first-year and common reading catalog, 2014 from the knopf doubleday publishing group

KNOPF DOUBLEDAY publishes a broad selection of fi ction and non-fi ction books appropriate for First-Year Experience® and common-reading programs. The books suggestedhere should help instigate refl ection and discussion among your incoming fi rst-year students, who will begin theiracademic life with a shared experience—ready to discuss the stories of others and thus ready to share their own as well.

TITLES FROM THE KNOPF DOUBLEDAY PUBLISHING GROUP

&FirstYearCommonReading

For excerpts and a complete list of Freshman Reading adoptions, visit www.FreshmanYearReading.com

Dear First-Year Program Administrator,

We are excited to present to you new recommendations for First-Year students.Selected with Common Reading programs, freshman seminars, and composition coursesin mind, you’ll fi nd a variety of critically acclaimed and award-winning titles that will engage, challenge, and captivate your students. Chosen from a broad range of interdis-ciplinary subjects, these books are meant to spur discussion, model excellent writing, and hone critical thinking.

This year’s catalog features inspirational stories such as Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s My Beloved World; timely social and political issues as in Aftershock by Robert Reich; present compelling calls to action like Stephen Emmott’s Ten Billion; and the best book ever on writing—Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several Short Sentences About Writing.

If you have questions about our titles, author availability for campus visits, or need sample copies for your committee, please contact any one of us. We’re happy to help you in any way we can.

Sincerely,

The Knopf Doubleday Academic Resources Team

Keith [email protected]

Rachel [email protected]

Maxwell [email protected]

Keep in Touch on Social Media

www.facebook.com/freshmanyearreading

The latest information on our authors and titles, common reading resources, special promotions, and a place to connect with others in the common reading community.

@Knopfacademic

Follow us for education news, resources for your classroom, and to see what our authors are up to.

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For excerpts and a complete list of Freshman Reading adoptions, visit www.FreshmanYearReading.com For excerpts and a complete list of Freshman Reading adoptions, visit www.FreshmanYearReading.com

Sonia SotomayorMy Beloved WorldNEW

“In her own often straightforward,occasionally soaring writing style,

Sotomayor succeeds in My Beloved World in crafting an often old-fashioned tale

of overcoming obstacles.”—Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times

With candor and intimacy Justice SoniaSotomayor—the fi rst Hispanic and third wom-an appointed to the United States Supreme Court—recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that of-fers an inspiring testament to her own extraor-dinary determination and the power of believ-ing in oneself.

Here is the story of a precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father (who would die when she was nine), a devoted but overburdened mother, and of the refuge a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her passionately spir-ited paternal grandmother. With only television characters for her professional role models, and little understanding of what was involved, she determined to become a lawyer, a dream that would sustain her on an unlikely course, from becoming valedictorian of her high school class to the receiving the highest honors at Prince-ton, to Yale Law School, the New York County District Attorney’s offi ce, a private practice, and appointment to the Federal District Court before the age of forty.

Through her eyes, America’s infi nite possi-bilities are envisioned anew in this warm and honest book, destined to become a classic of self-invention and self-discovery.

KNOPF | 978-0-307-59488-4 | 336 PAGES | $27.95eXAM PRiCe $14.00

SONiA SOTOMAYOR graduated summa cum laude from Princeton in 1976 and from Yale law School in 1979. She worked as an assistant district attorney in New York and then at the law fi rm of Pavia & Harcourt. From 1992 to 1998, she served as a judge of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and from 1998 to 2009 on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. in May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and she assumed this role on August 8, 2009.

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“ [My Beloved World] stands very much on its own—not unlike Barack Obama’s fi rst book, Dreams from My Father—as a compelling and powerfully written memoir about identity and coming of age. . . . This account of her life is revealing, keenly observed and deeply felt. . . . This insightful memoir underscores just how well Justice Sotomayor mastered the art of nar-rative. It’s an eloquent and affecting testament to the triumph of brains and hard work over circumstance, of a childhood dream realized through extraordinary will and dedication.” —The New York Times

SELECTED BY: Arcadia University; Smith College; Southern Connecticut State University; St. John’s University; University of Delaware; Westchester Community College

For questions regarding Sonya Sotomayor’s speaking availability, please contact

Kate Runde ([email protected])

http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307594884


https://selfservice.randomhouse.biz/bizcf/acmart/index.cfm


Jonathan HaidtThe Righteous MindWhy Good People Are Divided by Politics and ReligionNOW IN PAPERBACK

“A landmark contribution tohumanity’s understanding of itself.”

—The New York Times Book Review

Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do peo-ple so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, psychologist Jonathan Haidt challenges conven-tional thinking about morality, politics, and reli-gion in a way that speaks to everyone on the politi-cal spectrum.

Drawing on his twenty-fi ve years of groundbreak-ing research on moral psychology, he shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives readers the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and confl icts.

Students who wish to better understand each other and their society will be greatly rewarded by reading The Righteous Mind.

“ This elegantly written book has far-reaching implications for anyone interested in politics, reli-gion, or the many controversies that divide modern societies. If you want to know why you hold your moral beliefs, and why many people disagree with you, read this book.” —Simon Baron-Cohen, Cambridge University, author of The Science of Evil

VINTAGE | 978-0-307-45577-2 | 528 PAGES | $16.00eXAM PRiCe $3.00

WWW.RIGHTEOUSMIND.COM

“ Haidt’s work feels particularly relevant now. . . . Haidt’s perspective can help us better understand our own political and religious leanings.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“ The Righteous Mind is a tour de force—a brave, brilliant, and eloquent exploration of the most im-portant issues of our time. It will challenge the way you think about liberals and conservatives, atheism and religion, good and evil. This is the book that everyone will be talking about.”—Paul Bloom, Yale University, author of How Pleasure Works

JONATHAN HAiDT is the Thomas Cooley Professorof ethical leadership at New York University’s SternSchool of Business. His previous book is The HappinessHypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. He lives in New York City.

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Robert B. ReichAftershock The Next Economy and America’s Future

This thoughtful and detailed account of the American economy—and how we can fi x it—is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for rebuilding our society. Robert B. Reich, one of the most experienced and trusted voices on public policy, urges Americans to fi nd a common cause in fi xing our poor economy and mobilize to get the United States back on track.

The American political system is in crisis—para-lyzed by gridlock, beset with cynicism, and sabo-taged by competing interests that have perversely made even common-sense policy virtually impos-sible. Reich argues nothing important can happen in Washington unless citizens are energized and organized to make sure politicians honor their promises. But in order to be effectively mobi-lized, we need to see the big picture. Aftershock connects the dots—showing why the increasing share of income and wealth going to the top has hobbled jobs and growth for everyone else, un-dermined our democracy, and caused Americans to become increasingly cynical about public life. Here is a call to action for all who care about the future of America.

“ Reich provides a thoughtful dialogue about the structural problems that led to the recent recession. . . . His ideas are worth exploring.”—The Washington Post

“ [Reich] suggests a number of innovative ways to reverse the trend toward greater inequality and usher in another, more hopeful phase in American history.” —The Charlotte Observer

“ One of the clearest explanations to date of . . . how the United States went from . . . ‘the Great Pros-perity’ of 1947 to 1975 to the Great Recession.” —Bob Herbert, The New York Times

ROBeRT B. ReiCH is Chancellor’s Professor of Pub-lic Policy at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton, and he served as an adviser to President Barack Obama. He has written twelve books, including The Next American Frontier, The Future of Success, and Beyond Outrage. His bi-weekly commentaries on public radio’s Marketplace are heard by nearly fi ve million people.

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“One of the best ways to help peopleunderstand the challenges we face, is with

a movie that can grab an audience andmove them to action.” —Robert Reich

From director Jacob Kornbluth comes the award-winning documentary iNeQUAliTY

FOR All starring Robert Reich.

WINNER OF THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

VISIT WWW.INEQUALITYFORALL.COM TO WATCH THE TRAILER

AND LEARN HOW TO HOST A SCREENING

“ Important and well executed. . . . Reich is fl uent, fearless, even amusing.”—The New York Times Book Review




www.inequalityforall.com


Eric Schmidt and Jared CohenThe New Digital AgeReshaping the Future of People, Nationsand BusinessNEW

In an unparalleled collaboration, two leading global thinkers in technology and foreign affairs give us their forward-thinking account of where our hyper-connected world is headed and what this means for people, states, and businesses.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen take on some of the toughest questions about our future as the greatest information and technology revolution in human history continues to evolve: Who will be more powerful in the future, the citizen or the state? Will technology make terrorism easier or harder to carry out? What is the relationship between privacy and security, and how much will we have to give up to be part of the new digital age?

On individual, community, and state levels, across every geographical and socioeconomic spectrum, Schmidt and Cohen reveal the dramatic develop-ments—good and bad—that will transform both our everyday lives and our understanding of self and society, as technology advances and our virtual identities become more and more fundamentally real.

“ Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt have written a brilliant book that should be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the huge ramifi ca-tions of the Age of Google not only for our lifestyles but, more importantly, for our privacy, our democ-racy and our security.”—Niall Ferguson, author of Civilization:The West and the Rest


eRiC SCHMiDT is executive chairman of Google, where he served as chief executive offi cer from 2001 to 2011. A member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Schmidt also chairs the board of the New America Foundation and is a trustee of the institute forAdvanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

JAReD COHeN is director of Google ideas and anAdjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a Rhodes Scholar and the author of several books, including Children of Jihad and One Hundred Days ofSilence. He is a member of the Director’s Advisory Board at the National Counterterrorism Center.

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“ This is the most important—and fascinating—book yet written about how the digital age will affect our world. With vivid examples and brilliant analysis, it shows how the internet and other communications technologies will empower individuals and transform the way nations and businesses operate. How will different societiesmake tradeoffs involving privacy, freedom, control, security, and the relationship between the physical and virtual worlds? . . . Profoundly wise and wondrously readable.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs





ANCHOR | 978-0-307-94695-9 | 288 PAGES | $16.95eXAM PRiCe $3.00

“ We tend to think of friends as relationships we simply have, when in profound ways, friends both refl ect and determine who we actually are. Happiness and success begin with self-knowledge, and as Carlin Flora shows us in her compelling and delightful book Friendfl uence, the key to understanding yourself may well lie in your friendships, past and present. This is a must-read for anyone looking to experience greater well-being . . . in other words, for everyone.”—Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D., author of Succeed, and Director of the Motivation Science Center,Columbia Business School

Carlin FloraFriendfl uenceThe Surprising Ways FriendsMake Us Who We AreNOW IN PAPERBACK

Many of the friendships formed between college students will last for years to come. Drawing from the latest scientifi c research, Carlin Flora usesever-relatable anecdotes to explain the unex-pected ways friends infl uence our personalities, choices, emotions, and even physical health. The evidence suggests that friends may have a greater hand in our development and well-being than do our relatives and romantic partners.

The skills one needs to make good friends are among the very skills that lead to success in life, and scientifi c research has recently exploded with insights about the meaningful and enduring ways friendships infl uence us. Flora traces friendship from its evolutionary roots to its starring role in childhood and adolescence to its subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) impact on adults—both positive and negative, online and offl ine. Told with warmth as well as rigor, Friendfl uence not only il-luminates and interprets the science of friendship but will help readers refl ect thoughtfully on their social history and wisely navigate present and fu-ture friendships.

“ Carlin Flora has written a delightful book on the power of friendship. Combining the latest research with engaging stories, Friendfl uence shines with authenticity and is a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about our ancient human desire to connect.”—James H. Fowler, co-author of Connected

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CARliN FlORA was on the staff of Psychology Today for eight years, most recently as features editor. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Uni-versity School of Journalism and has written for Discover, Glamour, Women’s Health, and Men’s Health, among others. She has also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, TheToday Show, CNN, Fox News, and 20/20. She lives in Queens, New York.





Peggielene Bartels andEleanor HermanKing PeggyAn American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African VillageNOW IN PAPERBACK

King Peggy is the charming real-life fairy tale of an American secretary who discovers she has been chosen king of an impoverished fi shing village on Ghana’s central coast. In rising to the new chal-lenge of governing 7,000 souls, Peggy is herself transformed, from an ordinary secretary to the heart and hope of her community.

Upon arriving for her crowning ceremony in beautiful Otuam, she discovers the dire reality: there’s no running water, no doctor, and no high school, and many of the village elders are stealing the town’s funds. To make matters worse, her un-cle (the late king) sits in a morgue awaiting a prop-er funeral in the royal palace, which is in ruins. The longer she waits to bury him, the more she risks incurring the wrath of her ancestors. Peggy’s fi rst two years as king of Otuam unfold in a way that is stranger than fi ction. In the end, a deeply traditional African town has been uplifted by the ambitions of its headstrong, decidedly modern female king.

“ King Peggy is a wonderous tale of how a woman rose to great heights in circumstances one would never dream of, in a place where most of us cannot imagine living. Compelling and heartwarming, it is a most enjoyable and absorbing read.”—Deborah Rodriguez, author of Kabul Beauty School

“ There’s an unlikely new leader in West Africa. . . .Bartels had to quickly and forcefully let tribal el-ders know that despite being far away and female, she had every intention of taking her position seri-ously—and being taken seriously in turn.” —NPR


WWW.KINGPEGGY.COM

SELECTED BY: Russell Sage College; One Book, One Maryland

“ Captivating. . . . King Peggy is a great case study on how one person—with the proper encouragement and support—can bring light and life to a community. . . . Extremely well-written and amusing. . . . Candid and humble.”—The Baltimore Times

“ In the moving story of Peggielene Bartels, all of us can feel a connection to our ancestors, and a re-minder of the good that can come from courageously embracing unexpected responsibilities.”—Jeffrey Zaslow, author of The Girls from Ames

PeGGieleNe BARTelS was born in Ghana and moved to Washington, DC, in her early twenties to work at Ghana’s embassy. She became an American citizen in 1997. in 2008, she was chosen to be king of Otuam, a Ghanaian village of 7,000 people on the west coast of Africa. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, still works at the embassy, and spends several weeks each year in Ghana.

eleANOR HeRMAN is the author of three books of women’s history, including the New York Times bestseller Sex with Kings and Sex with the Queen. Her profi le of Peggywas a cover story for The Washington Post Magazine. She lives in Mclean, Virginia.

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WWW.HALFTHESKYMOVEMENT.ORG

Nicholas D. Kristof andSheryl WuDunnHalf the SkyTurning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

From two of our most fi ercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era’s most per-vasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the ex-traordinary women struggling there. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experi-ence, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope.

Half the Sky helps us see that the key to econom-ic progress lies in unleashing women’s potential. Kristof and WuDunn make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the best strategy for fi ghting poverty.

“ Urgent. . . . Passionate. . . . Compelling. . . . Half the Sky is a grab-the-reader-by-the-lapels wake-up call.” —Bill Williams, The Boston Globe

SELECTED BY: Boise State University; Eastern Illinois University; George Washington University; Illinois College; IUPUI; Linfield College; Luther College; Meredith College; Mills College; Mount Mary College; Mt. Holyoke College; New England College; North Carolina State University; Rochester Community and Technical College; Rollins College; Smith College; St. Edward’s University; St. John’s University; Sweet Briar College; Trinity University; University at Buffalo, School of Social Work; University of California, Davis; University of Connecticut; University of Maryland; University of Richmond; University of South Alabama; Vanderbilt University; Webster University; Wellesley College; Westfield State University

NiCHOlAS D. KRiSTOF and SHeRYl WUDUNN are the fi rst married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for their coverage of China as New York Times correspondents. They received the 2009 Dayton literary Peace Prize for lifetime Achievement and many other prizes including the George Polk and Overseas Press Club awards.

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Visit WWW.PBS.ORG/INDEPENDENTLENS/HALF-THE-SKY

to learn more about the independentlens documentary. The site includes

lesson plans, videos, and information onhow students can get involved withthese important human rights issues.

“ Half the Sky is a passionate and persuasive plea to all of us to rise up and say ‘No more!’ to the seventeenth-century abuses to girls and women in the twenty-fi rst-century world. This is a book that will pierce your heart and arouse your conscience. It is a powerful piece of journalism by two masters of the craft who are tireless in their pursuit of one of the most shameful conditions of our time.” —Tom Brokaw

www.halftheskymovement.org

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/half-the-sky




Sheryl SandbergLean InWomen, Work, and the Will to LeadNEW

Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating offi cer of Face-book and one of Fortune’s 50 “Most Powerful Women in Business,” examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.

In Lean In, Sandberg combines personal anec-dotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through the layers of ambiguity and bias surround-ing the lives and choices of working women. She recounts her own decisions, mistakes, and daily struggles to make the right choices for herself, her career, and her family. She provides practical ad-vice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having it all.” She describes specifi c steps women can take to combine professional achievement with per-sonal fulfi llment and demonstrates how men can benefi t by supporting women in the workplace and at home. Written with both humor and wisdom, Lean In is an inspiring call to action, destined to change the conversation about women in the work-place.

“ To tackle society’s most pressing problems we need to unleash the leadership of both women and men. Lean In shows us the path and is an absolutely invaluable resource for the next generation of lead-ers and those who support them.”—Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO, Teach for America

“ Lean In is an inauguration more than a last word, and an occasion for celebration. . . . Many, many women, young and old, elite and otherwise, will fi nd it prescriptive, refreshing, and perhaps even revolutionary.” —The New Yorker

KNOPF | 978-0-385-34994-9 | 240 PAGES| $24.95eXAM PRiCe $12.50

“ A landmark manifesto. . . . Lean In will be an infl uential book. It will open the eyes of women who grew up thinking that feminism was ancient history, who recoil at the word but walk heed-lessly through the doors it opened. And it will encourage those women to persevere in their professional lives.” —The New York Times

“What Sandberg offers is a view that shows 20-somethings that choices and tradeoffs surely exist, but that the ‘old normal’ of blunting ambi-tion so that you can fi t in one category or another does not have to be the way it is. And that each of us has a say in what comes next. And that includes men.” —The Atlantic

SHeRYl SANDBeRG is chief operating offi cer at Face-book. Prior to Facebook, she was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google and chief of staff at the U.S. Treasury Department. Sheryl lives in Northern Cali-fornia with her husband and their two children.

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WWW.CHERYLSTRAYED.COM

SELECTED BY: Sonoma State University

“ An addictive, gorgeous book that not only enter-tains, but leaves us the better for having read it.. . . Strayed is a formidable talent.”—The Boston Globe

“ [Strayed] reminds us, in her lyrical and coura-geous memoir Wild, of what it means to be fully alive, even in the face of catastrophe, physical and psychic hardship, and loss.” —Mira Bartók, author of The Memory Palace

Cheryl StrayedWildFrom Lost to Found on the Pacifi c Crest TrailNOW IN PAPERBACK

Following the death of her mother and the destruc-tion of her marriage, Cheryl Strayed resolved to hike the Pacifi c Crest Trail from the Mojave Des-ert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. Though she had no ex-perience as a long-distance hiker, the journey held the promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. Told with sparkling warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and plea-sures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

“ This isn’t Cinderella in hiking boots, it’s a woman coming out of heartbreak, darkness and bad deci-sions with a clear view of where she has been. . . . There are adventures and characters aplenty, from heartwarming to dangerous, but Strayed resists the temptation to overplay or sweeten such moments. Her pacing is impeccable as she captures her impressive journey.” —The Seattle Times

“ The clarity of Ms. Strayed’s prose, and thus of her person, makes her story, in its quiet way, nearly as riveting an adventure narrative as Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.” —The New York Times

“ Strayed’s journey was at least as transcendent as it was turbulent. She faced down hunger, thirst, injury, fatigue, boredom, loss, bad weather, and wild animals. Yet she also reached new levels of joy, accomplishment, courage, peace, and found extraordinary companionship.”—The Christian Science Monitor

CHeRYl STRAYeD is the author of the critically ac-claimed novel Torch and Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, includingThe New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post Magazine. Her essays have been included in the Pushcart Prize anthology and twice in The Best American essays. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

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Climate CentralGlobal Weirdness Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas and the Weather of the FutureNOW IN PAPERBACK

Finally, in clear, accessible prose, a fascinating new book that explains climate change to the layperson.

Produced by Climate Central—a highly regarded independent, nonprofi t journalism and research organization—and reviewed by scientists at major educational and research institutions the world over, Global Weirdness summarizes everything we already know about the science of climate change, explains what is likely to happen to the climate in the future, and lays out, in practical terms, what we can and cannot do to avoid further shifts.

In fi fty easy-to-read entries, Climate Central tackles basic questions such as:

• Is climate ever “normal”? • Why and how do fossil-fuel burning and other human practices produce greenhouse gases? • What natural forces have caused climate change in the past? • What risks does climate change pose for human health? • What accounts for the diminishment of moun-tain glaciers and small ice caps around the world since 1850? • What are the economic costs and benefi ts ofreducing carbon emissions?

Illustrated throughout with clarifying graphics, Global Weirdness enlarges our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, and arms us with the incontrovertible facts we need to make informed decisions about the future of the planet, and of humankind.

“ A breath of fresh air: just the facts, effi cient and easy to understand.” —Scientifi c American


WWW.CLIMATECENTRAL.ORG

“ Written in straightforward prose and fact-checked by the world’s eminent climate scholars, Global Weirdness reads like the 9/11 Commis-sion Report: all of the facts, none of the hyperbole. In four succinct sections, its authors detail the truth about climate change.” —CBS Smart Planet

“ Slim and elegant . . . written in the kind of plain English of which Strunk and White would ap-prove, that lays out what we know about climate change while hewing to the facts and taking great care to avoid bias and hysteria.”—The New York Times

Produced collectively by scientists and journalists at CliMATe CeNTRAl, a non-

profi t, nonpartisan science and journalism organization, Global Weirdness was written

by emily elert and Michael D. lemonick prior to external scientifi c peer review; it was

reviewed by staff scientists Philip Duffy, Ph.D. (chief scientist), Nicole Heller, Ph.D.

(ecosystems and adaptation), Alyson Kenward, Ph.D. (chemistry), eric larson, Ph.D.

(energy systems), and Claudia Tebaldi, Ph.D. (climate statistics).




WWW.CLIMATECENTRAL.ORG



“This is a book about us.

it’s a book about you, yourchildren, your parents, your friends.

it’s about every one of us.it’s about our failure: failure as

individuals, the failure of business, and the failure of our politicians.

it’s about the unprecedentedplanetary emergency we’ve created.

it’s about the future of us.”

—from Ten Billion

Stephen EmmottTen BillionNEW IN PAPERBACK

Every so often, a book completely changes our per-ception of the problems that we face: Silent Spring, An Inconvenient Truth, and now, Ten Billion.In this shocking call to arms, scientist StephenEmmott dramatically reveals the dangers of human population growth, clearly and concisely explain-ing our effects on climate, the environment, and our dwindling resources.

Just over two hundred years ago, there were one billion humans on Earth. There are now over sev-en billion of us. And, sometime this century, the world population will reach at least ten billion. As the population grows, our planet’s resources will continue to be strained, causing deforestation, de-sertifi cation, species extinction, global warming, and growing threats to our food and water sup-ply. The only sure way to address these issues is to focus on the burden that each human places on the earth, the better to see how each individual can consume less.

Told through diagrams, photos, and graphs to sup-port Emmott’s argument, Ten Billion is a snapshot of our planet, and our species, approaching a crisis.

“ Powerful. . . . Compelling. . . . The shift in think-ing that will be needed if we are to prepare our-selves for living in a different world begins with reading Emmott’s indispensable book.”—The Guardian (UK)

“ A stark, simple and short warning about the com-ing catastrophe, which [Emmott] feels is inevitable,resulting from human overpopulation and overex-ploitation of the world’s resources. . . . A valuable contribution to rekindling a discussion on global population that has waxed and waned in the twocenturies since Thomas Robert Malthus fi rst brought the issue to public attention.” —Financial Times (UK)

STePHeN eMMOTT is the head of Microsoft Research’s Computational Science laboratory in england, which is rec-ognized around the world for its research into novel compu-tational approaches to advance understanding of complex natural systems. This year marks the tenth anniversary of its project to assess the impact of nonhuman biological species on climate change.

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Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., and Kathryn BowersZoobiquityThe Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal HealthNOW IN PAPERBACK

Winner of the Discover Prize

Inspired by an eye-opening consultation at the Los Angeles Zoo, which revealed that a monkey expe-rienced the same symptoms of heart failure as her human patients, cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz embarked upon a project that would reshape how she practiced medicine.

This remarkable medical parallel led Natterson-Horowitz to search for other connections between the human and animal worlds, and her fi ndings were astonishing: Dinosaurs suffered from brain cancer; koalas catch Chlamydia; reindeer seek narcotic escape in hallucinogenic mushrooms; stal-lions self-mutilate; and gorillas experience clinical depression.

Joining forces with science journalist Kathryn Bowers, Natterson-Horowitz employs fascinating case studies and meticulous scholarship to pres-ent a revelatory understanding of what animals can teach us about the human body and mind. Both authoritative and accessible, this provocative book encourages us to see our essential connection to all living beings.

“ The connections we share with the rest of life on our planet are a source of beauty and, in Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers’ luminous new account, the inspiration for an emerging and powerful approach to human health. Zoobiquity is a book that explodes barriers and myths all in the purpose of bettering the human condition.”—Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish


WWW.ZOOBIQUITY.COM

“ [Zoobiquity] will change medicine more than any new machine or drug.” —Randolph Nesse, M.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan and author of Why We Get Sick

“ Illuminating. . . . This very engaging book is dif-fi cult to put down. It provides lots of information in an easy-to-understand manner that doesn’t feel overwhelming, perhaps because of the liberal use of humor throughout. Reading Zoobiquity gave this reader a totally new perspective on his furred and feathered neighbors.”—The Boston Globe

BARBARA NATTeRSON-HOROWiTZ, M.D., earned her degrees at Harvard and the University of Califor-nia, San Francisco. She is a cardiology professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UClA and serves on the medical advisory board of the los Angeles Zoo as a cardiovascular consultant. Her writing has ap-peared in many scientifi c and medical publications.

KATHRYN BOWeRS was a staff editor at The Atlanticand a writer and producer at CNN international. She has edited and written popular and academic books and teaches a course at UClA on medical narrative.

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www.zoobiquity.com




“ Fascinating. . . . By reframing things as fl ow systems, they reveal how function determines form in everything from corporate hierarchies to Canada geese.” —Nature

“ After reading this deeply inspiring and liberating book, you will never look at the world—the whole world—the same again. It not only helps us to better understand the natural environment, but it has profound implications for how we all need to act if we want to sustain success. This perspec-tive is not just for scientists—it helps to reframe agendas for entrepreneurs, business executives, educators, and policy makers.”—John Hagel, co-author of The Power of Pull

Adrian Bejan and J. Peder ZaneDesign in NatureHow the Constructal Law GovernsEvolution in Biology, Physics, Technology,and Social OrganizationNOW IN PAPERBACK

This groundbreaking book takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how a single principle of physics, the Constructal Law, accounts for the evolution of these and all other designs in our world. Written in an easy style that achieves clarity without sacrifi cing complexity, Design in Nature is a paradigm-shifting book that will fundamentally transform our understanding of the world around us.

“ Bejan masterfully unifi es—under a deep common law—physics, chemistry, biology, and even part of the social sciences. His treatment of natural design, fl ow systems, and complex order as spontaneously arising from fl ow optimization is novel, powerful, and highly plausible.” —Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, co-author of What Darwin Got Wrong

“ Presents complex ideas in an understandable con-text. . . . Source of food for thought. . . . Interesting.. . . Excellent refl ection on the history of science.”—Winnipeg Free Press

“ Design in Nature is an elegant exposition of a unifying principle so simple that it demystifi es our comprehension of the ‘fl ow’ of the universe. An absorbing and thoughtful account of why nature is designed that way it is; Bejan engages the reader from the very fi rst sentence to last word.”—Donald Johanson, Founding Director of the Institute of Human Origins and discoverer of “Lucy”

ADRiAN BeJAN has pioneered numerous original methods in thermodynamics. He is ranked among the hun-dred most cited authors in all of engineering by the insti-tute of Scientifi c information. He was appointed as a full professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University in 1984, and J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor in 1989.

J. PeDeR ZANe is an assistant professor of journal-ism and mass communications at St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is an award-winning colum-nist who has worked for the The New York Times and the News & Observer (Raleigh).

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Eli SaslowTen LettersThe Stories Americans Tell Their President

Every day, President Obama reads ten representa-tive letters from among the thousands he receives from citizens across the land. The letters come from people of all ages, walks of life, and political points of view. Some are heartbreaking, some an-gry, some hopeful.

In this inspiring and powerful look at the issues fac-ing Americans today, reporter Eli Saslow creates vivid portraits of the lives of ten citizens who corre-sponded with President Obama. Their letters, and the president’s handwritten responses, tell of the personal struggles behind everything from health care to immigration to war.

One mother writes to express her fears about the well-being of a son currently deployed in Afghani-stan. A young girl in Kentucky shares her frustra-tions while attending one of the country’s worst schools, and the president relies on her story in his push for education reform. What these ten letters reveal about the relationship between a president and the people he governs is deeply affecting, and what ultimately emerges from within the stories is the incredible endurance and optimism of the American people.

“ Saslow has a feel for the tender spots in these people’s stories. . . . The plainspokenness, decency, and hu-man dignity they display leave a lasting impression.” —The Washington Post


SELECTED BY: University of North Carolina – Wilmington; University of Louisville; University of Toledo

“ A luminous book. . . . Saslow has found his way around the cynicism and superfi ciality of Washington politics to show the profound real-life connections between the White House and the people.” —David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story

eli SASlOW has been a staff writer at The Washing-ton Post since 2004. He covered the 2008 presidential campaign, wrote profi le stories about Barack Obama, and then chronicled the president’s life inside the White House. Saslow has won multiple awards for news and feature writ-ing. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and daughter.

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DOUBLEDAY | 978-0-385-53274-7 | 288 PAGES | $26.95eXAM PRiCe $13.50

Barbara GarsonDown the Up EscalatorHow the 99% LiveNEW

The Great Recession has thrown huge economic challenges at almost all Americans save the super-affl uent few, and we are only now beginning to see the human toll it is taking. Down the Up Escalator presents a sobering picture of what happens to a society when it becomes economically organized to benefi t only the very rich and the quick-buck speculators. But it also demonstrates the wit and resilience of ordinary Americans—and why they deserve so much better than the hand they’ve been dealt.

Garson has interviewed an economically and geo-graphically wide variety of Americans to show the painful waste in all this loss and insecurity, and describes how individuals are coping. Her broader historical focus, though, is on the causes and con-sequences of the long stagnation of wages and how it has resulted in an increasingly desperate reliance on credit and a series of ever-larger bubbles—stocks, technology, real estate.

“ An engaging, insightful account of the changes that have swept through an America where good, hard-working people are learning to make do with less money.” —Los Angeles Times

“ Barbara Garson has written a small masterpiece of wise and alarming reportage about how ordi-nary Americans are surviving during extraordi-narily rotten times. Down the Up Escalator is a necessary antidote to all the blather about ‘freeing’ banks and investment houses from ‘crippling regulations.’” —Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation

BARBARA GARSON is an award-winning journalist, and the author of three books, All the livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work, The electronic Sweatshop,and most recently Money Makes the World Go Around: One investor Tracks Her Cash Through the Global economy. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Nation. She lives in New York City.

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“ Barbara Garson knows that the hard times so many people are living through are not just composed of headlines about corporate profi ts, unemployment rates, and foreclosures, they are composed of human beings. This book is a compassionate, probing, pointillist mural of the Great Recession and of the decades-long erosion of the average American’s economic position that preceded it, all told through the experiences of in-dividual men and women.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost





Raymond BonnerAnatomy of InjusticeA Murder Case Gone WrongNOW IN PAPERBACK

“Masterful. . . . Eloquent, important, andaccessible. . . . The book of the centuryabout the death penalty.” —The Atlantic

Anatomy of Injustice is Pulitzer Prize winner Raymond Bonner’s moving, suspenseful, and vital contribution to our nation’s ongoing, increasingly important debate about inequality and the death penalty.

In January 1982, an elderly white widow was found brutally murdered in the small town of Greenwood, South Carolina. Police immediately arrested Edward Lee Elmore, a semiliterate, men-tally retarded black man with no previous felony record. Although only loosely connected to the victim, Elmore was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He had been on death row for eleven years when a young attorney named Diana Holt fi rst learned of his case, and would spend the next decade fi ghting on Elmore’s behalf.

With the exemplary moral commitment and te-nacious investigation that have distinguished his reporting career, Bonner follows Holt’s battle to save Elmore’s life and shows us how his case is a textbook example of what can go wrong in the American justice system. He reviews police work, evidence gathering, jury selection, work of court-appointed lawyers, latitude of judges, iniquities in the law, prison informants, and the appeals pro-cess. Throughout, the actions and motivations of both unlikely heroes and shameful villains in our justice system are vividly revealed.


“ Most of us Americans don’t have a clue about how the criminal court system really operates and we need a good writer like Bonner to take us through, step by step. But be warned: If you have pressing duties waiting, don’t begin reading this book. This is seductive storytelling at its best.”—Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

“ Accomplished and meticulously researched. . . .Masterful. Bonner builds the story, and his argument, carefully, rarely editorializing, mixing in a précis of capital punishment in the United States. . . . Bonner’s book is an important addition to the body of evidence against the death penalty.” —The Boston Globe

RAYMOND BONNeR practiced law for a decade and taught at the University of California, Davis, School of law. He later became an investigative reporter and foreign corre-spondent for The New York Times, where he was a member of a Pulitzer Prize–winning team in 1999. He is the author of Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and el Salvador, which received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of Ameri-can Policy, which received the Cornelius Ryan Award fromthe Overseas Press Club and the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism.

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Sarah BurnsThe Central Park FiveThe Untold Story Behind One ofNew York City’s Most Infamous CrimesNOW IN PAPERBACK

“An important cultural document, andunquestionably worth reading. . . .

Burns’s gripping tale may serve as anallegory for some of the most pressingcriminal justice issues of our time.”

—The New York Times Book Review

On April 20, 1989, the battered body of a woman is discovered in Central Park, and within days, fi ve black and Latino teenagers confess to her rape and beating. Following a media frenzy and hysterical public reaction, the young men are tried as adults and convicted of rape, despite the fact that the teens quickly recant their inconsistent and inaccurate confessions and that no DNA tests or eyewitness accounts tie any of them to the victim. They serve their complete sentences before an-other man, serial rapist Matias Reyes, confesses to the crime and is connected to it by DNA testing.

Intertwining the stories of these fi ve young men, the police offi cers, the district attorneys, the victim, and Matias Reyes, Sarah Burns unravels the forces that made both the crime and its prosecution pos-sible. Most dramatically, she gives us a portrait of a city already beset by violence and deepening rifts between races and classes, whose law enforcement, government, social institutions, and media were undermining the very rights of the individuals they were designed to safeguard and protect.

SARAH BURNS graduated from Yale University in 2004 with a degree in American studies and went on to work for Moore & Goodman, a small civil rights law fi rm based in New York. Burns wrote, directed and produced the Central Park Five documentary along with her father, documentarian Ken Burns and her husband, fi lmmaker David McMahon. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Now a documentary from iFC Films,co-directed by Sarah Burns,

David McMahon, and Ken Burns.

VISIT WWW.IFCFILMS.COM/FILMS/THE-CENTRAL-PARK-FIVE

TO WATCH TRAILERS AND CLIPS

“ A controversial and important book. . . . It demonstrates that our justice system is far from fool proof even in the face of alleged confession, eyewitness and forensic evidence. Were these false convictions based on understandable mistakes? Or were they based on racial stereotyping? Read this fi ne book and make up your own mind.”—Alan M. Dershowitz, author of The Trials of Zion



WWW.IFCFILMS.COM/FILMS/THE-CENTRAL-PARK-FIVE





Dave EggersA Hologram for the KingNEW IN PAPERBACK

National Book Award Finalist

In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling business-man named Alan Clay pursues a last-ditch at-tempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and fi nally do something great. InA Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fi ghts to hold himself and his splintering family together.

“ A novel poised on the central meridian of our times. . . . Eggers maintains an exquisite balance of irony, empathy, dark humor, and unexpected tenderness in this taut exploration of the ever-increasing price of ordinary survival. A book as heartbreaking as the global economy it explores with such beauty and ferocity.” —National Book Awards citation

“ A Hologram for the King is not only a portrait of a man in midlife trying desperately to salvage his future. The book is emblematic of what Eggers sees as wrong in America today: the collapse of home-grown industry, the outsourcing of labor, a loss of confi dence, soured ideals. . . . But [it] isn’t a bum-mer—or if it is, it’s a bummer beautifully enlivened by oddball encounters and oddball characters, by stranger-in-a-strange-land episodes. . . . A Holo-gram for the King moves forward—a momentum of melancholy and possibility, driven by the medita-tions and memories of its once-noble American salesman hero.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer


“ Eggers understands the pressures of American downward-mobility and in the protagonist of his novel, Alan Clay, has created an everyman, a post-modern Willy Loman. . . . The novel oper-ates on a grand and global scale, but it also is intimate.” —Chicago Tribune

“ [A] clear, supremely readable parable of America in the global economy that is haunting, beauti-fully shaped, and sad. . . . A story human enough to draw blood. . . . Groundbreaking.”—The New York Times Book Review

DAVe eGGeRS is the author of six previous books, in-cluding Zeitoun, winner of the American Book Award and the Dayton literary Peace Prize. eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal, a monthly magazine, The Believer, and an oral history series, Voice of Witness. in 2002, with Nínive Calegari he co-found-ed 826 Valencia, a nonprofi t writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco.

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SELECTED BY: University of North Carolinia – Chapel Hill; United States Military Academy

“ A short, swift, and luminescent book. . . . A remarkable thing: proof that Toni Morrison is at once America’s most deliberate and fl exible writer. She has almost entirely retooled her style to tell a story that demands speed, brevity, the treat of a looming curtain call. . . . There is no novelist alive who has captured the beauty and democracy of the American vernacular so well.” —The Boston Globe

Toni MorrisonHomeNOW IN PAPERBACK

Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption. When Frank Money joined the army to escape his too-small world, he left behind his cherished and fragile little sister, Cee. After the Korean War, his shattered life has no purpose until he hears that Cee is in danger.

Frank is a modern Odysseus returning to a 1950s America mined with lethal pitfalls for an unwary black man. As he journeys to his native Georgia in search of Cee, it becomes clear that their troubles began well before their wartime separation. To-gether, they return to their rural hometown of Lo-tus, where buried secrets are unearthed and where Frank learns at last what it means to be a man, what it takes to heal, and—above all—what it means to come home.

“ Haunting. . . . [Morrison] maps the day-to-day lives of her characters with lyrical precision. . . . Home encapsulates all the themes that have fueled her fi ction, from the early novels Sula and The Bluest Eye, through her dazzling masterwork, Beloved.”—The New York Times

“ Perhaps Morrison’s most lyrical performance to date. . . . Home has a sparer, faster pace than earlier Morrison novels like Beloved or Jazz, as though a drumbeat is steadily intensifying in the background and the storyteller has to keep up.”—The New York Review of Books

TONi MORRiSON is the author of ten novels, includ-ing The Bluest eye (1970) and A Mercy (2008). She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and thePulitzer Prize. in 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. She lives in New York.

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Avi SteinbergRunning the BooksThe Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

While Avi Steinberg’s classmates advance in the world, he remains stuck at a crossroads, unable to meet the lofty expectations of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. Seeking direction, Steinberg takes a job as a librarian in a tough Boston prison. Running the Books is a trenchant exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest at-tempt to fi nd his place in the world.

“ Hilarious enough to make you want to read its lines to anyone who happens to be around, and profound enough to have you care deeply about many of the men and women whose crimes have brought them to Boston’s Suffolk County House of Correction.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“ Heartbreaking and entertaining. . . . Steinberg’s com-passion for those he mentored clearly comes through. Yet, this is far from a preachy memoir on prison reform. It’s a young man’s blundering, but touching, journey to fi nd a place in the world. Fortunately, he makes us laugh—and sometimes cry—in the process.” —The Seattle Times


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David K. ShiplerThe Working PoorInvisible in America

A powerful, humane study of American families strug-gling against insurmountable odds to escape poverty and take part in the American dream.

“ The ‘working poor’ ought to be an oxymoron, because no one who works should be impoverished. In this thoughtful assessment of poverty in twenty-fi rst-century America, David Shipler shows why so many working Americans remain poor, and offers a powerful guide for how to resuscitate the American dream.”—Robert B. Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and author of Aftershock

“ This is one of those seminal books that every American should read and read now.”—The New York Times Book Review

SELECTED BY: Alaska Pacific University; Carleton College; Case Western Reserve University; Community College of Baltimore County; Indiana University Southeast; Joliet Junior College; Lafayette College; Ohio State University – Mansfield; Presbyterian College; Roger Williams University; University of Alaska – Anchorage; University of Arkansas; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; University of New Mexico; University of North Texas

VINTAGE | 978-0-375-70821-3 | 352 PAGES | $16.00

eXAM PRiCe $3.00

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Daniel L. EverettDon’t Sleep, There Are SnakesLife and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

Part passionate memoir, part scientifi c exploration, Everett’s life-changing tale is a riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.

Daniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the small tribe of Amazonian Indians to Christianity. Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications, becoming so im-pressed with their peaceful way of life that he instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics.

“ Genuine and engrossing. . . . Sharp and intuitive. . . . Impossible to forget.” —Sacramento Book Review

“ Absorbing. . . . Shares its author’s best traits: persever-ance, insight, humor, and humility. Both the Pirahãs and their interpreter make splendid company.”—The Plain Dealer

SELECTED BY: Belmont University; Wilfrid-Laurier University (Canada)


Christopher McDougallBorn to RunA Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In this riveting narrative, journalist Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets and man’s history as runner—from prehistoric persistence hunting to mod-ern-day ultra-marathons. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to sun-baked val-leys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, fi nally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe.

“ Compelling. . . . [McDougall] uses an extended portrait of one of the world’s least-known cultures, the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyons, to put modern American running under an exacting magnifying glass.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“ The book is wonderful. It’s funny, insightful, captivat-ing, and a great and beautiful discovery. There are lessons here that translate to realms beyond running. The book inspires anyone who seeks to live more fully.” —Lynne Cox, author of Open Water Swimming Manual

WWW.CHRISMCDOUGALL.COM


SELECTED BY: Appalachian State University; Bowling Green State University; Millburn High School (NJ); Monmouth University







WWW.CHRISMCDOUGALL.COM




Josh NeufeldA.D.New Orleans After the Deluge

A.D. is a masterful portrait of a city under siege. Cartoonist Josh Neufeld depicts seven extraordinary true stories of survival in the days leading up to and following Hurricane Katrina. As beautiful as it is poignant, A.D. presents a city in chaos and shines a bright, profoundly human light on the tragedies and triumphs that took place within it.

“ A.D. is one of the best-ever examples of comics report-age, and one of the clearest portraits of post-Katrina New Orleans yet published. An essential addition to the ongoing conversation about what Katrina means, and what New Orleans means.” —Dave Eggers, author of Zeitoun and What Is the What

“ Josh Neufeld is a master storyteller. A.D. is intimate and yet seismic in its scope. Through six fi nely drawn lives, we end up with new understanding of both devastation and redemption. His art takes us to the depth of the humanity of those we cherish.”—Cornel West, author of Race Matters

TeACHeR’S GUiDe AVAilABle AT WWW.RANDOMHOUSe.COM/ACADeMiC

PANTHEON | 978-0-375-71488-7 | 208 PAGES | $16.95eXAM PRiCe $3.00

WWW.JOSHCOMIX.COM

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SELECTED BY: SUNY Brockport; St. Edward’s University; University of Wisconsin – Madison; Washington State University – Vancouver

Dave EggersZeitounFrom critically acclaimed author Dave Eggers comes the harrowing story of Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun in the days leading up to and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“ Fifty years from now, when people want to know what happened to this once-great city during a shameful episode of our history, they will still be talking about a family named Zeitoun.”—Timothy Egan, The New York Times Book Review

“ Zeitoun offers a transformative experience to anyone open to it, for the simple reasons that it is . . . an adventure story, a tale of suffering and redemption, almost biblical in its simplicity, the trials of a good man who believes in God and happens to have a canoe. Anyone who cares about America, where it is going and where it almost went, before it caught itself, will want to read this thrilling, heartbreaking, wonderful book.” —Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times

SELECTED BY 58 SCHOOLS INCLUDING:California State University – Chico; Emmanuel College; Kansas State University; Michigan State University; North Central College; Northeastern University; Southern Methodist University; Tufts University; University of Missouri; University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign; University of Iowa; Wallace State Community College; Wright State University






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Lucas MannClass ABaseball in the Middle of EverywhereNEW

An unforgettable chronicle of a year of minor-league baseball in a small Iowa town that follows not only the travails of the players of the Clinton Lumber Kings but also the lives of the team’s dedicated fans and of the fading town itself. Part sports story, part sociological inquiry, part memoir, Class A is a moving and unique study of American life.

“ It’s Mann’s knowledge of and affection for people that truly resonates. And what elevates Class A beyond being just an entertaining and poignant work of nar-rative nonfi ction is the book’s most winning character—Mann himself. As a writer and observer, he is patient, sympathetic to a fault, optimistic in spite of himself, and, despite his gifts, impressively unassuming.”—Adam Langer, The Boston Globe

“ Class A is unapologetically intimate—a deeply compas-sionate, blessedly unrelenting, and sometimes uncom-fortably insightful portrait of a town and a team that might have too much invested in one another. Lucas Mann beautifully blends reportage and lyricism to cre-ate a story of vibrant consequence.”—John D’Agata, author of About a Mountain

PANTHEON | 978-0-307-90754-7 | 336 PAGES | $26.95eXAM PRiCe $13.50

Jim YardleyBrave DragonsA Chinese Basketball Team, an American Coach, and Two Cultures ClashingNOW IN PAPERBACK

Former New York Times Beijing bureau chief Jim Yardley tells the wonderfully original story of a strug-gling Chinese basketball team and its quixotic attempt to right its fortunes by hiring a former NBA coach. What follows is a season of cultural misunderstanding that transcends sports and reveals China’s ambivalent relationship with the West.

“ Rollicking. . . . Lively and often hilarious. . . . Yard-ley’s tale resonates far beyond sports. . . . He manages to capture, in touchingly human detail, the essence of a nation in transition.” —The Washington Post

“ Brave Dragons has all the ingredients of a farce: larger-than-life characters, sudden plot twists, and don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out moments. But Jim Yardley sees the bigger picture: In many ways, basketball is a metaphor for the emergence of China as an economic power and its relationship with the rest of the world.” —The Seattle Times

VINTAGE | 978-0-307-47336-3 | 336 PAGES | $15.95

eXAM PRiCe $3.00









Jaron Lanier You Are Not a GadgetA Manifesto

Among the fi rst to predict the revolutionary chang-es the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture, Jaron Lanier takes a provocative and cautionary look at the way the Internet is trans-forming our lives for better and for worse. He offers insight on everything from the origins of the Inter-net’s structure to its effects on our fi nancial markets and social networking.

“ A provocative and sure-to-be-controversial book. . . .Lucid, powerful, and persuasive. It is necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Book Review

“ At the bottom of Lanier’s cyber-tinkering is a fundamentally humanist faith in technology, a belief that wisely designed machines can bring us closer together by expanding the possibilities of creative self-expression.”—Ben Ehrenreich, Los Angeles Times


WWW.JARONLANIER.COM

SELECTED BY: Indiana University Southeast; Lane Community College; University ofCalifornia, Santa Cruz–Crown College

Brian ChristianThe Most Human HumanWhat Artifi cial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive

A provocative, exuberant, and profound explora-tion of the ways in which computers are reshaping our ideas of what it means to be human.

“ The Most Human Human is immensely ambi-tious and bold, intellectually provocative, while at the same time entertaining and witty—a delightful book about how to live a meaningful, thriving life.” —Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams

“ A book exploring the wild frontiers of chat-bots is appealing enough; I never expected to discover in its pages such an eye-opening inquest into human imagination, thought, conversation, love, and decep-tion. Who would have guessed that the best way to understand humanity was to study its imitators?” —David Eagleman, author of Sum

“ Machines are getting so smart that it forces us to take a completely fresh look at what smart is, and at what human is. Brian Christian takes on this very weighty task, and somehow makes it fun.”—David Shenk, author of The Genius in All of Us


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Neil ShubinThe Universe WithinThe Deep History of the Human BodyNOW IN PAPERBACK

In The Universe Within, Neil Shubin reveals the con-nection between the evolution of the cosmos and the evolution of the human body.

With Shubin’s trademark clarity and exuberance, he takes an expansive approach to the question of why we are the way we are. Starting with fossils, he turns his gaze skyward to show how the entirety of the uni-verse’s 14-billion-year history can be seen in our bod-ies. As he moves through our very molecular composi-tion, Shubin shows how the evolution of the cosmos has had profound effects on the development of hu-man life on earth.

“ What is special about the book is its sweep, its scope, its panorama—how physics, biology, geology, chemistry, and seemingly every other science are brought to bear on the most intricate details of human life.”—The Wall Street Journal VINTAGE | 978-0-307-47327-1 | 240 PAGES | $15.95

eXAM PRiCe $3.00

Neil ShubinYour Inner FishA Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik—the “missing link” that made headlines around the world in April 2006—tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the fi rst creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fi sh fi ns, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fi sh, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish is sci-ence writing at its fi nest—enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

“ An entertaining and original book. Cleverly weaving together adventures in paleontology with very acces-sible science, Neil Shubin reveals the many surpris-ing deep connections between our anatomy and those of fi sh, reptiles, and other creatures. You will never look at your body in the same way again.” —Sean B. Carroll, author of The Making of the Fittest


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SELECTED BY: Penn State Brandywine;Skidmore College; University of Montana;University of Pennsylvania


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Yasutaka TsutsuiPaprikaTranslated by Andrew DriverNEW IN PAPERBACK

When prototype models of a dream-invading de-vice go missing at the Institute for Psychiatric Re-search, it transpires that someone is using them to drive people insane. Threatened both personally and professionally, brilliant psychotherapist Atsu-ko Chiba has to journey into the world of fantasy to fi ght her mysterious opponents. As she delves ever deeper into the imagination, the borderline between dream and reality becomes increasingly blurred, and nightmares begin to leak into the everyday realm. The scene is set for a fi nal show-down between the dream detective and her ene-mies, with the subconscious as their battleground, and the future of the waking world at stake.

“ Yasutaka Tsutsui is the doyen of avant-garde Japanese writers. His work is by turns innova-tive, thought-provoking and—not least—extremely entertaining.” —The Independent (UK)


Margaret AtwoodThe Year of the FloodSet in a visionary future, The Year of the Flood is at once a tale of lasting friend-ship and a landmark work of speculative fi ction. By turns dark, tender, violent,

and thoughtful, the book portrays the aftermath of a long-predicted natural disaster that leaves the earth in ruins and a handful of survivors to navi-gate this strange new world.

“ Leave it to Atwood to fi nd humor in a post-apocalyptic world as she covertly, and brilliantly, addresses questions of how we need to live on an imperiled planet.” —Kansas City Star

“ Atwood is funny and clever, such a good writer and real thinker. . . . The Year of the Flood isn’t prophecy, but it is eerily possible.”—The New York Times Book Review


WWW.YEAROFTHEFLOOD.COM

SELECTED BY: Austin College

Colson WhiteheadZone OneAt once a chilling horror story and a literary novel by a contemporary master, Zone One is a dazzling por-trait of modern civilization in all its wretched, sham-bling glory.

“ [Zone One] resembles Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. . . . An intense meditation on the way we cope with disaster and the stubborn, often inexpli-cable, persistence of the human will to survive.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“ A zombie story with brains. . . . [Whitehead is a] certifi ably hip writer who can spin gore into macabre poetry.” —The Washington Post

“ Uniquely affecting. . . . A rich mix of wartime satire and darkly funny social commentary. . . . Whether charged with bleak sadness or bone-dry humor, sentences worth savoring pile up faster than the body count.” —Los Angeles Times


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Kazuo IshiguroNever Let Me GoFrom the Booker Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro comes a devastating novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclu-sive boarding school in the English countryside. Years later, with the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood—and about their lives now.

“ A gothic tour de force. . . . What Mr. Ishiguro has done so artfully in these pages is not only assemble a chilling jigsaw puzzle, but also create a distinct fi ctional world.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Book Review

SELECTED BY: Augustana College; California State University – Chico; Florida State University; Juniata College; Lehigh University; Middlebury College; Murray State University; Pomona College; Rider University; Spokane Community College; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; University of Minnesota – Twin Cities; University of North Carolina – Wilmington; University of South Carolina VINTAGE | 978-1-4000-7877-6 | 304 PAGES | $15.95

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Peter HellerThe Dog StarsNOW IN PAPERBACK

A riveting, powerful novel about a pilot living in a world fi lled with loss and what he is willing to risk to rediscover, against all odds, connection, love, and grace.

“ [A] ravishing doomsday novel. . . . There are mo-ments of unexpected happiness, of real humaninteraction, infused with love and hope, like the twinkling of a star we might wish upon, which makes this end-of-the-world novel more like a rapturous beginning.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“ An elegy for a lost world turns suddenly into a paean to new possibilities. In The Dog Stars, Peter Heller serves up an insightful account of physical, mental, and spiritual survival unfolded in dramatic and often lyrical prose.”—The Boston Globe

SELECTED BY: Muir College at University of California, San Diego


Alan LightmanMr gA Novel About the Creation

From Alan Lightman, au-thor of Einstein’s Dreams comes a playful and pro-found novel that combines science, theology, and moral philosophy to tell the story of creation as narrated by God—a stunningly imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of ex-istence on the grandest possible scale.

“ A charming, comic explanation of how The Maker might have created the cosmos. . . . If your philoso-phy allows for the possibility that science and faith in a creator can coexist, you’ll enjoy this clever and witty creation.” —The Boston Globe

“ A scientifi c vision laced with the mirthful aura of divinity. . . . Aglow with wonder.”—The Washington Post

“ A cosmic wink at the infi nite loop of creativity and mystery.” —The Miami Herald











Julie OtsukaWhen the Emperor Was DivineJulie Otsuka’s commanding debut novel paints a por-trait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and preci-sion, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deraci-nation—both physical and emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In fi ve chapters, each fl awlessly executed from a different point of view she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion.

“ Exceptional. . . . Otsuka skillfully dramatizes a world suddenly foreign. . . . [Her] incantatory, unsentimental prose is the book’s greatest strength.” —The New Yorker

SELECTED BY 40 SCHOOLS INCLUDING: Brandeis University; Cornell University; Graceland University; Gustavus Adolphus College; Loyola College in Maryland; New York Institute of Technology; Saint Louis University;St. Mary’s College of Maryland; Temple University;University of Southern Illinois – Edwardsville


Ayana MathisThe Twelve Tribes of HattieNOW IN PAPERBACK

In this indelible encounter with the driving force of the American dream Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.

“ Mathis never loses touch with the geography and the changing national culture through which her char-acters move. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is infused with African Americans’ confl icted attitudes about the North and the South during the Great Migration. . . . In the long family arc that Mathis describes, the pain-ful life of one remarkably resilient woman is placed against the hopes and struggles of millions of African Americans who held this nation to its promise.”—The Washington Post

“ Raw and intimate. . . . A brutal and poetic allegory of a family beset by tribulations. . . . Mathis tempers the more operatic elements with tenderness and knowing glimpses into the human heart struggling to love. . . . Deeply felt.”—Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times Book Review

VINTAGE | 978-0-307-94970-7 | 320 PAGES | $15.95

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Ernest J. GainesA Lesson Before DyingWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction

“ We did use A Lesson Before Dying at UNCG as part of our All Freshman Read program that we do each fall. This novel was very well received by both the teachers and the students. It is a story that is set in the 1940s, but easily translates to today. Many of us used it as a spring-board for discussions and writing assignments about race, capital punishment, the judicial system, prisons, the South, gender, and relationships, literacies, and family ties.” —Jackie Grutsch McKinney, Director of Composi-tion, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

SELECTED BY 27 SCHOOLS INCLUDING: Baylor University; Champlain College; Clemson University; Georgetown University; Howard University; LaGuardia Community College; Saint Joseph’s University; Texas A&M University; Troy University; Xavier University

THe BiG ReAD is a program of the National endowment for the Arts, designed to

restore reading to the center of American culture. The initiative includes innovative read-

ing programs, providing comprehensive resources for discussing classic literature as

well as an extensive website with information on authors and their works. Communities

applying must select from the Big Read reading choices. Organizations selected to par-

ticipate will receive a grant, access to online training resources and opportunities, edu-

cational and promotional materials, and an Organizer’s Guide for developing and manag-

ing Big Read activities. Communities may apply for matching grants ranging from $2,500

to $20,000. Grant funds may be used for such expenses as book purchases, speaker

fees, and travel, salaries, advertising, and venue rental. For more information go to:

W W W. N e A B i G R e A D. O R G.

Naguib MahfouzThe Thief and the Dogs Translated by Trevor Le Gassick and M. M. Badawi

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Naguib Mahfouz’s haunting novella of post-revolutionary Egypt combines a vivid psychological portrait of an an-guished man with the suspense and rapid pace of a detec-tive story. After four years in prison, the skilled young thief Said Mahran emerges bent on revenge. But he fi nds that Egypt has undergone a revolution and, on a more personal level, his beloved wife and his trusted henchman, who con-spired to betray him to the police, are now married to each other and are keeping his six-year-old daughter from him. As Said’s wild attempts to achieve his idea of justice badly misfi re, he becomes a hunted man, driven by hatred.




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Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieAmericanahNEW

From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a powerful new novel: a story of love and race centered around a young woman and man from Ni-geria who face diffi cult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. Spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a rich-ly told story set in today’s globalized world.

“ Adichie is an extraordinarily self-aware thinker and writer. . . . Americanah [is] a deep-seated discussion of race [that is] also a steady-handed dissection of the universal human experience. Trenchant and hugely empathetic, both worldly and geographically precise, [it] holds the realities of our times fearlessly before us, [and] never feels false.”—The New York Times Book Review

“ What’s as American as the invention of race? Self-invention. So we are reminded by Adichie’s engag-ing third novel . . . Adichie is uniquely positioned to compare racial hierarchies in the United States to social striving in her native Nigeria. She does so in this new work with a ruthless honesty about the ugly and beautiful sides of both nations.”—The Washington Post


Mark HaddonThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeNarrated by a fi fteen-year-old autistic savant ob-sessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a con-temporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emo-tions. At fi fteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he fi nds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a pitchfork, and he is ini-tially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favorite fi ctional character, the impeccably logi-cal Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration.

“ Moving. . . . Think of The Sound and the Fury crossed with The Catcher in the Rye and one of Oliver Sacks’s real-life stories.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

SELECTED BY 54 SCHOOLS INCLUDING:Arcadia University; California State University – Northridge; Edgewood College; Hiram College; Idaho State University; Illinois Wesleyan University; Nebraska Methodist College; Pace University; SUNY Brockport; University of Tennessee


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Jonathan OdellThe HealingThe pre-Civil War South comes brilliantly to life in this warmhearted novel about unbreakable bonds and the power of story to heal the body, the spirit and the soul.

“ Compelling, tragic, comic, tender and mystical. . . .Combines the historical signifi cance of Kathryn Stock-ett’s The Help with the wisdom of Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“ When the young slave Granada Satterfi eld reluctantly undertakes a quest to recover her own identity, she fi nds that she must begin by seeking the answers to two questions: Who are my people and what are their stories? . . . A lyrical parable, rich with historical detail and unfl inching in the face of disturbing facts.” —Valerie Martin, author of Property

“ A terrifi c novel that will take its place in the distin-guished pantheon of Southern fi ction.”—Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides


Edwidge DanticatClaire of the Sea LightNEW

Told with piercing lyricism and the economy of a fa-ble, Claire of the Sea Light is a tightly woven, breath-taking tapestry that reveals the mysterious bonds we share with the natural world and with one another.

“ In Danticat’s luminous new novel, the search for [a] missing seven year-old girl serves as a way of re-examining what we overlook and undervalue in life. Set on a single day, Danticat tells the story through a kaleidoscope of perspectives that illuminate life in the island nation where the roles of ex-pats, gangs, radio journalists and shopkeepers crisscross the landscape.. . . A remarkably well-plotted combination of mystery and social critique.” —Amy Driscoll, Miami Herald

“ Claire of the Sea Light [is] a collection of episodes that build on one another, enriching our understand-ing of a small Haitian town and the complicated community of poor and wealthy, young and old, who call it home. From the fi rst page to the last covers only a single day, but Danticat dips into the past to illuminate the recurring coincidence of life and death among these people.”—The Washington Post Book World












SELECTED BY: Brookhaven College

Dave EggersWhat Is the WhatWhat Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng, who, along with thou-sands of other children—the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild ani-mals, crossing the deserts of three countries to fi nd freedom. When he is fi nally resettled in the United States, he fi nds a life full of promise but also heart-ache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspense-ful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of mil-lions through one extraordinary man.

“ Told with humor, humanity, and bottomless compassion for his subject. . . . It is impossible to read this book and not be humbled, enlightened, transformed.”—Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner

“ A testament to the triumph of hope over experience, human resilience over tragedy and disaster.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

WWW.VALENTINOACHAKDENG.ORG


SELECTED BY: Champlain College; Duke University; Eckerd College; Macalester College; Miami University; Ohio State University; Univer-sity of Maine; University of Maryland; University of Tampa; University of Texas – Tyler; West Texas A&M; Whittier College

Fabio GedaIn the Sea There Are CrocodilesBased on the True Story of Enaiatollah Akbari

Translated by Howard Curtis

In early 2002, Enaiatollah Akbari’s village fell prey to the Taliban. His mother, fearing for his life, led him across the border. So began Enaiat’s remarkable and often punishing fi ve-year ordeal—trekking across bitterly cold mountains, riding in the suffocating false bottom of a truck, steering an infl atable raft in violent waters—through Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Greece, before he eventually sought political asylum in Italy, all before he turned fi fteen years old.

“ Extraordinary. . . . A gripping, strangely sweet tale. . . . Reading of Akbari’s efforts to fi nd a better life—alone and at an age when children in our country can’t even drive yet—will leave you shaken, but his resilient joy leavens the story.” —The Washington Post

“ It’s sobering and heart lifting to see the stoical determination and achievement of someone who makes our world look like paradise. This little gem, beautifully and unobtrusively translated, will raise tears of sorrow and joy.” —The Independent (UK)

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Wangari MaathaiUnbowedA Memoir

The winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize re-counts her life as a political activist, feminist, and environmentalist in Kenya. Maathai’s Green Belt Movement has shown the world that good gover-nance and the wise use of resources can bring peace and create sustainable surroundings free from fear, famine, and drought. Maathai tells her remarkable story with characteristic simplicity, generosity, and strength of spirit.

“ Wangari Maathai’s memoir is direct, honest, and beautifully written—a gripping account of modern Africa’s trials and triumphs, a universal story of courage, persistence, and success against great odds in a noble cause.” —President Bill Clinton

“ [Maathai’s] story provides uplifting proof of the power of perseverance—and of the power of prin-cipled, passionate people to change their countries and inspire the world.” —The Washington Post

SELECTED BY: CUNY Lehman College; Meredith College; Mississippi State University; Pace University; Richard Stockton College of New Jersey; Salem College


WWW.GREENBELTMOVEMENT.ORG

TeACHeR’S GUiDe AVAilABle AT

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Marjane SatrapiThe Complete PersepolisPersepolis is the story of Satrapi’s unforgettable child-hood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution, of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval, of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family, of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible—and, fi nally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and fa-miliar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet fi lled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

“ You’ve never seen anything like Persepolis—the inti-macy of a memoir, the irresistibility of a comic book, and the political depth of the confl ict between funda-mentalism and democracy. Marjane Satrapi may have given us a new genre.” —Gloria Steinem

SELECTED BY 84 SCHOOLS INCLUDING:Agnes Scott College; Carleton College; California State University – Los Angeles; Georgia College & State University; Murray State University; New York University; University of California – Santa Cruz; University of Connecticut; University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee; Wheaton College

PANTHEON | 978-0-375-71483-2 | 352 PAGES | $24.95SPeCiAl eXAM PRiCe $3.00

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Brian CastnerThe Long WalkA Story of War and the Life That FollowsNOW IN PAPERBACK

Brian Castner served two tours of duty in Iraq as the head of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, often making “the long walk” to disarm a bomb by hand when robots and other remote means failed. This lethal game of cat and mouse was, and continues to be, the real battle within America’s wars in the Middle East.

This thrilling, stunningly honest book is an unfl inching portrayal of the toll war exacts on the men and women who are fi ghting it, and alternates between two harrow-ing realities: the terror, excitement, and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the unshakeable fear, anxiety, and survivor guilt that Castner—like so many veterans—carries inside.

“ Castner’s book maps out this new and sorrowful terri-tory with the skill and focus of someone who has had to defuse a bomb inside his own body.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“ The enduring treachery of memory . . . remains the real, unfi nished story of The Long Walk. It takes as much courage for Castner to confront that memory as it does to face an active fuse.”—The New York Times Book Review


Richard Wiseman59 SecondsChange Your Life in Under a Minute

From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastina-tion, resilience to relationships, Wiseman outlines the research supporting the new science of “rapid change” and, with clarity and infectious enthusiasm, describes how these quirky, sometimes counterin-tuitive techniques can be effortlessly incorporated into students’ lives every day.

“ Richard Wiseman has distilled decades of experi-ment, theory and analysis in behavioral science into 59 Seconds. The result of his labors is a witty, scientifi cally accurate, and astonishingly powerful owner’s manual for the human brain.”—Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish

“ Wiseman is a brilliant name for a psychologist, and this book proves the professor is not misnamed. . . . [59 Seconds] contains dozens of fascinating and useful nuggets, and they all have science on their side.” —The Independent (UK) ANCHOR | 978-0-307-47486-5 | 336 PAGES | $15.95

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Leonard MlodinowSubliminalHow Your Unconscious Mind RulesYour BehaviorNOW IN PAPERBACK

An eye-opening examination of how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world. Leonard Mlodinow, explores the complexities of the subliminal self, increasing our understanding of how the human mind works and how we interact with friends, strang-ers, spouses, and coworkers. In the process he changes our view of ourselves and the world around us.

“ With the same deft touch he showed in The Drunk-ard’s Walk, Mlodinow probes the subtle, automatic and often unnoticed infl uences on our behavior.” —Daniel J. Simons, professor of psychology, University of Illinois

“ Mlodinow plunges into the realm of the unconscious mind accompanied by the latest scientifi c research . . . [with] plenty of his trademark humor.” —Los Angeles Times

“ Mlodinow never fails to make science both accessible and entertaining.” —Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time

VINTAGE | 978-0-307-47225-0 | 272 PAGES | $15.00eXAM PRiCe 3.00

David EaglemanIncognitoThe Secret Lives of the Brain

In this sparkling and provocative book, the renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman navigates the depths of the subconscious brain to illuminate surprising mys-teries: Why can your foot move halfway to the brake pedal before you become consciously aware of danger ahead? Why do you hear your name being mentioned in a conversation that you didn’t think you were listen-ing to? Why is it so diffi cult to keep a secret?

Taking in brain damage, plane spotting, dating, drugs, beauty, infi delity, synesthesia, criminal law, artifi cial in-telligence, and visual illusions, Incognito is a thrilling subsurface exploration of the mind and all its contra-dictions.

“ Although Incognito is fast-paced, mind-bending stuff, it’s a book for regular folks. Eagleman does a brilliant job refi ning heavy science into a compelling read. He is a gifted writer.” —Houston Chronicle

“ Incognito reads like a series of fascinating vignettes, offering plenty of pauses for self-refl ection. Eagleman’s anecdotes are funny and easily tie to the concepts he explains.” —Spectrum Culture


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Kahlil Gibran The Prophet The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspira-tional. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drink-ing, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, plea-sure, beauty, religion, and death.

Each essay reveals deep insights into the impulses of the human heart and mind.


Karen ArmstrongTwelve Steps to aCompassionate LifeOne of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world—author of such acclaimed books as A History of God, Islam, and Buddha—gives us an impassioned and practi-cal book that can help us make the world a more compassionate place. In this straightforward and thought-provoking book, Karen Armstrong sets out a program that can lead students toward a more compassionate life, teaching them that becoming a compassionate human being is a lifelong project and a journey fi lled with rewards.

“ Rich with wisdom and provocative ideas that stim-ulate deeper thinking and encourage individuals to identify a particular contribution to the global ef-fort. . . . Chock-full of practical ideas for examining one’s life and modifying aims and behaviors.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“ Leaning on the wisdom of disparate faiths and belief systems, Armstrong lays out a pluralistic and, ultimately, secular way to spread compassion that’s easy to believe in.” —The Washington Post


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Mark MatousekEthical WisdomThe Search for a Moral Life

In this insightful and important book, Mark Matousek examines a question that has plagued humanity since the days of the fi rst primitive tribes: What makes one man good and another evil? Drawing on the latest sci-entifi c research and interviews with social scientists, spiritual leaders, ex-cons, altruists, and philosophers, Mark Matousek examines morality from a scientifi c, sociological, and anthropological standpoint, making this book both utilitarian and fun.

“ Mark Matousek guides us through a revolution in ethi-cal science with deft, thought-provoking style. Ethical Wisdom is a riveting, fun, and insightful tour of life’s meaning and purpose, essential reading for anyone drawn to the query, ‘How ought we to live?’”—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

“ Ethical Wisdom is a beautiful work. Bringing together the best of today’s scientifi c research with a plainspoken forthrightness, Ethical Wisdom does what few books of this type can do: it inspires.”—Mark Epstein, M.D., author of ThoughtsWithout a Thinker


WWW.MARKMATOUSEK.COM

George ProchnikIn Pursuit of SilenceListening for Meaning in a World of Noise

In Pursuit of Silence gives context to our increas-ingly desperate sense that noise pollution is, in a very real way, an environmental catastrophe. Listening to doctors, neuroscientists, acoustical engineers, monks, activists, educators, marketers, and aggrieved citizens, George Prochnik examines why we began to be so loud as a society, and what it is that gets lost when we can no longer fi nd quiet. A brilliant, far-reaching exploration of the frontiers of noise and silence, and the growing war between them, In Pursuit of Silence is an important book that shows us the benefi ts of de-cluttering our sonic world.

“ George Prochnik has gifted us with an impassioned, searching meditation on the antique virtues of silence, the evolving natural history of our most overtaxed sense, the etiology of sound in the modern world and the discrete joys of earbud-free listening.”—Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffi c

“ [A] genial and informative study of the noisiness of modern life.” —The New Republic


WWW.INPURSUITOFSILENCE.COM

SELECTED BY: Fairmont State University; Hawai’i Pacific University



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WWW.INPURSUITOFSILENCE.COM


Isabel WilkersonThe Warmth of Other SunsThe Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfi ction

In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles the de-cades-long migration of black citizens who fl ed the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique indi-viduals.

“ [A] deeply affecting, fi nely crafted and heroic book. . . .Wilkerson has taken on one of the most important demographic upheavals of the past century . . . and told it through the lives of three people no one has ever heard of. . . . What Wilkerson urges, fi nally, isn’t argument at all; it’s compassion.” —The New Yorker

“ Told in a voice that echoes the magic cadences of Toni Morrison or the folk wisdom of Zora Neale Hurston’s collected oral histories, Wilkerson’s book pulls not just the expanse of the migration into focus but its overall impact on politics, literature, music, sports—in the nation and the world.” —Los Angeles Times


WWW.ISABELWILKERSON.COM

Jill LeporeThe Mansion of HappinessA History of Life and DeathNOW IN PAPERBACK

Renowned Harvard scholar Jill Lepore’s strikingly original and beautifully crafted history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to be-yond the grave. As much a meditation on the present as an excavation of the past, The Mansion of Hap-piness is delightful, learned, and altogether beguiling.

“ A fascinating and startlingly original guide to the ways in which the human life cycle has been imagined, manipulated, managed, marketed, and debased in modern times. . . . A fast-paced, hilarious, angry, poignant, and richly illuminating book.”—Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How The World Became Modern

“ Lepore has a brilliant way of selecting just the right historical detail to illuminate a larger point. . . . The most valuable lesson here is that of impermanence. Everything changes. And although, as Lepore writes, ‘it’s best to have a plan,’ as her multifaceted, sometimes dizzying joyride of a book reveals, the next roll of dice could, in fact, change everything.”—The Boston Sunday Globe


SELECTED BY: Commonwealth School (Boston, MA); Grand Valley State University; Howard University; One Book, One Chicago; Paine College; University of California – Davis; University of Northern Iowa; Whitman College

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Verlyn KlinkenborgSeveral Short Sentences About WritingNOW IN PAPERBACK

Drawing on years of experience as a writer and teacher of writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg offers an indispensable and unique book that gives students a clear under-standing of how to think about the process of writing and how to construct clear, lucid prose.

“ No other book, old or new, is as well reasoned as this, as entertaining or as wise. . . . Best book on writing. Ever. . . . To paraphrase Voltaire’s statement concern-ing the Almighty, ‘if Verlyn Klinkenborg did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.’ Because having read Several Short Sentences About Writing, I do not think that it would be possible to not have this book on hand. . . . Indeed, no other book is as fi lled with as much grounded, practical advice for putting words to the paper or electronic page or gives better, more help-ful exercises.” —New York Journal of Books

“ Powerful. . . . Each sentence miraculously contains an idea or insight that lesser writers would have milked for several pages.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Will SchwalbeThe End of Your Life Book ClubNOW IN PAPERBACK

A profoundly moving testament to the power of read-ing in our lives.

Mary Anne Schwalbe is waiting for her chemotherapy treatments when her son Will asks her what she’s reading. The conversation they have grows into tradi-tion: soon they are reading the same books so they can have something to talk about in the hospital waiting room, choosing books that range from classic to popu-lar, from fantastic to spiritual, and we hear their pas-sion for reading and their love for each other in their intimate and searching discussions.

“ Schwalbe . . . highlights not just how relevant but how integral literature can be to life.”—The Washington Post

“ A book that is expressly about books, about the purpose and pleasures of books, and the ways they connect us even as we read them as a solitary pursuit. . . . [It’s also] about, in part, the consolations we can fi nd in art, books in particular, as we struggle to face the ter-rible awareness of our own mortality.”—The Plain Dealer


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ORDER FORMIf you would like to request examination copies please use the online form at

www.randomhouse.com/academic/examcopyor mail this form to the address at the bottom of the page.

ExaMinatiOn cOpy pOlicy$3.00 for all paperback titles and half the retail price for

hardcover cloth editions as noted in this catalog.

For Academic Use Only / Limit of six books

To order using a credit card, visit www.randomhouse.com/academic/examcopy

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first-year and common reading catalog, 2014 from the knopf doubleday publishing group

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