First-Year & Common Reading 2012 Catalog by Random House

THE CROWN PUBLISHING GROUP Broadway Clarkson Potter Crown Crown Archetype Crown Business Crown Forum Hogarth Books Image Ten Speed Press Three Rivers Press Watson-Guptill WaterBrook/Multnomah THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP Ballantine Books Bantam Del Rey/Spectra Delacorte Dell Delta Dial Press ESPN Modern Library One World Presidio Press Random House Spiegel & Grau Villard RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHER SERVICES Archie Comics Beacon Press Blue Apple Books DC Comics Egmont USA Hatherleigh Press Kodansha Kuperard Mark Batty Publisher Melville House Monacelli Press National Geographic New York Review of Books North Atlantic Books Osprey Publishing Other Press powerHouse Books Quirk Books Random House Canada Rizzoli Books Sasquatch Books Seven Stories Press Shambhala Publications Smithsonian Books Soho Press Steerforth Press Titan Books Vertical, Inc. Welcome Books Wizards of the Coast RANDOM HOUSE DIGITAL PUBLISHING GROUP Books on Tape Fodor’s Living Language Random House Audio RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S BOOKS Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers Ember Princeton Review

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2012 RECOMMENDED TITLES Random House, Inc. www.commonreads.com

From Our Desk to Yours . . . Dear Freshman Year Reading Director: With last year’s launch of its First-Year Advisory Board, Random House initiated another innovative and collaborative way to engage common reading programs—part of our continued effort to offer you the best books and the most highly customized service experience. As we move forward in 2012, we are delighted to introduce yet another new tool for your use and convenience: the CommonReads App. e CommonReads App is designed to provide you with the most current and useful news and program updates, as well as to connect you instantaneously with Random House authors and other program directors through its unique “Discussion Board” feature. Available for free at www.road.ie/common-reads, this new app operates on iPhones/iPads and devices using the Android operating system. We invite you to join us on our newest mobile platform by downloading the app today, and begin discovering authors and books in a whole new way. And speaking of books—we have a great lineup for you this year! From program-adopted favorites, such as Rebecca Skloot’s e Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (now in trade paperback, this publishing and common reading phenomenon tells an unbelievable true story that will get your students talking; read a new note from the author on page 61); Sonia Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey (named the second-most adopted title by freshman year reading programs from all publishers in 2011—this aer having been in print for more than five years!); and Wes Moore’s e Other Wes Moore (also now in trade paperback, this is a moving and compelling story from an author whose star continues to rise) . . . . . . to our newest generation of books destined to become tomorrow’s top titles, including Blake Mycoskie’s Start Something at Matters (a book that transcends its account of how the author launched the wildly successful and socially conscious company TOMS Shoes to inspire students to find and effect their own change); Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers (an unforgettable exposé of globalization’s underbelly and a depiction of the extraordinary human ability for perseverance and survival; think Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation meets Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains); and Sam Bracken’s My Orange Duffel Bag (originally self-published, now soon-to-be published by Random House, Inc., this memoir tells the inspiring story of how one young man overcame great adversity through self-discipline and the help of others); in short, we have something for everyone. While we understand that you all share common goals, your needs and interests are as diverse as your students’, so, in addition to our diverse book offering, we are ready to connect with you in any way you prefer: Whether you use our new app (www.road.ie/common-reads); Follow us (Twitter@CommonReads); Like us (Facebook@CommonReads); Blog with us (www.CommonReads.com); Get Linked-In with us (www.LinkedIn.com/in/michaeldgentile); or simply turn the page in this catalog, Random House—with the continued guidance of its First-Year Advisory Board—is ready to meet you wherever you are. And for those of you who prefer a good old-fashioned conversation, we are always just a phone call away (reach me at 212-782-8387). Here’s to another great year together,

Michael D. Gentile Director, Academic Marketing Random House Inc. 1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019 Tel. (212) 782-8387 ) mgentile@randomhouse.com www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldgentile

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Photos from the 2011 First-Year Experience® Random House Author Luncheon

COntEnts Random House Social Media Network ................................................................2 Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography ......................................4 Fiction to Talk About ............................................................................................32 Inspiration and Guidance ....................................................................................44 History and Society ..............................................................................................48 Life & College Guides ..........................................................................................65 Go Green/Environmental Studies ......................................................................70 Social Action ..........................................................................................................72 Index........................................................................................................................80 Order Form ............................................................................................................82 LEgENd HC: Hardcover • tR: Trade Paperback • mm: Mass Market • NCR: No Canadian Rights : Audio : eBook

: Author Available Available in Español

: Discussion Guide

: 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 paperbacks 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, Inc., or order 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.

Visit www.FreshmanYearReading.com for: • A searchable database of Freshman Reading titles by theme • Excerpts, reviews, and audio and video clips • Information about the latest books for freshman reading • Online ordering for examination copies using a credit card Random House, inc. • Academic dept. • 1745 Broadway • New York, NY 10019 ) rhacademic@randomhouse.com

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THEN THEY CAME FOR ME A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival

Website: www.MaziarBahari.com

By Maziar Bahari With Aimee Molloy

Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6946-0 | 384pp. $27.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50

Key FACTs: Themes: Human Rights, Perseverance/Personal Strength, Regional: Middle East Alternative Formats:

hen Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran’s presidential election, he assured his pregnant fiancée, Paola, that he would be back in just a few days, a week at most. Little did he know, as he kissed her good-bye, that he would spend the next three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, enduring brutal interrogation sessions at the hands of a man he knew only by his smell: Rosewater. For the Bahari family, wars, coups, and revolutions are not distant concepts but intimate realities they have suffered for generations: Maziar’s father was imprisoned by the shah in the 1950s, and his sister by Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s. Alone in his cell at Evin Prison, fearing the worst, Maziar draws strength from his memories of the courage of his father and sister in the face of torture, and hears their voices speaking to him across the years. He dreams of being with Paola in London, and imagines all that she and his rambunctious, resilient eighty-four-year-old mother must be doing to campaign for his release. During the worst of his encounters with Rosewater, he silently repeats the names of his loved ones, calling on their strength and love to protect him and praying he will be released in time for the birth of his first child. A riveting, heart-wrenching memoir, Then They Came for Me offers insight into the past fifty years of regime change in Iran, as well as the future of a country where the democratic impulses of the youth continually clash with a government that becomes more totalitarian with each passing day. An intimate and fascinating account of contemporary Iran, it is also the moving and wonderfully written story of one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of repression.

“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 “A beautifully written account of life in iran, filled with insights not only into the power struggles and political machinations but into the personal, emotional lives of the people living in that complicated country. maziar Bahari is a brave man and a wonderful storyteller.” —Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World “maziar Bahari’s story is at once political and personal, and this account of his family’s journey and his own captivity in iran is both illuminating and touching. if you want to understand modern-day iran and experience a fascinating human story, read this book.” —Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and The War Lovers

mAziAR BAHARi is an award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, and human-rights activist. A correspondent for Newsweek from 1998 to 2010, he was born in Tehran, Iran, and immigrated to Canada in 1988 to pursue his studies in film and political science. Bahari’s documentaries have been broadcast on stations around the world, including HBO, the BBC, and the Discovery Channel. In 2009, he was named a finalist for Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, often described as Spain’s Nobel Peace Prize; he was nominated by Desmond Tutu. He lives in London.

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©Rory Peck Trust

About the Author: Maziar Bahari

Excerpt from Then They Came for Me Prologue I could smell him before I saw him. His scent was a mixture of sweat and rosewater, and it reminded me of my youth. When I was six years old, I would often accompany my aunts to a shrine in the holy city of Qom. It was customary to remove your shoes before entering the shrine, and the servants of the shrine would sprinkle rosewater everywhere, to mask the odor of perspiration and leather. The morning in June 2009, when they came for me, I was in the delicate space between sleep and wakefulness, taking in his scent. I didn’t realize that I was a man of 42 in my bedroom in Tehran; I thought, instead, that I was six years old again, and back in that shrine with my aunts. “Mazi jaan, wake up,” my mother said. “There are four gentlemen here. They say they are from the prosecutors’ office. They want to take you away.” I opened my eyes. It was a few minutes before 8 a.m., and my mother was standing beside my bed—her small 83-year-old frame protecting me from the four men behind her. I sleep without clothes, and in my half-awake state, my first thought wasn’t that I was in danger, but that I was naked in a shrine. I felt ashamed and reached down to make sure the sheets were covering my body. Mr. Rosewater was standing directly behind my mother. I would later come to learn a lot about him. He was thirty-two years old and had gained a master’s degree in political science from Tehran University. While at university, he had joined the Revolutionary Guards—a vast and increasingly powerful fundamentalist military conglomerate formed in the wake of the Iranian revolution in 1979. I would come to know that his punches were the hardest when he felt stupid. But when he barged into my bedroom early that first morning, the only thing I understood about him was that he was in charge, and that he had a very large head. It was alarmingly big, like the rest of his body. He was at least 6’2”, and fat, with thick glasses. Later, his glasses would confuse me. I had associated glasses with professors, intellectuals. Not torturers. I wrapped the sheet tightly around my body and sat up. “Put some clothes on,” Rosewater said, motioning to the three men behind him to leave the room so that I could get dressed. I found comfort in this: by the fact that whatever their reason was for barging into my house, he was still respectful, still behaving with a modicum of curtsey. They kept the door slightly ajar, and I walked to my closet. Things were beginning to come into clearer focus, but his rosewater scent lingered and my thoughts, still confused, remained back in the past, at the shrine. What does one wear in a shrine? What’s the best way to present oneself? I had just finished putting on a blue collared shirt and a pair of jeans when the men barged back into my room: Rosewater and another man, who wore a shiny silver sports jacket and a cap. They circled the room, surveying everything. I had been spending most of my time over the last two years with my fiancée, Paola, in London. We had got engaged six months earlier, and been preparing for our wedding and the birth of our child in four months time, and I had never really settled in at my mother’s house. I could sense their frustration as they took stock of the mess in my small room. Heaps of books sat on the floor beside stacks of videos and DVDs and an untidy pile of laundry. I had not organized my desk for months, and it was covered with old newspapers, notebooks and videotapes. All journalists working in Iran have to be accredited by Ershad, shorthand for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and I had given my mother’s address as my place of work. They thought they were going to find an office at my mother’s house. Instead, they were picking through piles of underwear. “If you want, I can organize things and you can come back tomorrow,” I said with a sorry smile. Excerpted from Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari with Aimee Molloy Copyright © 2011 by Maziar Bahari. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

HOW TO LIVE Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

Website: www.SarahBakewell.com

By Sarah Bakewell Winner, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography

ow to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—such questions arise in most people’s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: How do you live? This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, considered by many to be the first truly modern individual. He wrote free-roaming explorations of his thoughts and experience, unlike anything written before. More than four hundred years later, Montaigne’s honesty and charm still draw people to him. Readers come to him in search of companionship, wisdom, and entertainment—and in search of themselves. An award-winning and inventive biography, How to Live will engage and inspire students to discuss the most essential questions, such as: just what is—and how does one live—a good life?

Other Press | TR | 978-1-59051-483-2 | 304pp. $16.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Ethics/Decision Making, Inspiration Alternative Formats:

“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 “serious, engaging, and so infectiously in love with its subject that i found myself racing to finish so i could start rereading the Essays themselves. . . . it is hard to imagine a better introduction—or reintroduction—to montaigne than Bakewell’s book.” —Lorin Stein, Harper’s Magazine “ms. Bakewell’s new book, How to Live, is a biography, but in the form of a delightful conversation across the centuries.” —The New York Times “so artful is Bakewell’s account of [montaigne] that even skeptical readers may well come to share her admiration.” —The New York Times Book Review “Extraordinary . . . a miracle of complex, revelatory organization, for as Bakewell moves along she provides a brilliant demonstration of the alchemy of historical viewpoint.” —Boston Globe

sARAH BAkEwELL was a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library before becoming a full-time writer, publishing her highly acclaimed biographies The Smart and The English Dane. She lives in London, where she teaches creative writing at City University and catalogues rare book collections for the National Trust.

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©Tundi Eugenia Haulik

About the Author: sarah Bakewell

A Message from the Author Why I Wrote How to Live Why did I write about Montaigne? Mostly because I wanted to keep on reading him. Ever since my early 20s, when I picked up his Essays by chance, wanting a good book for a long train journey, he never really left me. My first response to his work on that train was one of astonishment. How could someone who wrote in the 1500s sound so familiar, so conversational, so like me? It was like having a friend or a traveling companion sitting opposite me as we whizzed through the landscape. For years after that, Montaigne was never far from my side. And I discovered that practically everything else I read had the power of leading me back to him in some way—for Montaigne is the first truly modern author, the great hidden presence behind 400 years of literature, and indeed behind much of philosophy, politics, and social theory over those centuries. This is mainly for one simple reason: No one before Montaigne had written so honestly and minutely about the inner world of a human being. He followed every twist and turn of his psyche, believing that every individual is worth writing about at such length, for “each man bears the entire form of the human condition.” But he also paid plenty of attention to the world outside. He was interested in everything; he traveled widely, held offices as magistrate and mayor, ran diplomatic missions for kings and princes, and tried his best to end the religious civil wars that tore apart the France of his day. These experiences led him to a deep fascination with human variety and difference. We share our essential humanity, he knew, but each of us has a radically different cultural, historical, and personal perspective, and that is just as fundamental. Human variety is the great paradox in his work; it’s also the great paradox facing us today. How can a plural, democratic society accommodate difference, and even extremism, without sacrificing its deepest principles? How can we resist violence without becoming violent? How can we defend ourselves yet remain open? Montaigne gave us no simple answers, but he certainly taught us to ask the questions. I set out to write about Montaigne’s life, but I ended up wanting to write about much more—and especially about the experience of reading itself, that is, the experience of encountering a mind distant in time that opens itself to us, perhaps not entirely, but in part. What does it mean to pick up a book published in 1588 and recognize ourselves and our world in it? How can we engage critically with such a book and understand it on its own terms while also making it our own? What can be learned from someone who died more than 400 years ago? Why is the past so strange and so familiar at the same time? To ask these questions is to investigate the very essence of what culture is—and it is why reading a book is such an exciting thing to do. Many people will ask these questions for the first time in their college years, and I envy your students this; it will happen while they are with you. Others experience it earlier, and some, later. Whenever it happens, it changes you. Afterward, the habit of questioning gets into your soul—and then the whole world opens up. Sarah Bakewell

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

MY ORANGE DUFFEL BAG

Website: www.MyOrangeDuffelBag.com

A Journey to Radical Change By Sam Bracken With Echo Garrett

Publishing May 2012

Do not order before 5/12/2012. Crown Archetype | HC | 978-0-307-98488-3 | 208pp. $23.00/$25.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.50 Also Available

MY ROADMAP A Personal Guide to Balance, Power, and Purpose by the Authors of My Orange Duffel Bag Do not order before 5/15/2012. Crown Archetype | TR | 978-0-307-95586-9 | 128pp. $9.99/$11.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Inspiration, Leadership & Motivation, Perseverance/Personal Strength Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

espite 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 his rules for the road: everything he learned about radically changing his life and how anyone can create positive, lasting change.

“i spent five years with sam Bracken at a time of transformation for him. His is a stunning story of courage, resiliency, and servantleadership. He told a 1,000-page story in exactly 66 pages. the format, the sincerity, and yes, the agony that leaps off the pages is palpable and transforming. there are two pains in life—the pain of discipline and the pain of regret . . . we all choose every day. the difference in sam and those who are gobbled up by our sick society is that he usually chose wisely. He took our team’s messages to heart in tangible ways. we would all do well to read, and heed, his powerful message.” —Bill Curry, NCAA football coach, and former NFL player “sam Bracken’s remarkable emergence from a life of poverty, mental illness, abuse and hardship is told with compelling honesty. it offers young people a set of accessible tools to support resilience and promote self-growth.” —Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine

Orange Duffel Bag Foundation The Orange Duffel Bag Foundation, inspired by the book, mentors at-risk youth. Their program has been used by the state of Georgia to mentor foster kids. The foundation has been featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on CNN, and has high-profile sponsors like Xerox, Wells Fargo, and AT&T. For more information, visit the website at www.myorangeduffelbag.com

About the Authors: sam Bracken and echo Garrett sAm BRACkEN serves as the national spokesperson for the My Orange Duffel Bag Foundation and is general manager of FranklinCovey Media Publishing. Sam graduated Georgia Tech with honors and received his MBA from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management. ECHo gARREtt is president and cofounder of the My Orange Duffel Bag Foundation.

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Life Storiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;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 Winner, Best Nonfiction Honor, Black Caucus, American Library Association

One World | TR | 978-0-345-45348-8 | 336pp. $14.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Selected for Common Reading: Benedict College Also selected by U.S. Navy for Recommended Reading for U.S. Naval Personnel. http://tinyurl.com/boamgve Themes: American History, Black Colleges, Leadership & Motivation, Perseverance Campus Visits:

he grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million and a business empire spanning communications, real estate, and insurance. Here, for the first time, is the story of the life of this extraordinary pioneer, told by his niece and grandniece, the award-winning television journalist Carol Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines. Born at a time when the bitter legacy of slavery and Reconstruction still poisoned the lives of black Americans, Gaston was determined to make a difference for himself and his people. A kind of black Horatio Alger, Gaston let a single, powerful question be his guide: What do our people need now? His success flowed from an uncanny genius for knowing the answer. Combining rich family lore with a deep knowledge of American social and economic history, the authors unfold Gaston’s success story against the backdrop of a century of crushing racial hatred and bigotry. Gaston not only survived the hardships of being black during the Depression, he flourished, and by the 1950s he was ruling a Birmingham-based business empire; by the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gaston provided critical financial support to many activists. At the time of his death in 1996, A. G. Gaston was one of the wealthiest black men in America, if not the wealthiest. But his legacy extended far beyond the monetary. He was a man who had proved it was possible to overcome staggering odds and make a place for himself as a leader, a captain of industry, and a farsighted philanthropist. Writing with grace and power, Jenkins and Hines bring their distinguished ancestor fully to life in the pages of this book. Black Titan is the story of a man who created his own future—and in the process, blazed a future for all disenfranchised in America.

Alternative Formats:

CARoL JENkiNs is an award-winning writer, producer, and media analyst. An Emmy-winning former television journalist, she was founding president and is a board member of the national advocacy organization The Women’s Media Center. She writes about women and people of color in the media at www.caroljenkinsmedia.com. ELizABEtH gARdNER HiNEs is an editor and award-winning author, living in New York City. As an advocate for girls’ and women’s leadership, she advises nonprofit organizations in strategic communications. A graduate of Yale and Harvard Universities, she sits on the boards of The Hotchkiss School, the Independent Media Institute (home of Alternet.org), and People’s Production House.

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©SFrida H./Jennifer Leigh Curtis

About the Authors: Carol Jenkins and elizabeth Gardner Hines

A Message from Michael Lomax, president and CEO, UNCF

Praise for Black Titan “No library of American business achievement is complete without the story of Arthur g. gaston. . . . Black Titan is a long overdue contribution to the recording of not just black history, but American history.” —Earl G. Graves, Sr., Founder, Earl G. Graves Ltd., Founder and Publisher, Black Enterprise magazine, author of How to Succeed in Business Without Being White: Straight Talk on Making It in America “A. g. gaston was there first. He succeeded when the odds seemed insurmountable. this important book traces his incredible life, from coal miner to millionaire. it is full of lessons for anyone looking to succeed in today’s business world.” —Robert Johnson, Founder, Black Entertainment Television, Inc. “it was my privilege to meet A. g. gaston in Birmingham, Alabama, during the early 1970s. i was greatly inspired by his unique entrepreneurial vision and passionate belief in economic self-sufficiency. . . . this book should be read by every entrepreneur.” —Byron Lewis, Chairman, Uniworld Group

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

Website: www.PiperKerman.com

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

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, 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. $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Ethics/Decision Making, Gender Issues, Group Dynamics, Identity, Social Justice

“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 “An absorbing, meditative look at life behind bars.”

Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

—Booklist

“this book is impossible to put down because [kerman] could be you. or your best friend. or your daughter.” —Los Angeles Times “moving . . . transcends the memoir genre’s usual self-centeredness to explore how human beings can always surprise you.” —USA Today “it’s a compelling awakening, and a harrowing one—both for the reader and for kerman.” —Newsweek.com

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.

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©Sam Zalutsky

About the Author: Piper Kerman

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-yearold 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. Women are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population—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. 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. 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. our prison economy and culture have expanded profoundly 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 my own experience as it intersected with 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

THE OTHER WES MOORE Website: www.TheOtherWesMoore.com

One Name, Two Fates By Wes Moore

Winner, Literary Award, Nonfiction, Black Caucus, American Library Association A Booklist Top 10 Black History Nonfiction Book

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52820-7 | 272pp. $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Selected for Common Reading: • Colleges & Universities Bay Path College (Springfield, MA); Cabrini College (Radnor, PA); California State University at Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA), Marquette University, and others. • One City, One Book Everybody Reads (Multnomah County Library in Portland, OR); One Book, One Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA); One Book, One Waco (Waco, TX) Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Leadership & Motivation, Perseverance/Personal Strength, Regional: Baltimore/ The Northeast, Service Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

n December 2000, The Baltimore Sun ran a short article about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. In the same paper also ran a headline-grabbing story about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One of the brothers was also named Wes Moore. Rhodes scholar and The Other Wes Moore author, Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence or his inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen? That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, author Wes discovered that the other Wes had experienced a life not unlike his own. Both had grown up in similar neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods. Both were fatherless. They’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had faced similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies. Told in dramatic alternating narratives that take readers from heartwrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

“The Other Wes Moore highlights the transformative influence of caring adults. . . . moore vividly and powerfully describes not just the culture of the streets but how it feels to be a boy growing up in a world where violence makes you a man, school seems irrelevant, and drug dealing is a respected career choice.” —O, The Oprah Magazine “wes moore has not just written a compelling story, but has created a perfect case study of how and why young men can go down the wrong path—and how they can be saved. this should be required reading for anyone who is trying to understand what is happening to young men in our inner cities.” —Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone, author of Fist Stick Knife Gun

About the Author: Wes Moore wEs mooRE is a Rhodes Scholar and a combat veteran of the war in Afghanistan. As a White House Fellow he worked as a special assistant to Secretary Condoleezza Rice at the State Department. He was a featured speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, was named one of Ebony magazine’s Top 30 Leaders Under 30 (2007), and most recently, was dubbed one of the top young business leaders in America in Crain’s New York Business. He works in New York City.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author I am living proof that a support system of family, mentors, and educators is critical for success and, as such, have the most tremendous respect for those of you who give tirelessly of yourselves to improve the future of a child. I would like to humbly thank all of you for being heroes to so many of your students, for inspiring them in ways you probably cannot even fathom yet, and for teaching them character and personal responsibility in addition to academics. It is your example, your belief in them, along with the preparation you give them in the classroom, that will unlock doors of opportunity. I am a grandchild of a retired schoolteacher who taught in the Bronx public school system for over twenty years, the son-in-law of a New York City public elementary school teacher of over twenty years, and a proud advocate for schools and the kids they serve. I have grown up hearing the stories of redemption and disappointment, of joy and pain, and of the success and failure of so many kids who find themselves in a system that currently works for some, but doesn’t for too many others. Like a captain on the front lines in Afghanistan, you are the front-line soldiers in the most important battle our nation faces now: the battle to educate and prepare our next generation of leaders. Just as we need to mobilize leaders and resources around our battles overseas, the same must be done to help our children navigate their journeys into adulthood. We are all familiar with the disturbing statistics of low graduation and high dropout rates in our nation’s public schools. And with more than 50 percent of marriages failing in today’s society, and singleparent households the norm in many inner-city communities, children lack the guidance that the family structure once provided. I am sure we are all alarmed that, in today’s world, young men of color are more likely to be in prison than in college. For too many in our nation, particularly those who live in our most precarious areas, a broken school system serves as a precursor to entry into the juvenile justice system. But I believe this is a problem we can—and must—tackle. Studies show that students from low-income communities can and do achieve at high levels when they are given the resources and attention they deserve. And there are amazing educators and civic leaders who are already leading the charge with impressive steam. I know the fixes aren’t simple, nor are they cheap. But there are a few things to remember: The answer isn’t simply spending more money; it is to spend money wisely with a focus on the children we intend to serve. The costs of inaction are unbearably high when you consider that it costs nearly $200,000 to incarcerate someone in New York, while a recent Columbia University study shows that cutting the dropout rate in half would yield $45 billion annually in both new federal tax revenues and cost savings. Promising reforms that embrace alternative teaching platforms, teacher pay systems based on performance, and the inspired $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” funds that the Obama administration has allocated are tremendous, but a national embrace of innovation and policy change is imperative. We will need fortitude and ingenuity as we embark on the education reform battle of our lifetime. The chance to raise expectations, the opportunity for our children to do better than their parents, and the need to translate the experience of young students into the dreams of a nation must now drive us all. Just as it was imperative for my fellow soldiers and I to win our fights, the same can be said for you and the work you are doing. As President Obama recently expressed, “The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens.” I could not agree more. wes moore at the 2011 First-Year Experience® Random House Author Luncheon

Wes Moore

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

Website: www.EnriquesJourney.com

ENRIQUE’S JOURNEY

The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother By Sonia Nazario A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

hen 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 Enrique finally made his way from the rough streets of Tegucigalpa through Mexico and across the dangerous Texan border. Journalist Sonia Nazario’s expert reporting allows students to encounter each setback alongside Enrique, and the result is as suspenseful and harrowing as it is informative. Enrique’s Journey is a timely account of one anguished family’s experience with an issue of international scope and urgency— illegal immigration—but it is also the timeless, mythic story of a dangerous journey undertaken to make a broken family whole.

“this portrait of poverty and family ties has the potential to reshape American conversations about immigration.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7178-1 | 336pp. $14.95/$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

Key FACTs: Selected for Common Reading at more than 50 colleges and One Book, One City programs. College of Mount St. Joseph, Henderson State University, Indiana University, Pennsylvania State University, Rockhurst University, University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and others. Themes: Coming of Age, Immigration, Social Justice Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

Available in Español

“A stirring and troubling book about a magnificent journey . . . Joseph Campbell would recognize Enrique’s Journey. it’s the stuff of myth . . . [but] Enrique’s Journey is true. . . . A microcosm of the massive exodus pouring over the borders of our nations . . . Enrique’s suffering and bravery become universal, and one cannot fail to be moved by the desperation and sheer strength of spirit that guides these lonely wanderers. . . . Enrique’s Journey is about love. it’s about family. it’s about home. . . . the border will continue to trouble the dreams of anyone who is paying attention. . . . Enrique’s Journey is among the best border books yet written.” —The Washington Post Book World “gripping and harrowing . . . a story begging to be told . . . readers fed up with the ongoing turf wars between fact and fiction, take note: Here is fantastic stunt reporting that places this sometimes hard-to-believe story squarely in the realm of nonfiction.” —The Christian Science Monitor “A meticulously documented account of an epic journey, one undertaken by thousands of children every year . . . [Nazario] covers both positive and negative effects of immigration, illuminating the problem’s complexity. . . . in telling Enrique’s story [she] bears witness for us all.” —San Francisco Chronicle “to say this book has changed my life is an understatement. i look at immigration in a whole new way and i hope that the change in my viewpoint will be a catalyst for change in my everyday life.” —Sherri Thomson-Pemberton, Student, Metropolitan State College of Denver

About the Author: sonia Nazario soNiA NAzARio has spent twenty years reporting and writing about social issues, most recently as a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Her stories have addressed some of this country’s most intractable problems: hunger, drug addiction, and immigration. She has won numerous national journalism and book awards. Nazario is a graduate of Williams College and has a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author This story began with a conversation I had in my kitchen with Carmen, who came to clean my house twice a month. I asked Carmen: did she want to have more children? Carmen, normally happy, suddenly fell silent and started sobbing. She told me she left four children behind in Guatemala. Struggling as a single mother, most days she couldn’t feed her children more than once, maybe twice a day; at night they would cry with hunger. So she left them with their grandmother, came to work in the U.S., and sent money home. She hadn’t seen them in twelve years. I soon learned Carmen’s story was incredibly common; millions of single mothers had left children behind when they came to the U.S. I also learned that, after speaking with photo of train five or ten years of absence, a small army of these children was heading north alone in background. every year, in search of their mothers. I wrote about this through the true story of Enrique, who hadn’t seen his mother in eleven years. Like most of these children, Enrique went on a modern-day odyssey to reach the U.S., crossing Mexico on top of freight trains, braving bandits, gangsters, corrupt cops, and more, in a desperate bid to reach his mother. To tell Enrique’s story, I spent half a year retracing his journey, riding through Mexico on top of seven freight trains. Since its publication, educators have been drawn to this story in ways I could have never imagined. Thus far, nearly fifty universities and scores of high schools have used Enrique’s Journey as their common read. Educators say the story is compelling, a page-turner, and students often say, “This is the first book I have read cover to cover. I couldn’t put it down.” Students see Enrique in themselves because, in coming to college, many have left their families for the first time. They relate to a boy who steels himself sonia doing research for Enrique’s Journey, while riding on top of trains in Chiapas, mexico. with great determination to get through difficult circumstances. Professors teaching the book in disciplines as diverse as Sociology, Spanish, English, History, and Mathematics tell me that Enrique’s story provides the most intense cross-disciplinary discussions they have had in their classrooms. The book broaches critical values: family, love, survival, diversity, racism, violence, drugs, redemption, and determination. It shows students that an issue often presented in black and white is instead highly complex, with many shades of grey. A student in Arizona told me he was raised a white supremacist in South Africa and a skinhead in Arizona. He said he had known little about immigrants before, but he hated them. Enrique’s Journey and class discussions had changed his views. I get emails from students with similar stories every week. The greatest testament to students’ engagement is that so many of them become determined to better the situation described in Enrique’s Journey. They resolve to address what pushes so many migrants to leave their home countries. They start micro-loan programs. They build schools. They change their personal buying habits, purchasing fair trade coffee and clothing. Some students and staff members even change career paths to dedicate their lives to helping people like Enrique. One Indiana University staffer was so moved to help that she quit her job and opened a café in Honduras to create jobs for ten people there. Through a simple narrative, Enrique’s Journey engages both students and staff to think more globally, promotes active discussion, and prompts action. One Texas student might have stated this most clearly when he said, “Never has a non-fiction book so strongly engaged my imagination and emotions. Never before has a book inspired me to use what talent I do possess . . . to make a difference in the world.” At Jacksonville University.

Sonia Nazario

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

UNLIKELY BROTHERS Our Story of Adventure, Loss, and Redemption By John Prendergast and Michael Mattocks

Website: www.EnoughProject.org To view a video of John Prendergast speaking at the 2011 First-Year Experience® Conference in Atlanta, GA, go to: http://tinyurl.com/6xuvwfw

eace activist and co-founder of the Enough Project, John Prendergast is known as a champion of human rights in Africa. But the not-so-public face of Prendergast is the life he has led as a Big Brother to Michael Mattocks. Unlikely Brothers is an inspiring book that brings together the dissimilar lives of Prendergast and Mattocks, and reveals the importance of mentorship. The book raises many questions including what compassion looks like, the implications for indifference, and the challenges of commitment.

“Unlikely Brothers is an unlikely book, two interweaving stories filled with loss, tenderness and hope. John prendergast’s and michael mattocks’ journeys—together and apart—should resonate for all of us, a searching for our place in the world, a yearning for friendship and connections.” —Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here and Never a City So Real “A fascinating account of a long-standing friendship.” —Publishers Weekly “despite their contrasting perspectives, prendergast and mattocks illustrate that when it comes to the human condition, attitudes trump platitudes and actions outweigh promises.” —Booklist Crown | HC | 978-0-307-46484-2 | 272pp. $24.00/$27.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Perseverance/ Personal Strength, Service Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

Also by John Prendergast

THE ENOUGH MOMENT Fighting to End Africa’s Worst Human Rights Crimes By John Prendergast with Don Cheadle For full description, see page 78. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-46482-8 | 304pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Website: www.EnoughProject.org

About the Authors: John Prendergast and Michael Mattocks

miCHAEL mAttoCks lived in homeless shelters as a child and began dealing drugs as a teenager. He is now a husband and father of five boys, working two jobs in order to support his family. He helps coach his sons’ football teams.

www.CommonReads.com

©Nikki Mattocks

JoHN pRENdERgAst is a human rights activist and author. He is co-founder of the Enough Project (enoughproject.org), an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity. Working for the Clinton administration, he was directly involved in a number of peace processes in Africa. John helped create the Satellite Sentinel Project and coauthored the bestselling Not on Our Watch and The Enough Moment with Don Cheadle. He traveled to Africa with 60 Minutes for four different episodes. He has been a Big Brother since 1983.

A Message from the Author Michael Mattocks, my little brother, knew that I had written books before. One day he got the idea that we should write a book together about our lives. Once we figured out how we could frame the story, Michael and I realized the gravity of what we were trying to do. So we really dove in, going back to our pasts, interviewing people who would remember details, including former teachers of ours, and asking each other many questions—trying to get to the bottom of what happened and why. And we did a lot of self-reflection, to understand ourselves and the kind of impact our relationship had on each other’s lives. It has been an amazing journey. This book is about two guys who decide to be brothers, one twenty years old and the other seven. We both were traumatized by major father issues (one through emotional abuse and the other through absence). We both gravitated toward violence (one toward war zones in Africa and the other in the drug world of Washington, DC). As the years go by, we swooped in and out of each other’s lives, whenever I was in DC, but slowly disconnected as we disappeared into our respective worlds of Africa and the DC streets. Somehow we make our way back to each other, and the effect we have on each other is not easily discernible but extremely significant to both of our paths to redemption. Michael wrote this book because he wanted to show other young people that no matter what the odds, what kind of hole you find yourself in, you can overcome it, and the help of a mentor can make all the difference. Michael and I both believe that the impact our relationship continues to have on each other is irreplaceable. For all educators, I hope you realize the importance your role has on your students, not just to teach them math or science, but to be a constant, active role model for success in a very challenging world. At the same time, I hope you find yourself inspired by a particular student or group of students—as I most definitely am by Michael. I would also encourage you to show your students that they too can be mentors. Even kids who come from economically deprived backgrounds or feel they have nothing can find confidence they never knew they had in helping out someone else—whether it be helping a younger sibling, forming a “big brother/little brother” relationship, tutoring, mentoring, volunteering, or babysitting. They will see how much they truly have to give, and that knowledge can go such a long way in forming their own paths in life. Some days I worried about how my family would react to this book, as did Michael with his family. But on balance we felt compelled to tell everything that happened. At a minimum, we hope it will show prospective mentors that if we could do it, ANYONE could. At best, maybe we can inspire readers to take a chance, to get involved, to make a difference. John Prendergast John Prendergast wrote Unlikely Brothers with his “little brother” Michael Mattocks.

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

HALF A LIFE

Website: www.DarinStrauss.com To read an author Q&A, go to: http://tinyurl.com/27drbbn

A Memoir By Darin Strauss

Winner, National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography)

“H

alf my life ago, I killed a girl.” So begins Darin Strauss’s Half a Life, the true story of how one outing in his father’s Oldsmobile resulted in the death of a classmate and the beginning of a different, darker life for the author. We follow Strauss as he explores his startling past—collision, funeral, the queasy drama of a high-stakes court case—and what starts as a personal tale of a tragic event opens into the story of how to live with a very hard fact: we can try our human best in the crucial moment, and it might not be good enough. Half a Life is an honest, ultimately hopeful examination of guilt, responsibility, grief, and living with the past.

“At the center of this elegant, painful, stunningly honest memoir thrums a question fundamental to what it means to be human: what do we do with what we’ve been given? . . . what is truly exceptional here is watching a writer of fine fiction probe, directly, carefully and with great humility, the source from which his fiction springs.” —The New York Times Book Review

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8253-4 | 224pp. $13.00/$15.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Coming of Age, Ethics/Decision Making, Identity Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“with honesty and sensitivity, strauss looks not only at how that fateful incident decades ago ended Celine’s young life, but also at how it greatly affected his. out of undoubtedly complicated circumstances, he crafts a simple yet remarkable story about pain and guilt, maturity and responsibility, hope and understanding.” —San Francisco Chronicle “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 “A book that inspires admiration, sentence by sentence. . . . this is a memoir in its finest form, a fully imagined and bittersweet book that transcends a single misstep.” —Chicago Tribune

About the Author: Darin strauss dARiN stRAUss is the international bestselling author of The New York Times Notable Books Chang and Eng and The Real McCoy, and the national bestseller More Than It Hurts You. His work has been translated into fourteen languages and published in seventeen countries. Awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction writing, Strauss currently teaches at New York University.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author When I was 18, I was in a car accident: a girl swerved in front of my car, I couldn’t avoid her, and she died. I moved soon afterward, and so this crash and its aftermath made up the secret I carried around for 18 years. Until I wrote Half a Life. Forty thousand people die on U.S. roads every year. And with every accident, somebody walks away feeling he’s put on the executioner’s hood. That’s one reason Half a Life has resonated with so many people. But it’s not the only reason, I’ve come to realize. When I decided to write this story—the story of me and of the girl who died that day—I don’t think I understood how universal other people would find it; I was just writing what had happened to me. But very soon, I realized this story threw huge shadows. Excerpted in GQ and on This American Life, as well as in The Times of London, The Daily Mail (UK), and numerous other publications in the US and around the world, Half a Life ended up having relevance for a great many people. I’ve received probably over a thousand emails from readers who have wanted to share their own stories: a man who blames himself because he didn’t take his mother’s threats seriously and therefore left for boarding school the day before her suicide; a number of soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan who are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder; people who have suffered horrible personal loss; and, of course, many car accident survivors. Furthermore, I traveled the country with this book—even before it won the National Book Critics Circle Award for best memoir/autobiography of 2010—and at every reading I gave, someone invariably came up to me and shared a story of personal grief and guilt. At first, I didn’t know why they were opening up in this way: what did seeing one’s brother overdose have to do with my story? And why did this person want to tell me? When I was a kid, after the accident, I felt completely alone—suffering under a crushing guilt, even though everyone said I wasn’t at fault. The thing is, no one knows how to feel about guilt: people think if an official person—a policeman, a judge, or a reporter—says you weren’t at fault, it’ll be all right. What the book is about is: that’s not so. If you just accept what other people tell you to feel, it leads to your living half a life, with the other half covering something up. The point is, it turns out almost everybody has something in their past to feel guilt and/or grief about, whether they were culpable in their life-shaping event or not. It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as mine. (I was found blameless in my accident, but that didn’t stop the lawsuits from happening.) Everyone is worried about doing what appears to be right rather than what is right for them. Until I wrote Half a Life, I found math personally treacherous—its A-to-B-to-C arrogance, its Boolean surety: I operated the car. The car hit the girl. A=C. I killed the girl. Algebra makes no allowances. Or maybe it does—when it leaves the workbook and enters our flesh-and-blood world. With this book I wrote what hurt; I looked it in the eye. And, for my readers, watching somebody work through those feelings has brought a kind of catharsis. This is the story I would have needed to read when I was 18. I wrote it in part for the girl who died—to show how much she’s touched every part of my life—but I wrote it for that teenage me too, and for other people who feel guilt and don’t know if they should. The lessons I learned are not glib, or very self-helpy. All the same, if one writes honestly and well about unwarranted guilt and how to overcome it, I think one can write a book that is self-helpful. Darin Strauss

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

VIETNAMERICA

Website: www.GBTran.com

A Family’s Journey By GB Tran

A 2011 Library Journal Best Graphic Novel A School Library Journal “Best Adult Book 4 Teens”

Villard Books | HC | 978-0-345-50872-0 | 288pp. $30.00/$34.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $15.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Immigration Campus Visits:

B Tran is a young Vietnamese American artist who grew up distant from (and largely indifferent to) his family’s history. Born and raised in South Carolina as a son of immigrants, he knew that his parents had fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. But even as they struggled to adapt to life in America, they preferred to forget the past—and to focus on their children’s future. It was only in his late twenties that GB began to learn their extraordinary story. When his last surviving grandparents die within months of each other, GB visits Vietnam for their memorials and begins to learn the tragic history of his family and of the homeland they left behind. In telling his family’s story, GB finds his own place in this saga of hardship and heroism. Vietnamerica is a visually stunning portrait of survival, escape, and reinvention—and of the gift of the American immigrants’ dream, passed on to their children. It is also an unforgettable story of family revelation and reconnection—and a new graphic-memoir classic.

“this will be called the Maus for the Vietnam war, and for good reason. similar premise: clueless American-born son of immigrants confronts the legacy of family pain predating his birth. similar outcome: a kick-in-the-gut graphic novel. . . . Engaging, challenging, and disturbing, tran’s family memoir belongs in all public and academic libraries.” —Library Journal, starred review “in tran’s memoir of his parents’ life in Vietnam—and his own discovery of that story—theme, narrative, and art work together to create a deeply compelling graphic novel. tran meditates on war, loss, and memory, but the overriding theme is the complexity, hardship, and reward of family life, a theme that finds full life in the author’s multi-layered narrative. . . . this novel could easily find a place in the classroom but its broad set of issues and graphic format should also appeal to a wide variety of teens.” —School Library Journal “A terrific and amazing memoir.”

About the Author: GB Tran Cartoonist/illustrator gB tRAN was born one year after his parents fled Vietnam and resettled in South Carolina. Having started as a comics self-publisher after being awarded the Xeric Grant, Vietnamerica is his first major book and has been featured on ABC’s World News Now, Kirkus’ “12 Can’t-Miss Graphic Novels of 2011,” and Amazon’s “Top 25 Adult Summer Reads.” The book’s exploration of multicultural themes has also recently earned GB a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in nonfiction literature.

www.CommonReads.com

—Miami Herald

A Message from the Author

Life Storiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LiFE stoRiEs—mEmoiR, BiogRApHY, ANd AUtoBiogRApHY

I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED By Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui

To watch a video of Nujood, go to: http://tinyurl.com/2ep9qj8

“A powerful new autobiography. . . . It’s hard to imagine that there have been many younger divorcées—or braver ones—than a pint-size third grader named Nujood Ali.” —Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

Nujood Ali was nine when her parents married her to a man in his thirties. At ten, she was the first child bride in Yemen to win a divorce, breaking with traditional practice. Written with childlike simplicity and penetrating honesty, this international bestselling memoir is at once shocking and inspiring, disturbing and redemptive. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-58967-5 | 208pp. | $12.00/$15.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • gender issues • Human Rights • Regional: middle East

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS

Website: www.MayaAngelou.com

By Maya Angelou “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 themes: Black Colleges • Coming of Age • gender issues • inclusiveness

JOKER ONE A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood

To view the author’s talk at the 2009 First-Year Experience® meeting, go to: http://tinyurl.com/y8spg2a

By Donovan Campbell After graduating from Princeton University, motivated by his unwavering patriotism and commitment, Campbell decided to join the service, realizing that becoming a Marine officer would allow him to give back to his country, engage in the world, and learn to lead. In this inspiring memoir, Campbell recounts a timeless and transcendent tale of brotherhood, courage, and sacrifice. “Campbell’s narrative humanized a war, and challenged me to critically examine the ideas of leadership and social responsibility; topics I thought I had a handle on prior to reading Joker One.” —Rachel Duﬀ Anderson, Director of First-Year Experience, Siena Heights University

Selected for Common Reading at Niagara University, Siena Heights University, and The T. Boone Pickens Leadership Institute. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7956-5 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Ethics/decision making • group dynamics • Leadership & motivation

CITIZENS OF NOWHERE From Refugee Camp to Canadian Campus By Debi Goodwin Citizens of Nowhere is a poignant look at the lives of students in the overcrowded confines of Kenyan camps who now have renewed hope for their futures thanks to coveted scholarships from Canadian universities, guaranteeing both an education and permanent residency in Canada. From the horrors of civil war and exile from their homeland through the adjustments to an alien world, one where everything is a learning experience—from how to use a washing machine to understanding Western culture to wintry weather—Citizens of Nowhere, written by Debi Goodwin, is a snapshot of eleven refugees and how their stories explore the bewilderment and disappointments as well as the hopes and possibilities of newcomers in their adopted home. Anchor Canada | TR | 978-0-385-66723-4 | 336pp. | $17.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: global Citizenship • Human Rights • identity • immigration • transition

www.CommonReads.com

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FIST STICK KNIFE GUN A Personal History of Violence

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

By Geoffrey Canada A new edition, including the story of the founding of The Harlem Children’s Zone

Long before President Barack Obama praised his work as “an all-encompassing, all-hands-on deck 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. “A more powerful depiction of the tragic life of urban children and a more compelling plea to end ‘America’s war against itself’ cannot be imagined.” —The New York Times Book Review “A slim, revealing volume that should be required reading for anyone who has ever negotiated the complicated hierarchy of ‘rep’ and revenge on city streets.” —Boston Globe Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-4461-2 | 192pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • Ethics • perseverance/personal strength • Regional: New York/Urban interest

Also Available

GRAPHIC NOVEL EDITION Illustrated by Jamar Nicholas Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-4449-0 | 144pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

FUNNY IN FARSI

Website: www.FiroozehDumas.com

A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America By Firoozeh Dumas

Winner, 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 and One City, One Book programs. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-6837-8 | 240pp. | $14.00/$16.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • discovering diﬀerences • global Citizenship • identity

LAUGHING WITHOUT AN ACCENT Adventures of a Global Citizen By Firoozeh Dumas In the bestselling and common-reading-adopted memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounted her adventures growing up Iranian American in Southern California. Now she again mines her rich Persian heritage in Laughing Without an Accent, sharing stories both tender and humorous on being a citizen of the world, her well-meaning family, new motherhood, and amusing cultural conundrums, along with insights into the universality of the human condition. Selected for Common Reading at The University of Minnesota, Duluth, “The Big Read” New Hampshire, and others. Random House | TR | 978-0-345-49957-8 | 256pp. | $15.00/$17.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • discovering diﬀerences • identity

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LiFE stoRiEs—mEmoiR, BiogRApHY, ANd AUtoBiogRApHY

FATHERMOTHERGOD

Website: www.LuciaGreenhouse.com

My Journey Out of Christian Science By Lucia Greenhouse

Lucia Ewing had what looked like an all-American childhood. She lived with her mother, father, sister, and brother in an affluent suburb of Minneapolis. Yet in this house you could not be sick, because you were perfect. When it came to accidents and illnesses, Lucia’s parents didn’t take her to the doctor’s office; instead, the Ewings made calls to a Christian Science practitioner. In December 1985, when Lucia and her siblings—by then young adults—discovered that their mother was sick, they came face-to-face with the reality that they had few, if any, options to save her. Fathermothergod is an essential American coming-of-age story with a heartbreaking glimpse into the practices of the Christian Science religion. “A courageous and finely crafted portrait of a young woman struggling with her family, her faith and that awkward space between being a child and growing into adulthood.” —The Minneapolis Star Tribune Crown | HC | 978-0-307-72092-4 | 320pp. | $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 themes: Coming of Age • identity • perseverance/personal strength

THE TRANSLATOR

Website: http://tinyurl.com/cg8m6m

A Memoir By Daoud Hari

The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving story of how one person can make a difference in the world—an on-the-ground account of one of the greatest atrocities of our time, the genocide in Darfur. Having chosen language and storytelling as his weapons— while others around him were taking up arms—Hari gives us a true and necessary portrait of a deeply troubled region. Selected for Common Reading at Colorado Mountain College and Mars Hill College. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7917-6 | 224pp. | $13.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: genocide • Human Rights • perseverance/personal strength

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

Website: www.LauraHillenbrandBooks.com

Finalist, Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction Unbroken is author Laura Hillenbrand’s acclaimed biography of a World War II hero who survived for more than two and half years in several brutal Japanese internment camps as a prisoner of war. “From the 1936 Olympics to WWII Japan’s most brutal POW camps, Hillenbrand’s heart-wrenching 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.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6416-8 | 496pp. | $27.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50 themes: American History • perseverance/personal strength

DECODED

Website: http://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 —The Boston Globe of cultural journalism.” Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8115-5 | 352pp. | $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50 themes: Black Colleges • Coming of Age • identity

www.CommonReads.com

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MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World By Tracy Kidder A National Bestseller and Top Adoption Title; 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. “Kidder, a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, writes clearly and engagingly. . . . This book is being widely used in freshman seminars at colleges across the United States, and it will likely stir debates on such wide-ranging issues as the politics of health care, the role of government funding, and ethics. Highly recommended.” —Choice (American Library Association)

Selected for Common Reading at more than 60 colleges/universities and One City, One Book programs. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7301-3 | 352pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: science & society • service • social Justice

STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS By Tracy Kidder Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award

Website: www.TracyKidder.com To view video of Tracy Kidder’s presentation at the 2009 First-Year Experience® Conference in Orlando, FL, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yaud5t6

In Strength in What Remains, Kidder gives us the story of one man’s inspiring American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him, providing brilliant testament to the power of second chances. “Absorbing . . . a story about survival, about perseverance and sometimes uncanny luck in the face of hell on earth. . . . It is just as notably about profound human kindness.” —The New York Times

Selected for Common Reading at Caldwell College, Penn State Berks, Stanford University, University of Delaware, and others. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7761-5 | 304pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: genocide • global Citizenship • Human Rights • perseverance/personal strength • transition

A MIGHTY LONG WAY

To view video of Carlotta Walls LaNier’s presentation at the 2010 First-Year Experience® Conference in Denver, CO, go to: http://tinyurl.com/27l9tfw

My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School By Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page Foreword by Bill Clinton

“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 America's greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War. Carlotta’s account of events inside and outside Little Rock Central High School should be read and studied particularly by those who now walk through doors of opportunity which Carlotta and her schoolmates first opened over 50 years ago. When I started her book, I couldn’t put it down. It is a must-read.” —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, and others. One World | TR | 978-0-345-51101-0 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: American History • Black Colleges • inclusiveness • Regional: Alabama/the south

ALL SOULS: A Family Story from Southie

Website: www.MichaelPatrickMacDonald.com

By Michael Patrick MacDonald Winner, American Book Award; New England Literary Lights Award; Myers Outstanding Book Award All Souls is activist and author Michael Patrick MacDonald gripping memoir about his life growing up amid poverty and crime in the Old Colony housing projects in South Boston, a predominantly white Irish Catholic neighborhood. “My students were completely captivated by All Souls. It gave them their first real understanding of poverty, violence, and the wounds and scars of racism for white people as well as African Americans. Yet they also understood that this is a book about love, not hate—hope, not despair.” —Elaine Tyler May, Professor of American Studies and History, Director of Graduate Studies, American Studies Department, University of Minnesota

Selected for Common Reading at Tufts University and others. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-807-07213-4 | 296pp. | $13.95/$16.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • identity • Regional: Boston

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LiFE stoRiEs—mEmoiR, BiogRApHY, ANd AUtoBiogRApHY

THE ROAD OF LOST INNOCENCE The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine

Website: www.Somaly.org

By Somaly Mam Introduction by Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Foreword by Nicholas D. Kristof As a girl she was sold into sexual slavery, but now she rescues others. This is the true story of a Cambodian heroine. Somaly Mam’s book is an unforgettable and inspiring story of triumph over unthinkable adversity, giving a face and voice to a human-rights disaster of global proportions: the sprawling sex-trade industry of Southeast Asia. Written in exquisite, spare, unflinching prose, The Road of Lost Innocence recounts Mam’s early life, tells of her awakening as an activist, and relates her harrowing and brave fight against the powerful and corrupt forces that steal the lives of young girls. Selected for Common Reading at West Texas A&M University. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52622-7 | 224pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: gender issues • Human Rights • social Justice

DEAR MARCUS: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me By Jerry McGill Walking home from a party with a friend, young Jerome is shot in the back. Shortly after, he learns he’ll be paralyzed for life. Jerome never meets his attacker, and the authorities never catch the person. In this touching memoir, the boy who became a writer and advocate for the disabled confronts and reaches out to his mysterious foil. Do not order before 5/1/2012. Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-8129-9307-3 | 176pp. | $22.00/$25.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00 themes: Coming of Age • discovering diﬀerences • identity • perseverance/personal strength

THE VOYAGE OF THE ROSE CITY: An Adventure at Sea By John Moynihan John McCloskey Moynihan, the late son of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, decided to spend a summer in the merchant marine. He soon found himself suffering the brutal life of a deckhand and traveling around the world. John passed away suddenly in his forties and the journal he kept while at sea became the basis for this book. “Will speak to fans of books like Into the Wild; Moynihan has a good story to tell, one that's flecked with briny bits of Melville and Conrad and Raban. His unshowy prose has genuine immediacy. He’s good company on the page.” —The New York Times Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-8129-8243-5 | 256pp. | $22.00/$25.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00 themes: Coming of Age • discovering diﬀerences • identity

READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN: A Memoir in Books

Website: www.AzarNafisi.com

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 —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times subversive faith in the voice of the individual.” “A memoir about teaching Western literature in revolutionary Iran, with profound and fascinating —Bernard Lewis, author of The Crisis of Islam insights into both. A masterpiece.”

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. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: gender issues • Human Rights • Regional: middle East

Also by Azar Nafisi

THINGS I’VE BEEN SILENT ABOUT: Memories of a Prodigal Daughter Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7390-7 | 368pp. | $16.00/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • gender issues • Regional: the middle East

www.CommonReads.com

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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

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. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-1-4000-8277-3 | 480pp. | $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 themes: Coming of Age • identity • inclusiveness

Available in Español

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream By Barack Obama “[Barack Obama] is that rare politician who can actually write—and write movingly and genuinely about himself. . . . In these pages he often speaks to the reader as if he were an old friend from back in the day, salting policy recommendations with colorful asides about the absurdities of political life . . . . [He] 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. 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 themes: Ethics/decision making • group dynamics • service

BE DIFFERENT My Adventures with Asperger’s and My Advice for Fellow Aspergians, Misfits, Families, and Teachers By John Elder Robison

Available in Español

Websites: www.JohnRobison.com www.JERobison.blogspot.com/ www.facebook.com/JohnElderRobison www.twitter.com/JohnRobison/John-Robison To view video of John Elder Robison’s presentation at the 2009 First-Year Experience® Conference in Orlando, FL, go to: http://tinyurl.com/y8nrzbu

With disarming honesty and wit, Robison argues that Asperger’s syndrome is not so much about disability as it is about difference, offering anecdotes and stories drawn from his life, and the lives of other Aspergians, to illustrate his claim. Robison presents practical advice to Aspergians, suggesting how they can improve their communication skills and learn to navigate social situations and relationships. Aspergians will find much to support them here as they navigate the world of “neurotypicals,” while all readers will come away with a deeper understanding of the attributes of Asperger’s— and of a truly unique mind. Do not order before 3/20/2012. Broadway | TR | 978-0-307-88482-4 | 304pp. | $14.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: discovering diﬀerences • identity • inclusiveness

LOOK ME IN THE EYE: My Life with Asperger’s

For an author video, go to: http://tinyurl.com/2es7jhx

By John Elder Robison

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.” “John Robison’s book is an immensely aﬀecting account of a life lived according to his gifts rather than his limitations. His story provides ample evidence for my belief that individuals on the autistic spectrum are just as capable of rich and productive lives as anyone else.” —Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

Selected for Common Reading at Defiance College, Moncalm Community College (MI), and SUNY Potsdam, and used in high schools and college courses throughout the country. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-39618-1 | 320pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • discovering diﬀerences • identity

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

LiFE stoRiEs—mEmoiR, BiogRApHY, ANd AUtoBiogRApHY

ACTS OF FAITH The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation

For Author Interview, go to: http://tiny.cc/8y9hh

By Eboo Patel Acts of Faith is Eboo Patel’s remarkable account of coming of age and coming to understand what led him toward religious pluralism rather than hatred. Patel interweaves stories of how religious totalitarians involve youth with his own story of growing up Muslim and angry in America. He relates how he came to grasp the importance of positively engaging religious youth and founded the Interfaith Youth Core, a young organization seeking to counter religious totalitarianism by building an interfaith youth movement with a goal of pluralism. His story is a moving testament to the power and passion of young people, and to the notion that fulfillment can be found through work done for the world. Selected for Common Reading at Amarillo College, Capital University, Colgate University, Franklin College, Loras College, Dubuque Iowa, Luther College, Marywood College, Saint Louis University, and others. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-807-00622-1 | 192pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: discovering diﬀerences • inclusiveness • Youth Activism

WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE: A Memoir By Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Website: www.Sayrafiezadeh.com

Winner, 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 poises 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. “Skateboards is a brave, honest and elegant book. It felt like the story was being whispered in my ear. I haven’t read a memoir in quite a while that has so skillfully made sense of an American childhood.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin Dial Press | TR | 978-0-385-34069-4 | 320pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • Human Rights • identity • social Justice

MARZI: A Memoir By Marzena Sowa Illustrated by Sylvain Savoia Marzi, a shy, only child who longs desperately to be grown up, tells of everyday life behind the Iron Curtain: from her overcrowded apartment in the city, to summers in the country with relatives who live as though it were the 1940s, to living through the Chernobyl disaster, to the pervasive government control that permeates her young life. Written by Marzena Sowa, these honest, detailed, slice-of-life stories add up to a compelling and powerful coming-of-age narrative that portrays the harsh realities of life under communism while maintaining a child’s sense of curiosity and wonder. Vertigo | TR | 978-1-4012-2959-7 | 240pp. | $17.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • identity • perseverance/personal strength

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 To watch a video of Warren St. John discussing his book, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yegm5jj To view the author’s talk at the 2010 First-Year Experience® meeting, go to http://tinyurl.com/3y5gehr

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 —Library Journal, starred review recommended.”

Selected for Common Reading at more than 20 colleges and One City, One Book programs. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52204-5 | 336pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: discovering diﬀerences • group dynamics • immigration

www.CommonReads.com

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A CENTURY OF WISDOM

Author’s Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/AlicesFans

Lessons from the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer, the World’s Oldest Living Holocaust Survivor By Caroline Stoessinger Foreword by Václav Havel

At 107 years old, Alice Herz-Sommer is the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, as well as the world’s oldest concert pianist. An eyewitness to the entire last century and the first decade of this one, she has seen it all. Despite her years of imprisonment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and the murders of her mother, husband, and friends at the hands of the Nazis, Herz-Sommer wasted no time on bitterness and instead lives every day as though it is a gift. A Century of Wisdom is the remarkable and inspiring story of one woman’s lifelong determination—in the face of some of the worst evils known to humankind—to bring good to the world, which has helped her to persevere and live a long and vital life. Do not order before 3/20/2012. Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-8129-9281-6 | 224pp. | $23.00/$25.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.50 themes: Human Rights • identity • perseverance/personal strength

GRAND CENTRAL WINTER

Website: http://LeeStringer.us

Stories from the Street By Lee Stringer Foreword by Kurt Vonnegut

In this inspiring book of essays, Grand Central Winter vividly describes the author Lee Stringer’s experiences as being homeless and drug-addicted in New York in the 1980s. “Stringer possesses a sharp eye for the street and the rich, sagacious talent of a storyteller.” —Publishers Weekly Seven Stories Press | TR | 978-1-583-22918-7 | 256pp. | $14.95/$14.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: identity • perseverance/personal strength • social Justice

A HOPE IN THE UNSEEN

Website: www.RonSuskind.com

An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League By Ron Suskind A popular college Common Reading selection

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 numerous colleges and One City, One Book programs. Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-0126-0 | 400pp. | $15.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Black Colleges • identity • inclusiveness

THE BOYS FROM LITTLE MEXICO

Website: www.BoysFromLittleMexico.com

A Season Chasing the American Dream By Steve Wilson The Boys from Little Mexico, written by journalist Steve Wilson, is about the fight for the future of the next generation—and a hard, true look at boys dismissed as gangbangers and told to “go home” by lily-white sideline crowds. Oregon’s only all-Hispanic boys’ soccer team from Woodburn High has made the playoffs for nineteen straight years—but they’ve never won a championship. As they prepare to make it twenty, one thing will become clear: Los Perros play the beautiful game with heart, pride, and their lives on the line. The wins and losses they notch along the way spin a striking tale about what it takes to capture the American dream. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-807-00152-3 | 240pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: identity • immigration • perseverance/personal strength • social Justice

Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

OPEN CITY

Website: www.TejuCole.com

A Novel By Teju Cole

A New York Times Notable Book “The past, if there is such a thing, is mostly empty space, great expanses of nothing, in which significant persons and events float. Nigeria was like that for me: mostly forgotten, except for those few things that I remembered with outsize intensity.”

Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6809-8 | 272pp. $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50

Key FACTs: Themes: Fiction, Coming of Age, Discovering Diﬀerences, Identity Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

long the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: they are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. Though he is navigating the busy parts of town, the impression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings of isolation. But it is not only a physical landscape he covers; Julius crisscrosses social territory as well, encountering people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul. A haunting novel about national identity, race, liberty, loss, dislocation, and surrender, Teju Cole’s Open City seethes with intelligence. Written in a clear, rhythmic voice that lingers, this book is a mature, profound work by an important new author who has much to say about our country and our world.

“ . . . [B]eautiful, subtle, and, finally, original. . . . Cole has made his novel as close to a diary as a novel can get, with room for reflection, autobiography, stasis, and repetition. this is extremely difficult, and many accomplished novelists would botch it, since a sure hand is needed to make the writer’s careful stitching look like a thread merely being followed for its own sake. mysteriously, wonderfully, Cole does not botch it.” —The New Yorker “with every anecdote, with each overlap, Cole lucidly builds a compassionate and masterly work engaged more with questions than with answers regarding some of the biggest issues of our time: migration, moral accountability and our tenuous tolerance of one another’s differences. . . . Cole’s writing is assured, his ideas are well developed, and his imagery is delicious.” —The New York Times

About the Author: Teju Cole tEJU CoLE was raised in Nigeria and came to the United States in 1992. He is a writer, photographer, and professional historian of early Netherlandish art. Open City is his first novel. He lives in New York City.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author

Open City is narrated by Julius, a young psychiatrist of mixed Nigerian and German heritage. The story begins in 2006 in New York City and is essentially an account of the year that follows in the life of Julius. He wanders the post-9/11 city, at times talking to strangers and at other times keeping to himself, but always sorting through the layers of the city’s history. This is a novel of the mind, in the modernist tradition of Virginia Woolf and W. G. Sebald. But it also owes something to James Baldwin’s essayistic freedom. Julius is a loner and he is distrustful of causes, and as we follow his life—in addition to New York, he travels briefly to Brussels, and he remembers incidents from his Nigerian childhood—we see that he is also averse to drama. Because of his mixed heritage, he was an outsider while growing up in Nigeria and thought of as white. As an adult in America, he is identified as black. Because he belongs everywhere and nowhere, he takes in the world in an intelligent and detached way. I was raised in Lagos, Nigeria (both my parents are Nigerian), and am a professional historian of Netherlandish Art, currently working on my dissertation at Columbia University. Not long before I began to write the novel, I worked as a cataloguer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and that experience taught me a great deal about curating. Which objects belong with each other? How does one bring together seemingly disparate micro-narratives into a coherent whole? Open City, unlike most novels, is not plot-driven. Rather, it is propelled by the narrative voice, as James Wood pointed out in his laudatory review in The New Yorker. I hope you will consider Open City for your college-level courses. I believe that it is a challenging but accessible book, formally bold, complex and memorable. The New York Times reviewer Miguel Syjuco wrote that it “does precisely what literature should do: it brings together thoughts and beliefs, and blurs borders,” and called it “a compassionate and masterly work.” Teju Cole

Fiction to Talk About

HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET A Novel

Website: www.JamieFord.com

By Jamie Ford

Winner, Literature Award—Fiction, Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA)

Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-50534-7 | 320pp. $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Selected for Common Reading: • Colleges & Universities Gustavus Adolphus University (St. Peter, MN) Villanova University (Villanova, PA) • One City, One Book Coeur d’Alene Library “Our Region Reads” (Coeur d’Alene, ID) Findlay-Hancock County Reads (Findlay, OH) One Book, One Community (Duluth, MN) Schenectady One County, One Book (Schenectady, NY) Themes: Fiction, Coming of Age, Discovering Diﬀerences, Regional: Seattle/Northwest

n 1986, Henry Lee, a Chinese American widower, comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now a new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families left behind when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, memories take him back to the 1940s. At the height of the war, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student, at the exclusive Rainier Elementary. They forge a friendship—and an innocent love—that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family are evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end and that their promise to each other will be kept. Decades later, Henry tries to make sense of the past and confront the choices he made. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable portrait of a couple whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

“Ford expertly nails the sweet innocence of first love, the cruelty of racism, the blindness of patriotism, the astonishing unknowns between parents and their children, and the sadness and satisfaction at the end of a life well lived. the result is a vivid picture of a confusing and critical time in American history.” —Library Journal “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

Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available: Alternative Formats:

About the Author: Jamie Ford JAmiE FoRd is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Kaiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the Western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations. Ford is an award-winning short-story writer, an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and a survivor of Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. Having grown up near Seattle’s Chinatown, he now lives in Montana with his wife and children.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author I knew that my novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was making its way onto college reading lists when curious emails began popping up in my inbox. They tended to go something like this: “Um, Mr. Ford, your book, Motel on the Corner of Sweet and Sour—it’s like my favorite novel of all time!! And I’m kinda wondering if you could, like, answer these twelve questions for me :P” (In my mind, I always hear this question coming from the dorm of a wide-eyed, tiedyed, post-pubescent 19-year-old boy wearing an Urban Outfitter hoodie with his earbuds in, listening to Skrillex.) And just like that, I was suddenly part of someone’s freshman year experience. Right up there with community bathrooms (don’t forget the shower shoes), undeclared majors, and that demented social experiment otherwise known as the Greek fraternity system. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how my novel would be received amid the blizzard of activity that accompanies one’s first year away from home. But then I remembered my first year on campus and that strange mix of required reading (often the retreads of classic literature read in high school) and how grateful I was to have that occasional contemporary novel by a living, breathing author. Now that I’ve given talks at places like UConn, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Villanova University, I’m convinced that there’s something else going on, that students relate to grownup problems and ethical dilemmas, especially themes of race and social justice. But would my young characters be able to navigate those neural, critical, Twitter-worthy pathways? In talking to freshmen, in person, via email, Skype, and on Facebook, the consensus seems to be: LIKE (that peculiar, digital affirmation/“thumbs-up” which, in their world, is no small honor). And now I get emails like this: “This is the first book on my syllabus that I actually enjoyed.” “This is my all-time favorite novel. :)” Or the occasional, “I cried my eyes out. (Sob!)” Who knew that modern students would relate so well to a Chinese boy falling in love with a Japanese girl during World War II, or that a story about the Japanese Internment would affect a generation that has grown up in a post-9/11 world? The notion still amazes me—it’s something that I never planned or anticipated. But it’s a joy to behold, requests for SparkNotes and all. If you have specific questions, you can always reach me at jamieford.com or at twitter.com/jamieford. Jamie Ford

Fiction to Talk About

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN

Website: www.ColumMcCann.com

A Novel By Colum McCann

Winner, National Book Award for Fiction A New York Times Notable Book A Booklist Editors’ Choice Selection Winner, International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7399-0 | 400pp. $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Selected for Common Reading: Boston College and New York University Themes: Fiction, American History, Immigration Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

n the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people. Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth. Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” 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.

“mesmerizing . . . A Joycean look at the lives of New Yorkers changed by a single act on a single day. . . . ” —Seattle Times

CoLUm mCCANN is the National Book Award–winning and internationally bestselling author of the novels Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness, and Songdogs, as well as two critically acclaimed story collections. His fiction has been published in thirty languages. He was the inaugural winner of the Ireland Fund of Monaco Literary Award in Memory of Princess Grace. He teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing Program.

www.CommonReads.com

©Matt Valentine

About the Author: Colum McCann

Excerpt from Let the Great World spin Those who saw him hushed. On Church Street. Liberty. Cortlandt. West Street. Fulton. Vesey. It was a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful. Some thought at first that it must have been a trick of the light, something to do with the weather, an accident of shadowfall. Others figured it might be the perfect city joke—stand around and point upward, until people gathered, tilted their heads, nodded, affirmed, until all were staring upward at nothing at all, like waiting for the end of a Lenny Bruce gag. But the longer they watched, the surer they were. He stood at the very edge of the building, shaped dark against the gray of the morning. A window washer maybe. Or a construction worker. Or a jumper. Up there, at the height of a hundred and ten stories, utterly still, a dark toy against the cloudy sky. He could only be seen at certain angles so that the watchers had to pause at street corners, find a gap between buildings, or meander from the shadows to get a view unobstructed by cornicework, gargoyles, balustrades, roof edges. None of them had yet made sense of the line strung at his feet from one tower to the other. Rather, it was the manshape that held them there, their necks craned, torn between the promise of doom and the disappointment of the ordinary. It was the dilemma of the watchers: they didn’t want to wait around for nothing at all, some idiot standing on the precipice of the towers, but they didn’t want to miss the moment either, if he slipped, or got arrested, or dove, arms stretched. Around the watchers, the city still made its everyday noises. Car horns. Garbage trucks. Ferry whistles. The thrum of the subway. The M22 bus pulled in against the sidewalk, braked, sighed down into a pothole. A flying chocolate wrapper touched against a fire hydrant. Taxi doors slammed. Bits of trash sparred in the darkest reaches of the alleyways. Sneakers found their sweetspots. The leather of briefcases rubbed against trouserlegs. A few umbrella tips clinked against the pavement. Revolving doors pushed quarters of conversation out into the street. But the watchers could have taken all the sounds and smashed them down into a single noise and still they wouldn’t have heard much at all: even when they cursed, it was done quietly, reverently. They found themselves in small groups together beside the traffic lights on the corner of Church and Dey; gathered under the awning of Sam’s barbershop; in the doorway of Charlie’s Audio; a tight little theater of men and women against the railings of St. Paul’s Chapel; elbowing for space at the windows of the Woolworth Building. Lawyers. Elevator operators. Doctors. Cleaners. Prep chefs. Diamond merchants. Fish sellers. Sad-jeaned whores. All of them reassured by the presence of one another. Stenographers. Traders. Deliveryboys. Sandwichboard men. Cardsharks. Con Ed. Ma Bell. Wall Street. A locksmith in his van on the corner of Dey and Broadway. A bike messenger lounging against a lamppost on West. A red-faced rummy out looking for an early-morning pour. From the Staten Island Ferry they glimpsed him. From the meatpacking warehouses on the West Side. From the new high-rises in Battery Park. From the breakfast carts down on Broadway. From the plaza below. From the towers themselves. Sure, there were some who ignored the fuss, who didn’t want to be bothered. It was seven fortyseven in the morning and they were too jacked up for anything but a desk, a pen, a telephone. Up they came from the subway stations, from limousines, off city buses, crossing the street at a clip, refusing the prospect of a gawk. Another day, another dollar. But as they passed the little clumps of commotion they began to slow down. Some stopped altogether, shrugged, turned nonchalantly, walked to the corner, bumped up against the watchers, went to the tips of their toes, gazed over the crowd, and then introduced themselves with a Wow or a Gee-whiz or a Jesus H. Christ. Excerpted from Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann Copyright © 2009 by Colum McCann. Excerpted by permission of Random House Trade Paperbacks, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Fiction to Talk About

THE SPEED OF DARK

Website: www.ElizabethMoon.com For more books by Elizabeth Moon, go to: http://tinyurl.com/62musy6

A Novel By Elizabeth Moon

Winner, Nebula Award Finalist, Arthur C. Clarke Award

n the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Most genetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during infancy. Unfortunately, there will be a generation left behind. For members of that missed generation, small advances will be made. Through various programs, they will be taught to get along in the world despite their differences. They will be made active and contributing members of society. But they will never be normal. Lou is a high-functioning autistic adult who has made a good life for himself and is, he thinks, content. But a new manager in the pharmaceutical firm for which he works decides to put pressure on the unit that employs autistic persons. Lou is pressured to undergo an experimental treatment that might “cure” the autism he doesn’t think needs curing, or risk losing his job—and certainly the accommodations the company has put in place for its autistic employees. Thoughtful, provocative, poignant, unforgettable, The Speed of Dark is a gripping exploration into the mind of an autistic person as he struggles with profound questions of humanity and matters of the heart.

Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-44754-8 | 368pp. $13.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Del Rey | MM | 978-0-345-48139-9 | 384pp. $6.99/$10.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

“Every once in a while, you come across a book that is both an important literary achievement and a completely and utterly absorbing reading experience—a book with provocative ideas and an equally compelling story. such a book is The Speed of Dark, by Elizabeth moon. . . . in Lou Arrendale, moon has created an unforgettable character.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Key FACTs: Selected for Common Reading: Clemson University, Ohio State University, and SUNY Oswego Themes: Fiction, Identity, Science & Society Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

Former Marine ELizABEtH mooN is the author of many novels, including Victory Conditions, Command Decision, Engaging the Enemy, Marque and Reprisal, Trading in Danger, the Nebula Award winner The Speed of Dark, and Remnant Population, a Hugo Award finalist. After earning a degree in history from Rice University, Moon went on to obtain a degree in biology from the University of Texas, Austin. She lives in Florence, Texas.

www.CommonReads.com

©Nancy Whitworth

About the Author: elizabeth Moon

A Message from the Author

I wrote The Speed of Dark to show how a high-functioning autistic thinks—how he might cope with cultural demands for change within the framework of his neurology. As the parent of an autistic child—and looking at him from my background in biology, animal behavior, and computer programming—I had found our son’s thinking processes fascinating and far less “inhuman” than the textbooks on autism suggested. I wanted to demystify the autistic mind, correct some of the commonest errors. But as I wrote, and thought about autism, society, disability issues in general, how identity is constructed, and how autonomy is rationed by society, the book became more about questions than answers. Why did those errors exist? Because the disability model, a subset of the general “othering” model, forced researchers to ask the wrong questions—to slide into binary thinking: normal/abnormal, healthy/pathological. Where The Speed of Dark has been used as unifying text in universities and communities, these questions have led to stimulating conversations across the usual boundaries, ranging far beyond autism and, in many cases, far beyond disability issues. I have enjoyed being part of those conversations whenever possible. It’s exciting to experience a community engaged in open-ended discourse. Elizabeth Moon

Fiction to Talk About

FiCtioN to tALk ABoUt

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS

Website:www.JohnBoyne.com

By John Boyne Winner, Two Irish Book Awards The Bisto Book of the Year Award (Ireland) The Qué Leer Award (Spain) Set during the Holocaust, this is the award-winning, cautionary tale is about two boys, one the son of a commandant in Hitler’s army and the other a Jew, who come face-to-face at a barbed wire fence that separates, and eventually intertwines, their lives. “A small wonder of a book . . . this is what fiction is supposed to do.”

—The Guardian

Ember | TR | 978-0-385-75153-7 | 240pp. | $8.99/$9.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Human Rights • identity

WORLD WAR Z An Oral History of the Zombie War

Website: www.MaxBrooks.com

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture

By Max Brooks At long last, here is the gripping, fictional history of the Zombie War, which came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Author Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched firsthand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-toface with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the imaginative, astonishing result. “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 and University of Houston–Victoria. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-34661-2 | 352pp. | $14.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Ethics

HOMER & LANGLEY A Novel

For more books by E.L. Doctorow, go to: http://tinyurl.com/3wz6eh5

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 themes: Fiction • American History • identity

EVERY MAN DIES ALONE By Hans Fallada Translated by Michael Hofmann

Website: www.HansFallada.com

This never-before-translated masterpiece—by a heroic, bestselling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn’t join the Nazi Party—is based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping, deeply stirring saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in. Melville House | TR | 978-1-935-55404-2 | 544pp. | $18.95/$23.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Ethics • identity • social Justice

www.CommonReads.com

FiCtioN to tALk ABoUt

THE RED UMBRELLA By Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Website: www.ChristinaGonzalez.com

Winner, ALA Best Books for Young Adults This is the moving tale of a 14-year-old girl’s journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan—an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro’s revolution. The Red Umbrella is a powerful story of country, culture, family, and the true meaning of home. “Gonzalez deals eﬀectively with separation, culture shock, homesickness, uncertainty and identity as she captures what is also a grand adventure—resilient kids taking to a new way of life.” —San Francisco Chronicle Alfred A. Knopf | TR | 978-0-375-85489-7 | 288pp. | $6.99/$7.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • identity

BOMBINGHAM

Website: www.AnthonyGrooms.com

By Anthony Grooms From the war-torn rice fields of Vietnam to the riot-filled streets of Birmingham, Alabama, Bombingham is the affecting story of a middle-class black family shattered by personal chaos. As young, African American Walter Burke struggles to make sense of his presence in Vietnam, he wonders if the victory of the civil rights movement meant nothing more than earning the right to fight a battle of another kind. Selected for Common Reading at Alabama A&M University, Florida A&M University, Marquette University, SUNY Oswego, and others. One World/Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-45293-1 | 320pp. | $13.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • inclusiveness • social Justice

INTO THE FOREST: A Novel

Website: www.JeanHegland.com

By Jean Hegland Set in the near future, Into the Forest follows two young sisters struggling to make sense of their world when both society and their family collapse. Hegland’s exploration of the sisters’ relationship reveals the full dimension of their bond and what it means to be human and alive in this new world. “The plot draws readers along at the same time that the details and vivid writing encourage rereading. . . . a truly admirable addition to a genre defined by the very high standards of George Orwell’s 1984 and Russell Hoban’s Ridley Walker.” —Publishers Weekly

Selected for Common Reading at Bowling Green State University, Santa Rosa Junior College, and others. Dial Press | TR | 978-0-553-37961-7 | 256pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • gender issues • perseverance/personal strength

ANATOMY OF A DISAPPEARANCE: A Novel By Hisham Matar Nuri is born into exile, the son of worldly parents who’ve fled their Arab country in the wake of a revolution. After his mother’s death, Nuri and his dashing father live a life of strange emptiness—with only the occasional hint of the father’s risky political activities intruding— until they meet Mona. The young, beautiful half-English, half-Arab woman transfixes both father and eleven-year-old son, and she soon joins their family. The uneasy equilibrium the three fall into is shattered completely when Nuri’s father goes missing. Dreamlike yet devastating, Hisham Matar’s new novel is written with emotional precision and intimacy. Dial Press | HC | 978-0-385-34044-1 | 240pp. | $22.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $11.00 themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • identity • Regional: middle East

Also by Hisham Matar

IN THE COUNTRY OF OLD MEN Winner, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize of Europe and South Asia; Finalist, National Book Award; Shortlist, Man Booker Prize Dial Press | TR | 978-0-385-34043-4 | 256pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • identity • Regional: middle East

Fiction to Talk About

FiCtioN to tALk ABoUt

THE GLASS ROOM

Website: www.SimonMawer.com

A Novel By Simon Mawer Newlyweds in 1930s Czechoslovakia, Viktor and Liesel Landauer are progressive (he is Jewish, she gentile), cultured, and urbane. Their house—a modernist masterpiece—reflects not only their taste, but also the optimism and creativity of modern Europe. But as World War II encroaches, the Landauers flee their home. The glass house becomes a Nazi base, then a safe house for refugees, until the Landauers return to a post-war Europe utterly scarred and changed forever. In The Glass Room, the tragedy of dashed idealism is beautifully expressed through the saga of one family and their delicate, forward-looking home. Other Press | TR | 978-1-59051-396-5 | 416pp. | $14.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • group dynamics • identity • perseverance/personal strength

LAY THAT TRUMPET IN OUR HANDS

Website: www.SusanCarolMcCarthy.com

By Susan Carol McCarthy Inspired by real events, Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands is a novel that tackles race politics in the South before the civil rights movement unlike any other book in recent memory. “Reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, McCarthy’s debut novel is an engrossing story of one girl’s coming-of-age during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement.” —Library Journal “The best fiction always bears a strong resemblance to real life. . . . McCarthy blends fact, memory, imagination and truth with admirable grace.” —The Washington Post

Selected for Common Reading at numerous high schools, colleges, and communities. Bantam | TR | 978-0-553-38103-0 | 288pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • inclusiveness • Regional: the American south • social Justice

THE LAST TOWN ON EARTH A Novel

Website: www.ThomasMullen.net

By Thomas Mullen Set against the backdrop of one of the most virulent epidemics that America ever experienced— the 1918 influenza pandemic—Thomas Mullen’s powerful first novel is a tale of morality in a time of upheaval. A chance encounter and the shots that are fired as a result have deafening reverberations throughout the town of Commonwealth, escalating until every human value— love, patriotism, community, family, friendship—not to mention the town’s very survival, is imperiled. Selected for Common Reading at Bowling Green State University, Montana State University–Billings, Murray State University, Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, University of Arizona, University of South Carolina Aiken, Western Michigan University, and others. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7592-5 | 432pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Ethics/decision making • group dynamics • science & society

THE CRYING TREE A Novel

Website: www.NaseemRakha.com

By Naseem Rakha The Crying Tree is award-winning author Naseem Rakha’s captivating novel about the unbreakable bonds of family and the transformative power of forgiveness. “The Crying Tree is easily one of the most impactful books I have read. The book clearly states that it’s about a mother’s ability to forgive, based on the extreme circumstances of coming to terms with her son’s murder and murderer. Along with forgiveness as ‘big picture theme,’ the book also thoughtfully provokes no shortage of confusion about the ethics of capital punishment. . . . I think the true impact of this book is in its ability to help us understand that relationships change and our ability to be truly compassionate with each other lies in our ability to aﬀord and forgive those changes in each other.” —Rebecca Campbell, Ph.D., Director of Academic Transition Programs/Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Northern Arizona University Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-3174-8 | 368pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Ethics/decision making • identity

www.CommonReads.com

FiCtioN to tALk ABoUt

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS A Novel By Arundhati Roy Winner of The Booker Prize Winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 1997, The God of Small Things was Arundhati Roy’s stunning debut. The story of Rahel and Estha, twins born to a wealthy Indian family, begins in the late 1960s as communism was turning the traditional caste system upside down. The story shifts between two eras: the present, where Rahel visits her mute brother; and the past, one day in December that tore the family apart. As vivid as it is powerful, Roy’s novel is reminiscent of Faulkner, Rushdie, and Márquez—a surefire contemporary classic that should be added to every student’s library. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7965-7 | 352pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • identity • Regional: india

SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN

Website: www.LisaSee.com

A Novel By Lisa See A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

Lily is haunted by memories of who she once was and of the beloved person, long gone, who defined her existence. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history, deeply moving and sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most profound human relationships: friendship between women. A moving exploration of the power of memory, the ramifications of oppression, and the redemptive powers of language. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-6806-4 | 288pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • gender issues • inclusiveness • Regional: Asia

VACLAV & LENA

Website: www.HaleyTanner.com

A Novel By Haley Tanner Vaclav and Lena are the children of Russian émigrés, but they are from radically different worlds. Vaclav’s burgeoning love of performing magic is indulged by hardworking parents, while troubled orphan Lena is caught in a domestic situation no child should suffer through. She is taken in by Vaclav’s bighearted mother, but after a horrific discovery, Vaclav and Lena are ripped apart without even a good-bye. When they meet again, years later, their past threatens to keep them apart. Dial Press | TR | 978-0-8129-8163-6 | 320pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • immigration

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE A Novel

For more books by Kurt Vonnegut, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yalov8r

By Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the journey we undertake as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. “Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of a —The Boston Globe thundering moral statement.” Dial Press | TR | 978-0-385-33384-9 | 288pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Dell | MM | 978-0-440-18029-6 | 224pp. | $7.99/$9.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Fiction • Ethics/decision making • identity • perseverance/personal strength

Fiction to Talk About

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment

Website: www.PeterBuffett.com

By Peter Buffett

ost people probably think that having billionaire investor Warren Buffett as a father makes life far from average. But, as Peter Buffett explains, an individual’s success has more to do with building personal character than using a family platform to get ahead. In Life Is What You Make It, Buffett, a musician, composer, and philanthropist, shares the important lessons learned from his parents—part of an upbringing focused on the importance of honorable values as individuals in a community and what we are able to give back.

“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.” —Bill Clinton “knowing and admiring peter as we do, Life Is What You Make It captures his spirit, passion, and values beautifully. As parents, it's the kind of dialogue about our life's purpose and opportunity we’re having with our children. we will have everyone in our family read and discuss Life Is What You Make It.” —Bill and Melinda Gates

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-46472-9 | 272pp. $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Leadership & Motivation Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“Life Is What You Make It is the ultimate book of common sense— except it isn't common. Because peter Buffett could have had a derived identity and chose not to, he has power and credibility when he tells us how to find a unique self by doing what we love. i can’t imagine anyone who wouldn't benefit from this spirited, wise, and friendly book.” —Gloria Steinem “in his searching book, Life Is What You Make It, peter Buffett challenges us all to balance ambition and service, personal goals and work for the common good. it is a book of value and honesty.” —Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues “peter Buffett’s ‘Concert & Conversation’ was a thoroughly moving experience. through multimedia, his own special music and interaction with the audience, peter kept us engaged and absorbed in his philosophy, his can-do spirit and his attitude toward life and living. the audience arrived intrigued with peter’s famous last name. At the conclusion, the audience left convinced that there is nothing that they couldn’t accomplish as individuals. truly, a rewarding evening.” —Dr. R. Mark Sullivan, President, The College of Saint Rose

About the Author: Peter Buﬀett pEtER BUFFEtt is an established composer/producer. He has released six albums on his own label, as well as eight albums on other labels. Highlights of his film and television work include “Fire Dance” from Dances with Wolves and the score for 500 Nations. Buffett’s theatrical production, Spirit: The Seventh Fire, was produced on the National Mall. With his wife Jennifer, he is co-chairman of the NoVo Foundation, an organization which seeks to promote equality, end violence, and combat exploitation of women globally by empowering females as agents of change.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author What path will you choose? This is a very personal book about values and identity. I make no claim of special expertise in the conduct of life, still less in the mystery of life’s meaning. But here and there in this book, I do presume to offer advice, and I make no apology for that. There are certain things I passionately believe to be true. Where I can make a case for those truths, where I think I can provide some clarity and perspective, I have not been shy about doing so. By the luck of the draw—what my father calls “winning the Ovarian Lottery”—I was born into a caring and supportive family, a family whose first and most important gift to me was emotional security. Over time, as a bonus that came as a gradual and wonderful surprise, my family also got to be wealthy and distinguished. My dad, Warren Buffett—by dint of hard work, solid ethics, and steady wisdom—has become one of the richest and most respected men in the world. But those are his accomplishments, not mine. No matter who your parents are, you’ve still got your own life to figure out. Life moves incredibly fast, and it is filled with distractions. As clutter builds up at the periphery—streams of data coming from every direction and the unremitting bombardment of the media—it becomes ever more challenging to filter out the noise, to remember where the center is. But, ultimately, we create the lives we live. This is our greatest burden and greatest opportunity. It is also the most basic, bedrock premise of everything I have to say in this book. What sort of people will we choose to be? Will we choose the path of least resistance—or the path of potentially greatest satisfaction? In our dealings with others, will we shy away from intimacy and honesty and tolerance—or will we open ourselves to robust and candid relationships? In our work lives, will we settle for making a living or aim at the higher goal of earning a life? Answers to these questions can only come from inside each of us. The goal of this book is simply to raise the questions, to offer a framework for thought and, I hope, discussion. Your life is yours to create. Be grateful for the opportunity. Seize it with passion and boldness. Whatever you decide to do, commit to it with all your strength . . . and begin it now. Peter Buffett

Inspiration and Guidance

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 themes: Coming of Age • Ethics/decision making • identity

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 we can answer this question for ourselves. Filled with humor, empathy, and insight, this edition includes 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 themes: Ethics/decision making • identity • Life skills

THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT

Website: www.GiveTheBestAdvice.com

Lessons from Extraordinary Lives By Katie Couric Katie Couric, one of the most respected journalists of our time, gathers a personal collection of advice and anecdotes from more than ninety-five of America’s well-known personalities to answer the question, “What’s the best advice you ever got?” Along the way, Couric shares her own personal story and the advice and insights that have guided her life and career, from her start fetching coffee as a desk assistant at ABC to her fifteen years on the Today Show to her life today as the first female solo anchor of a major network news broadcast. At once funny, inspiring, poignant, empowering, and illuminating, The Best Advice I Ever Got is the perfect book for students who are thinking about the future, contemplating taking a risk, or daring to make a leap into the great unknown. Random House | HC | 978-0-8129-9277-9 | 288pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 Do not order paperback before 4/3/2012. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8258-9 | 288pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Leadership & motivation • Life skills • transition

ENJOY EVERY SANDWICH: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last By Lee Lipsenthal, M.D. As medical director of the famed Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Lee Lipsenthal helped thousands of patients struggling with disease to overcome their fears of pain and death and to embrace a more joyful way of living. In his own life, happily married and the proud father of two remarkable children, Lee was similarly committed to living his life fully and gratefully each day. The power of those beliefs was tested in July 2009, when Lee was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. As Lee and his wife, Kathy, navigated his diagnosis, illness, and treatment, he discovered that he did not fear death, and that even as he was facing his own mortality, he felt more fully alive than ever before. In the bestselling tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie, told with humor and heart, and deeply inspiring, Enjoy Every Sandwich distills everything Lee learned about how we find meaning, purpose, and peace in our lives. Crown Archetype | HC | 978-0-307-95515-9 | 224pp. | $22.00/$25.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00 themes: Ethics/decision making • Life skills

www.CommonReads.com

iNspiRAtioN ANd gUidANCE

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 themes: Leadership & motivation • Life skills • social Justice

Indiana University Northwest’s Reading Guide is available. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/6qrsefc 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

MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary By Bill Strickland With Vince Rause

Website: www.Bill-Strickland.com To watch a video of Bill Strickland speaking at the Random House Luncheon during the First Year Experience® 2010 Conference, go to: http://tinyurl.com/334reoj

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 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 themes: Leadership & motivation • service • social Justice

LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life

Website: www.LifeWithoutLimbs.org

By Nick Vujicic 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 independently 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 for anyone is to find his life’s purpose despite whatever difficulties or seemingly impossible odds stand in his way. Doubleday Religion | HC | 978-0-307-58973-6 | 256pp. | $19.99/$22.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $10.00 themes: peer group skills • perseverance/personal strength • service

Inspiration and Guidance

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity By Katherine Boo

Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6755-8 | 272pp. $28.00/$33.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Group Dynamics, Human Rights, Regional: India Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

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 twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

“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 “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

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. This is her first book.

www.CommonReads.com

©Helen Welvaart

About the Author: Katherine Boo

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

Website: www.ThePowerOfIntroverts.com

By Susan Cain

t least one-third of the people we know 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 introverts see themselves.

Crown | HC | 978-0-307-35214-9 | 352pp. $26.00/$28.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Communication, Discovering Diﬀerences, Inclusion Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“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, and coauthor, The Progress Principle “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 “several aspects of Quiet are remarkable. First, it is well informed by the research literature but not held captive by it. second, it is exceptionally well written, and ‘reader friendly.’ third, it is insightful. i am sure many people wonder why brash, impulsive behavior seems to be rewarded, whereas reflective, thoughtful behavior is overlooked. this book goes beyond such superficial impressions to a more penetrating analysis.” —William Graziano, Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University

About the Author: susan Cain sUsAN CAiN has taught negotiation skills at corporations, law firms, and universities, including the University of Chicago Business School, the Princeton Alumni Network, and New York University’s School of Continuing Legal Education. She also practiced corporate law for seven years with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where her clients included J. P. Morgan and General Electric, and she received an Award for Distinguished Pro Bono Service from the Legal Aid Society. She has a popular blog on PsychologyToday.com, and her New York Times article on the evolutionary benefits of shyness was the #1 most e-mailed article in the paper when it was published. Susan graduated with honors from Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

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 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. 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

History and Society

HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS

Website: www.SmallNoises.com

Written and Illustrated by Sarah Glidden

hen Sarah Glidden took a “Birthright Israel” tour, she thought she knew what she was getting herself into. But when she got to Israel, she found that things weren’t quite so simple. How to Understand Israel is Sarah’s memoir not only of her Israeli government–sponsored trip through Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Masada, and other famous locations, but of the emotional journey she never expected to take while she was there. Her experience clashes with her preconceived notions again and again, particularly when she tries to take a non-chaperoned trip into the West Bank. Sarah is forced to question first her political beliefs and, ultimately, her own sense of identity, until she finds that to understand Israel she first must come to understand herself.

“[A] touching and often funny story. . . . the simplicity of the drawing is offset by bright, delicate watercolors that belie our heroine’s unresolved struggle with history and heritage.” —Publishers Weekly

Vertigo | TR | 978-1-401-22234-5 | 208pp. $19.99/$22.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs:

“Beautiful watercolors and well-chosen viewpoints detail the land and architecture, and a richly individuated cast of characters carries the reader into and beyond the israel glidden experiences as she comes to the realization that others don’t need to agree with her in order for her to feel heard by them. Although aimed at adults, this graphic novel is also a good choice for collections serving older teens and good discussion material for currentevents classes as well as ethnic studies curricula.” —Booklist

Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Regional: Middle East Campus Visits:

About the Author: sarah Glidden sARAH gLiddEN is the winner of the prestigious Ignatz Award for “Most Promising New Talent” as well as the Masie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less is her first graphic novel. Born in 1980 in Boston, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author When I used to think about growing as a person, I visualized my life as a sort of graph: a steadily climbing, (sometimes dipping) line that would crawl forward over time until a certain age when the graph would plateau into a stable flatness. The way I looked at it, one’s teens and early 20s are all about discovering who you are and what you think about the world. At some point, all my opinions, beliefs, and values would become fixed into a solid identity that I would carry with me into the future like an amber shield. This fantasy carried over into the way I approached other topics, such as history and politics. I had been interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for some time but felt fatigued by it; and I was itching to just figure it out and then move on. I was familiar with the “two sides” of the conflict in American discourse. Conservatives blamed the Palestinians, calling them “terrorists” and “monsters,” while liberals maintained that the Israelis were occupiers and thus the real monsters. While I had always identified more with the latter camp, there was always something unsettling to me about defining a conflict as a struggle between “good vs. evil.” I wanted to truly understand the mess in the Middle East. I had read plenty on the subject, had gone to lectures, and had watched many documentaries. The only step left was to go visit the country to see it with my own eyes. The finish line was in Jerusalem somewhere, and all I had to do was to get there. Luckily, there was a free way for me to do this. Birthright-Israel is a foundation that offers free ten-day tours of the country to anyone Jewish between the ages of 18 and 26. I was just about to turn 27, and my main connection to my Judaism was my love for my grandmother’s matzo ball soup, but I still qualified—barely. I decided to take the opportunity to see Israel, and then afterwards, I would stay on in the country and even travel into the West Bank. I was mindful that Birthright could be propagandistic and one-sided, but I had done my homework and was ready for whatever the group would try to tell me about the conflict. And anyway, I was planning to create a comic book about my trip. The more propaganda Birthright threw at me, the more material I would have for a book. Bring it on! The idea that I could finally “understand” the conflict by going on a Birthright trip is, of course, absurd. Instead, I sunk deeper into the morass. As I traveled the country, I was able to see parts of Israel that don’t usually make it into the newspapers and to meet ordinary people who call this land of turmoil their home. At the same time, I was constantly worried I was being manipulated by my tour guides. In the end, I didn’t flip to the “other side,” but neither did I come back from Israel saying, “Yup, it’s true: they’re all monsters.” What I discovered through wrestling with the trip was that there are no easy or absolute answers when it comes to complex issues. There are very few situations in which one group is always “right” and the other is always “wrong.” The reality is that there is no finish line for understanding. In creating this book, I tried to remain honest about my own flaws as I embarked on an almost quixotic quest for knowledge. Combining simply drawn characters with painterly backgrounds, I bring my readers into the story so that they can feel as if they are right there experiencing all the interior battles and struggles, and getting inside my character’s imagination, daydreams, and doubts. I don’t let myself off lightly; my character succumbs to hurried judgment, reactive emotions, and irrational fears. But these are traits that we all share at times, and rather than be ashamed of them, they should be recognized as the parts of us that help us to grow. Sarah Glidden

History and Society

FULL BODY BURDEN Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats

Website: www.KristenIversen.com

By Kristen Iversen

Publishing June 2012*

Do not order before 6/5/2012. Crown | HC | 978-0-307-95563-0 | 416pp. $25.00/$29.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50

*To request a FREE Advance Reader’s Copy, email rhacademic@randomhouse.com.

Key FACTs: Themes: Coming of Age, Environment, Regional: Colorado, Science & Society Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

ull Body Burden is a haunting work of narrative nonfiction about a young woman 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 secrets and government secrets. Her father’s hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what they made at Rocky Flats (cleaning supplies, her mother guessed)—best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions. In her early thirties, she even worked at Rocky Flats for a time, typing up memos in which accidents were always called “incidents.” 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’ vain attempts to seek justice in court. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book promises to have a very long half-life.

“this terrifyingly brilliant book—as perfectly crafted and meticulously assembled as the nuclear bomb triggers that lie at its core—is a savage indictment of the American strategic weapons industry, both haunting in its power, and yet wonderfully, charmingly human as a memoir of growing up in the Atomic Age.” —Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman “part memoir, part investigative journalism, Full Body Burden is a tale that will haunt your dreams. it’s a story of secrecy, deceit, and betrayal set in the majestic high plains of Colorado. kristen iversen takes us behind her family’s closed doors and beyond the security fences and the armed guards at Rocky Flats. she’s as honest and restrained in her portrait of a family in crisis as she is in documenting the incomprehensible betrayal of citizens by their government, in exposing the harrowing disregard for public safety exhibited by the technocrats in charge of a top-secret nuclear weapons facility.” —John Dufresne, author of Louisiana Power and Light; professor, MFA Program in Creative Writing, Florida International University

kRistEN iVERsEN is Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Memphis and 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, and Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, the first textbook to cover the major subgenres of creative nonfiction. She has two sons and lives in Memphis.

www.CommonReads.com

©Jay Adkins

About the Author: Kristen Iversen

History and Society

THE NIGHT WANDERERS Uganda’s Children and the Lord’s Resistance Army By Wojciech Jagielski Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Shortlist, Nike Prize

n an average night in northern Uganda, tens of thousands of children head for the city centers to avoid capture by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). They find refuge on the floors of aid agencies or in the streets. In recent years, the civil society was almost completely destroyed by the LRA, itself made up almost entirely of kidnapped children. Piecing together what has been broken is proving to be a nearly impossible task. Polish journalist Wojciech Jagielski inserts himself into this hellish landscape and finds a way to speak of these children and their wounded world. In The Night Wanderers, Jagielski shows his readers the horror of children who have been abducted from their homes and forced to kill their own family members; children who, even after they have escaped the LRA, carry the weight of their own acts of murder on their young shoulders. Jagielski portrays Uganda through their eyes as well as his own.

Seven Stories Press | HC | 978-1-60980-350-6 | 320pp. $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50

Key FACTs: Themes: Human Rights, Regional: Uganda, Social Justice Alternative Formats:

Carrying on the rich tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński, Jagielski digs himself deep into the Ugandan landscape and emerges with a compassionate, incisive, painful, magisterial account of a world that is just starting to pull itself out of the horrors of war. The original Polish edition of The Night Wanderers is shortlisted for the Nike Prize, considered to be the most prestigious literary award in Poland. “wojciech Jagielski’s Night Wanderers in not only a bitter story about a forgotten civil war in Uganda, but it is also a literary masterpiece, a reportage in every sense of the word.” —Wiadomosci24 (Poland)

woJCiECH JAgiELski has been a reporter at Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s first and biggest independent daily, where he specializes in Africa, Central Asia, the Trans-Caucasus, and the Caucasus. Jagielski is the recipient of the Dariusz Fikus Award and the Letterature dal Fronte Award (Italy) for his book Towers of Stone: The Battle of Wills in Chechnya, which Seven Stories published in English in 2009. In 2010, Jagielski decided to devote himself full-time to writing books. He is arguably Poland’s best known contemporary nonfiction writer.

www.CommonReads.com

©Mikolaj Dlugosz

About the Author: Wojciech Jagielski

A Message from the Author My book started with my years’ long fascination with Uganda, one that made me visit Uganda on several occasions and to think a lot about its recent history. The reign of Idi Amin and then the bloody civil wars destroying the country afterwards became, in my mind, the symbol of the “Heart of Darkness” of our time, where one can observe, or maybe even understand, the essence of evil that under certain circumstances becomes a part of human nature. Initially, my idea was to tell the story of the child soldiers of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a macabre rebel group commanded by Joseph Kony, a person who, by his own description, was possessed by ghosts. I always perceived him more as a leader of some gloomy religious sect than a guerilla leader. My last two research journeys, dedicated exclusively to interviewing child soldiers, made me realize how hard it is to communicate with them. All the more difficult, then, to attempt to understand their life experiences. Night Wanderers tells a story about Uganda and how its ghosts are interfering in the lives of people, about children forced to play adults, and adults seeing children as their worst threat, as monsters bringing death and pain. It tells a story about the limits of our understanding when it comes to learning about a world far different from the one we know. As adults who are still fairly young—who are relatively free of the heavy experiences of past decades, who don’t yet know the measure of evil or the depths of human tragedy, who enter a world of extreme ideologies, in many cases ones that may seem totally alien—my hope is that this book can help students to understand the ways in which this foreign-seeming world is only apparently remote. I hope the book will help them understand many different kinds of occurrences, including ones for which 9/11 was a warning sign. Maybe by seeing children as murderers as well as victims students will be more willing to reflect on the complexity of human nature. I wanted to show the dangers of easy categorization, of condemning certain people as criminals, and also how difficult the path to becoming human again can be for such people. Finally, Night Wanderers is my search for hope and humanity in all participants in the drama that is Africa today. I want the book to serve as a warning against indifference toward evil in the world, especially the evil that takes place out of our sight. The evil might be closer than we think. —Wojciech Jagielski, journalist and author of Night Wanderers and Towers of Stone, September 12, 2011

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

n 1933 William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered history professor from Chicago, was chosen by Roosevelt to be America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany. At first he and his family are entranced by the “New Germany,” and Dodd’s daughter Martha has several affairs, including with the first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. The Dodds’ experience of excitement and romance morphes into horror when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness view of events as they unfold in real time, revealing what it was like for those living there, without the perspective of history neatly rendering their judgments. The result is a compelling tale that explores why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

Crown | HC | 978-0-307-40884-6 | 464pp. $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 Paperback coming May 2012.

Key FACTs: Themes: Ethics, Genocide, Perseverance/Personal Strength Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

“Larson captivated our community when he came here to speak about his book, the creative process, and how to weave history and fiction into one brilliant and bone-chilling masterpiece. He answered the many questions our students had about his work, and provided them with valuable and insightful information into the writing process.” —Sanford J. Ungar, President, Goucher College “By far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history. . . . powerful, poignant . . . a transportingly true story.” —The 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 terrrible events.” —The New York Times Book Review Also by Erik Larson

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America Finalist, National Book Awards Vintage | TR | 978-0-375-72560-9 | 464pp. | $15.95/$17.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

THUNDERSTRUCK Broadway | TR | 978-1-4000-8067-0 | 480pp. |$16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

About the Author: erik Larson ERik LARsoN is the bestselling author of Isaac’s Storm, Thunderstruck, and The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, which won the 2004 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is a former writer for The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. Larson has taught nonfiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon. He lives in Seattle.

www.CommonReads.com

Excerpt from In the Garden of Beasts Once, at the dawn of a very dark time, an American father and daughter found themselves suddenly transported from their snug home in Chicago to the heart of Hitler’s Berlin. They remained there for four and a half years, but it is their first year that is the subject of the story to follow, for it coincided with Hitler’s ascent from chancellor to absolute tyrant, when everything hung in the balance and nothing was certain. That first year formed a kind of prologue in which all the themes of the greater epic of war and murder soon to come were laid down. I have always wondered what it would have been like for an outsider to have witnessed firsthand the gathering dark of Hitler’s rule. How did the city look, what did one hear, see, and smell, and how did diplomats and other visitors interpret the events occurring around them? Hindsight tells us that during that fragile time the course of history could so easily have changed. Why, then, did no one change it? Why did it take so long to recognize the real danger posed by Hitler and his regime? Like most people, I acquired my initial sense of the era from books and photographs that left me with the impression that the world of then had no color, only gradients of gray and black. My two main protagonists, however, encountered the flesh-and-blood reality, while also managing the routine obligations of daily life. Every morning they moved through a city hung with immense banners of red, white, and black; they sat at the same outdoor cafés as did the lean, black-suited members of Hitler’s SS, and now and then they caught sight of Hitler himself, a smallish man in a large, open Mercedes. But they also walked each day past homes with balconies lush with red geraniums; they shopped in the city’s vast department stores, held tea parties, and breathed deep the spring fragrances of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s main park. They knew Goebbels and Göring as social acquaintances with whom they dined, danced, and joked— until, as their first year reached its end, an event occurred that proved to be one of the most significant in revealing the true character of Hitler and that laid the keystone for the decade to come. For both father and daughter it changed everything. This is a work of nonfiction. As always, any material between quotation marks comes from a letter, diary, memoir, or other historical document. I made no effort in these pages to write another grand history of the age. My objective was more intimate: to reveal that past world through the experience and perceptions of my two primary subjects, father and daughter, who upon arrival in Berlin embarked on a journey of discovery, transformation, and, ultimately, deepest heartbreak. There are no heroes here, at least not of the Schindler’s List variety, but there are glimmers of heroism and people who behave with unexpected grace. Always there is nuance, albeit sometimes of a disturbing nature. That’s the trouble with nonfiction. One has to put aside what we all know—now—to be true, and try instead to accompany my two innocents through the world as they experienced it. These were complicated people moving through a complicated time, before the monsters declared their true nature. Excerpted from In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, copyright © 2011 by Erik Larson. Originally published in hardcover by Crown Publishers in 2011 and subsequently in trade paperback by Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2012. All rights reserved.

History and Society

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS

Website: www.RebeccaSkloot.com To view video of author at DePauw University’s Ubben Lecture, go to: http://tinyurl.com/24h6xux

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 2011 Communication Award for Best Book Winner of 2010 Wellcome Trust Book Prize Winner of the 2010: • Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction • American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Young Adult Science Book Award

Broadway | TR | 978-1-4000-5218-9 | 400pp. $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

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

Key FACTs: Selected for Common Reading at more than 100 colleges/universities including: University of Arkansas, University of California–Santa Barbara, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Wisconsin, and others. To view the complete list, go to http://tinyurl.com/3xwrwze Themes: Ethics/Decision Making, Human Rights, Science & Society, Social Justice Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available:

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 us 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

Alternative Formats:

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

HistoRY ANd soCiEtY

FREEDOM Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Website: www.AmnestyUSA.org

By Amnesty International USA 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 themes: Ethics • Human Rights • social Justice

Website: www.RezaAslan.com

NO GOD BUT GOD The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam By Reza Aslan

Although it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded in ignorance and fear. While there are academic books that treat Islam as religion and popular books that cover the history of Islam, there are no popular books that examine, explain, and historically contextualize the Islamic faith. Beginning with a vivid account of the social and religious milieu in which the prophet Muhammad lived, then moving on to Islam in the modern world and how Muslims have developed conflicting strategies to reconcile traditional Islamic values, Reza Aslan’s No god but God is an elegantly written account of the roots of this reformation and the future of Islamic faith. “Grippingly narrated and thoughtfully examined . . . a literate, accessible introduction to Islam.” —The New York Times Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8244-2 | 384pp. | $17.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: discovering diﬀerences • identity • Regional: middle East

THE SOCIAL ANIMAL The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement

Website: www.Brooks.blogs.nytimes.com

By David Brooks In this landmark exploration, written by New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bobos in Paradise, David Brooks draws upon revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience and cognition to offer a completely original and incisive analysis of how and why human beings interact the way they do. Brooks then goes on to detail concrete ways in which such behaviors may be positively shaped, both for the greater society as well as for the individual. “Multifaceted, compulsively readable. . . . Brooks’s considerable achievement comes in his ability to elevate the unseen aspects of private experience into a vigorous and challenging —San Francisco Chronicle conversation about what we all share.” Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7937-4 | 448pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: discovering diﬀerences • group dynamics • identity • science & society

HOLLOWING OUT THE MIDDLE The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America

Website: www.HollowingOutTheMiddle.com

By Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas It is happening across America, and it will have a tremendous impact on the nation’s cultural and economic life—young people are leaving small towns in droves, often with the encouragement of their parents, to seek a more prosperous life elsewhere. But what does this mean for the future of rural communities? Carr and Kefalas moved to Iowa to speak to some of these young people, and here they present the stories of working-class “stayers,” ambitious and collegebound “achievers,” “seekers” who head off to war, and the “returners” who eventually come back. Their portrait of small-town America is detailed, illuminating—and worrisome. Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-807-00614-6 | 256pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • group dynamics • Regional: iowa/the midwest/Rural America

www.CommonReads.com

HistoRY ANd soCiEtY

I DON'T WISH NOBODY TO HAVE A LIFE LIKE MINE Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup By David Chura

Blog: www.KidsInTheSystem.wordpress.com

Winner, PASS Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency In I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine, a veteran teacher gives an “inside” view of the lives of juveniles sentenced as adults. David Chura taught high school in a New York county penitentiary for ten years—five days a week, seven hours a day. In these pages, he gives a face to a population regularly demonized and reduced to statistics by the mainstream media. Through language marked by both the grit of the street and the expansiveness of poetry, the stories of these young people break down the divisions we so easily erect between us and them, the keepers and the kept—and call into question the increasing practice of sentencing juveniles as adults. “Riveting. . . . An indictment of the system.”

—Sam Roberts, The New York Times Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-807-00123-3 | 240pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • perseverance/personal strength • social Justice

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 from one city 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 “A first-rate reporter. (Demick) has spared us the soggy history of old Balkan hates and geopolitical claptrap. . . . If you can read only one book about Bosnia, this should be the one.” —Mary McGrory, Washington Post columnist Do not order before 4/12/2012. Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8276-3 | 208pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Human Rights • Regional: Balkans

NOTHING TO ENVY: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Website: www.NothingToEnvy.com

By Barbara Demick Winner, 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 —Booklist, starred review punctuated by faint glimmers of hope.” Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52391-2 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: discovering diﬀerences • Human Rights • Regional: North korea/Asia

TENSION CITY: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain By Jim Lehrer In his new book, Tension City, legendary journalist and 10-time presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer looks back at more than 40 years of televised political debates in America. “Unique and compelling . . . Jim Lehrer at once enlightens and entertains, deepening our understanding of the modern presidency while telling a splendid story. Tension City is engaging history from a fair-minded and insightful author who has himself become part of the nation’s —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion fabric.”

Selected for Common Reading at Hofstra University. Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6917-0 | 224pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 themes: American History • Ethics/decision making

History and Society

HistoRY ANd soCiEtY

Website: www.JGrisham.com

THE INNOCENT MAN: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town By John Grisham

In 1982, a twenty-one-year-old waitress in Oklahoma named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered. For reasons that were never clear, the police suspected former local baseball star Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz, whom they charged with capital murder. With the prosecution’s case built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts, Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence, and Williamson was sent to death row. This book is a disturbing account of the very real flaws in the criminal justice system. A must-read for those interested in law and justice. Selected for Common Reading at Greensboro College. Delta | TR | 978-0-385-34091-5 | 400pp. | $16.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Dell | MM | 978-0-440-24383-0 | 448pp. | $7.99/$11.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Ethics/decision making • perseverance/personal strength • social Justice

CUBA: My Revolution By Inverna Lockpez and Dean Haspiel Illustrated by Dean Haspiel

Website: www.InvernaLockpez.com

Seventeen-year-old Sonia, a medical student with dreams of becoming a modernist painter, is caught up in Fidel Castro’s revolution from the moment it captures Havana on New Year’s Eve 1958. While her eccentric mother hatches an increasingly desperate series of plans to flee Cuba, Sonia joins the militia and volunteers as a medic at the Bay of Pigs—where she encounters her mortally wounded high school sweetheart as an enemy fighter, then is arrested and tortured for treating another CIA-trained brigadier. Scarred, yet clinging to her revolutionary ideals, she seeks fulfillment in an artists’ collective, only to be further disillusioned by increasing repression under Castro. Finally, she flees to America where she has been a painter and influential arts activist. Vertigo | TR | 978-1-401-22218-5 | 144pp. | $17.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • perseverance/personal strength • Regional: Cuba

BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME: A True Story By Timothy B. Tyson Winner, Grawemeyer Award for Religion; Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Awardt; A New York Public Library Book to Remember In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic work of conscience. Tim Tyson’s riveting narrative of a fiery summer of racial conflict and one family’s struggle to build bridges in a time of destruction is a complex rendering of a true story in which violence and faith, courage and evil, despair and hope all mingle to powerful effect. “Blood Done Sign My Name is a most important book and one of the most powerful meditations on race in America that I have ever read.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

Selected for Common Reading at Furman University, Queens University of Charlotte, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Wisconsin at Richland, University of Wisconsin’s College of Letters and Science, Villanova University, and others. Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-1-4000-8311-4 | 368pp. | $14.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: inclusiveness • social Justice

COVERING

Website: www.KenjiYoshino.com

The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights By Kenji Yoshino Winner, Myers Outstanding Book Award; Winner, 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 our authentic selves is a harm from which the law should sometimes protect us. 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 themes: discovering diﬀerences • identity • inclusiveness • social Justice

www.CommonReads.com

COLLEGE RULES!, 3RD EDITION How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College By Sherrie Nist-Olejnik, Ph.D., and Jodi Patrick Holschuh, Ph.D.

n updated, expanded edition of the popular guide written by two college professors that gives students a crash course in college survival 101. In a sink-or-swim environment, this handbook is a lifeline, helping students navigate the uncharted waters of university life. Now extensively revised, College Rules! shares essential advice and strategies that are not taught in lectures or seminars. Students learn how to study effectively, handle stress, prepare for tests, stay motivated, balance academics and a social life, and avoid common rookie mistakes. Offering much more than study tips, this go-to guide provides students with the tools they need to thrive, both in their classes and in the campus community. This updated and expanded edition of College Rules! gives students the tools to:

· Study smarter—not harder · Plan their course schedule · Master computerized learning technologies · Figure out their professors’ expectations · Research efficiently—at the library and online · Read so they can actually remember things at test time

Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-607-74001-8 | 336pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

· Organize effective study groups · Feel engaged and interested—even in “yawn” courses

Key FACTs:

· Learn killer test strategies and survive exam week

Selected for Common Reading: Tennessee Wesleyan College

· Avoid common mistakes the easy way—by learning from others’ sad but true stories

Themes: Life Skills, Peer Group Skills, Transition

· Set themselves up for stellar recommendations

Campus Visits:

“the authors make perhaps their greatest contribution when they talk about the power of college to change how students look at the world.” —The New York Times

Alternative Formats:

About the Authors: sherrie Nist-Olejnik, Ph.D and Jodi Patrick Holschuh, Ph.D. sHERRiE Nist-oLEJNik, ph.d., is a professor emeritus at the University of Georgia and the former director of the Division of Academic Enhancement. An active researcher and soughtafter lecturer, she has published numerous articles and textbooks focused on studying and learning at the college level. Jodi pAtRiCk HoLsCHUH, ph.d., is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University. An award-winning educator, she teaches undergraduate courses on building effective and efficient study habits. She also works with college instructors on enhancing students’ capacity to learn at the university level.

Life and College Guides

10 THINGS EMPLOYERS WANT YOU TO LEARN IN COLLEGE, REVISED The Skills You Need to Succeed

Website: www.MakeCollegePayOff.blogspot.com

By Bill Coplin Students learn a lot of things in college, but there’s one thing the textbooks won’t teach them: how to acquire marketable job skills before graduation. Award-winning college professor and student adviser Bill Coplin has been developing skill-based liberal arts curricula for more than 30 years and has helped thousands of students get great jobs. Here, he offers the essential skills you need to survive and succeed in today’s job market, based on his extensive interviews with employers, recruiters, human resource specialists, and employed college grads. Going beyond test scores and GPAs, Coplin teaches students how to develop real-world know-how in ten crucial skill groups:

Revised Edition Coming July 31, 2012. Free Advance Reader Copy Available. Email rhacademic@randomhouse.com to request a copy.

Key FACTs:

· Work Ethic · Physical Performance · Speaking · Writing

· Teamwork · Influencing People · Research

· Number Crunching · Critical Thinking · Problem Solving

The book’s practical approach will help students to develop a personalized plan for boosting these and other critical skills during their college years and to get the most out of their professional lives.

Themes: Identity, Life Skills

“Clear, concise, and complete. the ultimate playbook for college students.” —Pierre Mornell, author, Hiring Smart

Campus Visits:

Current Edition: Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-524-3 | 272pp. | $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Alternative Formats:

Do not order revised edition before 7/31/2012. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-145-9 | 272pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

MAJOR IN SUCCESS,

Website: www.PatrickCombs.com

5TH EDITION Make College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams, and Get a Great Job By Patrick Combs

Foreword by Jack Canfield With so much at stake during college, students need smart and inspiring advice to help them excel. Now in its fifth edition, Major in Success reaches out to undecided freshmen and sophomores in search of a major that suits their interests and career ambitions; shows near-graduation students how to bolster their résumé and ace the interview to land their first real job; and presents innovative strategies for tackling the six biggest fears that hold students back. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8865-7 | 208pp. | $14.95/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Life Skills, Peer Group Dynamics Campus Visits:

www.CommonReads.com

LiFE ANd CoLLEgE gUidEs

THE ONE-WEEK JOB PROJECT

Website: www.OneWeekJob.com

One Man, One Year, Fifty-Two Jobs By Sean Aiken

Like many others of his generation, Sean Aiken graduated from college and asked himself, “What should I do with my life?” Thus, he started the One-Week Job Project, where he transformed his uncertainty about his future and traveled around the world, working fifty-two jobs in fifty-two weeks. All of his wages were donated to charity. Inventive and empowering, witty and wise, The One-Week Job Project is a book that will give students the courage to follow their passions. Selected for Common Reading at The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Villard Books | TR | 978-0-345-50803-4 | 320pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: identity • Leadership & motivation • Life skills • peer group skills

THE INVISIBLE GORILLA How Our Intuitions Deceive Us

Website: www.TheInvisibleGorilla.com

By Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons In The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, creators of one of psychology’s most famous experiments, use remarkable stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to demonstrate an important truth: Our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we are actually missing a whole lot. Chabris and Simons combine the work of other researchers with their own findings on attention, perception, memory, and reasoning to reveal how faulty intuitions often get us into trouble. Broadway | TR | 978-0-307-45966-4 | 320pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: identity • Life skills • peer group skills

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 move you toward your longterm goals, use lesser-known campus resources to your 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.” “Witty, wise, and down-to-earth. . . . A wonderful resource for students and their parents.” —Elizabeth Kiss, President of Agnes Scott College Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8856-5 | 264pp. | $14.95/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 Revised Edition coming April 2012. Do not order before 4/17/2012. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-144-2 | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Life skills • peer group skills

THE MONEY CLASS Learn to Create Your New American Dream

For more books by Suze Orman, go to http://tinyurl.com/yemdtdq

By Suze Orman In 2011, the American Dream may very well have been dashed. Paying the everyday bills, let alone saving for college or buying a house, is a challenge. Suze Orman offers a bold, inspiring call to redefine the American Dream, showing how economic security, and even prosperity, is still attainable. She explains how to escape credit-card debt and invest wisely, even if you are just starting your career. Orman knows how to thrive in this new economic landscape—and she shares this knowledge in this necessary, timely book. Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-1-4000-6973-6 | 304pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 themes: motivation • personal Finance

Life and College Guides

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MADE TO STICK

Website: www.HeathBrothers.com

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 us how to make our own messages stick. Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6428-1 | 336pp. | $26.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 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 by using what the authors call Bright Spots to break bigger goals down into more manageable steps—what the authors call Small Steps. 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 themes: group dynamics • Life skills • social Justice

NOT QUITE ADULTS

Website: www.NotQuiteAdults.com

Why 20-Somethings Are Choosing a Slower Path to Adulthood, and Why It’s Good for Everyone By Richard Settersten, Ph.D., and Barbara E. Ray

The stereotypes about today’s twenty-somethings are familiar: They are immature; won’t commit to marriage, childrearing, and a stable job; and remain too attached to their overbearing “helicopter” parents. However, the data presented here flies in the face of these assumptions. The millennial generation is growing up in a world markedly different from that of their parents; therefore, their different pathways to adulthood may be just what they need to ensure their long-term happiness and success. Because it is so unlike much of what is written about this generation, Not Quite Adults offers a thoughtful read for compelling discussion. Bantam | TR | 978-0-553-80740-0 | 272pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Coming of Age • identity • peer group skills

THE BLACK SWAN Second Edition The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Website: www.FooledByRandomness.com

By Nassim Nicholas Taleb A black swan is a highly improbable event that is unpredictable, carries a massive impact, and later appears more predictable than it was. Why do we not acknowledge these black swans until after they occur? According to Taleb, humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and repeatedly fail to consider what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities; too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize; and not open enough to rewarding those brave enough to imagine the “impossible.” Selected for Wellesley Reads 2010. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7381-5 | 480pp. | $17.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Ethics/decision making • group dynamics

www.CommonReads.com

LiFE ANd CoLLEgE gUidEs

Books by Donald Asher Donald Asher is an internationally acclaimed author and speaker specializing in professional development and higher education. He is a featured speaker on university and corporate campuses around the country with more than 100 engagements per year. He is the author of eleven books including:

CRACKING THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET How to Find Opportunity in Any Economy A groundbreaking career guide that gives job-seekers of all ages and at every level of experience (or inexperience) the tools for crafting an effective job-search strategy regardless of the state of their chosen industry or the economy in general. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-494-9 | 208pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Website: www.DonaldAsher.com

HOW TO GET ANY JOB

THE OVERNIGHT RÉSUMÉ

Second Edition

3rd Edition

Life Launch and Re-Launch for Everyone Under 30 (or How to Avoid Living in Your Parents’ Basement)

The Fastest Way to Your Next Job

Combines the most innovative thinking on postcollege career launch with strategic guidelines for aligning life goals with job opportunities. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8947-0 | 240pp. $15.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

A step-by-step approach to résumé writing for all career stages and most educational backgrounds that shows job-seekers how to develop and craft a focused, successful résumé in one sitting. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-091-0 | 134pp. $12.99/$15.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Also Available: ALL WORK, NO PAY

THE CAREER COUNSELOR’S HANDBOOK

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

By Howard Figler and Richard N. Bolles Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8870-1 | 320pp. $19.99/$24.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

By Lauren Berger Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-6077-4168-8 | 208pp. $12.99/$14.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

LECTURE NOTES A Professor’s Inside Guide to College Success

THE JOB-HUNTER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE By Richard N. Bolles Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-026-2 | 112pp. $9.99/$12.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? 2012 A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers By Richard N. Bolles Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-010-0 | 384pp. $18.99/$20.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? JOB-HUNTER’S WORKBOOK By Richard N. Bolles Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8009-5 | 64pp. $11.99/$12.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

THE CAREER GUIDE FOR CREATIVE AND UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE By Carol Eikleberry Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8841-1 | 240pp. $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

By Philip Freeman, Ph.D. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8754-4 | 160pp. $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

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

GENERATION EARN The Young Professional’s Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back By Kimberly Palmer Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8236-5 | 240pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

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 Do not order before 3/6/2012. Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-194-7 | 144pp. $12.99/$14.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Life and College Guides

go gREEN / ENViRoNmENtAL stUdiEs

FAREWELL, MY SUBARU

Website: www.DougFine.com

An Epic Adventure in Local Living By Doug Fine

Did you know 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? Did you know almost all components of a solarpowered water pump are made in Japan or Denmark? Did you know it takes 16,000 gallons of jet fuel to fly an organic banana from Honduras to Silver City, New Mexico? Neither did Doug Fine. 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 themes: Environment • Ethics/decision making • global Citizenship

PLANETWALKER

Website: www.PlanetWalker.org

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

Gold Winner, 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 themes: Environment • Leadership & motivation • Life skills

THE RAGGED EDGE OF SILENCE Finding Peace in a Noisy World By John Francis, Ph.D. By the author of Planetwalker, The Ragged Edge of Silence takes us to another level of appreciating, through silence, the beauty of the planet and our place in it. John Francis’s real and compelling prose forms a tapestry of questions and answers woven from interviews, stories, personal experience, science, and the power of silence through history, including practice by Native American, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures. Through their time-honored traditions and his own experience of communicating silently for 17 years, Francis’s practical exercises lay the groundwork for the reader to build constructive silence into everyday life: to learn more about oneself, to set goals and accomplish dreams, to build strong relationships, and to appreciate and be a steward of the Earth. With its amazing human interest element and first-person expertise, this book is energizing and universally instructive. National Geographic | HC | 978-1-426-20723-5 | 272pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00 themes: Environment • Leadership & motivation • Life skills

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. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Environment • Ethics/decision making • science & society

www.CommonReads.com

go gREEN / ENViRoNmENtAL stUdiEs

PLENTY: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet

Website: www.AlisaSmith.ca

By Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon 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 Humboldt State University. Clarkson Potter | TR | 978-0-307-34733-6 | 272pp. | $13.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 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 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 themes: Environment • global Citizenship • Leadership & motivation

HARVEST THE WIND America’s Journey to Jobs, Energy Independence, and Climate Stability 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 America 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 us how practical solutions are being implemented at the local level, Warburg offers an inspirational look at how we can all pursue a saner and more sustainable energy future. Beacon Press | HC | 978-0-807-00107-3 | 256pp. | $27.95/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00 themes: Environment • science & society

Also Available: GREEN VOLUNTEERS, 8TH EDITION By Fabio Ausenda Universe | TR | 978-88-89060-19-3 | 256pp. $16.95/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Environment • social Justice

GO GREEN, LIVE RICH

ED BEGLEY, JR.’S GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE LIVING: Learning to Conserve Resources and Manage an Eco-Conscious Life By Ed Begley, Jr. Clarkson Potter | TR | 978-0-307-40514-2 | 352pp. $22.50/$27.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.25 themes: Environment

50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying By David Bach and Hillary Rosner Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-2973-8 | 192pp. $14.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Environment

THE WATER BOOK: A Simple Approach to One of Earth’s Most Precious Resources Edited by Anna Krusinski Hatherleigh Press | TR | 978-1-578-26345-5 | 128pp. $11.00/$13.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Ethics/decision making • global Citizenship

Go Green / Environmental Studies

REIMAGINING EQUALITY Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home

Website: www.facebook.com/ProfAnitaHill

By Anita Hill

Beacon Press | HC | 978-0-807-01437-0 | 224pp. $25.95/$29.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00

Key FACTs: Themes: Gender Issues, Group Dynamics, Social Justice Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

rom the heroic lawyer who spoke out against Clarence Thomas in the historic confirmation hearings twenty years ago, Anita Hill’s first book since the bestselling Speaking Truth to Power. On the 20th anniversary of the historic Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, where she spoke out so courageously about workplace sexual harassment, Anita Hill turns her attention to the topic of home. As our country reels from the subprime mortgage meltdown and the resulting devastation of so many families, so many communities and even cities, Hill takes us inside the “crisis of home” we are confronting. Along the way she exposes its deep roots in race and gender inequities that continue to haunt the country and imperil every American’s ability to achieve the American Dream. Reaching back to the story of her slave ancestors, as well as narrating the stories of individuals who are now caught in the crossfire of the current housing collapse, she invites us into homes across America, from her grandparent’s homestead in Arkansas to Baltimore’s toughest neighborhoods. Hill bridges the experiences of women and men struggling to make homes in our country and the world of high finance and mortgage lending. In this period of recovery and its aftermath, what is at stake is the inclusive democracy the Constitution promises. The achievement of that ideal, Hill argues, depends on each American’s ability to secure a place that provides access to every opportunity our country has to offer. Building on the great strides of the women’s and civil rights struggles, Hill presents concrete proposals, which encourage us to broaden our thinking about home and to reimagine equality for America’s future.

“in a book that is rigorous and heartfelt, sharply analytical and deeply moving, Anita Hill examines the idea of what ‘home’ means to Americans. Bringing to bear her formidable skills as a scholar of American law, history, and culture, Hill has produced a personal narrative that reaches across color and class to explore how our family homes and our national home are inextricably linked to how we understand achievement, opportunity, and equality.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

About the Author: Anita Hill ANitA HiLL is a professor of social policy, law, and women’s studies at Brandeis University, where she teaches courses on Race and the Law and Gender Equality. After receiving her JD from Yale Law School in 1980, she worked as the attorney-advisor to Clarence Thomas at the U.S. Department of Education. In 1991, she testified at the Senate confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas. She gained national exposure when her allegations of sexual harassment were made public. She is the author of Speaking Truth to Power, in which she wrote about her experience as a witness in the Thomas hearings. Hill has written widely on issues of race and gender in publications such as the New York Times, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, Critical Race Feminism, and others. She has appeared on Today, 60 Minutes, Meet the Press, and Face the Nation.

www.CommonReads.com

A Message from the Author

It’s hard to believe that almost two decades have passed since the dramatic Clarence Thomas Senate confirmation hearing that had such an impact on so many in our nation, including perhaps some of you. I’ve been very proud of the era of heightened awareness and concern about sexual harassment that followed that frankly grueling experience. I have had the privilege of meeting exceptional women and men in nearly every state in the country who seek nothing more than to end behavior, like sexual harassment, that keeps women from reaching their full potential. Some real good did emerge. And I wrote an autobiographical book that some of you may remember, Speaking Truth to Power, back in 1997. For me the positive developments of the recent past are just the beginning. Starting from the premise that a fair and just society is in everyone’s best interest, I have spent a great deal of time studying, researching, and lecturing about how important it is that we strive for full equality in our nation, no matter how difficult an achievement it may seem. I’ve been working on my new book, Reimagining Equality, that reflects my ideas about how we can begin to realize equality for women, for blacks, and, particularly, for black women. In it I look back at my ancestors, and forward, based on my experiences and discoveries since the hearing. I hope you will enjoy the stories and ideas presented here. I wanted to publish this new book on the twentieth anniversary of the hearing—when there will be a fresh round of media and other attention—not only to shine a bright light on the accomplishments of the past twenty years but also to examine the issues that continue to trouble me and many of you. It’s my hope that this book will help a new generation to better understand and meet the challenges of remaking our society into one that might actually reach the goal of liberty and justice for all. Thank you for your support of my work, past and present, and all best wishes for a successful year.

Anita Hill

Social Action

START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS

Website: www.StartSomethingThatMatters.com For author video, go to: http://tinyurl.com/3qvbubf Additional online resources below*

By Blake Mycoskie

his is the incredible story of the man behind TOMS Shoes and One for One, the revolutionary business model that marries fun, profit, and social good. Blake Mycoskie, the charismatic young founder and “chief shoe giver” of the wildly successful TOMS Shoes, shares his transformation from a “regular business guy,” motivated primarily by profit, into one of the emerging leaders in a new movement toward Conscious Capitalism. His transformative “one for one” philosophy offers a new way of thinking about success, defined by creating work that simultaneously fulfills our hunger for material success, philanthropic impact, and personal meaning.

“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

*TOMs is delighted to offer online resources for educators, administrators, and students.

Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-1-4000-6918-7 | 208pp. $22.00/$25.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00

oNE FoR oNE For every book purchased, Random House will donate a book to a child in need through First Book. For twenty years, First Book has provided wonderful new books to children without books of their own, and Random House has supported that mission every step of the way. Together they have brought the joy and power of books to millions of young readers.

www.FirstBook.org

Key FACTs: Themes: Global Citizenship, Leadership & Motivation, Service Campus Visits: Discussion Guide Available:

• TOMS Teaching Resources—Start Something That Matters discussion guide and documentary, TOMS Teaching Guide, video resources on TOMS’ giving, business model and more. Please contact www.Toms.com/teaching-resources for more information. • Start Something That Matters event resources—Host an event to engage students on your campus! Guide and resources are available at: http://tinyurl.com/7swgj5l • TOMS Campus Club program—Awareness groups on thousands of campuses in the U.S. and Canada: www.TOMSCampusClubs.com • TOMS Event ideas: Documentary screenings, Style Your Sole events (shoe decorating party) and TOMS annual awareness day, One Day Without Shoes. More info available in this guide: http://tinyurl.com/884ft3t

Alternative Formats:

About the Author: Blake Mycoskie BLAkE mYCoskiE is the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS, and the man behind the growing One for One movement. As of April 2010, TOMS has given over 600,000 pairs of new shoes to children in need through giving partners around the world. Mycoskie will be using 50 percent of his proceeds from this book to create the Start Something That Matters Fund, which will support inspired readers in their efforts to make a positive impact in the world.

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Social Action

THE THIRD WAVE A Volunteer Story

Website: www.TheThirdWaveBook.com

By Alison Thompson With Meimei Fox

Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-385-52916-7 | 240pp. $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50

Key FACTs: Themes: Global Citizenship, Human Rights, Regional: Southeast Asia, Service, Social Justice Campus Visits: Alternative Formats:

lison Thompson, a filmmaker living in New York City, was enjoying Christmas with her boyfriend in 2004 when she saw the news reports online: A 9.3 magnitude earthquake had struck the sea near Indonesia, triggering a massive tsunami that hit much of southern Asia. As she watched the death toll climb, Thompson had one thought: She had to go help. A few years earlier, she had spent eight months volunteering at Ground Zero after 9/11. She learned then that when disaster strikes, it’s not just the firemen and Red Cross who are needed—every single person can make a difference. With 300 dollars in cash, some basic medical supplies, and a vague idea that she would go wherever she was needed, Thompson headed to Sri Lanka. Along with a small team of volunteers, she settled in a coastal town that had been hit especially hard and began tending to people’s injuries, giving out food and water, playing games with the children, collecting dead bodies, and helping rebuild the local school and homes that had been destroyed. Thompson had intended to stay for two weeks; she ended up staying for fourteen months. She and her team helped start new businesses and set up the first tsunami early-warning center in Sri Lanka, which continues to save lives today. The Third Wave tells the inspiring story of how volunteering changed Thompson’s life. It begins with her first real introduction to disaster relief after 9/11 and ends with her more recent efforts in Haiti, where she has helped create and run, with Sean Penn, an internallydisplaced-person camp and field hospital for more than 65,000 Haitians who lost their homes in the 2010 earthquake. In The Third Wave, Thompson provides an invaluable inside glimpse into what really happens on the ground after a disaster—and a road map for what anyone can do to help. As Alison Thompson shows, with some resilience, a healthy sense of humor, and the desire to make a difference, we all have what it takes to change the world for the better.

“Readers will marvel at thompson’s ability to leave her life midstream to help others, clearly relishing the adventure as much as the opportunity to serve. she urges readers to redefine heroism by doing whatever they can with examples of small efforts (maintaining a toilet at ground zero) with great impact.” —Publishers Weekly “in a world of turmoil, The Third Wave is a welcome and inspiring account of what one woman and her friends can accomplish against the greatest odds. Ride this wave and feel better about the generation ready to lead us all ashore.” —Tom Brokaw

ALisoN tHompsoN is a filmmaker and humanitarian volunteer. In 2010 she was awarded the Order of Australia, the highest civilian medal awarded by Queen Elizabeth II of England, for her volunteer work and her contribution to humankind. Her documentary film The Third Wave, about her experience volunteering in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival in New York and was screened at a “Presidential Jury” screening at the 2008 Cannes film festival.

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©Oscar Gubernati

About the Author: Alison ompson

A Message from the Author September 11, 2011, marked the ten-year anniversary of my journey around the world as a volunteer. On that day in 2001, when all I knew was that a tower had collapsed and that my good friend had been in it, I strapped on my rollerblades, packed up my first aid kit, and headed downtown to see what I could do to help. I ended up staying at Ground Zero for nine months, sifting through the rubble, collecting bodies, and tending to the firemen and ironworkers. Since then, I’ve made it my life’s mission to be on the ground whenever a major disaster strikes. I spent fourteen months in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, and I currently work as a full-time volunteer in Haiti, where I moved right after the 2010 earthquake. I wrote The Third Wave in order to provide a glimpse of what it’s really like on the ground after a disaster. I wanted to show readers that anyone can help, that small acts of kindness can create great change in the world. Although my experience as a nurse’s aid has come in handy, much of the work I do on a daily basis can be done by anyone. You don’t need specialized skills to make a difference; everyone can hand out water or give someone a hug. At our clinic in Haiti, I recently met a shy girl who had a runny nose and scabies eating away at her head. She asked me for water. I poured a tiny medical cup full of it, and she leaned back with a smile, slowly letting it slide into her mouth like chocolate. I realized that it was probably the first time she had ever tasted pure water. I felt humbled as I poured her another cup, and then another. I gave her mother a few sanitary pads, a bar of soap, and a can of milk, and she cried at the wonderful presents. That is why I volunteer. Another reason I wrote The Third Wave was to show that you don’t need to belong to an organization in order to have an effect. When I first went to Sri Lanka after the tsunami of 2004, I connected with a ragtag group of other volunteers, and together we rebuilt a village that wasn’t on any of the large NGOs’ radars. Today’s natural and man-made disasters are growing too large for governments and aid groups to handle them alone. We are all needed. Every college student has the skills to help, whether it’s for an hour in one’s own community, for a week over spring break, or throughout the semester. I believe that college students today are looking for more than a classroom education; they expect to grow as individuals throughout their four years at college, to figure out what their place is in the world and what they can do to make it a better place. My hope is that The Third Wave will inspire students to think more broadly about their own potential and challenge them to take action. Alison Thompson

Social Action

soCiAL ACtioN

AN UNQUENCHABLE THIRST Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life

Website: www.MaryJohnson.co/An-Unquenchable-Thirst

By Mary Johnson At seventeen, Mary Johnson felt called to join Mother Theresa and the Missionaries of Charity. As Sister Donata, she worked alongside Mother Theresa for twenty years. In this luminous memoir, she offers a glimpse into a world apart, one marked by poverty and devotion, yet inhabited by young women who, like all young women, wrestle with identity, faith, and meaning. Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-385-52747-7 | 592pp. | $26.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.00 themes: Coming of Age • gender issues • identity • service

THE ENOUGH MOMENT

Website: www.EnoughProject.org

Fighting to End Africa’s Worst Human Rights Crimes 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 themes: Human Rights • Regional: Africa • social Justice

THE LIFE YOU CAN SAVE

Website: www.TheLifeYouCanSave.com

How to Do Your Part to End World Poverty By Peter Singer In The Life You Can Save, philosopher Peter Singer makes the irrefutable argument that giving will make a huge difference in the lives of others without diminishing the quality of our own. This book is an urgent call to action and a hopeful primer on the power of compassion—when mixed with rigorous investigation and careful reasoning—to lift others out of despair. Used for: Wesleyan Integrative Summer Experience. Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8156-8 | 240pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00 themes: Ethics/decision making • Leadership & motivation • social Justice

CITIZEN YOU How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing the World

Website: www.CitizenYou.org

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 themes: Leadership & motivation • service • social Justice

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Author/title index 10 THINGS EMPLOYERS WANT YOU TO LEARN IN COLLEGE ........................................66

Chabris, Christopher and Simons, Daniel............67

GLASS ROOM, THE ..............................................42

Chura, David ......................................................63

Glidden, Sarah ..................................................52

ACTS OF FAITH ....................................................30

CITIZEN YOU ......................................................78

GO GREEN, LIVE RICH..........................................71

Aiken, Sean ........................................................67

CITIZENS OF NOWHERE ......................................24

GOD OF SMALL THINGS, THE ..............................43

Albom, Mitch ....................................................46

Cole, Teju............................................................32

Goleman, Daniel ................................................70

Ali, Nujood ........................................................24

COLLEGE RULES! ................................................65

Gonzalez, Christina ............................................41

ALL SOULS..........................................................27

Combs, Patrick....................................................66

Goodwin, Debi ..................................................24

ALL WORK, NO PAY ............................................69

Coplin, Bill..........................................................66

GRAND CENTRAL WINTER ..................................31

Amnesty International USA................................62

Couric, Katie ......................................................46

GREEN VOLUNTEERS ..........................................71

ANATOMY OF A DISAPPEARANCE ........................41

COVERING ..........................................................64

Greenhouse, Lucia..............................................26

Angelou, Maya ..................................................24

CRACKING THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET ..................69

Grisham, John ....................................................64

Asher, Donald ....................................................69

CRYING TREE, THE ..............................................42

Grooms, Anthony ..............................................41

Aslan, Reza ........................................................62

CUBA MY REVOLUTION ......................................64

HALF A LIFE ........................................................20

AUDACITY OF HOPE, THE ....................................29

DEAR MARCUS....................................................28

Hari, Daoud........................................................26

Ausenda, Fabio ..................................................71

DECODED............................................................26

HARVEST THE WIND............................................71

Bach, David and Rosner, Hillary..........................71

Demick, Barbara ................................................63

Heath, Chip and Dan Heath ................................68

Bahari, Maziar......................................................4

DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, THE ............................58

Hegland, Jean ....................................................41

Bakewell, Sarah ..................................................6

Doctorow, E.L. ....................................................40

Hill, Anita ..........................................................72

BE DIFFERENT ....................................................29

DREAMS FROM MY FATHER ................................29

Hillenbrand, Laura ............................................26

Begley, Ed Jr ......................................................71

Dumas, Firoozeh ................................................25

HOLLOWING OUT THE MIDDLE ............................62

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS ....................48

ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE ................................70

HOMER & LANGLEY ............................................40

Berger, Lauren....................................................69

ED BEGLEY’S, JR.’S GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE LIVING ..........................................................71

HOPE IN THE UNSEEN, A......................................31

BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT, THE..............................46 BLACK SWAN, THE ..............................................68

Eikleberry, Carol ................................................69

HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET ..................................................34

BLACK TITAN ......................................................10

ENJOY EVERY SANDWICH....................................46

HOW TO GET ANY JOB ........................................69

BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME..............................64

ENOUGH MOMENT, THE ......................................78

HOW TO LIVE ........................................................6

Bolles, Richard N. ..............................................69

ENRIQUE’S JOURNEY ..........................................16

BOMBINGHAM ..................................................41

EVERY MAN DIES ALONE ....................................40

HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS ........................................................52

Boo, Katherine ..................................................48

Fallada, Hans......................................................40

I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED ................24

BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS, THE ....................40

FAREWELL, MY SUBARU ....................................70

I DON’T WISH NOBODY TO HAVE A LIFE LIKE MINE......................................................63

Boyne, John ......................................................40

FATHERMOTHERGOD ..........................................26

BOYS FROM LITTLE MEXICO, THE ........................31

Feaver, Peter ......................................................67

Bracken, Sam ......................................................8

Figler, Howard and Bolles, Richard N. ................69

Bronson, Po........................................................46

Fine, Doug..........................................................70

Brooks, David ....................................................62

FIST STICK KNIFE GUN ........................................25

Brooks, Max ......................................................40

Ford, Jamie ........................................................34

Buffett, Peter......................................................44

Francis, John Ph.D. ............................................70

Cain, Susan ........................................................50

FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY, THE ..........................47

Campbell, Donovan............................................24

Freedom Writers, The & Erin Gruwell..................47

Canada, Geoffrey................................................25

FREEDOM ..........................................................62

CAREER COUNSELOR’S HANDBOOK, THE ............69

Freeman, Philip Mitchell ....................................69

CAREER GUIDE FOR CREATIVE AND UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE, THE....................69

FULL BODY BURDEN ..........................................54 FUNNY IN FARSI..................................................25

Carr, Patrick J. and Keflas, Maria J. ....................62

GENERATION EARN ............................................69

CENTURY OF WISDOM, A ....................................31

GETTING THE BEST OUT OF COLLEGE ..................67

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I KNOW WHY CAGED BIRD SINGS ........................24 IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, THE ........60 IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN....................................41 IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS ................................58 INNOCENT MAN, THE ..........................................64 INTO THE FOREST................................................41 INVISIBLE GORILLA, THE ....................................67 Iversen, Kristen ..................................................54 Jagielski, Wojciech ............................................56 Jay-Z ..................................................................26 Jenkins, Carol ....................................................10 JOB HUNTERS SURVIVAL GUIDE, THE ..................69 Johnson, Mary ..................................................78 JOKER ONE..........................................................24

Author/title index Kerman, Piper ....................................................12

NIGHT WANDERERS, THE ....................................56

Stoessinger, Caroline..........................................31

Kidder, Tracy ......................................................27

Strauss, Darin ....................................................20

Krusinski, Anna ..................................................71

Nist-Olejnik, Sherrie and Holschuh, Jodi Patrick ..................................65

LaNier, Carlotta Walls ........................................27

NO GOD BUT GOD ..............................................62

Strickland, Bill....................................................47

Larson, Erik ........................................................58

NOT QUITE ADULTS ............................................68

Stringer, Lee ......................................................31

Lassiter, Pam......................................................69

NOTHING TO ENVY ..............................................63

Suskind, Ron ......................................................31

LAST TOWN ON EARTH, THE ................................42

Obama, Barack ..................................................29

SWITCH ..............................................................68

LAUGHING WITHOUT AN ACCENT........................25

ONE-WEEK JOB PROJECT, THE ............................67

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas ......................................68

LAY THAT TRUMPET IN OUR HANDS ....................42

OPEN CITY ..........................................................32

Tanner, Haley ....................................................43

LECTURE NOTES..................................................69

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK................................12

TEACHING HOPE ................................................47

Lehrer, Jim ........................................................63

Orman, Suze ......................................................67

TENSION CITY ....................................................63

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN ..............................36

OTHER WES MOORE, THE ....................................14

THEN THEY CAME FOR ME ....................................4

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT ................................44

OUTCASTS UNITED..............................................30

THINGS I’VE BEEN SILENT ABOUT........................28

LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS ........................................47

OVERNIGHT RÉSUMÉ, THE ..................................69

THIRD WAVE, THE ..............................................78

LIFE YOU CAN SAVE, THE ....................................78

Palmer, Kimberly................................................69

Thompson, Alison ..............................................78

Lipsenthal, Lee ..................................................46

Patel, Eboo ........................................................30

THUNDERSTRUCK ..............................................58

Lockpez, Inverna and Haspiel, Dean ..................64

PLANETWALKER ................................................70

Tisch, Jonathan M. ............................................78

LOGAVINA STREET ..............................................63

PLENTY ..............................................................71

Tran, GB..............................................................22

LOOK ME IN THE EYE ..........................................29

Prendergast, John ........................................18, 78

TRANSLATOR, THE ..............................................26

MacDonald, Michael Patrick ..............................27

QUIET ................................................................50

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE ....................................46

MADE TO STICK ..................................................68

RAGGED EDGE OF SILENCE ..................................70

Tyson, Timothy B. ..............................................64

MAJOR IN SUCCESS ............................................66

Rakha, Naseem ..................................................42

UNBROKEN ........................................................26

MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE ......................47

READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN ..............................28

UNLIKELY BROTHERS ..........................................18

Mam, Somaly ....................................................28

RED UMBRELLA, THE ..........................................41

UNQUENCHABLE THIRST, AN ..............................78

MARZI ................................................................30

REIMAGINING EQUALITY ....................................72

VACLAV & LENA ..................................................43

Matar, Hisham....................................................41

RÉSUMÉ 101 ......................................................69

VIETNAMERICA ..................................................22

Mawer, Simon....................................................42

ROAD OF LOST INNOCENCE, THE..........................28

Vonnegut, Kurt ..................................................43

McCann, Colum ..................................................36

Robison, John Elder............................................29

VOYAGE OF THE ROSE CITY, THE ..........................28

McCarthy, Susan Carol........................................42

Roy, Arundhati ..................................................43

Vujicic, Nick........................................................47

McGill, Jerry ......................................................28

Sayrafiezadeh, Said............................................30

Warburg, Philip ..................................................71

MIGHTY LONG WAY, A ........................................27

Schultze, Quentin J.............................................69

WATER BOOK, THE ..............................................71

MONEY CLASS, THE ............................................67

See, Lisa ............................................................43

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? 2012 ..........69

Moon, Elizabeth ................................................38

Settersten, Richard and Ray, Barbara E. ............68

Moore, Wes ........................................................14

Singer, Peter ......................................................78

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? JOB-HUNTER’S WORKBOOK ..........................69

MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS ....................27

Skloot, Rebecca..................................................60

WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE? ....................46

Moynihan, John ................................................28

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE ....................................43

WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE....................30

Mullen, Thomas ................................................42

Smith, Alisa and MacKinnon, J.B. ......................71

Wilson, Steve ....................................................31

MY ORANGE DUFFEL BAG......................................8

Smith, Sharon J. ................................................71

WORLD WAR Z....................................................40

MY ROADMAP ......................................................8

SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN ................43

Yoshino, Kenji ....................................................64

Mycoskie, Blake..................................................74

SOCIAL ANIMAL, THE ..........................................62

Nafisi, Azar ........................................................28

Sowa, Marzena ..................................................30

YOUNG ACTIVIST’S GUIDE TO BUILDING A GREEN MOVEMENT AND CHANGING THE WORLD, THE..........................71

Nazario, Sonia ....................................................16

SPEED OF DARK, THE ..........................................38

NEW JOB SECURITY, REVISED, THE ......................69

St. John, Warren ................................................30

Nicholas, Jamar..................................................25

START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS ....................74

STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS ............................27

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Peter Buﬀett, Emmy Award–winning musician, philanthropist and bestselling author of Life Is What You Make It (page 44), was recently at UMAss Boston, Bellevue College, Washington, and the College of saint Rose, Albany, new York, performing his acclaimed “Concert & Conversation” event that mixes music with an inspirational talk.

Colum McCann, award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin (page 36), spoke at Boston College and new York University when his book was selected for their Reading in Common Program.

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To book a speaker for your next event, please call us at 212-572-2013 or email us at rhspeakers@randomhouse.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

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RANDOM HOUSE, INC. SUPPORTS YOUR PROGRAM selecting the right title is only the first step toward making your First-Year Reading program a success; publisher support is also very important. the Random House, Inc. Academic Marketing Department is here to help make sure that your program runs as smoothly and successfully as possible, 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

Ancillary Materials

We’ll promptly channel your author requests to the appropriate speaker’s bureau or lecture agency to ensure they are dealt with in a quick manner.

Should you need author photos or additional content and materials, we will research what’s available and get you what you need as quickly as possible.

Discussion Guides

Desk Copies

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 are downloadable from our website.

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

Customized Copies

Want to include a letter from your dean or college president? Imprint the cover jacket of the book with a specialized seal? Or modify the book in some other way? Just let us know and we’ll work with our Premium Sales Department to process your request (please note this refers to orders placed only through Random House Premium Sales. These orders are not for resale).

Ordering

Although Random House, Inc. does not sell directly to schools or libraries, we can guide you in placing your order, whether through your bookstore, a local wholesaler, or our in-house Premium Sales Department.

Questions? Michael D. Gentile Director, Academic Marketing Random House, Inc. 1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019 Tel. (212) 782-8387 ) mgentile@randomhouse.com www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldgentile

Random House, Inc. Academic Dept. 3-1 1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019