valuable lessons I did learn in college—on topics ranging from the psychology of happiness to Shakespeare—I had never learned the ins and outs of personal finance. Where was I supposed to go to learn the difference between a Roth and Traditional IRA? Or to figure out what factors went into my credit score? I quickly realized that my friends were all in the same boat. It blew me away that no class I’d ever taken taught me how to budget, what to do for insurance, the 411 on retirement, and the list went on. I realized that I was not alone—and recognizing that gave me a big dream: To empower people across the country to take control of their money and live their richest lives. So, I started LearnVest. Four years later, it has grown into an award-winning personal finance platform. We’ve raised over $41 million in venture financing, we’ve developed the LearnVest Action Program to give clients nationwide unbiased, affordable advice from our team of Certified Financial Planners™, and we’re spreading our mission and Program to thousands and thousands of people. I was lucky enough to come to this realization about personal finance as a was graduating college— not ten years down the line after I had already made a few mistakes, as so many people do. That’s part of the reason why I wrote Financially Fearless; to make financial literacy available and accessible to all college students. I know that choosing the right classes, participating in a variety of activities, and finding friends easily come before “budgeting” or “saving” on a college freshman’s to-do list. But it’s time to change that. Shouldn’t students know how to manage their money from day one at college, when they start making more independent financial decisions than ever before? All of a sudden, doing laundry costs $1.50 instead of just a shout out to your parent, and there is no one telling you what to buy, keeping you in check during shopping sprees, or stopping you from getting a late-night pizza delivery. And for some, student debt slowly but surely starts accumulating. It’s stressful. They need a game plan. After reading Financially Fearless, college students will walk away educated on the tips and tricks of managing their finances, feeling more confident and prepared than ever before about their money. No student should ever graduate from college without basic knowledge and capabilities to manage their own finances, and Financially Fearless, with its easy-to-read style and workbook functions, will help students take command over their money lives. Since starting LearnVest, I have heard from thousands of young men and women who have money worries and stress. Money is a universal concern, and it turns out that everyone has most of the same questions and fears. My dream is to see younger and younger generations grow up with a solid foundation, so that money never becomes an impediment from reaching their full potential. My goal is to see this happen in the very near future. So let’s help empower the classes of 2018 and beyond with the knowledge they need to succeed. For more information, visit www.LearnVest.com/FinanciallyFearless. Alexa Von Tobel

Life and College Guides

LIFE AND COLLEGE GUIDES

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? 2014 EDITION

A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers By Richard N. Bolles

Website: www.JobHuntersBible.com

The latest edition of the most popular career guide in the world continues to offer immediately useful advice, unique ways to find the right job, and practical insights. The book is updated annually, to ensure that it always speaks to the current job market and job seeker. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-362-0 | 368pp. | $18.99/$21.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-364-4 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Job Hunting • Vocational Guidance

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? Guide to Rethinking Interviews

By Richard N. Bolles

When it comes to job interviews, it can be difficult to avoid feelings of anxiety. After all, the stakes seem impossibly high. However with his latest guidebook, Richard Bolles, the father of career development, aims to help banish the fear once and for all. Indeed, his general conceit is that interviews are merely conversations to determine if the company/position is the right fit for both parties. Bolles provides advice on everything from pre-interview research to salary negotiation. And he astutely identifies the three most important facets of an interview along with the only five questions you really need to be prepared to answer. Do not order before 5/6/2014. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-659-1 | 112pp. | $12.99/$14.99 Can.| Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-660-7 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. Themes: Job Hunting • Vocational Guidance

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? Guide to Rethinking Résumés

By Richard N. Bolles

Many job seekers don’t realize that potential employers only glimpse a résumé for roughly 8 seconds before either discarding or adding it to their short list. Therefore, it’s vital to understand how to leverage past experience and target key words to ensure your resume lands you that coveted interview. In his new guidebook, Richard Bolles (a leader in the job-search industry) provides essential advice for those on the hunt. From close analysis of the latest studies and job-market statistics to tips on scanning software, soft skills and social media, Bolles sheds great insight on how to craft a winning resume. Do not order before 5/6/2014. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-657-7 | 112pp. | $12.99/$14.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-658-4 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. Themes: Job Hunting • Vocational Guidance

Also available by Richard N. Bolles:

THE JOB-HUNTER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE

Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-026-2 | 112pp. | $9.99/$12.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-75942-9 | $9.99/$9.99 Can.

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? JOB-HUNTER’S WORKBOOK, FOURTH EDITION

Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-497-9 | 80pp. | $12.99/$15.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

THINKING IN NEW BOXES

A New Paradigm for Business Creativity

Website: www.ThinkingInNewBoxes.com/about

By Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny

Replete with practical and potent creativity tools, and featuring fascinating case studies from BIC to Ford to Trader Joe’s, Thinking in New Boxes will help students and companies overcome missed opportunities and stay ahead of the curve. This innovative book challenges everything students thought they knew about business creativity by breaking creativity, and counteract the boxes that can blind students to risks and opportunities. “Thinking in New Boxes is a five-step guide that leverages the authors’ deep understanding of human nature to enable readers to overcome their limitations and both imagine and create their own futures. This book is a must-read for people living and working in today’s competitive environment.” —Ray O. Johnson, Ph.D., chief technology officer, Lockheed Martin Random House | HC | 978-0-8129-9295-3 | 352pp. | $28.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64436-1 | $14.99/$16.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Creative Thinking • Social Psychology

www.CommonReads.com

LIFE AND COLLEGE GUIDES

CLICK

The Forces Behind How We Fully Engage with People, Work, and Everything We Do

Website: www.OriBrafman.com

By Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

The Brafman brothers have written a thorough and lively exploration of the psychological processes underpinning why people “click” with other people, or certain projects or activities, drawing on current psychological and sociological research to highlight the mental and social processes that are occurring during such peak experiences. They delineate why people click in certain situations and with certain people, identify five “accelerators” that increase the likelihood of experiencing these kinds of connections in one’s work and relationships, and explain how these productive and happy moments can be consciously encouraged. Click is a fascinating exploration of how people connect with the world around them. Crown Business | TR | 978-0-385-52906-8 | 224pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can.| Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-71584-5 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Leadership & Motivation • Life Skills • Peer Group Skills

SWAY: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

By Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

Author Interview: tiny.cc/i3j4qw Author Video: tiny.cc/95j4qw

Renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, present a thought-provoking overview of the irrational behaviors and poor decision-making that characterize so many of our actions. They balance anecdotes about typical financial, professional, and personal decisions with relevant research in the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior. The dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our lives are revealed, as are strategies to avoid succumbing to these psychological traps. “A provocative new book about the psychological forces that lead us to disregard facts or logic and behave in surprisingly irrational ways.” —The New York Times Crown Business | TR | 978-0-385-53060-6 | 224pp. | $14.00/$16.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-52677-7 | $9.99/$12.99 Can. Themes: Ethics/Decision Making • Life Skills • Peer Group Skills

SUCCEEDING WHEN YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO FAIL

The 6 Enduring Principles of High Achievement By Rom Brafman

Popular and academic psychology has long dictated that those who face arduous life circumstances—a difficult childhood, sudden job loss, poverty—will succumb to those forces that hinder them. But as Brafman points out, a third of all people beset by trying situations actually overcome them, to succeed and thrive in their chosen life paths. He draws on groundbreaking neurological and psychological research to highlight the key innate factors that support overcoming adversity—and how everyone, in all circumstances and walks of life, can locate these traits within themselves, and make the most of them in their own lives. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-88769-6 | 208pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88770-2 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Leadership & Motivation • Life Skills • Perseverance/Personal Strength

GETTING THE BEST OUT OF COLLEGE, Revised and Updated Insider Advice for Success from a Professor, a Dean, and a Recent Grad By Peter Feaver, Sue Wasiolek, and Anne Crossman

Going beyond basic study skills, this updated edition of Getting the Best Out of College explains everything freshman orientation might overlook, including topics such as how to develop rewarding relationships with professors, choose a major that will support long-term goals, use lesser-known campus resources to one’s advantage, manage relationships back home, and more. New chapters address contemporary issues such as how to transfer to international colleges and universities; if and when it’s a good idea to delay, transfer, or drop out of college; and how to make the most of a “gap year.” “A wonderful resource for students and their parents.” —Elizabeth Kiss, President of Agnes Scott College Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-144-2 | 304pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-78880-1 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. Themes: Life Skills • Peer Group Skills

Life and College Guides

LIFE AND COLLEGE GUIDES

DECISIVE

Website: www.HeathBrothers.com

How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work By Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Research in psychology has revealed that our decision-making suffers from consistent problems: We’re overconfident. We seek out information that supports us and downplay information that doesn’t. We get distracted by short-term emotions. Unfortunately, merely being aware of these shortcomings doesn’t fix the problem. The question is: How can we do better? In Decisive, Chip and Dan Heath (bestselling authors of Made to Stick and Switch) reveal the four major principles that can be employed in order to make better, more informed, and more rational decisions in both the professional and personal realms. Crown Business | HC | 978-0-307-95639-2 | 336pp. | $26.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-95641-5 | $13.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Ethics/Decision Making • Life Skills

MADE TO STICK

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die By Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? Chip and Dan Heath tackle these vexing questions head-on. In this indispensable guide, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax, to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship, to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their power from the same six traits. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick reveals the vital components of winning ideas—and shows how everyone can make their own messages stick. Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6428-1 | 336pp. | $26.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-596-5 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Group Dynamics • Leadership & Motivation • Life Skills

SWITCH

How to Change Things When Change Is Hard By Chip Heath and Dan Heath

This compelling narrative about the difficulty of bringing about genuine, lasting change in ourselves and in others—especially when one has few resources and no title or authority—is a riveting read that will change lives. Combining psychology, sociology, management, and case studies from a host of different fields, the authors tell countless stories of people and organizations that have successfully created significant change. They succeed, against the odds, by following a common “pattern” of change, one that often starts by finding and studying their “bright spots”—the early signs of success that can give hope to a change effort.

Available in Español

Crown Business | HC | 978-0-385-52875-7 | 320pp. | $26.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.00 Spanish Language Edition: Vintage | TR | 978-0-307-74235-3 | $15.95/$17.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-59016-9 | $14.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Group Dynamics • Life Skills • Social Justice

THE START-UP OF YOU

Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career By Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Website: www.TheStartupOfYou.com Author Video: www.TheStartupOfYou.com/videos To view Ben Casnocha’s talk at the 2013 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/qlscax

A revolutionary new guide to thriving in today’s fractured world of work, The Start-Up of You provides strategies that will help individuals survive, thrive, and achieve the boldest professional ambitions and to take control of one’s future. “The Start-Up of You offers students of all college levels a realistic and straightforward life handbook that can also be read and re-read at each ‘pivot’ point in one's career path.” —Lavinia P. Zanassi, Faculty, Counseling Department, Skyline College

Selected for Common Reading at Bentley University. Crown Business | HC | 978-0-307-88890-7 | 272pp. | $26.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88892-1 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Leadership & Motivation • Life Skills • Transition

www.CommonReads.com

By Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd

LIFE AND LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, COLLEGE GUIDES BIOGRAPHY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

GOOD PROSE

The Art of Nonfiction: Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing and Editing

Website: www.TracyKidder.com

What is good prose? And how is it written? Pulitzer Prize–winning literary journalist Tracy Kidder and distinguished editor and cultural critic Richard Todd tackle these questions together, offering tips, stories, and valuable lessons from their more than four decades of work together as writer and editor at the Atlantic Monthly. Combining practical advice and discussion of mechanics and technique with engaging personal stories and examples of great nonfiction, Good Prose is a must-read for anyone interested in reading or writing nonfiction. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8215-2 | 224pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-60472-3 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Communication • Life Skills

ESSENTIALISM

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

To request a free advance readers copy, email commonreads@randomhouse.com

By Greg McKeown

Website: www.GregMcKeown.com For students who feel overworked but underutilized or always busy but never productive, comes a book on how to achieve more by doing less: a systematic, strategic framework for discerning what is essential, eliminating what is not, and removing obstacles in order to make the execution of what is actually essential as easy and effortless as possible. By forcing oneself to disinguish the vital few from the trivial many and apply a tougher, more selective criteria for what is essential, the discplined pursuit of less allows us to regain control of our own choices so we can channel our time, energy, and effort toward making the highest possible contribution toward the goals and activities that truly matter. “In a world of increasing chaos and complexity, the ideas and tools of Essentialism turn chaos into commitment and complexity into accomplishment. This timely, well written book is a must read and do for any employee, manager, leader, or parent whoever feels overwhelmed. It is truly the right book at the right time.” —Dave Ulrich, Professor, University of Michigan School of Business Do not order before 4/15/2014. Crown Business | HC | 978-0-8041-3738-6 | 272pp. | $23.00/$26.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.50 e-Book: 978-0-8041-3739-3 | $12.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Success • Time Management

COLLEGE RULES! 3rd Edition: How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College

By Sherrie Nist-Olejnik, Ph.D., and Jodi Patrick Holschuh, Ph.D.

This updated, expanded edition of a perennially popular guide offers students a crash course in how to succeed in college. It shares essential lessons, including how to study effectively, handle stress, manage course loads, prepare for and take tests, interact effectively with professors, and balance academics and social life. Selected for Common Reading at Tennessee Wesleyan College. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-001-8 | 352pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-017-9 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. Themes: Life Skills • Peer Group Skills • Transition

THE TOOLS

Transform Your Problems into Courage, Confidence, and Creativity

Website: www.TheToolsBook.com Author Video: tiny.cc/x9qcax

By Phil Stutz and Barry Michels

Dissatisfied with the traditional therapy that left their patients waiting long, indefinite periods of time for the change they needed, psychotherapist Barry Michels and psychiatrist Phil Stutz joined forces to develop a more evolved therapy that would create positive, effective change more quickly. Using four steps that allow one to tap into the unconscious and turn problems into transformative tools, the duo (called an “open secret” by The New Yorker) explain how to feel better now—and for the long-term. The Tools is a breakthrough in self-improvement and empowerment. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8304-3 | 288pp. | $16.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64445-3 | $11.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Inspiration • Leadership/Motivation • Life Skills

Life and College Guides

LIFE AND COLLEGE GUIDES

Q&A A DAY FOR COLLEGE

4-Year Journal By Potter Style

College is a time for both new experiences and great introspection. The most recent installment of Q&A a Day allows undergrads to capture these reflections and adventures. By providing 366 intriguing and inspired prompts, this journal offers students the opportunity to keep a unique record of their collegiate life. Do not order before 3/25/2014. Potter Style | NT | 978-0-8041-8568-4 | 368pp. | $16.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Themes: Coming of Age • Identity • Transition

THE HIDDEN BRAIN

Website: www.HiddenBrain.org Author Interview: tiny.cc/ur73qw

How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives By Shankar Vedantam

Called “[an] entertaining romp through covert influences on human behavior” by The New York Times Book Review, The Hidden Brain by NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam explains the effects of unconscious biases in everyday life, how culture influences the workplace, how teams come together and why they fail, and how professionals can use the hidden brain to communicate more effectively. “In The Hidden Brain, one of America’s best science journalists describes how our unconscious minds influence everything from criminal trials to charitable giving, from suicide bombers to presidential elections. The Hidden Brain is a smart and engaging exploration of the science behind the headlines—and of the little man behind the screen. Don’t miss it.” —Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52522-0 | 288pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58836-939-0 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Decision Making • Human Behavior • Life Skills

UNTHINK

Rediscover Your Creative Genius

Website: www.TheArtOfVision.com/Unthink

By Erik Wahl

Unthink champions the notion that a creative genius lies within all of us. Written by visionary artist, author, and entrepreneur Erik Wahl, this book teaches students to unlock their full potential by changing their traditional thought patterns. Wahl brilliantly explains how individuals can reframe their thinking to arrive at unexpected solutions. And, ultimately, he affirms the belief that we’re all so much more creatively capable than we realize. “Erik Wahl has made his creativity his life’s study. In the pages of Unthink, you’ll find inspiration for your own creative journey. Even better, you’ll discover that you won’t have to travel far—the answers are all around you.” —Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Whole New Mind, Drive, and To Sell Is Human Crown Business | HC | 978-0-7704-3400-7 | 224pp. | $23.00/$26.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.50 e-Book: 978-0-7704-3402-1 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. Themes: Creativity • Personal Success

HOW TO BE A PERSON

The Stranger’s Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself

By Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizzelle, Bethany Jean Clement, and The Staff of The Stranger The wise—and hilarious—staff of alternative Seattle newspaper The Stranger have created what very well may be the most honest, informative, and entertaining college orientation to have ever appeared on paper. Offering a panoply of useful tips, advice, and information not to be found anywhere else, How to Be a Person presents fun, sage advice on matters of education, entertainment, manners, personal hygiene, sex, love, and relationships. For anyone about to enter the strange, uncharted waters of college, this book is a lifesaver, a guide that truly covers it all. Sasquatch Books | TR | 978-1-57061-778-2 | 272pp. | $16.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-57061-835-2 | $16.95/$19.95 Can. Themes: Life Skills • Peer Group Skills • Transition

www.CommonReads.com

LIFE AND COLLEgE guIDES

Also Available: CRACKING THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET

How to Find Opportunity in Any Economy

By Donald Asher Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-494-9 | 208pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58008-639-4 | $13.99/$12.99 Can.

HOW TO GET ANY JOB: Second Edition Life Launch and Re-Launch for Everyone Under 30 (or How to Avoid Living in Your Parents’ Basement)

By Donald Asher Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-947-0 | 240pp. $15.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-79768-1 | $11.99/$13.99 Can.

THE OVERNIGHT RÉSUMÉ: 3rd Edition The Fastest Way to Your Next Job

By Donald Asher Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-091-0 | 134pp. $12.99/$15.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

ALL WORK, NO PAY

Finding an Internship, Building Your Résumé, Making Connections, and Gaining Job Experience

By Lauren Berger Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-168-8 | 208pp. $12.99/$14.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-169-5 | $9.99/$11.99 Can.

MAJOR IN SUCCESS, 5TH EDITION

Make College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams, and Get a Great Job

By Patrick Combs; Foreword by Jack Canfield Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-865-7 | 208pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

10 THINGS EMPLOYERS WANT YOU TO LEARN IN COLLEGE, REVISED

The Skills You Need to Succeed

By Bill Coplin Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-145-9 | 304pp. $14.99/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-76849-0 | $11.99/$13.99 Can.

THE TALENT CODE

Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.

By Daniel Coyle Bantam | HC | 978-0-553-80684-7 | 256pp. $26.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-553-90649-3 | $13.99/$15.99 Can.

THE CAREER GUIDE FOR CREATIVE AND UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE

By Carol Eikleberry Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-841-1 | 240pp. $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-76850-6 | $13.99/$13.99 Can.

THE CAREER COUNSELOR’S HANDBOOK

Second Edition

By Howard Figler and Richard N. Bolles Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-870-1 | 320pp. $19.99/$24.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-355-2 | $14.99/$19.99 Can.

LECTURE NOTES

A Professor’s Inside Guide to College Success

By Philip Freeman, Ph.D. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-754-4 | 160pp. $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58008-429-1 | $11.99/$13.99 Can.

THE NEW JOB SECURITY, REVISED

The 5 Best Strategies for Taking Control of Your Career

By Pam Lassiter Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-377-5 | 224pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58008-673-8 | $11.99/$12.99 Can.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GUIDE TO BUILDING YOUR CAREER

By Jennifer Merritt Crown Business |TR | 978-0-307-71956-0 | 208pp. $15.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-71957-7 | $11.99/$13.99 Can.

THE CURMUDGEON’S GUIDE TO GETTING AHEAD

Do’s and Don’ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life By Charles Murray Do not order before 4/8/2014. Crown Business | HC | 978-0-8041-4144-4 | 144pp. $17.95/$21.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $9.00 e-Book: 978-0-8041-4145-1 | $10.99/$10.99 Can.

GENERATION EARN

The Young Professional’s Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back By Kimberly Palmer Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-236-5 | 240pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-58008-625-7 | $11.99/$12.99 Can.

HAPPIER AT HOME

Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life By Gretchen Rubin Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-88679-8 | 304pp. $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88680-4 | $11.99/NCR Also available from Random House Audio

RÉSUMÉ 101

A Student and Recent Grad Guide to Crafting Résumés and Cover Letters that Land Jobs By Quentin J. Schultze; Foreword by Richard N. Bolles Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-194-7 | 144pp. $12.99/$14.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-195-4 | $9.99/$11.99 Can.

I JUST GRADUATED . . . NOW WHAT?

Honest Answers from Those Who Have Been There By Katherine Schwarzenegger Do not order before 4/1/2014. Crown Archetype | HC | 978-0-385-34720-4 | 288pp. $20.00/$24.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $10.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-34721-1 | $10.99/$12.99 Can.

STUFF EVERY COLLEGE STUDENT SHOULD KNOW

By Blair Thornburgh Do not order before 3/25/2014. Quirk Books | HC | 978-1-59474-710-6 | 144pp. $9.95/$10.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $5.00 e-Book: 978-1-59474-711-3 | $9.95/$10.95 Can.

Life and College Guides

FULL BODY BURDEN

Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats By Kristen Iversen

Website: www.KristenIversen.com Author Interview: tiny.cc/pp4wqw • Author Video: tiny.cc/5nhbrw To view the author’s talk at the 2013 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/percax To view the author’s NPR interview, go to: www.kristeniversen.com/disc.htm Winner of the 2013 Colorado Book Award Winner of the Reading the West Book Award in Nonfiction | A Mother Jones Best Book | A Kirkus Reviews Best Book | An Atlantic Monthly Best Book about Justice Chosen one of the Best Books of the Year by American Library Association ull Body Burden is a haunting work of narrative nonfiction about a young woman, Kristen Iversen, growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated “the most contaminated site in America.” It’s the story of growing up in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and—unknown to those who lived there—tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It’s also a book about the destructive power of secrets—both family and government. Her father’s hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what they made at Rocky Flats—best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions. And as this memoir unfolds, it also reveals itself as a brilliant work of investigative journalism—a shocking account of the government’s sustained attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic and radioactive waste released by Rocky Flats, and of local residents’ failed attempts to seek justice in court.

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: California State University at Sacramento; Fort Lewis College; Madisonville Community College; Michigan Technological University; St. Bonaventure University; and Virginia Commonwealth University Disciplines: Environmental Studies; Sociology Themes: Coming of Age; Environment; Regional: Colorado; Science & Society Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“Full Body Burden is a page-turner, a beautifully lucid intertwining of memoir and careful research. Who knew that the way that America waged the Cold War would produce such severe domestic casualties: the corruption of our own government and the radioactive poisoning of so many of our own citizens? Full Body Burden is a courageous life work.” —Hank Lazer, Professor of English, University of Alabama “Full Body Burden reads like a mystery thriller. Yet its stark reality makes it all the more frightening because of secrets within and outside the home: alcoholism, nuclear fallout, mysterious illnesses. Iversen’s nimble prose and smart structure creates a powerful memoir. This is a must read for journalism, creative writing, and ecocritical students.” —Amelia María de la Luz Montes, Associate Professor of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln “Dazzles with its literary versatility and astounds with its revelations about the nexus of greed, fear, and indifference that created, and continue to create, a culture of silence surrounding Rocky Flats. Painstakingly researched for over ten years— but arguably a lifetime in the making—Full Body Burden subverts expectations of genre by combining elements of memoir, journalism, physics, environmentalism, history, social activism, and politics—all artfully fused in Iversen’s fluid and beautiful prose. With potential appeal to so many varied disciplines, this book is an ideal text for Freshman Year Experience or One Book Programs.” —Joshua McKinney, Professor of English, CSU Sacramento

KRISTEN IVERSEN grew up in Arvada, Colorado and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Denver. She is Director of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Memphis and also Editor-in-Chief of The Pinch, an award-winning literary journal. She is also the author of Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Biography and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction.

www.CommonReads.com

©Jay Adkins

About the Author: Kristen Iversen

A Message from the Author I grew up in Arvada, Colorado, just a few miles from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, which secretly produced more than seventy thousand plutonium triggers for bombs. Of course, I didn’t know about plutonium then. I didn’t know that a single microgram—a dot on the head of a pin, a flea in a cathedral—is considered a potentially lethal dose. Our house was next to a lake, with a backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. My siblings and I played in the backyard, swam in the lake, and rode our horses in the fields around the plant. No one knew the land had been seriously contaminated, and none of us understood what was happening at the factory down the road. Cold War secrecy was the rule. For decades, Rocky Flats had been releasing toxic and radioactive elements into the air, water, and soil, but it had been covered up. The government, Dow Chemical, and later Rockwell International, one of the nation’s largest industrial corporations, assured Coloradans that Rocky Flats was safe, despite constant leaks and fires. There were strange childhood cancers and livestock deformities in my neighborhood, and we all wondered if it was related to what went on at the plant. But no one talked openly about Rocky Flats. In 1995, when I was a single parent with two young sons, working my way through graduate school, I went to work at Rocky Flats. Many of the kids I grew up with had ended up working there because the pay and benefits were so good. I needed the job, and I was keen to learn what actually happened at the plant. The weekly reports that I typed as part of my job described problems with toxic and radioactive waste storage, leaking drums, fires, and other environmental problems. I learned strange acronyms like MUF, meaning “material unaccounted for,” a bland way of saying that thousands of pounds of plutonium had been lost. I became familiar with the history and problems of the plant, including some of the details of the 1989 FBI raid after which plutonium operations ceased, and I felt stunned by what I had not known all those years— and what the public did not know. The day I learned that I was literally working next to 14.2 metric tons of plutonium—much of it unsafely stored—was the day I knew I had to quit, and that someday I would write a book about Rocky Flats. More than ten years of research went into the writing of Full Body Burden. I read hundreds of pages of documentation; conducted extensive interviews; pored over newspaper articles, photographs, and previously classified information; and reconnected with many of the people I grew up with. Some of the people I interviewed suffered from illnesses that were likely the result of exposure to toxic substances; several have died within the last year or two. And yet, with a half-life of 24,000 years, plutonium on and near the Rocky Flats site will persist long after we—and our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and the many generations beyond—are gone. Kristen Iversen

Environmental Studies and Health Sciences

STUFFED AND STARVED

The Hidden Battle for the World Food System By Raj Patel

Website: www.RajPatel.org Author Video: tiny.cc/8nharw

n this completely updated and revised edition, Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel continues to be one of the most widely praised food books of recent years. It’s a perverse fact of modern life: There are more starving people in the world than ever before, while there are also more people who are overweight. To find out how things got to this point and what can be done about it, Raj Patel launched a comprehensive investigation into the global food network. It took him from the colossal supermarkets of California to India’s wrecked paddy fields and Africa’s bankrupt coffee farms, while along the way he ate genetically engineered soy beans and dodged flying objects in the protestor-packed streets of South Korea. What he found was shocking, from the false choices given us by supermarkets to a global epidemic of farmer suicides, and the real reasons for famine in Asia and Africa.

Melville House | TR | 978-1-61219-127-0 | 432pp. $19.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-1-61219-128-7 | $19.95/NCR

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: Skagit Valley College Disciplines: Business; Food Studies; Political Science Themes: Environment; Ethics/Decision Making; Social Justice Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

Yet he also found great cause for hope—in international resistance movements working to create a more democratic, sustainable, and joyful food system. Going beyond ethical consumerism, Patel explains, from seed to store to plate, the steps to regain control of the global food economy, stop the exploitation of both farmers and consumers, and rebalance global sustenance. “For anyone attempting to make sense of the world food crisis, or understand the links between U.S. farm policy and the ability of the world's poor to feed themselves, Stuffed and Starved is indispensable.” —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire “A blistering indictment of the policies of multinational agribusiness conglomerates and charges that their drive for profit at any cost has left the developing world starving while wealthy countries like the United States are experiencing epidemic obesity rates and related health problems.” —Newsweek

About the Author: Raj Patel RAJ PATEL, a fellow at Food First, is a visiting scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies. He has worked for the World Bank, WTO, and the UN, and he’s also been tear-gassed on four continents protesting them. He is the author of The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author Why did I write Stuffed and Starved? As first-year students just entering college, my friends and I were fired up by the big questions—questions of inequity, questions of basic fairness. Why do some people have so much, while others have so little? Why do some people go hungry, while others are obese? Is there really not enough food to feed the world? Trying to answer those questions has been driving my research, and my life, ever since. And finding real workable solutions seems more crucial now than ever. Globally, nearly a billion people are going hungry, while two billion are overweight. When I was growing up, my parents said “eat up—there are children starving in Africa.” So what do you think parents in Africa tell their children? “Eat up—there are children starving in India.” African parents have it right. India, the place where we imagine all the jobs have gone to people with Ph.D.s in computer science, is also a country with more hungry people than the entire continent of Africa, an epidemic of farmer suicides, and more people with type 2 diabetes than anywhere in the world. Back here in the U.S., we are one of the most overweight countries on earth, facing our own food-related problems. One in three kids born today will develop diabetes—and one in every two kids of color will. Yet fifty million Americans don’t have enough to eat, and we had our own wave of farmer suicides in the 1980s. Trying to make sense out of these incongruities has taken me around the world—from the giant supermarkets of California to wrecked paddy fields in India and bankrupt coffee farms in Africa—and to some of the biggest issues of our day: the effects of climate change on food stability, a worldwide diabetes epidemic, dramatic new Chinese food policies, and something all governments fear: the return of the “food riot.” Food—its availability, cost, quality, and quantity—is one of the biggest issues we face today. And though the stories and the statistics may be bleak, as I researched further I also found great cause for hope. People are working to create a more equitable food economy. There are things to be done, and people are doing them. We can take real, profound steps to regain control over the global food system. We can go beyond small acts of ethical consumerism. Together, we can create a more democratic, sustainable, and joyful food system. I believe I have found some real answers to those early undergraduate questions, answers that go beyond the tired rhetoric of the news cycle, that have opened me up to worlds of science, letters, ideas, and action. If readers can take a fraction of the inspiration from Stuffed and Starved that I found in fields from Iowa to India, we’ll be well on our way to ending both hunger and obesity, forever. Raj Patel

Environmental Studies and Health Sciences

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND HEALTH SCIENCES

BLUE REVOLUTION

Unmaking America’s Water Crisis

Website: www.CynthiaBarnett.net/book.html

By Cynthia Barnett

For most Americans, water is cheap and abundant. Faucets run and lawns are watered without much thought given to the source or preservation. But this precious resource is not infinite. Blue Revolution addresses our impending water crisis and proposes that a water ethic for America is essential in reversing our current course. “The roots of a new water ethic are found in the practices of millions of individuals, businesses, and other organizations around the world. Barnett shows how good water use practices can go viral, with massive benefits for society and nature. Blue Revolution offers affordable, practical, down-to-earth solutions for America’s water crisis.” —Stephen R. Carpenter, Director of the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Winner of the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize

Selected for Summit County (Colorado) Reads. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-0328-2 | 296pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-0318-3 | $26.95/$31.00 Can. Themes: Environment • Ethics/Decision Making • Science & Society

TOMS RIVER

A Story of Science and Salvation

Website: www.DanFagin.com

By Dan Fagin

In 1971, a trucker tossed drums of industrial waste onto the land of a New Jersey chicken farm. When an alarming number of childhood cancer cases cropped up in the town of Toms River, the inhabitants united in a quest to expose the connection between toxic waste and illness—a battle that culminated in the government’s stunning confirmation of the very real link between pollution and cancer. Prize-winning environmental writer and professor Dan Fagin combines careful, evidence-based research and reportage with engaging, empathetic storytelling. Bantam | HC | 978-0-553-80653-3 | 560pp. | $28.00/$34.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-53861-1 | $14.99/$15.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Environment • Science & Society

FAREWELL, MY SUBARU

An Epic Adventure in Local Living

Website: www.DougFine.com

By Doug Fine

It takes more water to sustain a vegetable crop in New Mexico for a year than it would to sustain a Bangladeshi village of 500. All components of a solar-powered water pump are made in Japan or Denmark. It takes 16,000 gallons of jet fuel to fly an organic banana from Honduras to Silver City, New Mexico. Doug Fine didn’t know any of these facts, and when he learned them, he decided to live a more eco-conscious life. Farewell, My Subaru is the hilarious and inspirational account of a Long Island suburbanite’s attempt to go green—extreme green—in rural New Mexico. Selected for Common Reading at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Villard Books | TR | 978-0-8129-7789-9 | 224pp. | $15.00/$17.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-345-50460-9 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Environment • Ethics/Decision Making • Global Citizenship

GREEN TOWN U.S.A: The Handbook for America’s Sustainable Future

By Thomas J. Fox Contribution by Andrew Flach; Foreword by Alex Wilson; Introduction by Daniel Wallach

In 2007, Greensburg, Kansas, was struck by a tornado, and lost 95 percent of its infrastructure. The people of Greensburg, with the guidance of Daniel Wallach, rebuilt their community as the first Green Town in the U.S. This book explains how any town can incorporate renewable energy, green construction, local food suppliers, and other sustainable approaches to become a green community, too. Hatherleigh Press | TR | 978-1-57826-312-7 | 240pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-57826-481-0 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. Themes: Environment • Leadership & Motivation

www.CommonReads.com

ENVIRONMENTAL LIFE STORIES—MEMOIR, STUDIES AND BIOGRAPHY, HEALTH SCIENCES AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

PLANETWALKER

Author Video: tiny.cc/0v4wqw

22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence. By John Francis, Ph.D.

Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Awards in the categories of Ecology/Environment and Independent Press After witnessing the devastating effects of the 1971 oil spill in San Francisco Bay, John Francis began a remarkable, solitary pilgrimage that would change his life irrevocably. An amazing human-interest story with a vital message about saving our environment, Planetwalker is also an engaging coming-of-age odyssey, full of the positive experiences, the challenging times, the characters encountered, and the learning gained along the way. Selected for Common Reading at Graceland University and University at South Carolina Upstate. National Geographic | TR | 978-1-4262-0405-0 | 288pp. | $16.95/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-4262-0340-4 | $16.95/$20.00 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Environment • Leadership & Motivation

ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE

The Hidden Impacts of What We Buy

Website: www.DanielGoleman.info

By Daniel Goleman

“The theme of ecological awareness and environmental sustainability emerged as we considered a variety of books. The selection committee felt that such a theme would offer many options for engagement and use of the book across all colleges and disciplines. It could connect with new university efforts in the area of heightened environmental awareness and action and provide opportunities to facilitate community service options for students and faculty.” —Ron Daniel, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, Virginia Tech

Selected for Common Reading at Virginia Tech. Crown Business | TR | 978-0-385-52783-5 | 288pp. | $16.99/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-385-53040-8 | $12.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Environment • Ethics/Decision Making • Science & Society

THE END OF COUNTRY

Website: www.SeamusMcGraw.com

Dispatches from the Frack Zone By Seamus McGraw

The land in a remote northeastern corner of Pennsylvania happens to contain one of the richest known natural gas deposits in the world—the Marcellus Shale—worth more than one trillion dollars. A native of the region, award-winning American journalist Seamus McGraw shares a riveting account of the intense battle that ensues between the corporate developers who want to get their hands on this commodity, and a group of local crusaders who are determined to fight “the end of country” and get what they deserve, without sacrificing their homes or compromising their way of life. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8064-6 | 256pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-60431-0 | $13.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Environment • Group Dynamics • Social Justice

THE MINIMUM SECURITY CHRONICLES

Resistance to Ecocide

Website: www.StephanieMcMillan.org

By Stephanie McMillan Foreword by Ted Rall

The Minimum Security Chronicles, from cartoonist Stephanie McMillan, tells the story of lifelong friends Kranti and Bananabelle. After discovering the site of a future nuclear power plant along with a massive geo-engineering project, Kranti and pals try their utmost to stop the nefarious corporations happy to exploit the environment for personal profit. McMillan is the winner of the 2012 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Seven Stories Press | TR | 978-1-60980-511-1 | 160pp. | $16.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60980-512-8 | $16.95/$16.95 Can. Themes: Environment • Inspiration • Social Justice

Environmental Studies and Health Sciences

ENvIRONMENTAL STuDIES AND HEALTH SCIENCES

ANIMAL WISE

The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures By Virginia Morell

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013 An ALA Notable Book Noted science writer Virginia Morell provides an engaging and surprisingly moving overview of the latest research on animal cognition and emotion, which confirms that the inner lives of animals are far richer than previously understood. “[A] delightful exploration of how animals think. . . . Morell makes a fascinating, convincing case that even primitive animals give some thought to their actions.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Crown | HC | 978-0-307-46144-5 | 304pp. | $26.00/$29.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 Do not order paperback before 3/25/2014. Broadway Books | TR | 978-0-307-46145-2 | 304pp. | $14.95/$17.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-46146-9 | $12.99/$14.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Cognition & Emotion • Environment

THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES

Lost Groves, Champion Trees, and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet

Website: www.Jim-Robbins.net

By Jim Robbins

New York Times reporter and freelance journalist Jim Robbins explains the importance of trees, including how they may help save the planet. At the heart of this timely and evocative nonfiction work is the incredible story of David Milarch, a Michigan nurseryman who embarked on a mission to locate “champion” trees, reproduce them, and spread their offspring around the world following a near-death experience. The Man Who Planted Trees is both a testament to one man’s successful efforts to save one of our most important natural resources and a resounding call to others to act. Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-1-4000-6906-4 | 240pp. | $25.00/$29.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 e-Book: 978-1-58836-999-4 | $12.99/$15.99 Can. Themes: Environment • Inspiration • Service

PLENTY: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet

By Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon

Website: www.AlisaSmith.ca

Plenty relates the remarkable, amusing, and inspiring adventures of a Canadian couple who make a yearlong attempt to eat only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their apartment. This food-focused experiment offers a way to think about globalization, monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and community, as the authors reveal a meaningful way to relate to the very essence of human survival: the food we eat. “A funny, warm, and seductive account of how we might live better—better for this earth, better for the community, better for our bellies!” —Bill McKibben

Selected for Common Reading at College of the Redwoods and Humboldt State University. Clarkson Potter | TR | 978-0-307-34733-6 | 272pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-39478-1 | $9.99/NCR Themes: Environment • Science & Society • Social Justice

THE YOUNG ACTIVIST’S GUIDE TO BUILDING A GREEN MOVEMENT AND CHANGING THE WORLD

By Sharon J. Smith Foreword by Julia Butterfly Hill

Website: tiny.cc/bal4qw

In The Young Activist’s Guide to Building a Green Movement and Changing the World, author and activist Sharon J. Smith shares proven strategies and lessons learned from the winners of Earth Island Institute’s Brower Youth Awards, America’s top honor for young green leaders. Here are all the tools environmental organizers need—from planning a campaign and recruiting supporters to raising money and attracting media attention. The Guide also has tips on how students can boost the sustainability of their college campuses, with contributions by Earth Day Network, and tips on how to launch a career in the environmental movement. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-561-8 | 224pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60774-016-2 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. Themes: Environment • global Citizenship • Leadership & Motivation

www.CommonReads.com

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND HEALTH SCIENCES

NATURE WARS

The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds

Website: www.JimSterba.com

By Jim Sterba

Nature Wars offers an eye-opening look at how Americans lost touch with the natural landscape, spending 90 percent of their time indoors where nature arrives via television, films and digital screens. Deeply researched, eloquently written, counterintuitive and often humorous Nature Wars will be the definitive book on how we created this unintended mess. “Smart and provocative. . . . Nature Wars is a counterintuitive take on a social problem, and the tone is knowing and smart, not sarcastic or snide.” —Chicago Tribune Broadway Books | TR | 978-0-307-34197-6 | 368pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-98566-8 | $11.99/$12.99 Can.

CATHEDRAL OF THE WILD

An African Journey Home By Boyd Varty

In Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty shares the rich and storied history of his family’s South African Game Reserve—Londolozi. Originally started as a hunting safari by Boyd’s greatgrandfather, the property is ultimately transformed into a nature preserve by Boyd’s father. The memoir is replete with childhood stories about tracking lions and piloting Land Rovers, and argues for the restorative power of the wild. “From the first chapter of Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty’s South Africa grabs your heart, rather like the giant mamba he encountered as a boy. The deadly snake moved on, but Varty’s stories stick. Here is a rare and moving tale of a young man who learns that the greatest dangers, at least to the human soul, are not to be found in the natural world, but in the emptiness beyond it—and that even mambas carry the power to heal.” —Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle Do not order before 3/11/2014. Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6985-9 | 304pp. | $27.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50 e-Book: 978-0-679-60485-3 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Coming of Age • Environment

HARVEST THE WIND

America’s Journey to Jobs, Energy Independence, and Climate Stability

Website: www.PhilipWarburg.com

By Philip Warburg

In Harvest the Wind, Philip Warburg brings us the people behind the green economy-powered resurgence in Cloud County and communities like it across the United States. This corner of Kansas is the first stop on an odyssey that introduces readers to farmers, factory workers, biologists, and high-tech entrepreneurs—all players in a transformative industry that is taking hold across the U.S. and around the globe. Harvest the Wind serves as an earthly antidote to the more abstract treatises on global warming and green energy. By showing how practical solutions are being implemented at the local level, Warburg offers an inspirational look at how everyone can pursue a saner and more sustainable energy future. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-0049-6 | 256pp. | $19.00/$22.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-0108-0 | $27.95/$33.00 Can. Themes: Environment • Science & Society

Also Available:

GO GREEN, LIVE RICH

50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth (and Get Rich Trying) By David Bach with Hillary Rosner

Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-2973-8 | 192pp. | $14.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-7679-3024-6 | $13.99/NCR • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Environment • Leadership & Motivation • Social Justice

Environmental Studies and Health Sciences

CHASING CHAOS

My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid By Jessica Alexander

Broadway Books | TR | 978-0-7704-3691-9 | 400pp. $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-0-7704-3692-6 | $9.99/$10.99 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Disciplines: Humanitarian Studies; International Studies; Social Sciences Themes: Conflict; Genocide; Human Rights; Morality; Personal Strength/Perseverance; Social Justice Campus Visits:

isillusioned with her job after college, Jessica Alexander dove into the humanitarian aid community, hoping to find a sense of purpose that the corporate world could not offer. Her eye-opening memoir, Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid, sheds light on this all-consuming, extraordinary line of work, which most people know little about. Alexander arrived in Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide as an eager intern, ready to contribute, but unsure of what to expect. The world that Alexander encountered in the field was dramatically different from anything she could have imagined. It was messy, chaotic, and difficult—but she was hooked. In Chasing Chaos, Alexander delivers an honest and compelling memoir that reveals the realities of life as an aid worker. Readers watch as she manages a 24,000-person camp in Darfur and collects evidence for the Charles Taylor trial in Sierra Leone. In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that ravaged South Asia and Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010, Alexander is on the front lines, contributing to the massive, international aid efforts. But we also see the alcohol-fueled parties and fleeting romances, the burnout and self-doubt, and the struggle to do good in places that have long endured suffering. Chasing Chaos chronicles Alexander’s frustrating battles against corruption and inefficiency, but also her small and large victories in the field. Tracing her personal journey from wide-eyed and naïve newcomer to hardened cynic and, ultimately, to hopeful but critical realist, Alexander transports readers to some of the most troubled locations around the world and shows us not only the seemingly impossible challenges, but also the moments of resilience and recovery.

“A fresh, very readable, highly personal account of the trials and tribulations of a young aid worker as she confronts the daily realities—the good, the bad and the very uncomfortable—of life dealing with some of the most important humanitarian challenges of the last decade.” —Ross Mountain, Former Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator, United Nations

Alternative Formats:

JESSICA ALEXANDER is a former Fulbright scholar who has worked for various NGOs as well as UN agencies. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. Alexander received a Master of Public Health and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University in 2005. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, focusing her research on accountability in humanitarian action.

www.CommonReads.com

About the Author: Jessica Alexander

A Message from the Author I’ve been an aid worker now for over twelve years. In college though, I had no idea this profession even existed; my only exposure to the field of international assistance was a chance encounter with a Peace Corps flier at the student center. I graduated in 1999 and followed my cohort to New York City to work as a marketing manager. Two years later, disillusioned with my job as the manager of the Totino’s pizza rolls account, coupled with the death of my mother, I dove into the humanitarian aid community, hoping to find a more meaningful profession and sense of purpose. I arrived in Rwanda as an eager intern, and later went on to manage a 24,000person camp in Darfur and collect evidence for the Charles Taylor trial in Sierra Leone. I also contributed to the massive, international aid efforts in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that ravaged South Asia and Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010. During my time abroad, I would often reflect on how wildly different things had turned out for me. I had wandered far from the well-trodden daily routine of heels, grande Frappuccinos, and the swipe of my badge through the lobby of a Midtown office building. A typical night in New York would be a spin class at the gym followed by sushi with friends; in Indonesia, my nights were spent playing Marco Polo with a humming mosquito inside my net. There were sweltering afternoons in the Darfur sun when I skipped bathing because the water was dirtier than I was. It had been a spectacular and surreal journey, particularly when held against the distant backdrop of the life I could have had. As time went on, there were instances when it became difficult to justify leaving those comforts behind. The supposed trade-off in this field is that you’re doing intellectually satisfying and personally rewarding work—because you’re using the vast resources of where we come from to help those who may never have them. However, that equation isn’t always easy to understand, and there were times when I had trouble rationalizing why I was waking up every morning in a tent in the desert and not in my apartment in Brooklyn. Such thoughts and uncertainties are part of the many realities in this line of work. As a professor, my students often ask me questions about life as an aid worker. What does the day-to-day reality of this work actually look like? What are some of the down sides? What does it take to be an aid professional? How do you break into this career? When I was starting out, I had the exact same questions. My hope is that my experience, told through my memoir Chasing Chaos, will provide answers and help prepare students for the peripatetic existence that I embarked on so long ago. I wanted to give readers an honest look at what it is like working in this field, and how living in some of the most remote places on earth can take a very real toll on your personal life—the burnouts and cynicism, the life plans and priorities that constantly shift and change and change again. Aside from the personal side, I provide an honest insight into aid work. I look critically at the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness present in this complicated industry, but also explore the continual progress and hope, and the moments of inspiring resilience that have shown me the capacity of humans to endure in the face of impossible circumstances. I hope that my story can shed light on what life as a humanitarian aid worker can look like, and provide some insight and guidance for those who are considering packing their bags and pursuing aid work abroad. Jessica Alexander

Social Action

LIVING AND DYING IN BRICK CITY

Stories from the Front Lines of an Inner-City E.R. By Sampson Davis, M.D.

Website: www.DrSampsonDavis.com Author Video: tiny.cc/zlhbrw

With Lisa Frazier Page

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8234-3 | 256pp. $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-0-679-60518-8 | $12.99/$14.99 Can.

ADOPTION NOTES: Disciplines: Social Sciences; Urban Studies Themes: Ethics/Decision Making; Leadership & Motivation; Medicine; Social Justice

ampson Davis is best known as one of three friends from inner-city Newark who made a pact in high school to become doctors. Their book The Pact and their work through the Three Doctors Foundation have inspired countless young men and women to strive for goals they otherwise would not have dreamed they could attain. In this book, Dr. Davis looks at the health care crisis in the inner city from a rare perspective: as a doctor who works on the front line of emergency medical care in the community where he grew up, and as a member of that community who has faced the same challenges as the people he treats every day. He also offers invaluable practical advice for those living in such communities, where conditions like asthma, heart disease, stroke, obesity, and AIDS are disproportionately endemic. Dr. Davis’s sister, a drug addict, died of AIDS; his brother is now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result of a bar fight; and he himself did time in juvenile detention—a wake-up call that changed his life. He recounts recognizing a young man who is brought to the E.R. with critical gunshot wounds as someone who was arrested with him when he was a teenager during a robbery gone bad; describes a patient whose case of sickle-cell anemia rouses an ethical dilemma; and explains the difficulty he has convincing his landlord and friend, an older woman, to go to the hospital for much-needed treatment. With empathy and hard-earned wisdom, Living and Dying in Brick City presents an urgent picture of medical care in our cities. It is an important resource guide for anyone at risk, anyone close to those at risk, and anyone who cares about the fate of our cities.

“This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Sampson Davis’s personal story is powerful, and his experiences in the ER room underscore the lack of effective health care in our underserved communities. . . . His is an important voice in the conversation on health care in this country.” —Wes Moore, Author of The Other Wes Moore

Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

About the Author: Sampson Davis, M.D. SAMPSON DAVIS was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Pact, We Beat the Street, and The Bond. He is the youngest physician to receive the National Medical Association’s highest honor, the Scroll of Merit. He is a recipient of Essence and BET humanitarian awards and was named by Essence as one of the forty most inspirational African Americans. He is a founder of the Three Doctors Foundation and practices medicine in New Jersey.

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A Message from the Author College—the beginning of a new frontier, at least it was for me. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, a school system with dropout rate at more than fifty percent, I knew the odds were stacked against me. Not only did I beat those odds and graduate from college, but I also went on to complete a medical degree. While I certainly worked hard for my success, I could not have achieved what I did without the help of many educators along the way. One of those individuals was Dr. Linda Hsu, my college genetics professor. I will never forget and will always be grateful to Dr. Hsu for her kind acts, but one stands out in particular. It was the eve before my first day of medical school, and I had yet to receive my loan funds to purchase books. The weather outside was horrible with downpours and flood warnings. The hazardous weather might have impeded the mail delivery, but it didn’t stop Dr. Hsu, who stood all of 4’11” with a powerful voice. She jumped into her two-door hatchback and drove to the dorm to deliver funds so that I could purchase my books the next morning. That act of kindness, and her belief in me, touched me deeply and cemented my view in paying it forward—“to whom much is given, much is required.” My latest book, Living and Dying in Brick City: Stories from the Front Lines of an Inner-City E.R., is my way of giving back to the many educators who helped me escape the thought that education wasn’t for me and the belief that I wasn’t good enough. You have both championed and inspired me—and I thank you. My book encompasses the philosophy of reaching each student with a level of creativity and a touch of reality. It is part memoir, medical, self-help, and entertainment with solutions and strategies following each chapter. Brick City captures the imagination of students in any number of disciplines, including science, medicine, African American studies, sociology, history, philosophy, law, creative writing, sports, business, management, and politics. As a doctor who practices medicine in his hometown, I always look to share stories that tie into students’ lives and learning experiences, both in and out of the classroom, which will help them to navigate the world better prepared and equipped to understand and handle the multilayered complexities of life’s scenarios. Educators and readers alike tell me Brick City does just that, bringing together health, community, science, history, religion, business, friendship, family, hope, and ultimately humanity. My goal is to inspire each and every student to reach the highest level possible. I have talked about my life journey and books at hundreds of schools nationwide and have appeared as a guest on numerous television and radio programs. I understand the importance of being an engaging, motivational speaker, and students listen and are inspired because they know I have lived through the obstacles and challenges they are facing. They know that if I was able to overcome and overpower, then so can they. I look forward to visiting more schools and feel confident in saying, Living and Dying in Brick City: Stories from the Front Lines of an Inner-City E.R. delivers an incredible read for any common reading experience. As a misguided, often rebellious youth, I never imagined my life journey would lead me to becoming an author and, through writing this book, I am stepping outside of the hospital walls, still practicing medicine in the way of prevention and inspiration, and reaching thousands of students and educators. I can’t wait to see the effect Brick City has on students nationwide. I’m excited! Sampson Davis, M.D.

Social Action

THE STOP

How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement

Website: tiny.cc/3st19w Author Video: tiny.cc/u8t19w

By Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis

he Stop aims to revolutionize the way we combat hunger and poverty. Since community worker Nick Saul became the executive director of The Stop in 1998, it has been transformed from a cramped food bank to a thriving, internationally respected community food center. The Stop has flourished with gardens, kitchens, a greenhouse, farmers’ markets and a mission to revolutionize our food system. In a voice that’s “never preachy” (MacLean’s), Saul and Curtis share what The Stop could mean for the future of food, and argue that everyone deserves a dignified, healthy place at the table.

“This is an important book. The Stop is no ordinary account of the substantial benefits of soup kitchens to servers and served. It is an impassioned account of how to create food systems that foster independence and eliminate the indignities of charity. Saul and Curtis put a human face on poverty. If you want to know what today’s food movement is really about—and why it is anything but elitist—read this book.” —Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat Melville House | TR | 978-1-61219-349-6 | 320pp. $19.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 Also Available: e-Book: 978-1-61219-350-2 | $19.95/NCR

ADOPTION NOTES: Selected for Common Reading: University of Colorado, Denver Community R.E.A.D.

“The Stop is an inspiring true story about how a low-income neighborhood used good food to take charge of its community—it’s a great lesson for all of us.” —Jamie Oliver “The Stop is one of those forward-thinking groups pointing the way to the future of good food.” —Mark Bittman “In clear and honest prose, [Saul and Curtis] share their struggles and hope with plain talk through tough decisions. How better to learn about ending hunger than through the story of a former food bank whose aim was to put itself out of business?” —Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

Disciplines: Agricultural Studies; Food Studies; Social Sciences Themes: Environment; Inspiration; Social Justice Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

NICK SAUL was executive director of The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto from 1998 to 2012 and is a recipient of the prestigious Jane Jacobs Prize and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. He is now president and CEO of Community Food Centres Canada, a nonprofit organization that will bring the innovations of The Stop to communities across Canada. ANDREA CURTIS is an award-winning writer and editor. Her family memoir, Into the Blue: Family Secrets and the Search for a Great Lakes Shipwreck, won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative NonFiction. Curtis’s first children’s book is What’s for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World.

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©Karri North

About the Authors: Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis

A Message from the Authors Why did we write this book? By Nick Saul & Andrea Curtis, co-authors of The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement When we were both in college (different cities, different schools, a few years apart), we each, separately, became fascinated by social history. We were thrilled to discover that history didn’t have to be the same old boring litany of unmemorizable dates and hard-to-pronounce names we’d been spoon-fed through elementary and high school. It wasn’t just stories told by and about the powerful—kings and courtiers, politicians, religious, and business leaders. (Almost all men, of course.) Instead, social historians were rediscovering the lives and contributions of women, of workers, of First Nations, of immigrants, of servants, and even of children. It was exciting, and part of what we each have done since in our working lives— Andrea as a writer, Nick as a community worker—has been to surface those stories. This book is no different. The Stop is about the power of food to transform individuals, communities, and the planet. But at its heart, it is also the untold story of the inspiring and innovative work of a community-based organization that serves a very low-income, marginalized neighborhood, and the trials and triumphs of the people who live there. Throughout the book, there are the true, often-heartbreaking stories of people who come to The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto, folks living on welfare, struggling to get by on minimum wage jobs, and women fleeing abusive relationships who are forced to choose between feeding themselves or their kids. These are the kinds of stories that rarely get mentioned in newspapers and magazines, or on the radio, TV, or the Internet. Or if they are told, they are one-note wonders—Bob the welfare recipient, Jennifer the single mom, Peter the alcoholic. We rarely get the whole picture—the setbacks and plateaus, the nonlinear way all of us, whether we’re rich, poor, or in between, live our lives. The stories in The Stop of people finding an engaged, welcoming community where they can be fully themselves—welfare recipient and gardener, single mom and vocal advocate for increasing minimum wage—is, in our opinion, one of the most important parts of this book. It is important because it gives space and dignity to these unheralded people. But it is also important because their stories—warts and all—are full of hope. We believe that one way we will begin to see change when it comes to hunger and poverty is when the real stories of low-income people and the struggles they face, the challenges they triumph over, the hard-won hope they forge are told. It’s easy to dismiss someone for their ideologically based ideas—they’re “just” ideas, after all. But it’s less easy to dismiss a person’s life, their experience, and the intimate, difficult details of who they are, what they care about, and what they’ve done. We don’t think anyone who reads this book will dismiss the people who allowed their stories to be told here. We hope they understand, as we have come to believe, that telling stories will help to change the world. Nick Saul & Andrea Curtis

Social Action

SOCIAL ACTION

FAST FUTURE

How the Millennial Generation Is Shaping Our World

Website: www.DavidBurstein.com

By David D. Burstein

David D. Burstein is a burgeoning voice for the millennials. In Fast Future, he turns the spotlight on his generation and captures how his contemporaries are truly shaping the world. As he travels around the country interviewing young people and influential leaders alike, Burstein creates an affecting portrait of an emerging generation. “David Burstein’s generation—a diverse, connected, and entrepreneurial lot that came of age around the Millennium—has already changed the face of politics from Washington to Cairo and beyond. Millennials are distinct and powerful, though scholarship about them has been slapdash and haphazard. Enter David Burstein. With Fast Future, Burstein cements his reputation as the millennial generation’s most thoughtful and insightful public intellectual.” —David King, Harvard University Beacon Press | HC | 978-0-8070-4469-8 | 240pp. | $25.95/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 e-Book: 978-0-8070-4470-4 | $25.95/$29.95 Can. Themes: Coming of Age • Transition • Youth Activism

THE LEADER’S CODE

Mission, Character, Service, and Getting the Job Done

Website: www.TheLeadersCode.com • To view the author’s talk at the 2009 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/0el4qw • To view the author’s talk at the 2013 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/bjrcax

By Donovan Campbell

In his most recent book, The Leader’s Code, Donovan Campbell, author of Joker One, applies the principles learned in the military: a humble servant-leader mentality, a willingness to shoulder responsibility, and an understanding of personal sacrifice for the greater good to civilian life. “A refreshing model for leadership, offering convincing principles and motivating examples that are sure to make a difference in a leader’s personal and professional life. I can’t remember a leadership book that has had more influence on my thinking.” —Steve Reinemund, Dean of Business, Wake Forest University and Retired Chairman and CEO, Pepsico Random House | HC | 978-0-8129-9293-9 | 256pp. | $27.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50 e-Book: 978-0-679-64420-0 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. Themes: Leadership & Motivation • Service

I LIKE GIVING

The Transforming Power of a Generous Life

Website: www.ILikeGiving.com Author Video: tiny.cc/tsc79w

By Brad Formsma

I Like Giving will show students how they can give in personal ways, face to face, and become part of the larger story of life change. In his book, Brad Formsma develops the concept of his website, ILikeGiving.com, which offers a fresh, simple, and practical angle to generosity— making for a rewarding lifestyle that every student can adopt. He discusses the power of giving person to person and provides ideas for giving in the student’s own circles. Both prescriptive and story-based, I Like Giving is about experiencing the joy of giving. WaterBrook Press | TR | 978-1-60142-575-1 | 224pp. | $14.99/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-1-60142-576-8 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Inspiration • Personal Giving • Service

THE FUTURE: Six Drivers of Global Change

Website: www.AlGore.com

By Al Gore

Former Vice President Al Gore’s latest literary offering asserts that we’re barreling towards a remarkably complicated future. From the climate crisis to the digital revolution, Gore argues that it’s imperative that we evaluate the flaws in our prevailing system and begin promoting the public interest if we’re to set a stable course for the future. “In The Future . . . Gore takes on a subject whose scale matches that of his achievements and ambition.” —The New York Times Book Review “Provocative, smart, densely argued . . . a tour de force of Big Picture thinking.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8289-3 | 592pp. | $18.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-64430-9 | $13.99/$15.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Ethics/Decision Making • Global Citizenship • Transition

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By Lilly Ledbetter with Lanier Scott Isom

SOCIAL ACTION

GRACE AND GRIT

My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond

Website: www.LillyLedbetter.com Author Video: tiny.cc/pnzbrw

Many are familiar with Lilly Ledbetter, the woman behind the historic Ledbetter vs. Goodyear discrimination case and President Barack Obama’s Fair Pay Restoration Act. But here, for the first time, this civil rights crusader and American icon shares her complete story: her impoverished childhood, the bias and sexual harassment she experienced as an employee at Goodyear, and her long, determined fight for what is right: fairness and equal rights for all. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-88794-8 | 288pp. | $15.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-88793-1 | $11.99/$13.99 Can. Themes: Gender Issues • Human Rights • Social Justice

START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS

By Blake Mycoskie

Websites: www.StartSomethingThatMatters.com www.Toms.com/Blakes-Bio Author Video: tiny.cc/rlxbrw To view the author’s talk at the 2012 First-Year Experience® Conference, go to: tiny.cc/g7mpqw

TOMS Shoes melds profit-making with social action; for every pair of shoes purchased, the company donates a pair to a child. Although he had no prior fashion or retail experience, Mycoskie’s business is profitable, even while giving shoes away. He shares his innovative approach to business, and the business of doing good. “The TOMS story has already inspired many, and Start Something that Matters supplements that inspiration with wisdom and practical experience that will help to catalyze the next generation of social entrepreneurs. This is exactly the book that my students and I have been waiting for!” —Jim Schorr, Professor of Social Enterprise, Vanderbilt University

Selected for Common Reading at Bay State College; George Mason University; Missouri State University; Philadelphia University; and SUNY Buffalo. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8144-5 | 224pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-679-60352-8 | $9.99/$10.99 Can. • Also available from Random House Audio Themes: Global Citizenship • Leadership & Motivation • Service

THE ENOUGH MOMENT

Fighting to End Africa’s Worst Human Rights Crimes

Website: www.EnoughProject.org

By John Prendergast with Don Cheadle

In their follow-up to the bestselling Not on Our Watch, which brought awareness to the genocide in Sudan, human rights activist John Prendergast and Oscar-nominated actor and philanthropist Don Cheadle present The Enough Moment, an empowering look at how people’s movements and inspired policies can stop genocide, child soldier recruitment, and rape as a war weapon in Africa. Prendergast and Cheadle shed light on this burgeoning mass movement against human rights crimes, showing how it involves citizen activism, social networking, compassion, celebrities, and globalization. “An important, valuable toolkit that will inspire many.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-46482-8 | 304pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-46483-5 | $11.99/$12.99 Can. Themes: Human Rights • Regional: Africa • Social Justice

CITIZEN YOU: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing the World

By Jonathan M. Tisch With Karl Weber; Foreword by Mayor Cory A. Booker

This is a stirring call to “active citizenship,” which moves beyond charity and volunteerism, advocating instead a holistic, systemic approach to changing the world. This call to action will inspire readers to join this empowering and world-changing mission. “Tisch documents a shift from volunteerism to active citizenship, less about alleviating symptoms and more about addressing root causes in problems like poverty, hunger, homelessness, and disease. By the time a concluding list of 51 ways to ‘join the movement’ rolls around, it’s likely Tisch will have inspired readers to take him up on one of them.” —Publishers Weekly Crown | TR | 978-0-307-58849-4 | 288pp. | $13.00/$15.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 e-Book: 978-0-307-58850-0 | $9.99/$11.99 Can. Themes: Leadership & Motivation • Service • Social Justice

Social Action

Author/Title Index 10 THINGS EMPLOYERS WANT YOU TO LEARN IN COLLEGE ..........83 Abbott, Jim and Tim Brown ......................................................................16 ACTS OF FAITH................................................................................................60 AGE OF MIRACLES, THE ..............................................................................45 AIMLESS LOVE ................................................................................................42 Albom, Mitch ..................................................................................................46 Alexander, Jessica..........................................................................................92 ALL SOULS........................................................................................................21 ALL WORK, NO PAY........................................................................................83 AMAZING GRACE ..........................................................................................67 Amnesty International USA ......................................................................68 Angelou, Maya ........................................................................................16, 66 ANIMAL WISE ..................................................................................................90 Asante, MK ......................................................................................................16 Asher, Donald..................................................................................................83 Aslan, Reza ......................................................................................................68 AUDACITY OF HOPE, THE............................................................................22 Ayers, Bill ..........................................................................................................17 Bach, David with Hillary Rosner ..............................................................91 Bahari, Maziar..................................................................................................17 Bakewell, Sarah ..............................................................................................46 Barnett, Cynthia ............................................................................................88 BE DIFFERENT..................................................................................................23 BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS ........................................................52 BEING BOTH ....................................................................................................49 Berger, Lauren ................................................................................................83 BLACK TITAN....................................................................................................20 Blanco, Richard ..............................................................................................17 BLUE REVOLUTION ........................................................................................88 Bolles, Richard N. ..........................................................................................78 Bond, Cynthia..................................................................................................42 Boo, Katherine ................................................................................................52 BOOK OF HAPPINESS: AFRICA ..................................................................66 Boylan, Jennifer Finney ..............................................................................10 Brabandere, Luc De and Alan Iny ............................................................78 Bracken, Sam ..................................................................................................17 Brady, Diane ....................................................................................................68 Brafman, Ori and Rom Braffman ..............................................................79 Brafman, Rom ................................................................................................79 Brewster, Joe, M.D., and Michèle Stephenson ....................................68 BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ENEMY..................................................45 Bronson, Po......................................................................................................46 Brooks, Max ....................................................................................................42 Brunt, Carol Rifka ..........................................................................................26 Brzezinski, Matthew......................................................................................69 BUCK ..................................................................................................................16 Buffett, Peter ..................................................................................................46 Burstein, David D. ..........................................................................................98 Cain, Susan ......................................................................................................54 Campbell, Donovan......................................................................................98 Canada, Geoffrey ..........................................................................................18 CAREER COUNSELOR’S HANDBOOK ......................................................83 CAREER GUIDE FOR CREATIVE AND UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE ................................................................83 CATHEDRAL OF THE WILD ..........................................................................91 CHASING CHAOS ..........................................................................................92 CHASING PERFECT ........................................................................................49 Chittister, Joan Sister....................................................................................47 CITIZEN YOU ....................................................................................................99 CLICK..................................................................................................................79 Cline, Ernest ....................................................................................................28 Cole, Teju ..........................................................................................................42 COLLEGE RULES! 3RD EDITION ................................................................81

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Collins, Billy......................................................................................................42 Combs, Patrick ................................................................................................83 CONGRATULATIONS, BY THE WAY ..........................................................50 CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA, A ........................................34 Coplin, Bill ......................................................................................................83 COVERING ......................................................................................................71 Coyle, Daniel ..................................................................................................83 CRACKING THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET ..................................................83 CREATIVE CONFIDENCE ..............................................................................49 Croke, Vicki ......................................................................................................18 CURMUDGEON’S GUIDE TO GETTING AHEAD, THE ......................83 DATACLYSM ....................................................................................................71 Davidson, Jim and Kevin Vaughan ........................................................47 Davis, Sampson, M.D. ..................................................................................94 DEAR MARCUS ..............................................................................................14 DECISIVE ..........................................................................................................80 DECODED ........................................................................................................19 Demick, Barbara ............................................................................................69 DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, THE ................................................................70 DINNER, THE ..................................................................................................30 DISCOVERING WES MOORE ......................................................................21 Doctorow, E.L. ................................................................................................43 DREAMS FROM MY FATHER ......................................................................22 Duhigg, Charles ............................................................................................72 Dumas, Firoozeh ..........................................................................................18 ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE ....................................................................89 Eding, June ....................................................................................................47 EIGHTY DAYS ..................................................................................................69 Eikleberry, Carol ............................................................................................83 Eisenstein, Charles ......................................................................................47 ELEPHANT COMPANY ................................................................................18 END OF COUNTRY, THE ..............................................................................89 ENON ................................................................................................................43 ENOUGH MOMENT, THE ............................................................................99 ENRIQUE’S JOURNEY ..................................................................................22 ESSENTIALISM ................................................................................................81 EVERY DAY ......................................................................................................32 Fagin, Dan ......................................................................................................88 FAITHEIST ........................................................................................................50 FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DIXIE ..................................................................70 FAREWELL, MY SUBARU ............................................................................88 FAST FUTURE ..................................................................................................98 Feaver, Peter, Sue Wasiolek, and Ann Crossman ..............................79 FIGHT THE POWER! ......................................................................................71 Figler, Howard and Richard N. Bolles ....................................................83 FINANCIALLY FEARLESS ............................................................................76 Fine, Doug ......................................................................................................88 Fink, Sheri, M.D., Ph.D. ................................................................................56 Finn, Adharanand ........................................................................................48 FIRE IN THE ASHES ........................................................................................67 FIST STICK KNIFE GUN ................................................................................18 FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL ..........................................................................56 FOLLOWING THE PATH ................................................................................47 FOR ALL OF US, ONE TODAY ....................................................................17 Ford, Jamie ......................................................................................................43 FOREIGN GODS, INC. ..................................................................................44 Formsma, Brad ..............................................................................................98 Fox, Thomas J. ................................................................................................88 Francis, John, Ph.D. ......................................................................................89 FRATERNITY ....................................................................................................68 FREEDOM ........................................................................................................68 FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY ........................................................................48 Freedom Writers, The ..................................................................................48

Author/Title Index Freeman, Philip Mitchell, Ph.D. ................................................................83 FRESH OFF THE BOAT ..................................................................................19 FROM THE GROUND UP ............................................................................22 FULL BODY BURDEN ....................................................................................84 FUNNY IN FARSI ............................................................................................18 FUTURE, THE ..................................................................................................98 GENERATION EARN ......................................................................................83 GETTING THE BEST OUT COLLEGE ..........................................................79 GO GREEN, LIVE RICH ..................................................................................91 Goleman, Daniel ..........................................................................................89 GOOD PROSE ................................................................................................81 Goodman, Matthew ....................................................................................69 Gore, Al ............................................................................................................98 GRACE AND GRIT ..........................................................................................99 GREEN TOWN USA ........................................................................................88 HALF A LIFE ....................................................................................................25 HAPPIER AT HOME ......................................................................................83 Harding, Paul ..................................................................................................43 Harrison, Guy P. ..............................................................................................74 HARVEST THE WIND ....................................................................................91 Haselhorst, Antoinette ................................................................................66 Hawking, Stephen ........................................................................................18 Heath, Chip and Dan Heath ......................................................................80 HIDDEN BRAIN, THE ....................................................................................82 Higashida, Naoki ..........................................................................................48 Hillenbrand, Laura ........................................................................................19 HIS DAY IS DONE ..........................................................................................66 Hoffert, Melanie ............................................................................................19 Hoffman, Reid and Ben Casnocha ..........................................................80 HOMER & LANGLEY ....................................................................................43 HOPE IN THE UNSEEN, A ............................................................................25 Horowitz, Mitch ............................................................................................49 HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET ..............................43 HOW TO BE A PERSON ................................................................................82 HOW TO GET ANY JOB ................................................................................83 HOW TO LIVE ..................................................................................................46 Huang, Eddie ..................................................................................................19 Hurley, Bob and Daniel Paisner ..............................................................49 I JUST GRADUATED . . . NOW WHAT? ....................................................83 I KNOW WHY CAGED BIRD SINGS ..........................................................16 I LIKE GIVING ..................................................................................................98 IF THIS ISN’T NICE, WHAT IS? ....................................................................51 IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, THE ......................................62 IMPERFECT ......................................................................................................16 IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS ......................................................................70 ISAAC’S ARMY ................................................................................................69 Iversen, Kristen ..............................................................................................84 Jay-Z ..................................................................................................................19 Jenkins, Carol and Elizabeth Gardner Hines ......................................20 JOB HUNTERS SURVIVAL GUIDE, THE ....................................................78 JOSEPH ANTON ............................................................................................23 Kelley, Tom and David Kelly ......................................................................49 Kerman, Piper ................................................................................................12 Kidder, Tracy ..................................................................................................20 Kidder, Tracy and Richard Todd ................................................................81 KIYO’S STORY ................................................................................................24 Koch, Herman ................................................................................................30 Kozol, Jonathan ............................................................................................67 LaNier, Carlotta Walls with Lisa Frazier Page ......................................20 Larson, Erik ......................................................................................................70 Lassiter, Pam ..................................................................................................83 LAST MAN STANDING, THE ........................................................................44 LEADER’S CODE, THE ..................................................................................98

LECTURE NOTES ............................................................................................83 Ledbetter, Lilly with Lanier Scott Isom ................................................99 LEDGE, THE ....................................................................................................47 LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN ....................................................................36 Levine, Bruce ..................................................................................................70 Levithan, David ............................................................................................32 LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT ........................................................................46 LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS ..................................................................................51 LIMITLESS ........................................................................................................51 LITTLE FAILURE ..............................................................................................24 LIVING AND DYING IN BRICK CITY ..........................................................94 LOGAVINA STREET ........................................................................................69 Longo, Davide ................................................................................................44 LOOK ME IN THE EYE ..................................................................................23 MacDonald, Michael Patrick ....................................................................21 MADE TO STICK ............................................................................................80 MADIBA A TO Z ..............................................................................................64 MAJOR IN SUCCESS ....................................................................................83 MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE ..........................................................51 MAN WHO PLANTED TREES, THE ............................................................90 MANDELA’S WAY ..........................................................................................66 Marra, Anthony ............................................................................................34 Marshall, James Vance ................................................................................44 McCann, Colum ............................................................................................36 McGill, Jerry ....................................................................................................14 McGraw, Seamus ..........................................................................................89 McKeown, Greg ............................................................................................81 McMillan, Stephanie ....................................................................................89 Mealer, Bryan ................................................................................................21 Merritt, Jennifer ............................................................................................83 MIGHTY LONG WAY, A ................................................................................20 Miller, Susan Katz ..........................................................................................49 MINIMUM SECURITY CHRONICLES ........................................................89 MOM & ME & MOM ......................................................................................16 Moore, Wes ....................................................................................................21 MORE BEAUTIFUL WORLD OUR HEARTS KNOW IS POSSIBLE ......47 Morell, Virginia ..............................................................................................90 Moss, Michael ................................................................................................58 MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS ......................................................20 MUCK CITY ......................................................................................................21 Murray, Charles ..............................................................................................83 MY BRIEF HISTORY ......................................................................................18 MY ORANGE DUFFEL BAG ........................................................................17 Mycoskie, Blake ............................................................................................99 Myśliwski, Wiesław........................................................................................44 Nafisi, Azar ......................................................................................................21 NATURE WARS ................................................................................................91 Nazario, Sonia ................................................................................................22 Ndibe, Okey ....................................................................................................44 NEW JOB SECURITY ....................................................................................83 Nist-Olejnik, Sherrie, Ph.D. and Jodi Patrick Holschuh, Ph.D. ........81 Nolan, Jeanne ................................................................................................22 Norman, Elizabeth ........................................................................................70 NOTHING TO ENVY ......................................................................................69 Obama, Barack ..............................................................................................22 Obreht, Téa ......................................................................................................38 O’Connor, Sandra Day ................................................................................71 ONE SIMPLE IDEA ........................................................................................49 OPEN CITY ......................................................................................................42 ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK ....................................................................12 ORDINARY RESURRECTIONS ....................................................................67 OTHER WES MOORE, THE ..........................................................................21 OUT OF ORDER ..............................................................................................71

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Author/Title Index OUTCASTS UNITED ......................................................................................25 OVERNIGHT RéSUMé, THE ........................................................................83 Palacio, R. J. ....................................................................................................45 Palmer, Kimberly ..........................................................................................83 Patel, Eboo ......................................................................................................60 Patel, Raj ..........................................................................................................86 PEACE ................................................................................................................47 Peter, Joseph ..................................................................................................66 PLANETWALKER ............................................................................................89 PLENTY ............................................................................................................90 Potter Style ....................................................................................................82 POWER OF HABIT, THE ................................................................................72 PRAIRIE SILENCE ............................................................................................19 Prendergast, John with Don Cheadle ..................................................99 PROMISES KEPT ............................................................................................68 PUBLIC ENEMY ..............................................................................................17 Q&A A DAY FOR COLLEGE ........................................................................82 QUIET ................................................................................................................54 RACE AND REALITY ......................................................................................74 RAISING CUBBY ............................................................................................23 READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN ....................................................................21 READY PLAYER ONE ....................................................................................28 REASON I JUMP, THE ....................................................................................48 REFLECTIONS ON NELSON MANDELA ..................................................66 Relin, David Oliver ........................................................................................23 RéSUMé 101 ..................................................................................................83 Robbins, Jim ..................................................................................................90 Robison, John Elder ....................................................................................23 Rubin, Gretchen ............................................................................................83 RUBY ..................................................................................................................42 Rudder, Christian ..........................................................................................71 RUNNING WITH THE KENYANS ................................................................48 Rushdie, Salman ............................................................................................23 SACRED GROUND ........................................................................................60 SALT SUGAR FAT ............................................................................................58 Samuelsson, Marcus and Veronica Chambers ..................................24 Sato, Kiyo ........................................................................................................24 Saul, Nick and Andrea Curtis ....................................................................96 Saunders, George ..................................................................................40, 50 SAVAGE INEQUALITIES ................................................................................67 Sayrafiezadeh, Saïd ..............................................................................24, 45 Schechter, Danny ..........................................................................................64 Schultze, Quentin J. ....................................................................................83 Schwarzenegger, Katherine ......................................................................83 SECOND SUNS ..............................................................................................23 SHE’S NOT THERE ..........................................................................................10 Shteyngart, Gary ..........................................................................................24 Skloot, Rebecca ............................................................................................62 Slingerland, Edward ....................................................................................50 Smith, Alisa ....................................................................................................90 Smith, Sharon J. and J. B. MacKinnon ....................................................90 SON OF A GUN ..............................................................................................25 SONGS OF WILLOW FROST ......................................................................43 St. Germain, Justin ......................................................................................25 St. John, Warren ............................................................................................25 STAND STRONG ............................................................................................51 START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS ......................................................99 START-UP OF YOU, THE ..............................................................................80 Stedman, Chris ..............................................................................................50 Steinberg, Janice ..........................................................................................45 Stengel, Richard ............................................................................................66 Sterba, Jim ......................................................................................................91

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STOP, THE ........................................................................................................96 Strauss, Darin ................................................................................................25 STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS ................................................................20 Strickland, Bill ................................................................................................51 STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU ..........................................................10 STUFF EVERY COLLEGE STUDENT SHOULD KNOW ..........................83 STUFFED & STARVED ..................................................................................86 Stutz, Phil and Barry Michels ....................................................................81 SUCCEEDING WHEN YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO FAIL ..............................79 Suskind, Ron ..................................................................................................25 Suzuki, Shunryu ............................................................................................50 SWAY ................................................................................................................79 SWITCH ............................................................................................................80 TALENT CODE, THE ......................................................................................83 TEACHING HOPE ..........................................................................................48 TELL THE WOLVES I'M HOME ....................................................................26 TENTH OF DECEMBER ................................................................................40 THEN THEY CAME FOR ME ........................................................................17 THINK ................................................................................................................74 THINKING IN NEW BOXES ..........................................................................78 Thornburgh, Blair ........................................................................................83 THUNDERSTRUCK ........................................................................................70 TIGER’S WIFE, THE ........................................................................................38 TIN HORSE, THE ............................................................................................45 Tisch, Jonathan ..............................................................................................99 TOMS RIVER ....................................................................................................88 TOOLS, THE ....................................................................................................81 TRANSATLANTIC ..........................................................................................36 TREATISE ON SHELLING BEANS, A ..........................................................44 TRYING NOT TO TRY ....................................................................................50 TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE ..........................................................................46 UNBROKEN ......................................................................................................19 UNSTOPPABLE ..............................................................................................51 UNTHINK ..........................................................................................................82 Varty, Boyd ......................................................................................................91 Vedantam, Shankar ......................................................................................82 Von Tobel, Alexa, CFP ..................................................................................76 Vonnegut, Kurt ..............................................................................................51 Vujicic, Nick ....................................................................................................51 Wahl, Erik ........................................................................................................82 WALKABOUT ..................................................................................................44 Walker, Karen Thompson ..........................................................................45 WALL STREET JOURNAL GUIDE TO BUILDING YOUR CAREER ........83 Warburg, Philip ..............................................................................................91 WE BAND OF ANGELS ................................................................................70 West, Lindy, et. al ..........................................................................................82 WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? 2014 EDITION ........................78 WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? Guide to Rethinking Interviews ........................................................78 WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? Guide to Rethinking Résumés ............................................................78 WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? WORKBOOK ............................78 WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE? ......................................................46 WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE ......................................................24 Wilson, Sean Michael and Benjamin Dickson ....................................71 WONDER ..........................................................................................................45 WORLD WAR Z ..............................................................................................42 YES, CHEF ........................................................................................................24 Yoshino, Kenji ................................................................................................71 YOUNG ACTIVIST’S GUIDE, THE ..............................................................90 ZEALOT ............................................................................................................68 ZEN MIND, BEGINNER’S MIND ..................................................................50

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