first-year & common reading 2012 catalog

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Dear Freshman Year Reading Director:

With last year’s launch of its First-Year Advisory Board, Random House initiated another innovative andcollaborative way to engage common reading programs—part of our continued effort to offer you the bestbooks and the most highly customized service experience. As we move forward in 2012, we are delighted tointroduce yet another new tool for your use and convenience: the CommonReads App.

e CommonReads App is designed to provide you with the most current and useful news and programupdates, as well as to connect you instantaneously with Random House authors and other program directorsthrough its unique “Discussion Board” feature. Available for free at www.road.ie/common-reads, this newapp operates on iPhones/iPads and devices using the Android operating system. We invite you to join us onour newest mobile platform by downloading the app today, and begin discovering authors and books in awhole new way.

And speaking of books—we have a great lineup for you this year!

From program-adopted favorites, such as Rebecca Skloot’s e Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (now intrade paperback, this publishing and common reading phenomenon tells an unbelievable true story that willget your students talking; read a new note from the author on page 61); Sonia Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey(named the second-most adopted title by freshman year reading programs from all publishers in 2011—thisaer having been in print for more than five years!); and Wes Moore’s e Other Wes Moore (also now intrade paperback, this is a moving and compelling story from an author whose star continues to rise) . . .

. . . to our newest generation of books destined to become tomorrow’s top titles, including Blake Mycoskie’sStart Something at Matters (a book that transcends its account of how the author launched the wildlysuccessful and socially conscious company TOMS Shoes to inspire students to find and effect their ownchange); Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers (an unforgettable exposé of globalization’s underbellyand a depiction of the extraordinary human ability for perseverance and survival; think Eric Schlosser’s FastFood Nation meets Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains); and Sam Bracken’s My Orange Duffel Bag(originally self-published, now soon-to-be published by Random House, Inc., this memoir tells the inspiringstory of how one young man overcame great adversity through self-discipline and the help of others); in short,we have something for everyone.

While we understand that you all share common goals, your needs and interests are as diverse as yourstudents’, so, in addition to our diverse book offering, we are ready to connect with you in any way you prefer:Whether you use our new app (www.road.ie/common-reads); Follow us (Twitter@CommonReads); Like us (Facebook@CommonReads); Blog with us (www.CommonReads.com); Get Linked-In with us(www.LinkedIn.com/in/michaeldgentile); or simply turn the page inthis catalog, Random House—with the continued guidance of its First-Year Advisory Board—is ready to meet you wherever you are. And for those of you who prefer a good old-fashioned conversation, we are always just a phone call away (reach me at 212-782-8387).

Here’s to another great year together,

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

From Our Desk to Yours . . .

Michael D. GentileDirector, Academic MarketingRandom House Inc.1745 BroadwayNew York, NY 10019Tel. (212) 782-8387

[email protected]/in/michaeldgentile)

Random House Social Media Network ................................................................2Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography ......................................4Fiction to Talk About ............................................................................................32Inspiration and Guidance ....................................................................................44History and Society ..............................................................................................48Life & College Guides ..........................................................................................65Go Green/Environmental Studies ......................................................................70Social Action ..........................................................................................................72Index........................................................................................................................80Order Form ............................................................................................................82

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

When Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran’spresidential election, he assured his pregnant fiancée, Paola,

that he would be back in just a few days, a week at most. Little didhe know, as he kissed her good-bye, that he would spend the next three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, enduring brutalinterrogation sessions at the hands of a man he knew only by hissmell: Rosewater. For the Bahari family, wars, coups, and revolutions are not distantconcepts but intimate realities they have suffered for generations:Maziar’s father was imprisoned by the shah in the 1950s, and hissister by Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s. Alone in his cell at EvinPrison, fearing the worst, Maziar draws strength from his memoriesof the courage of his father and sister in the face of torture, andhears their voices speaking to him across the years. He dreams ofbeing with Paola in London, and imagines all that she and hisrambunctious, resilient eighty-four-year-old mother must be doingto campaign for his release. During the worst of his encounters withRosewater, he silently repeats the names of his loved ones, calling ontheir strength and love to protect him and praying he will bereleased in time for the birth of his first child. A riveting, heart-wrenching memoir, Then They Came for Me offersinsight into the past fifty years of regime change in Iran, as well asthe future of a country where the democratic impulses of the youthcontinually clash with a government that becomes more totalitarianwith each passing day. An intimate and fascinating account ofcontemporary Iran, it is also the moving and wonderfully writtenstory of one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of repression.“Especially timely given recent events throughout the middle East,this book is recommended for anyone wishing to better understandthe workings of a police state.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A beautifully written account of life in iran, filled with insights notonly into the power struggles and political machinations but intothe personal, emotional lives of the people living in that compli-cated country. maziar Bahari is a brave man and a wonderful storyteller.” —Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World

“maziar Bahari’s story is at once political and personal, and thisaccount of his family’s journey and his own captivity in iran is bothilluminating and touching. if you want to understand modern-dayiran and experience a fascinating human story, read this book.”

—Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and The War Lovers

THEN THEY CAME FOR MEA Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and SurvivalBy Maziar Bahari With Aimee Molloy

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

www.CommonReads.com4

Key FACTs:Themes: Human Rights, Perseverance/PersonalStrength, Regional: Middle East

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Alternative Formats:

Excerpt from Then They Came for Me

Prologue

I could smell him before I saw him. His scent was a mixture of sweat and rosewater, and it reminded meof my youth. When I was six years old, I would often accompany my aunts to a shrine in the holy city ofQom. It was customary to remove your shoes before entering the shrine, and the servants of the shrinewould sprinkle rosewater everywhere, to mask the odor of perspiration and leather.

The morning in June 2009, when they came for me, I was in the delicate space between sleep andwakefulness, taking in his scent. I didn’t realize that I was a man of 42 in my bedroom in Tehran; I thought,instead, that I was six years old again, and back in that shrine with my aunts.

“Mazi jaan, wake up,” my mother said. “There are four gentlemen here. They say they are from theprosecutors’ office. They want to take you away.” I opened my eyes. It was a few minutes before 8 a.m., andmy mother was standing beside my bed—her small 83-year-old frame protecting me from the four menbehind her. I sleep without clothes, and in my half-awake state, my first thought wasn’t that I was in danger,but that I was naked in a shrine. I felt ashamed and reached down to make sure the sheets were covering mybody.

Mr. Rosewater was standing directly behind my mother. I would later come to learn a lot about him.

He was thirty-two years old and had gained a master’s degree in political science from TehranUniversity. While at university, he had joined the Revolutionary Guards—a vast and increasingly powerfulfundamentalist military conglomerate formed in the wake of the Iranian revolution in 1979. I would cometo know that his punches were the hardest when he felt stupid. But when he barged into my bedroom earlythat first morning, the only thing I understood about him was that he was in charge, and that he had a verylarge head. It was alarmingly big, like the rest of his body. He was at least 6’2”, and fat, with thick glasses.Later, his glasses would confuse me. I had associated glasses with professors, intellectuals. Not torturers.

I wrapped the sheet tightly around my body and sat up. “Put some clothes on,” Rosewater said,motioning to the three men behind him to leave the room so that I could get dressed. I found comfort inthis: by the fact that whatever their reason was for barging into my house, he was still respectful, stillbehaving with a modicum of curtsey.

They kept the door slightly ajar, and I walked to my closet. Things were beginning to come into clearerfocus, but his rosewater scent lingered and my thoughts, still confused, remained back in the past, at theshrine. What does one wear in a shrine? What’s the best way to present oneself? I had just finished puttingon a blue collared shirt and a pair of jeans when the men barged back into my room: Rosewater and anotherman, who wore a shiny silver sports jacket and a cap.

They circled the room, surveying everything. I had been spending most of my time over the last twoyears with my fiancée, Paola, in London. We had got engaged six months earlier, and been preparing for ourwedding and the birth of our child in four months time, and I had never really settled in at my mother’shouse. I could sense their frustration as they took stock of the mess in my small room. Heaps of books sat onthe floor beside stacks of videos and DVDs and an untidy pile of laundry. I had not organized my desk formonths, and it was covered with old newspapers, notebooks and videotapes. All journalists working in Iranhave to be accredited by Ershad, shorthand for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and I hadgiven my mother’s address as my place of work. They thought they were going to find an office at mymother’s house. Instead, they were picking through piles of underwear.

“If you want, I can organize things and you can come back tomorrow,” I said with a sorry smile.

5Life Stories—Memoir, Biography, and Autobiography

Excerpted from Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari with Aimee Molloy Copyright © 2011 by Maziar Bahari. Excerpted bypermission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced orreprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

About the Author: sarah BakewellsARAH BAkEwELL was a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library before becoming afull-time writer, publishing her highly acclaimed biographies The Smart and The English Dane. She livesin London, where she teaches creative writing at City University and catalogues rare book collectionsfor the National Trust.

Winner, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography

How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how toadjust to losing someone you love—such questions arise in

most people’s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: Howdo you live? This question obsessed Renaissance writers, nonemore than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, considered by many tobe the first truly modern individual. He wrote free-roamingexplorations of his thoughts and experience, unlike anythingwritten before. More than four hundred years later, Montaigne’s honesty andcharm still draw people to him. Readers come to him in search ofcompanionship, wisdom, and entertainment—and in search ofthemselves. An award-winning and inventive biography, How toLive will engage and inspire students to discuss the most essentialquestions, such as: just what is—and how does one live—a goodlife?“this charming biography shuffles incidents from montaigne’s lifeand essays into twenty thematic chapters. . . . Bakewell clearlyrelishes the anthropological anecdotes that enliven montaigne’swork, but she handles equally well both his philosophicalinfluences and the readers and interpreters who have guided thereception of the essays.” —The New Yorker

“serious, engaging, and so infectiously in love with its subject thati found myself racing to finish so i could start rereading the Essaysthemselves. . . . it is hard to imagine a better introduction—orreintroduction—to montaigne than Bakewell’s book.”

—Lorin Stein, Harper’s Magazine

“ms. Bakewell’s new book, How to Live, is a biography, but in theform of a delightful conversation across the centuries.”

—The New York Times

“so artful is Bakewell’s account of [montaigne] that even skepticalreaders may well come to share her admiration.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“Extraordinary . . . a miracle of complex, revelatory organization,for as Bakewell moves along she provides a brilliant demonstrationof the alchemy of historical viewpoint.” —Boston Globe

HOW TO LIVEOr A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an AnswerBy Sarah Bakewell

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Ethics/Decision Making, Inspiration

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Website: www.SarahBakewell.com


A Message from the Author

Why I Wrote How to Live

Why did I write about Montaigne? Mostly because I wanted to keep on reading him.

Ever since my early 20s, when I picked up his Essays by chance, wanting a good book for along train journey, he never really left me. My first response to his work on that train was oneof astonishment. How could someone who wrote in the 1500s sound so familiar, soconversational, so like me? It was like having a friend or a traveling companion sittingopposite me as we whizzed through the landscape. For years after that, Montaigne was neverfar from my side. And I discovered that practically everything else I read had the power ofleading me back to him in some way—for Montaigne is the first truly modern author, thegreat hidden presence behind 400 years of literature, and indeed behind much of philosophy,politics, and social theory over those centuries.

This is mainly for one simple reason: No one before Montaigne had written so honestlyand minutely about the inner world of a human being. He followed every twist and turn of hispsyche, believing that every individual is worth writing about at such length, for “each manbears the entire form of the human condition.” But he also paid plenty of attention to theworld outside. He was interested in everything; he traveled widely, held offices as magistrateand mayor, ran diplomatic missions for kings and princes, and tried his best to end thereligious civil wars that tore apart the France of his day. These experiences led him to a deepfascination with human variety and difference. We share our essential humanity, he knew, buteach of us has a radically different cultural, historical, and personal perspective, and that isjust as fundamental.

Human variety is the great paradox in his work; it’s also the great paradox facing us today.How can a plural, democratic society accommodate difference, and even extremism, withoutsacrificing its deepest principles? How can we resist violence without becoming violent? Howcan we defend ourselves yet remain open? Montaigne gave us no simple answers, but hecertainly taught us to ask the questions.

I set out to write about Montaigne’s life, but I ended up wanting to write about muchmore—and especially about the experience of reading itself, that is, the experience ofencountering a mind distant in time that opens itself to us, perhaps not entirely, but in part.What does it mean to pick up a book published in 1588 and recognize ourselves and our worldin it? How can we engage critically with such a book and understand it on its own terms whilealso making it our own? What can be learned from someone who died more than 400 yearsago? Why is the past so strange and so familiar at the same time? To ask these questions is toinvestigate the very essence of what culture is—and it is why reading a book is such anexciting thing to do.

Many people will ask these questions for the first time in their college years, and I envyyour students this; it will happen while they are with you. Others experience it earlier, andsome, later. Whenever it happens, it changes you. Afterward, the habit of questioning getsinto your soul—and then the whole world opens up.

Sarah Bakewell


About the Authors: sam Bracken and echo GarrettsAm BRACkEN serves as the national spokesperson for the My Orange Duffel Bag Foundation and isgeneral manager of FranklinCovey Media Publishing. Sam graduated Georgia Tech with honors andreceived his MBA from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management.

ECHo gARREtt is president and cofounder of the My Orange Duffel Bag Foundation.

Despite being abandoned at age fifteen and sufferingunspeakable abuse, Sam Bracken overcame the odds to change

his life and earn a full-ride football scholarship to the GeorgiaInstitute of Technology. When he left for college, everything heowned fit in an orange duffel bag. In My Orange Duffel Bag, Samtells his harrowing story of homelessness, poverty, and abuse andhow he was able to reinvent himself. He also shows students howthey can turn their lives around by sharing his rules for the road:everything he learned about radically changing his life and howanyone can create positive, lasting change.“i spent five years with sam Bracken at a time of transformation forhim. His is a stunning story of courage, resiliency, and servant-leadership. He told a 1,000-page story in exactly 66 pages. theformat, the sincerity, and yes, the agony that leaps off the pages ispalpable and transforming. there are two pains in life—the pain ofdiscipline and the pain of regret . . . we all choose every day. thedifference in sam and those who are gobbled up by our sick societyis that he usually chose wisely. He took our team’s messages toheart in tangible ways. we would all do well to read, and heed, hispowerful message.”

—Bill Curry, NCAA football coach, and former NFL player

“sam Bracken’s remarkable emergence from a life of poverty,mental illness, abuse and hardship is told with compelling honesty.it offers young people a set of accessible tools to support resilienceand promote self-growth.”

—Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, New York UniversitySchool of Medicine

MY ORANGE DUFFEL BAGA Journey to Radical ChangeBy Sam BrackenWith Echo Garrett

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Inspiration, Leadership & Motivation, Perseverance/Personal Strength

Website: www.MyOrangeDuffelBag.com

Orange Duffel Bag FoundationThe Orange Duffel Bag Foundation, inspired by the book,mentors at-risk youth. Their program has been used by

the state of Georgia to mentor foster kids. The foundation has been featured in the

Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on CNN, and has high-profile sponsors like Xerox, Wells Fargo, and AT&T.

For more information, visit the website atwww.myorangeduffelbag.com

Also Available

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

Campus Visits:

PublishingMay 2012


About the Authors: Carol Jenkins and elizabeth Gardner HinesCARoL JENkiNs is an award-winning writer, producer, and media analyst. An Emmy-winning formertelevision journalist, she was founding president and is a board member of the national advocacy organizationThe Women’s Media Center. She writes about women and people of color in the media atwww.caroljenkinsmedia.com.

ELizABEtH gARdNER HiNEs is an editor and award-winning author, living in New York City. As an advocate for girls’ and women’s leadership, she advises nonprofit organizations in strategiccommunications. A graduate of Yale and Harvard Universities, she sits on the boards of The Hotchkiss School, the Independent Media Institute (home of Alternet.org), and People’s Production House.

Winner, Best Nonfiction Honor, Black Caucus, American Library Association

The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the DeepSouth, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a

fortune worth well over $130 million and a business empirespanning communications, real estate, and insurance. Here, for thefirst time, is the story of the life of this extraordinary pioneer, toldby his niece and grandniece, the award-winning televisionjournalist Carol Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines.Born at a time when the bitter legacy of slavery and Reconstructionstill poisoned the lives of black Americans, Gaston was determinedto make a difference for himself and his people. A kind of blackHoratio Alger, Gaston let a single, powerful question be his guide:What do our people need now? His success flowed from anuncanny genius for knowing the answer.Combining rich family lore with a deep knowledge of Americansocial and economic history, the authors unfold Gaston’s successstory against the backdrop of a century of crushing racial hatredand bigotry. Gaston not only survived the hardships of being blackduring the Depression, he flourished, and by the 1950s he wasruling a Birmingham-based business empire; by the late 1950s andearly 1960s, Gaston provided critical financial support to manyactivists. At the time of his death in 1996, A. G. Gaston was one of thewealthiest black men in America, if not the wealthiest. But hislegacy extended far beyond the monetary. He was a man who hadproved it was possible to overcome staggering odds and make aplace for himself as a leader, a captain of industry, and a farsightedphilanthropist. Writing with grace and power, Jenkins and Hinesbring their distinguished ancestor fully to life in the pages of thisbook. Black Titan is the story of a man who created his ownfuture—and in the process, blazed a future for all disenfranchisedin America.

BLACK TITANA. G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American MillionaireBy Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines

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


Selected for Common Reading: Benedict College

Also selected by U.S. Navy for Recommended Reading for U.S. Naval Personnel. http://tinyurl.com/boamgve

Themes: American History, Black Colleges, Leadership & Motivation, Perseverance

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A Message from Michael Lomax, president and CEO, UNCF

Praise for Black Titan

“No library of American business achievement is complete without the story of Arthur g. gaston. . . . Black Titanis a long overdue contribution to the recording of not just black history, but American history.”

—Earl G. Graves, Sr., Founder, Earl G. Graves Ltd., Founder and Publisher, Black Enterprise magazine, author of How to Succeed in Business Without Being White: Straight Talk on Making It in America

“A. g. gaston was there first. He succeeded when the odds seemed insurmountable. this important book traceshis incredible life, from coal miner to millionaire. it is full of lessons for anyone looking to succeed in today’sbusiness world.” —Robert Johnson, Founder, Black Entertainment Television, Inc.

“it was my privilege to meet A. g. gaston in Birmingham, Alabama, during the early 1970s. i was greatly inspiredby his unique entrepreneurial vision and passionate belief in economic self-sufficiency. . . . this book should beread by every entrepreneur.” —Byron Lewis, Chairman, Uniworld Group

About the Author: Piper KermanpipER kERmAN is vice president of a Washington, D.C.–based communications firm that works withfoundations and nonprofits. A graduate of Smith College, she lives in Brooklyn.

With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kermanbarely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a

suitcase of drug money ten years ago. But that past has caught upwith her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at theinfamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, thewell-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187-424—oneof the millions of women who disappear “down the rabbit hole” ofthe American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns tonavigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes ofbehavior and arbitrary rules, where the uneasy relationshipbetween prisoner and jailer is constantly and unpredictablyrecalibrated. She meets women from all walks of life, who surpriseher with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, andsimple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, and at times enraging,Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women inprison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to themwhen they’re there.“don’t let the irreverent title mislead: this is a serious andbighearted book that depicts life in a women’s prison with greatdetail and—crucially—with empathy and respect for piperkerman’s fellow prisoners, most of whom did not and do not haveher advantages and options. with its expert reporting andhumane, clear-eyed storytelling, Orange Is the New Black will jointed Conover’s Newjack among the necessary contemporary booksabout the American prison experience.”

—Dave Eggers, author of Zeitoun and co-author of Surviving Justice:America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated

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

“this book is impossible to put down because [kerman] could beyou. or your best friend. or your daughter.” —Los Angeles Times

“moving . . . transcends the memoir genre’s usual self-centerednessto explore how human beings can always surprise you.”

—USA Today

“it’s a compelling awakening, and a harrowing one—both for thereader and for kerman.” —Newsweek.com

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK My Year in a Women’s PrisonA MemoirBy Piper Kerman

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52339-4 | 352pp. $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00


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

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In the early 1990s, I was a graduate from an elite women’s college, a little lost and very muchlooking for adventure and finding it in an unlikely criminal underworld. In 2004, I was a successfulprofessional standing at the gates of a federal women’s prison, about to start serving time for a ten-year-old drug offense. My book, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, details my plungeinto the hidden world of America’s enormous prison system, the women and men I met there, and theprofound effect that incarceration has on individuals and communities around the country.

Women are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population—the person wearing theemblematic orange prison jumpsuit is more and more likely to be female. In 1980, there wereapproximately 500,000 people in prison in the United States; today there are 2.3 million. According tothe 2008 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are more than 7 million people on parole, on probation,or locked up. America represents 5 percent of the world’s population but incarcerates 25 percent of allprisoners globally. In just one generation an enormous prison system has become entrenched andcontinues to grow, even as crime rates remain at historic lows.

Intense fascination with the story of my year in prison comes from many quarters: criminal justiceand law students, those in women’s and gender studies, sociologists, and of course the people who liveand work within our nation’s prisons and jails. While I was wearing prison khakis, I often fielded the slyquestion “What’s the all-American girl doing here?” I found myself part of a remarkable community ofwomen, a handful from a middle-class background like me, the vast majority from this country’spoorest rural and urban communities. Prison is a place with its own codes of behavior and arbitraryhierarchies among prisoners, determined by both them and the correctional system. It’s a place wherehumor and resilience coexist with despair and the threat of violence, and where the uneasy relationshipbetween prisoner and jailer is constantly and unpredictably recalibrated.

Since the book’s release in the spring of 2010, I’ve traveled around the country, talking with readers,students, prisoners, probation officers, public defenders, and advocates. College students and seasonedcorrectional professionals are fascinated to hear about the perspective of a prisoner and thecrosscurrents of race and class, motherhood, gender and power, family, and even friendships that shapethe experience of incarceration. A first-person narrative offers a view of the experience of life in prisonthat even the best-researched and -reported academic works cannot capture with the same vividnessand immediacy.

My story is a personal story. I was compelled to write the book in the hopes of offering a morecomplex and complete picture of who is in prison in this country, why they are there, and what happensto them there. In the U.S. our prison economy and culture have expanded profoundly in a short timespan; we have invested heavily in prisons, while the public institutions that actually prevent crime andstrengthen communities—schools, hospitals, libraries and museums, community centers—go without. Iwanted to capture this reality by telling my own experience as it intersected with the stories of the otherwomen I met along my journey through the criminal justice system. As a longtime communicationsprofessional, it was important to me to present my story in a way that was accessible and engaging, evenmixing harsh realities with sometimes surprising humor, as a way to draw many different types ofreaders into the world of prisons and jails. My talks and appearances on television and radio alwaysspur spirited discussions about transgression, punishment, inequality, rehabilitation, and redemption.My schedule of public speaking engagements can be found at www.piperkerman.com, along withresources for people interested in finding out more and in creating change in the criminal justicesystem.

Piper Kerman


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

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

In December 2000, The Baltimore Sun ran a short article about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes

Scholarship. In the same paper also ran a headline-grabbing storyabout four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in aspectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still huntingfor two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers.One of the brothers was also named Wes Moore. Rhodes scholar and The Other Wes Moore author, Wes just couldn’tshake off the unsettling coincidence or his inkling that the twoshared much more than space in the same newspaper. Afterfollowing the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to itsconclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, a convicted murdererserving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His lettertentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who areyou? How did this happen?That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that lasted forseveral years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, author Wesdiscovered that the other Wes had experienced a life not unlike hisown. Both had grown up in similar neighborhoods and had difficultchildhoods. Both were fatherless. They’d hung out on similar cornerswith similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. Ateach stage of their young lives they had faced similar moments ofdecision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly differentdestinies.Told in dramatic alternating narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The OtherWes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find theirway in a hostile world.“The Other Wes Moore highlights the transformative influence ofcaring adults. . . . moore vividly and powerfully describes not just the culture of the streets but how it feels to be a boy growing up in aworld where violence makes you a man, school seems irrelevant, anddrug dealing is a respected career choice.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“wes moore has not just written a compelling story, but has createda perfect case study of how and why young men can go down thewrong path—and how they can be saved. this should be requiredreading for anyone who is trying to understand what is happening to young men in our inner cities.”

—Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone, author of Fist Stick Knife Gun

THE OTHER WES MOOREOne Name, Two FatesBy Wes Moore

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


Website: www.TheOtherWesMoore.com

Key FACTs:Selected for Common Reading:• Colleges & Universities

Bay Path College (Springfield, MA); Cabrini College (Radnor, PA); California State University at Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA), Marquette University, and others.

• One City, One BookEverybody Reads (Multnomah County Library in Portland, OR); One Book, One Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA); One Book, One Waco (Waco, TX)

Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Leadership &Motivation, Perseverance/Personal Strength, Regional: Baltimore/ The Northeast, Service

Discussion Guide Available:

Campus Visits:




I am living proof that a support system of family, mentors, and educators is critical for success and,as such, have the most tremendous respect for those of you who give tirelessly of yourselves to improvethe future of a child. I would like to humbly thank all of you for being heroes to so many of yourstudents, for inspiring them in ways you probably cannot even fathom yet, and for teaching themcharacter and personal responsibility in addition to academics. It is your example, your belief in them,along with the preparation you give them in the classroom, that will unlock doors of opportunity.

I am a grandchild of a retired schoolteacher who taught in the Bronx public school system for overtwenty years, the son-in-law of a New York City public elementary school teacher of over twenty years,and a proud advocate for schools and the kids they serve. I have grown up hearing the stories ofredemption and disappointment, of joy and pain, and of the success and failure of so many kids whofind themselves in a system that currently works for some, but doesn’t for too many others. Like acaptain on the front lines in Afghanistan, you are the front-line soldiers in the most important battle ournation faces now: the battle to educate and prepare our next generation of leaders.

Just as we need to mobilize leaders and resources around our battles overseas, the same must bedone to help our children navigate their journeys into adulthood.

We are all familiar with the disturbing statistics of low graduation and high dropout rates in ournation’s public schools. And with more than 50 percent of marriages failing in today’s society, and single-parent households the norm in many inner-city communities, children lack the guidance that the familystructure once provided. I am sure we are all alarmed that, in today’s world, young men of color aremore likely to be in prison than in college. For too many in our nation, particularly those who live in ourmost precarious areas, a broken school system serves as a precursor to entry into the juvenile justicesystem. But I believe this is a problem we can—and must—tackle.

Studies show that students from low-income communities can and do achieve at high levels whenthey are given the resources and attention they deserve. And there are amazing educators and civicleaders who are already leading the charge with impressive steam. I know the fixes aren’t simple, nor arethey cheap. But there are a few things to remember: The answer isn’t simply spending more money; it isto spend money wisely with a focus on the children we intend to serve. The costs of inaction areunbearably high when you consider that it costs nearly $200,000 to incarcerate someone in New York,while a recent Columbia University study shows that cutting the dropout rate in half would yield $45billion annually in both new federal tax revenues and cost savings.

Promising reforms that embrace alternative teaching platforms, teacher pay systems based onperformance, and the inspired $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” funds that the Obama administrationhas allocated are tremendous, but a national embrace of innovation and policy change is imperative.

We will need fortitude and ingenuity as we embark on theeducation reform battle of our lifetime. The chance to raiseexpectations, the opportunity for our children to do better thantheir parents, and the need to translate the experience of youngstudents into the dreams of a nation must now drive us all. Just asit was imperative for my fellow soldiers and I to win our fights,the same can be said for you and the work you are doing. AsPresident Obama recently expressed, “The future belongs to thenation that best educates its citizens.” I could not agree more.

Wes Moorewes moore at the 2011 First-Year Experience®Random House Author Luncheon

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

A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

When Enrique was just five years old, his mother Lourdes,seeing no other way out of their poverty in Honduras,

decided to make the hazardous trek north. Enrique and his siblingsstruggled without their mother, until Enrique finally made his wayfrom the rough streets of Tegucigalpa through Mexico and acrossthe dangerous Texan border. Journalist Sonia Nazario’s expertreporting allows students to encounter each setback alongsideEnrique, and the result is as suspenseful and harrowing as it isinformative. Enrique’s Journey is a timely account of one anguished family’sexperience with an issue of international scope and urgency—illegal immigration—but it is also the timeless, mythic story of adangerous journey undertaken to make a broken family whole.“this portrait of poverty and family ties has the potential toreshape American conversations about immigration.”

—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A stirring and troubling book about a magnificent journey . . .Joseph Campbell would recognize Enrique’s Journey. it’s the stuff ofmyth . . . [but] Enrique’s Journey is true. . . . A microcosm of themassive exodus pouring over the borders of our nations . . .Enrique’s suffering and bravery become universal, and one cannotfail to be moved by the desperation and sheer strength of spiritthat guides these lonely wanderers. . . . Enrique’s Journey is aboutlove. it’s about family. it’s about home. . . . the border will continueto trouble the dreams of anyone who is paying attention. . . .Enrique’s Journey is among the best border books yet written.”

—The Washington Post Book World

“gripping and harrowing . . . a story begging to be told . . . readersfed up with the ongoing turf wars between fact and fiction, takenote: Here is fantastic stunt reporting that places this sometimeshard-to-believe story squarely in the realm of nonfiction.”

—The Christian Science Monitor

“A meticulously documented account of an epic journey, oneundertaken by thousands of children every year . . . [Nazario]covers both positive and negative effects of immigration,illuminating the problem’s complexity. . . . in telling Enrique’s story[she] bears witness for us all.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“to say this book has changed my life is an understatement. i lookat immigration in a whole new way and i hope that the change inmy viewpoint will be a catalyst for change in my everyday life.”

—Sherri Thomson-Pemberton, Student, Metropolitan State College of Denver

ENRIQUE’S JOURNEYThe Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother By Sonia Nazario

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7178-1 | 336pp.$14.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Spanish Language Edition: Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7580-2 | 352pp.$17.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00


Website: www.EnriquesJourney.com

Key FACTs:Selected for Common Reading at more than 50 colleges and One Book, One City programs.College of Mount St. Joseph, Henderson StateUniversity, Indiana University, Pennsylvania StateUniversity, Rockhurst University, University of Missouri,University of Wisconsin, Madison, and others.

Themes: Coming of Age, Immigration, Social Justice


Campus Visits:

Alternative Formats: Available in Español


This story began with a conversation I had in my kitchen with Carmen, whocame to clean my house twice a month.

I asked Carmen: did she want to have more children? Carmen, normally happy,suddenly fell silent and started sobbing.

She told me she left four children behind in Guatemala. Struggling as a singlemother, most days she couldn’t feed her children more than once, maybe twice a day;at night they would cry with hunger. So she left them with their grandmother, cameto work in the U.S., and sent money home. She hadn’t seen them in twelve years.

I soon learned Carmen’s story was incredibly common; millions of singlemothers had left children behind when they came to the U.S. I also learned that, afterfive or ten years of absence, a small army of these children was heading north aloneevery year, in search of their mothers.

I wrote about this through the true story of Enrique, who hadn’t seen his mother in eleven years. Like most ofthese children, Enrique went on a modern-day odyssey to reach the U.S., crossing Mexico on top of freight trains,braving bandits, gangsters, corrupt cops, and more, in a desperate bid to reach his mother. To tell Enrique’s story, Ispent half a year retracing his journey, riding through Mexico on top of seven freight trains.

Since its publication, educators have been drawn to this storyin ways I could have never imagined. Thus far, nearly fiftyuniversities and scores of high schools have used Enrique’s Journeyas their common read. Educators say the story is compelling, apage-turner, and students often say, “This is the first book I haveread cover to cover. I couldn’t put it down.” Students see Enrique inthemselves because, in coming to college, many have left theirfamilies for the first time. They relate to a boy who steels himselfwith great determination to get through difficult circumstances.

Professors teaching the book in disciplines as diverse as Sociology, Spanish, English, History, and Mathematicstell me that Enrique’s story provides the most intense cross-disciplinary discussions they have had in theirclassrooms. The book broaches critical values: family, love, survival, diversity, racism, violence, drugs, redemption,and determination. It shows students that an issue often presented in black and white is instead highly complex,with many shades of grey.

A student in Arizona told me he was raised a white supremacist in South Africa and a skinhead in Arizona.He said he had known little about immigrants before, but he hated them. Enrique’s Journey and class discussionshad changed his views. I get emails from students with similar stories every week.

The greatest testament to students’ engagement is that so many of them becomedetermined to better the situation described in Enrique’s Journey. They resolve to address whatpushes so many migrants to leave their home countries. They start micro-loan programs.They build schools. They change their personal buying habits, purchasing fair trade coffee andclothing. Some students and staff members even change career paths to dedicate their lives tohelping people like Enrique. One Indiana University staffer was so moved to help that she quither job and opened a café in Honduras to create jobs for ten people there.

Through a simple narrative, Enrique’s Journey engages both students and staff to thinkmore globally, promotes active discussion, and prompts action. One Texas student might havestated this most clearly when he said, “Never has a non-fiction book so strongly engaged myimagination and emotions. Never before has a book inspired me to use what talent I dopossess . . . to make a difference in the world.”

Sonia Nazario


sonia doing research for Enrique’s Journey,while riding on top of trains in Chiapas, mexico.

At JacksonvilleUniversity.

speaking with photo of trainin background.

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

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

Peace activist and co-founder of the Enough Project, JohnPrendergast is known as a champion of human rights in Africa.

But the not-so-public face of Prendergast is the life he has led as aBig Brother to Michael Mattocks. Unlikely Brothers is an inspiringbook that brings together the dissimilar lives of Prendergast andMattocks, and reveals the importance of mentorship. The bookraises many questions including what compassion looks like, theimplications for indifference, and the challenges of commitment.“Unlikely Brothers is an unlikely book, two interweaving storiesfilled with loss, tenderness and hope. John prendergast’s andmichael mattocks’ journeys—together and apart—should resonatefor all of us, a searching for our place in the world, a yearning forfriendship and connections.”

—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here and Never a City So Real

“A fascinating account of a long-standing friendship.” —Publishers Weekly

“despite their contrasting perspectives, prendergast and mattocksillustrate that when it comes to the human condition, attitudestrump platitudes and actions outweigh promises.” —Booklist

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

Crown | HC | 978-0-307-46484-2 | 272pp. $24.00/$27.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.00


Key FACTs:Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Perseverance/ Personal Strength, Service

Website: www.EnoughProject.orgTo view a video of John Prendergast speaking

at the 2011 First-Year Experience® Conference inAtlanta, GA, go to: http://tinyurl.com/6xuvwfw

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Also by John Prendergast

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

Campus Visits:

Alternative Formats: Website: www.EnoughProject.org


Michael Mattocks, my little brother, knew that I had written books before. One day he gotthe idea that we should write a book together about our lives. Once we figured out how wecould frame the story, Michael and I realized the gravity of what we were trying to do. So wereally dove in, going back to our pasts, interviewing people who would remember details,including former teachers of ours, and asking each other many questions—trying to get to thebottom of what happened and why. And we did a lot of self-reflection, to understand ourselvesand the kind of impact our relationship had on each other’s lives. It has been an amazingjourney.

This book is about two guys who decide to be brothers, one twenty years old and the otherseven. We both were traumatized by major father issues (one through emotional abuse and theother through absence). We both gravitated toward violence (one toward war zones in Africaand the other in the drug world of Washington, DC). As the years go by, we swooped in andout of each other’s lives, whenever I was in DC, but slowly disconnected as we disappearedinto our respective worlds of Africa and the DC streets. Somehow we make our way back toeach other, and the effect we have on each other is not easily discernible but extremelysignificant to both of our paths to redemption.

Michael wrote this book because he wanted to show other young people that no matterwhat the odds, what kind of hole you find yourself in, you can overcome it, and the help of amentor can make all the difference. Michael and I both believe that the impact ourrelationship continues to have on each other is irreplaceable.

For all educators, I hope you realize the importance your role has on your students, notjust to teach them math or science, but to be a constant, active role model for success in a verychallenging world. At the same time, I hope you find yourself inspired by a particular studentor group of students—as I most definitely am by Michael.

I would also encourage you to show your students that they too can be mentors. Even kidswho come from economically deprived backgrounds or feel they have nothing can findconfidence they never knew they had in helping out someone else—whether it be helping ayounger sibling, forming a “big brother/little brother” relationship, tutoring, mentoring,volunteering, or babysitting. They will see how much they truly have to give, and thatknowledge can go such a long way in forming their own paths in life.

Some days I worried about how my family would react to this book, as did Michael withhis family. But on balance we felt compelled to tell everything that happened. At a minimum,we hope it will show prospective mentors that if we could do it, ANYONE could. At best,maybe we can inspire readers to take a chance, to get involved, to make a difference.

John Prendergast

John Prendergast wrote Unlikely Brothers with his “little brother” Michael Mattocks.


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

Winner, National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography)

“Half my life ago, I killed a girl.” So begins Darin Strauss’s Half a Life, the true story of how one outing in his father’s

Oldsmobile resulted in the death of a classmate and the beginningof a different, darker life for the author. We follow Strauss as heexplores his startling past—collision, funeral, the queasy drama of ahigh-stakes court case—and what starts as a personal tale of atragic event opens into the story of how to live with a very hardfact: we can try our human best in the crucial moment, and itmight not be good enough. Half a Life is an honest, ultimatelyhopeful examination of guilt, responsibility, grief, and living withthe past. “At the center of this elegant, painful, stunningly honest memoirthrums a question fundamental to what it means to be human:what do we do with what we’ve been given? . . . what is trulyexceptional here is watching a writer of fine fiction probe, directly,carefully and with great humility, the source from which his fictionsprings.” —The New York Times Book Review

“with honesty and sensitivity, strauss looks not only at how thatfateful incident decades ago ended Celine’s young life, but also athow it greatly affected his. out of undoubtedly complicatedcircumstances, he crafts a simple yet remarkable story about painand guilt, maturity and responsibility, hope and understanding.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“darin strauss has spent a good part of his adult life reliving,regretting and reflecting on a single, split-second incident. Half aLife is a starkly honest account of that fateful moment and his lifethereafter . . . penetrating, thought-provoking.”

—The Washington Post

“A book that inspires admiration, sentence by sentence. . . . this is amemoir in its finest form, a fully imagined and bittersweet bookthat transcends a single misstep.” —Chicago Tribune

HALF A LIFEA MemoirBy Darin Strauss

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Coming of Age, Ethics/Decision Making,Identity

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

Campus Visits:



When I was 18, I was in a car accident: a girl swerved in front of my car, I couldn’t avoid her, andshe died. I moved soon afterward, and so this crash and its aftermath made up the secret I carriedaround for 18 years. Until I wrote Half a Life.

Forty thousand people die on U.S. roads every year. And with every accident, somebody walksaway feeling he’s put on the executioner’s hood. That’s one reason Half a Life has resonated with somany people. But it’s not the only reason, I’ve come to realize.

When I decided to write this story—the story of me and of the girl who died that day—I don’tthink I understood how universal other people would find it; I was just writing what had happened tome. But very soon, I realized this story threw huge shadows. Excerpted in GQ and on This AmericanLife, as well as in The Times of London, The Daily Mail (UK), and numerous other publications in theUS and around the world, Half a Life ended up having relevance for a great many people. I’ve receivedprobably over a thousand emails from readers who have wanted to share their own stories: a man whoblames himself because he didn’t take his mother’s threats seriously and therefore left for boardingschool the day before her suicide; a number of soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan who are dealingwith post-traumatic stress disorder; people who have suffered horrible personal loss; and, of course,many car accident survivors.

Furthermore, I traveled the country with this book—even before it won the National Book CriticsCircle Award for best memoir/autobiography of 2010—and at every reading I gave, someone invariablycame up to me and shared a story of personal grief and guilt. At first, I didn’t know why they wereopening up in this way: what did seeing one’s brother overdose have to do with my story? And why didthis person want to tell me?

When I was a kid, after the accident, I felt completely alone—suffering under a crushing guilt, eventhough everyone said I wasn’t at fault.

The thing is, no one knows how to feel about guilt: people think if an official person—a policeman,a judge, or a reporter—says you weren’t at fault, it’ll be all right. What the book is about is: that’s not so.If you just accept what other people tell you to feel, it leads to your living half a life, with the other halfcovering something up.

The point is, it turns out almost everybody has something in their past to feel guilt and/or griefabout, whether they were culpable in their life-shaping event or not. It doesn’t have to be as dramatic asmine. (I was found blameless in my accident, but that didn’t stop the lawsuits from happening.)Everyone is worried about doing what appears to be right rather than what is right for them.

Until I wrote Half a Life, I found math personally treacherous—its A-to-B-to-C arrogance, itsBoolean surety: I operated the car. The car hit the girl. A=C. I killed the girl. Algebra makes noallowances. Or maybe it does—when it leaves the workbook and enters our flesh-and-blood world.

With this book I wrote what hurt; I looked it in the eye. And, for my readers, watching somebodywork through those feelings has brought a kind of catharsis.

This is the story I would have needed to read when I was 18. I wrote it in part for the girl whodied—to show how much she’s touched every part of my life—but I wrote it for that teenage me too, andfor other people who feel guilt and don’t know if they should.

The lessons I learned are not glib, or very self-helpy. All the same, if one writes honestly and wellabout unwarranted guilt and how to overcome it, I think one can write a book that is self-helpful.

Darin Strauss


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

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

GB Tran is a young Vietnamese American artist who grew updistant from (and largely indifferent to) his family’s history.

Born and raised in South Carolina as a son of immigrants, he knewthat his parents had fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. Buteven as they struggled to adapt to life in America, they preferred toforget the past—and to focus on their children’s future. It was onlyin his late twenties that GB began to learn their extraordinary story.When his last surviving grandparents die within months of eachother, GB visits Vietnam for their memorials and begins to learnthe tragic history of his family and of the homeland they leftbehind.In telling his family’s story, GB finds his own place in this saga ofhardship and heroism. Vietnamerica is a visually stunning portraitof survival, escape, and reinvention—and of the gift of theAmerican immigrants’ dream, passed on to their children. It is alsoan unforgettable story of family revelation and reconnection—anda new graphic-memoir classic.“this will be called the Maus for the Vietnam war, and for goodreason. similar premise: clueless American-born son of immigrantsconfronts the legacy of family pain predating his birth. similaroutcome: a kick-in-the-gut graphic novel. . . . Engaging,challenging, and disturbing, tran’s family memoir belongs in allpublic and academic libraries.” —Library Journal, starred review

“in tran’s memoir of his parents’ life in Vietnam—and his owndiscovery of that story—theme, narrative, and art work together tocreate a deeply compelling graphic novel. tran meditates on war,loss, and memory, but the overriding theme is the complexity,hardship, and reward of family life, a theme that finds full life inthe author’s multi-layered narrative. . . . this novel could easily finda place in the classroom but its broad set of issues and graphicformat should also appeal to a wide variety of teens.”

—School Library Journal

“A terrific and amazing memoir.” —Miami Herald

VIETNAMERICAA Family’s JourneyBy GB Tran

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


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

Website: www.GBTran.com

Campus Visits:

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I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCEDBy Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui“A powerful new autobiography. . . . It’s hard to imagine that there have been many youngerdivorcées—or braver ones—than a pint-size third grader named Nujood Ali.”

—Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

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

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGSBy Maya Angelou“Students [. . .] find this book plunges them into a passionate, sensitive life in the midst oftroubled and sometimes brutal realities. They found Maya Angelou’s spirit and strength awellspring of pride in womanhood. Students also experienced the book as writers themselvesand learned much about the memoir craft.”

—Constance Berman, Director of Professional Studies, Southern Vermont College

Selected for Common Reading at Berry College, Green River Community College (Auburn, WA), Luther College, and others.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8002-8 | 304pp. | $17.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00Ballantine | MM | 978-0-345-51440-0 | 304pp. | $6.99/$8.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Black Colleges • Coming of Age • gender issues • inclusiveness

JOKER ONE A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership, and BrotherhoodBy Donovan CampbellAfter graduating from Princeton University, motivated by his unwavering patriotism andcommitment, Campbell decided to join the service, realizing that becoming a Marine officerwould allow him to give back to his country, engage in the world, and learn to lead. In thisinspiring memoir, Campbell recounts a timeless and transcendent tale of brotherhood,courage, and sacrifice.“Campbell’s narrative humanized a war, and challenged me to critically examine the ideas ofleadership and social responsibility; topics I thought I had a handle on prior to reading Joker One.”

—Rachel Duff Anderson, Director of First-Year Experience, Siena Heights University

Selected for Common Reading at Niagara University, Siena Heights University, and The T. Boone Pickens Leadership Institute.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7956-5 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Ethics/decision making • group dynamics • Leadership & motivation

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

Website: www.MayaAngelou.com

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

To view the author’s talk at the 2009 First-Year Experience® meeting, go to:

http://tinyurl.com/y8spg2a

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FIST STICK KNIFE GUN A Personal History of ViolenceBy Geoffrey CanadaA new edition, including the story of the founding of The Harlem Children’s ZoneLong before President Barack Obama praised his work as “an all-encompassing, all-hands-ondeck anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children” and First Lady MichelleObama called him “one of my heroes,” Geoffrey Canada was a small, scared boy growing up inthe south Bronx. His childhood world was one where “sidewalk boys” learned the codes of theblock and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, knife, and, finally, gun. Fist Stick KnifeGun tells his story.“A more powerful depiction of the tragic life of urban children and a more compelling plea to end‘America’s war against itself’ cannot be imagined.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A slim, revealing volume that should be required reading for anyone who has ever negotiatedthe complicated hierarchy of ‘rep’ and revenge on city streets.” —Boston Globe

Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-8070-4461-2 | 192pp. | $14.00/$16.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • Ethics • perseverance/personal strength • Regional: New York/Urban interest

Also Available

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

FUNNY IN FARSI A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in AmericaBy Firoozeh DumasWinner, Spirit of America Award (National Council for the Social Studies) and other awards

Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Firoozeh Dumas’s wonderfully engagingfamily, who moved from Iran to Southern California in the 1970s, arriving with no firsthandknowledge of the U.S.“What’s charming beyond the humor of this memoir is that it remains affectionate even in theweakest, most tenuous moments for the culture. It’s the brilliance of true sophistication at work.”

—Los Angeles Times Book Review

Selected for Common Reading at more than 20 colleges and One City, One Book programs.

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

LAUGHING WITHOUT AN ACCENT Adventures of a Global CitizenBy Firoozeh DumasIn the bestselling and common-reading-adopted memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumasrecounted her adventures growing up Iranian American in Southern California. Now she againmines her rich Persian heritage in Laughing Without an Accent, sharing stories both tender andhumorous on being a citizen of the world, her well-meaning family, new motherhood, andamusing cultural conundrums, along with insights into the universality of the human condition.Selected for Common Reading at The University of Minnesota, Duluth, “The Big Read” New Hampshire, and others.

Random House | TR | 978-0-345-49957-8 | 256pp. | $15.00/$17.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • discovering differences • identity

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

www.WaitingForSuperman.com

Website: www.FiroozehDumas.com

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FATHERMOTHERGODMy Journey Out of Christian ScienceBy Lucia GreenhouseLucia Ewing had what looked like an all-American childhood. She lived with her mother, father,sister, and brother in an affluent suburb of Minneapolis. Yet in this house you could not be sick,because you were perfect. When it came to accidents and illnesses, Lucia’s parents didn’t takeher to the doctor’s office; instead, the Ewings made calls to a Christian Science practitioner. InDecember 1985, when Lucia and her siblings—by then young adults—discovered that theirmother was sick, they came face-to-face with the reality that they had few, if any, options to saveher. Fathermothergod is an essential American coming-of-age story with a heartbreakingglimpse into the practices of the Christian Science religion.“A courageous and finely crafted portrait of a young woman struggling with her family, her faithand that awkward space between being a child and growing into adulthood.”

—The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Crown | HC | 978-0-307-72092-4 | 320pp. | $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50themes: Coming of Age • identity • perseverance/personal strength

THE TRANSLATORA MemoirBy Daoud HariThe Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving story of how one person canmake a difference in the world—an on-the-ground account of one of the greatest atrocities ofour time, the genocide in Darfur. Having chosen language and storytelling as his weapons—while others around him were taking up arms—Hari gives us a true and necessary portrait of adeeply troubled region.Selected for Common Reading at Colorado Mountain College and Mars Hill College.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7917-6 | 224pp. | $13.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: genocide • Human Rights • perseverance/personal strength

UNBROKENA World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and RedemptionBy Laura HillenbrandFinalist, Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction

Unbroken is author Laura Hillenbrand’s acclaimed biography of a World War II hero whosurvived for more than two and half years in several brutal Japanese internment camps as aprisoner of war.“From the 1936 Olympics to WWII Japan’s most brutal POW camps, Hillenbrand’s heart-wrenchingnew book is thousands of miles and a world away from the racing circuit of her bestsellingSeabiscuit. But it’s just as much a page-turner, and its hero, Louie Zamperini, is just as loveable. . . .It is impossible to condense the rich, granular detail of Hillenbrand’s narrative. . . . She restores toour collective memory this tale of heroism, cruelty, life, death, joy, suffering, remorselessness, andredemption.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6416-8 | 496pp. | $27.00/$31.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.50themes: American History • perseverance/personal strength

DECODEDBy Jay-ZFor the millions who know him as the greatest rapper alive and an unparalleled cultural andbusiness icon, Decoded is the story of the legendary Jay-Z, told through lyrics, images, and apowerful and surprising personal narrative. This is an intimate, first-person portrait of the lifeand art of Jay-Z, organized around a “decoding” of his most famous and provocative lyrics.“A riveting exploration of Jay-Z’s journey. . . . So thoroughly engrossing, it reads like a good pieceof cultural journalism.” —The Boston Globe

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8115-5 | 352pp. | $25.00/$28.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $12.50themes: Black Colleges • Coming of Age • identity

Website: http://tinyurl.com/cg8m6m

Website: www.LuciaGreenhouse.com

Website:www.LauraHillenbrandBooks.com

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

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MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINSThe Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the WorldBy Tracy KidderA National Bestseller and Top Adoption Title; An ALA Notable Book; A New York Times Notable Book

Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder tells the true story of medical genius Paul Farmer andshows how one person can effect global progress against seemingly impossible problems—TB,AIDS, poverty—with creativity, knowledge and determination.“Kidder, a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, writes clearly and engagingly. . . . This book is beingwidely used in freshman seminars at colleges across the United States, and it will likely stirdebates on such wide-ranging issues as the politics of health care, the role of governmentfunding, and ethics. Highly recommended.” —Choice (American Library Association)

Selected for Common Reading at more than 60 colleges/universities and One City, One Book programs.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7301-3 | 352pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: science & society • service • social Justice

STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINSBy Tracy KidderFinalist, National Book Critics Circle Award

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

Selected for Common Reading at Caldwell College, Penn State Berks, Stanford University, University of Delaware, and others.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7761-5 | 304pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: genocide • global Citizenship • Human Rights • perseverance/personal strength • transition

A MIGHTY LONG WAY My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High SchoolBy Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier PageForeword by Bill Clinton“Carlotta Walls LaNier’s A Mighty Long Way is a riveting account of nine brave high schoolstudents and their families in a quest for quality desegregated public education. What happenedin Little Rock in 1957 resulted in America's greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War.Carlotta’s account of events inside and outside Little Rock Central High School should be readand studied particularly by those who now walk through doors of opportunity which Carlottaand her schoolmates first opened over 50 years ago. When I started her book, I couldn’t put itdown. It is a must-read.”

—James L. “Skip” Rutherford III, Dean of The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service

Selected for Common Reading at Defiance College, SUNY Potsdam, and others.One World | TR | 978-0-345-51101-0 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: American History • Black Colleges • inclusiveness • Regional: Alabama/the south

ALL SOULS: A Family Story from SouthieBy Michael Patrick MacDonaldWinner, American Book Award; New England Literary Lights Award; Myers Outstanding Book Award

All Souls is activist and author Michael Patrick MacDonald gripping memoir about his lifegrowing up amid poverty and crime in the Old Colony housing projects in South Boston, apredominantly white Irish Catholic neighborhood.“My students were completely captivated by All Souls. It gave them their first real understandingof poverty, violence, and the wounds and scars of racism for white people as well as AfricanAmericans. Yet they also understood that this is a book about love, not hate—hope, not despair.”

—Elaine Tyler May, Professor of American Studies and History, Director of Graduate Studies, American Studies Department, University of Minnesota

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

To view video of Carlotta Walls LaNier’spresentation at the 2010 First-Year

Experience® Conference in Denver, CO, go to: http://tinyurl.com/27l9tfw

Website: www.MichaelPatrickMacDonald.com

Website: www.TracyKidder.comTo view video of Tracy Kidder’s presentation at the

2009 First-Year Experience® Conference in Orlando, FL, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yaud5t6

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THE ROAD OF LOST INNOCENCE The True Story of a Cambodian HeroineBy Somaly MamIntroduction by Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Foreword by Nicholas D. KristofAs a girl she was sold into sexual slavery, but now she rescues others. This is the true story of aCambodian heroine. Somaly Mam’s book is an unforgettable and inspiring story of triumphover unthinkable adversity, giving a face and voice to a human-rights disaster of globalproportions: the sprawling sex-trade industry of Southeast Asia. Written in exquisite, spare,unflinching prose, The Road of Lost Innocence recounts Mam’s early life, tells of her awakeningas an activist, and relates her harrowing and brave fight against the powerful and corrupt forcesthat steal the lives of young girls.Selected for Common Reading at West Texas A&M University.

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52622-7 | 224pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: gender issues • Human Rights • social Justice

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

THE VOYAGE OF THE ROSE CITY: An Adventure at SeaBy John MoynihanJohn McCloskey Moynihan, the late son of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, decided to spenda summer in the merchant marine. He soon found himself suffering the brutal life of adeckhand and traveling around the world. John passed away suddenly in his forties and thejournal he kept while at sea became the basis for this book.“Will speak to fans of books like Into the Wild; Moynihan has a good story to tell, one that'sflecked with briny bits of Melville and Conrad and Raban. His unshowy prose has genuineimmediacy. He’s good company on the page.” —The New York Times

Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-8129-8243-5 | 256pp. | $22.00/$25.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $11.00themes: Coming of Age • discovering differences • identity

READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN: A Memoir in BooksBy Azar NafisiThis is the moving story of how Nafisi and her students managed to escape the harshconstraints of their daily lives through the literature they read together every week. “Resonant and deeply affecting . . . an eloquent brief on the transformative powers of fiction, onthe refuge from ideology that art can offer to those living under tyranny, and art’s affirmative andsubversive faith in the voice of the individual.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“A memoir about teaching Western literature in revolutionary Iran, with profound and fascinatinginsights into both. A masterpiece.” —Bernard Lewis, author of The Crisis of Islam

Selected for Common Reading at Ashland University, Case Western Reserve University, Ithaca College, Mount HolyokeCollege, Sweet Briar College (VA), and others.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7106-4 | 384pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: gender issues • Human Rights • Regional: middle East

Also by Azar Nafisi

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

Website: www.Somaly.org

Website: www.AzarNafisi.com

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DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A Story of Race and InheritanceBy Barack ObamaDreams from My Father is a memoir by President Barack Obama, first published in July 1995when he was preparing to launch his political career.“Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds,and thus belonging to neither.” —The New York Times Book Review

Selected for Common Reading at Augustana College, Boston College, California State University–Eastbay, Elmhurst College,LaGuardia Community College, Quinnipiac University, Southern Methodist University, University of Illinois at Chicago,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington, Xavier University of Louisiana, and others.

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-1-4000-8277-3 | 480pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00Spanish Language Edition: Vintage | TR | 978-0-307-47387-5 | 432pp. | $17.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • identity • inclusiveness

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American DreamBy Barack Obama“[Barack Obama] is that rare politician who can actually write—and write movingly andgenuinely about himself. . . . In these pages he often speaks to the reader as if he were an oldfriend from back in the day, salting policy recommendations with colorful asides about theabsurdities of political life . . . . [He] strives in these pages to ground his policy thinking in simplecommon sense . . . while articulating these ideas in level-headed, nonpartisan prose. That, initself, is something unusual, not only in these venomous pre-election days, but also in theseincreasingly polarized and polarizing times.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-23770-5 | 384pp. | $14.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00Spanish Language Edition: Vintage | TR | 978-0-307-38711-0 | 400pp. | $17.00/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Ethics/decision making • group dynamics • service

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

LOOK ME IN THE EYE: My Life with Asperger’sBy John Elder RobisonAccording to author John Elder Robison, Look Me in the Eye is about “growing up withAsperger’s syndrome—a high-functioning form of autism—overcoming my limitations, andultimately becoming a successful adult.”“John Robison’s book is an immensely affecting account of a life lived according to his gifts ratherthan his limitations. His story provides ample evidence for my belief that individuals on theautistic spectrum are just as capable of rich and productive lives as anyone else.”

—Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

Selected for Common Reading at Defiance College, Moncalm Community College (MI), and SUNY Potsdam, and used in highschools and college courses throughout the country.

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-39618-1 | 320pp. | $14.95/$16.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • discovering differences • identity

Websites: www.JohnRobison.comwww.JERobison.blogspot.com/

www.facebook.com/JohnElderRobisonwww.twitter.com/JohnRobison/John-Robison

To view video of John Elder Robison’s presentation at the 2009 First-YearExperience® Conference in Orlando, FL, go to: http://tinyurl.com/y8nrzbu

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



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ACTS OF FAITHThe Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a GenerationBy Eboo PatelActs of Faith is Eboo Patel’s remarkable account of coming of age and coming to understandwhat led him toward religious pluralism rather than hatred. Patel interweaves stories of howreligious totalitarians involve youth with his own story of growing up Muslim and angry inAmerica. He relates how he came to grasp the importance of positively engaging religiousyouth and founded the Interfaith Youth Core, a young organization seeking to counterreligious totalitarianism by building an interfaith youth movement with a goal of pluralism. Hisstory is a moving testament to the power and passion of young people, and to the notion thatfulfillment can be found through work done for the world.Selected for Common Reading at Amarillo College, Capital University, Colgate University, Franklin College, Loras College,Dubuque Iowa, Luther College, Marywood College, Saint Louis University, and others.

Beacon Press | TR | 978-0-807-00622-1 | 192pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: discovering differences • inclusiveness • Youth Activism

WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE: A MemoirBy Saïd SayrafiezadehWinner, Whiting Award for Nonfiction

With a profound gift for capturing the absurd in life, and a deadpan wisdom that comes fromhaving survived a bizarre childhood in the Socialist Worker’s Party, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh poiseshimself perfectly between farce and tragedy. His story is one of a struggle to make sense ofoneself in the world and to find a place within a fractured family left behind by history.“Skateboards is a brave, honest and elegant book. It felt like the story was being whispered in myear. I haven’t read a memoir in quite a while that has so skillfully made sense of an Americanchildhood.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

Dial Press | TR | 978-0-385-34069-4 | 320pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • Human Rights • identity • social Justice

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

OUTCASTS UNITEDAn American Town, A Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a DifferenceBy Warren St. JohnOutcasts United is the story of a refugee soccer team, a remarkable woman coach, and a smallSouthern town turned upside down by the process of refugee resettlement. “Not merely about soccer, St. John’s book teaches readers about the social and economicdifficulties of adapting to a new culture and the challenges facing a town with a new anddisparate population. Despite their cultural and religious differences and the difficulty ofadaptation, the Fugees came together to play soccer. This wonderful, poignant book is highlyrecommended.” —Library Journal, starred review

Selected for Common Reading at more than 20 colleges and One City, One Book programs.

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52204-5 | 336pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: discovering differences • group dynamics • immigration

Website: www.OutcastsUnited.comTo watch a video of Warren St. John discussing his book,

go to: http://tinyurl.com/yegm5jjTo view the author’s talk at the 2010 First-Year Experience®

meeting, go to http://tinyurl.com/3y5gehr

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

Website: www.Sayrafiezadeh.com

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

GRAND CENTRAL WINTER Stories from the StreetBy Lee StringerForeword by Kurt VonnegutIn this inspiring book of essays, Grand Central Winter vividly describes the author LeeStringer’s experiences as being homeless and drug-addicted in New York in the 1980s.“Stringer possesses a sharp eye for the street and the rich, sagacious talent of a storyteller.”

—Publishers Weekly

Seven Stories Press | TR | 978-1-583-22918-7 | 256pp. | $14.95/$14.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: identity • perseverance/personal strength • social Justice

A HOPE IN THE UNSEENAn American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy LeagueBy Ron SuskindA popular college Common Reading selection

This is the story of Cedric Jennings, an African American teenager who is ferociouslydetermined to study his way out of the inner city and capture a piece of the American Dream.Author Ron Suskind follows Jennings from his early years in high school through his first yearat Brown University. This updated edition includes a new chapter on Cedric Jennings’spostgraduate professional career.Selected for Common Reading at numerous colleges and One City, One Book programs.

Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-0126-0 | 400pp. | $15.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Black Colleges • identity • inclusiveness

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

Website: www.RonSuskind.com

Website: www.BoysFromLittleMexico.com

Website: http://LeeStringer.us

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

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

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

Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doinghis residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for

Julius: they are a release from the tightly regulated mentalenvironment of work, and they give him the opportunity to processhis relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present,his past. Though he is navigating the busy parts of town, theimpression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings ofisolation. But it is not only a physical landscape he covers; Julius crisscrossessocial territory as well, encountering people from different culturesand classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takeshim to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the mostunrecognizable facets of his own soul. A haunting novel about national identity, race, liberty, loss,dislocation, and surrender, Teju Cole’s Open City seethes withintelligence. Written in a clear, rhythmic voice that lingers, thisbook is a mature, profound work by an important new author whohas much to say about our country and our world.“ . . . [B]eautiful, subtle, and, finally, original. . . . Cole has made hisnovel as close to a diary as a novel can get, with room forreflection, autobiography, stasis, and repetition. this is extremelydifficult, and many accomplished novelists would botch it, since asure hand is needed to make the writer’s careful stitching look likea thread merely being followed for its own sake. mysteriously,wonderfully, Cole does not botch it.” —The New Yorker

“with every anecdote, with each overlap, Cole lucidly builds acompassionate and masterly work engaged more with questionsthan with answers regarding some of the biggest issues of ourtime: migration, moral accountability and our tenuous tolerance ofone another’s differences. . . . Cole’s writing is assured, his ideas arewell developed, and his imagery is delicious.” —The New York Times

OPEN CITYA NovelBy Teju Cole



Website: www.TejuCole.com

Key FACTs:Themes: Fiction, Coming of Age, DiscoveringDifferences, Identity

Campus Visits:



Open City is narrated by Julius, a young psychiatrist of mixed Nigerian andGerman heritage. The story begins in 2006 in New York City and is essentially anaccount of the year that follows in the life of Julius. He wanders the post-9/11 city, attimes talking to strangers and at other times keeping to himself, but always sortingthrough the layers of the city’s history.

This is a novel of the mind, in the modernist tradition of Virginia Woolf and W. G.Sebald. But it also owes something to James Baldwin’s essayistic freedom. Julius is aloner and he is distrustful of causes, and as we follow his life—in addition to NewYork, he travels briefly to Brussels, and he remembers incidents from his Nigerianchildhood—we see that he is also averse to drama. Because of his mixed heritage, hewas an outsider while growing up in Nigeria and thought of as white. As an adult inAmerica, he is identified as black. Because he belongs everywhere and nowhere, hetakes in the world in an intelligent and detached way.

I was raised in Lagos, Nigeria (both my parents are Nigerian), and am aprofessional historian of Netherlandish Art, currently working on my dissertation atColumbia University. Not long before I began to write the novel, I worked as acataloguer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and that experience taught me a greatdeal about curating. Which objects belong with each other? How does one bringtogether seemingly disparate micro-narratives into a coherent whole? Open City,unlike most novels, is not plot-driven. Rather, it is propelled by the narrative voice, asJames Wood pointed out in his laudatory review in The New Yorker.

I hope you will consider Open City for your college-level courses. I believe that it isa challenging but accessible book, formally bold, complex and memorable. The NewYork Times reviewer Miguel Syjuco wrote that it “does precisely what literature shoulddo: it brings together thoughts and beliefs, and blurs borders,” and called it “acompassionate and masterly work.”

Teju Cole

33Fiction to Talk About

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

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

In 1986, Henry Lee, a Chinese American widower, comes upon acrowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to

Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now anew owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings ofJapanese families left behind when they were rounded up and sentto internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on,memories take him back to the 1940s. At the height of the war,Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student, atthe exclusive Rainier Elementary. They forge a friendship—and aninnocent love—that transcends the long-standing prejudices oftheir Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family areevacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry are left onlywith the hope that the war will end and that their promise to eachother will be kept. Decades later, Henry tries to make sense of thepast and confront the choices he made.Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times inAmerican history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is anextraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henryand Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable portrait of acouple whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and thehuman heart.“Ford expertly nails the sweet innocence of first love, the cruelty ofracism, the blindness of patriotism, the astonishing unknownsbetween parents and their children, and the sadness andsatisfaction at the end of a life well lived. the result is a vividpicture of a confusing and critical time in American history.”

—Library Journal

“Jamie Ford’s first novel explores the age-old conflicts betweenfather and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened toJapanese Americans in the seattle area during world war ii, andthe depths and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter,and sweet debut.”

—Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEETA NovelBy Jamie Ford

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


Key FACTs:Selected for Common Reading:• Colleges & Universities

Gustavus Adolphus University (St. Peter, MN) Villanova University (Villanova, PA)

• One City, One BookCoeur d’Alene Library “Our Region Reads” (Coeur d’Alene, ID) Findlay-Hancock County Reads (Findlay, OH)One Book, One Community (Duluth, MN) Schenectady One County, One Book (Schenectady, NY)

Themes: Fiction, Coming of Age, DiscoveringDifferences, Regional: Seattle/Northwest

Website: www.JamieFord.com



Campus Visits:


I knew that my novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was making its way ontocollege reading lists when curious emails began popping up in my inbox. They tended to gosomething like this:

“Um, Mr. Ford, your book, Motel on the Corner of Sweet and Sour—it’s like my favoritenovel of all time!! And I’m kinda wondering if you could, like, answer these twelve questionsfor me :P” (In my mind, I always hear this question coming from the dorm of a wide-eyed, tie-dyed, post-pubescent 19-year-old boy wearing an Urban Outfitter hoodie with his earbuds in,listening to Skrillex.)

And just like that, I was suddenly part of someone’s freshman year experience. Right upthere with community bathrooms (don’t forget the shower shoes), undeclared majors, and thatdemented social experiment otherwise known as the Greek fraternity system.

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how my novel would be received amid the blizzard ofactivity that accompanies one’s first year away from home.

But then I remembered my first year on campus and that strange mix of required reading(often the retreads of classic literature read in high school) and how grateful I was to have thatoccasional contemporary novel by a living, breathing author.

Now that I’ve given talks at places like UConn, Gustavus Adolphus College, and VillanovaUniversity, I’m convinced that there’s something else going on, that students relate to grown-up problems and ethical dilemmas, especially themes of race and social justice.

But would my young characters be able to navigate those neural, critical, Twitter-worthypathways? In talking to freshmen, in person, via email, Skype, and on Facebook, the consensusseems to be: LIKE (that peculiar, digital affirmation/“thumbs-up” which, in their world, is nosmall honor).

And now I get emails like this:

“This is the first book on my syllabus that I actually enjoyed.”

“This is my all-time favorite novel. :)”

Or the occasional, “I cried my eyes out. (Sob!)”

Who knew that modern students would relate so well to a Chinese boy falling in love witha Japanese girl during World War II, or that a story about the Japanese Internment wouldaffect a generation that has grown up in a post-9/11 world? The notion still amazes me—it’ssomething that I never planned or anticipated. But it’s a joy to behold, requests for SparkNotesand all.

If you have specific questions, you can always reach me at jamieford.com or attwitter.com/jamieford.

Jamie Ford


About the Author: Colum McCannCoLUm mCCANN is the National Book Award–winning and internationally bestselling author of thenovels Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness, and Songdogs, as well as two critically acclaimed storycollections. His fiction has been published in thirty languages. He was the inaugural winner of theIreland Fund of Monaco Literary Award in Memory of Princess Grace. He teaches in the Hunter CollegeMFA Creative Writing Program.

Winner, National Book Award for FictionANew York Times Notable BookA Booklist Editors’ Choice SelectionWinner, International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people oflower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the

Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walkeris running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended aquarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew ofordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist ColumMcCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his owndemons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of theburning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenueapartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only todiscover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artistfinds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own lifecareening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother,turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only totake care of her family but to prove her own worth.Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparatelives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettablevoices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope,beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” A sweeping andradical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit ofAmerica in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, inhindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely originaltalent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCannhas delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakensin us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.“mesmerizing . . . A Joycean look at the lives of New Yorkerschanged by a single act on a single day. . . . ” —Seattle Times

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPINA NovelBy Colum McCann

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


Key FACTs:Selected for Common Reading: Boston College and New York University

Themes: Fiction, American History, Immigration

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Website: www.ColumMcCann.com

Campus Visits:


Excerpt from Let the Great World spin

Those who saw him hushed. On Church Street. Liberty. Cortlandt. West Street. Fulton. Vesey. Itwas a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful. Some thought at first that it must have been a trick ofthe light, something to do with the weather, an accident of shadowfall. Others figured it might be theperfect city joke—stand around and point upward, until people gathered, tilted their heads, nodded,affirmed, until all were staring upward at nothing at all, like waiting for the end of a Lenny Bruce gag.But the longer they watched, the surer they were. He stood at the very edge of the building, shaped darkagainst the gray of the morning. A window washer maybe. Or a construction worker. Or a jumper.

Up there, at the height of a hundred and ten stories, utterly still, a dark toy against the cloudy sky.

He could only be seen at certain angles so that the watchers had to pause at street corners, find agap between buildings, or meander from the shadows to get a view unobstructed by cornicework,gargoyles, balustrades, roof edges. None of them had yet made sense of the line strung at his feet fromone tower to the other. Rather, it was the manshape that held them there, their necks craned, tornbetween the promise of doom and the disappointment of the ordinary. It was the dilemma of thewatchers: they didn’t want to wait around for nothing at all, some idiot standing on the precipice of thetowers, but they didn’t want to miss the moment either, if he slipped, or got arrested, or dove, armsstretched.

Around the watchers, the city still made its everyday noises. Car horns. Garbage trucks. Ferrywhistles. The thrum of the subway. The M22 bus pulled in against the sidewalk, braked, sighed downinto a pothole. A flying chocolate wrapper touched against a fire hydrant. Taxi doors slammed. Bits oftrash sparred in the darkest reaches of the alleyways. Sneakers found their sweetspots. The leather ofbriefcases rubbed against trouserlegs. A few umbrella tips clinked against the pavement. Revolvingdoors pushed quarters of conversation out into the street. But the watchers could have taken all thesounds and smashed them down into a single noise and still they wouldn’t have heard much at all: evenwhen they cursed, it was done quietly, reverently. They found themselves in small groups togetherbeside the traffic lights on the corner of Church and Dey; gathered under the awning of Sam’sbarbershop; in the doorway of Charlie’s Audio; a tight little theater of men and women against therailings of St. Paul’s Chapel; elbowing for space at the windows of the Woolworth Building. Lawyers.Elevator operators. Doctors. Cleaners. Prep chefs. Diamond merchants. Fish sellers.

Sad-jeaned whores. All of them reassured by the presence of one another.

Stenographers. Traders. Deliveryboys. Sandwichboard men. Cardsharks. Con Ed. Ma Bell. WallStreet. A locksmith in his van on the corner of Dey and Broadway. A bike messenger lounging against alamppost on West. A red-faced rummy out looking for an early-morning pour. From the Staten IslandFerry they glimpsed him. From the meatpacking warehouses on the West Side. From the new high-risesin Battery Park. From the breakfast carts down on Broadway. From the plaza below. From the towersthemselves.

Sure, there were some who ignored the fuss, who didn’t want to be bothered. It was seven forty-seven in the morning and they were too jacked up for anything but a desk, a pen, a telephone. Up theycame from the subway stations, from limousines, off city buses, crossing the street at a clip, refusing theprospect of a gawk. Another day, another dollar. But as they passed the little clumps of commotion theybegan to slow down.

Some stopped altogether, shrugged, turned nonchalantly, walked to the corner, bumped up againstthe watchers, went to the tips of their toes, gazed over the crowd, and then introduced themselves witha Wow or a Gee-whiz or a Jesus H. Christ.


Excerpted from Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann Copyright © 2009 by Colum McCann. Excerpted by permission ofRandom House Trade Paperbacks, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproducedor reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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

Winner, Nebula AwardFinalist, Arthur C. Clarke Award

In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Mostgenetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during

infancy. Unfortunately, there will be a generation left behind. Formembers of that missed generation, small advances will be made.Through various programs, they will be taught to get along in theworld despite their differences. They will be made active andcontributing members of society. But they will never be normal.Lou is a high-functioning autistic adult who has made a good lifefor himself and is, he thinks, content. But a new manager in thepharmaceutical firm for which he works decides to put pressure onthe unit that employs autistic persons. Lou is pressured to undergoan experimental treatment that might “cure” the autism he doesn’tthink needs curing, or risk losing his job—and certainly theaccommodations the company has put in place for its autisticemployees.Thoughtful, provocative, poignant, unforgettable, The Speed ofDark is a gripping exploration into the mind of an autistic personas he struggles with profound questions of humanity and matters ofthe heart.“Every once in a while, you come across a book that is both animportant literary achievement and a completely and utterlyabsorbing reading experience—a book with provocative ideas andan equally compelling story. such a book is The Speed of Dark, byElizabeth moon. . . . in Lou Arrendale, moon has created anunforgettable character.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel

THE SPEED OF DARK A NovelBy Elizabeth Moon

Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-44754-8 | 368pp.$13.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Del Rey | MM | 978-0-345-48139-9 | 384pp. $6.99/$10.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00


Key FACTs:Selected for Common Reading: Clemson University,Ohio State University, and SUNY Oswego

Themes: Fiction, Identity, Science & Society

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

Campus Visits:



I wrote The Speed of Dark to show how a high-functioning autisticthinks—how he might cope with cultural demands for change within theframework of his neurology. As the parent of an autistic child—andlooking at him from my background in biology, animal behavior, andcomputer programming—I had found our son’s thinking processesfascinating and far less “inhuman” than the textbooks on autism suggested.I wanted to demystify the autistic mind, correct some of the commonesterrors.

But as I wrote, and thought about autism, society, disability issues ingeneral, how identity is constructed, and how autonomy is rationed bysociety, the book became more about questions than answers. Why didthose errors exist? Because the disability model, a subset of the general“othering” model, forced researchers to ask the wrong questions—to slideinto binary thinking: normal/abnormal, healthy/pathological.

Where The Speed of Dark has been used as unifying text in universitiesand communities, these questions have led to stimulating conversationsacross the usual boundaries, ranging far beyond autism and, in many cases,far beyond disability issues. I have enjoyed being part of thoseconversations whenever possible. It’s exciting to experience a communityengaged in open-ended discourse.

Elizabeth Moon


THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMASBy John BoyneWinner, Two Irish Book AwardsThe Bisto Book of the Year Award (Ireland)The Qué Leer Award (Spain)

Set during the Holocaust, this is the award-winning, cautionary tale is about two boys, one theson of a commandant in Hitler’s army and the other a Jew, who come face-to-face at a barbedwire fence that separates, and eventually intertwines, their lives.“A small wonder of a book . . . this is what fiction is supposed to do.” —The Guardian

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

WORLD WAR ZAn Oral History of the Zombie WarBy Max BrooksAt long last, here is the gripping, fictional history of the Zombie War, which came unthinkablyclose to eradicating humanity. Author Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving theacid-etched firsthand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled acrossthe United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that onceteemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of theplanet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is theimaginative, astonishing result. “Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radiobroadcast.” —Dallas Morning News

Selected for Common Reading at Florida Southern College and University of Houston–Victoria.

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-34661-2 | 352pp. | $14.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • Ethics

HOMER & LANGLEY A NovelBy E. L. DoctorowHomer & Langley is a brilliantly conceived, mesmerizing rendering of the lives of New York’sfabled Collyer brothers. One blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged by mustard gas inthe Great War, they live as recluses in their once grand mansion and are fraught with odysseanperil as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves.“A beautiful and haunting novel. . . . [Homer & Langley is] one of literature’s most unlikelypicaresques, a road novel in which the rogue heroes can’t seem to leave home.”

—The Boston Globe

Selected for Common Reading at Cornell University.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7563-5 | 224pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • American History • identity

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

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Website:www.JohnBoyne.com

Website: www.MaxBrooks.com

Website: www.HansFallada.com

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

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture

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THE RED UMBRELLABy Christina Diaz GonzalezWinner, ALA Best Books for Young Adults

This is the moving tale of a 14-year-old girl’s journey from Cuba to America as part ofOperation Pedro Pan—an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children,whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro’s revolution. The Red Umbrella is apowerful story of country, culture, family, and the true meaning of home.“Gonzalez deals effectively with separation, culture shock, homesickness, uncertainty andidentity as she captures what is also a grand adventure—resilient kids taking to a new way of life.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Alfred A. Knopf | TR | 978-0-375-85489-7 | 288pp. | $6.99/$7.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • identity

BOMBINGHAMBy Anthony GroomsFrom the war-torn rice fields of Vietnam to the riot-filled streets of Birmingham, Alabama,Bombingham is the affecting story of a middle-class black family shattered by personal chaos.As young, African American Walter Burke struggles to make sense of his presence in Vietnam,he wonders if the victory of the civil rights movement meant nothing more than earning theright to fight a battle of another kind.Selected for Common Reading at Alabama A&M University, Florida A&M University, Marquette University, SUNY Oswego, and others.

One World/Ballantine | TR | 978-0-345-45293-1 | 320pp. | $13.95/$21.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • inclusiveness • social Justice

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

Selected for Common Reading at Bowling Green State University, Santa Rosa Junior College, and others.

Dial Press | TR | 978-0-553-37961-7 | 256pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • Coming of Age • gender issues • perseverance/personal strength

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

Also by Hisham Matar

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

Website: www.JeanHegland.com

Website: www.ChristinaGonzalez.com

Website: www.AnthonyGrooms.com

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

LAY THAT TRUMPET IN OUR HANDSBy Susan Carol McCarthyInspired by real events, Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands is a novel that tackles race politics inthe South before the civil rights movement unlike any other book in recent memory. “Reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, McCarthy’s debut novel is an engrossing story of one girl’scoming-of-age during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement.” —Library Journal

“The best fiction always bears a strong resemblance to real life. . . . McCarthy blends fact, memory,imagination and truth with admirable grace.” —The Washington Post

Selected for Common Reading at numerous high schools, colleges, and communities.

Bantam | TR | 978-0-553-38103-0 | 288pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • inclusiveness • Regional: the American south • social Justice

THE LAST TOWN ON EARTH A NovelBy Thomas MullenSet against the backdrop of one of the most virulent epidemics that America ever experienced—the 1918 influenza pandemic—Thomas Mullen’s powerful first novel is a tale of morality in atime of upheaval. A chance encounter and the shots that are fired as a result have deafeningreverberations throughout the town of Commonwealth, escalating until every human value—love, patriotism, community, family, friendship—not to mention the town’s very survival, isimperiled.Selected for Common Reading at Bowling Green State University, Montana State University–Billings, Murray State University,Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, University of Arizona, University of South Carolina Aiken,Western Michigan University, and others.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7592-5 | 432pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • Ethics/decision making • group dynamics • science & society

THE CRYING TREE A NovelBy Naseem RakhaThe Crying Tree is award-winning author Naseem Rakha’s captivating novel about theunbreakable bonds of family and the transformative power of forgiveness.“The Crying Tree is easily one of the most impactful books I have read. The book clearly states thatit’s about a mother’s ability to forgive, based on the extreme circumstances of coming to termswith her son’s murder and murderer. Along with forgiveness as ‘big picture theme,’ the book alsothoughtfully provokes no shortage of confusion about the ethics of capital punishment. . . . I thinkthe true impact of this book is in its ability to help us understand that relationships change andour ability to be truly compassionate with each other lies in our ability to afford and forgive thosechanges in each other.”

—Rebecca Campbell, Ph.D., Director of Academic Transition Programs/Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Northern Arizona University

Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-3174-8 | 368pp. | $14.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • Ethics/decision making • identity

Website: www.SusanCarolMcCarthy.com

Website: www.ThomasMullen.net

Website: www.SimonMawer.com

Website: www.NaseemRakha.com

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THE GOD OF SMALL THINGSA NovelBy Arundhati RoyWinner of The Booker Prize

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

SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FANA NovelBy Lisa SeeA New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

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

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

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVEA NovelBy Kurt VonnegutSlaughterhouse-Five is one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the journey we undertake aswe search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. “Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of athundering moral statement.” —The Boston Globe

Dial Press | TR | 978-0-385-33384-9 | 288pp. | $15.00/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00Dell | MM | 978-0-440-18029-6 | 224pp. | $7.99/$9.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Fiction • Ethics/decision making • identity • perseverance/personal strength

Website: www.LisaSee.com

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

Website: www.HaleyTanner.com

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

Most people probably think that having billionaire investorWarren Buffett as a father makes life far from average. But, as

Peter Buffett explains, an individual’s success has more to do withbuilding personal character than using a family platform to getahead. In Life Is What You Make It, Buffett, a musician, composer,and philanthropist, shares the important lessons learned from hisparents—part of an upbringing focused on the importance ofhonorable values as individuals in a community and what we areable to give back.“peter Buffett has given us a wise and inspiring book that shouldbe required reading for every young person seeking to find his orher place in the world, and for every family hoping to give itsdaughters and sons the best possible start in life.” —Bill Clinton

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

“Life Is What You Make It is the ultimate book of common sense—except it isn't common. Because peter Buffett could have had aderived identity and chose not to, he has power and credibilitywhen he tells us how to find a unique self by doing what we love. ican’t imagine anyone who wouldn't benefit from this spirited, wise,and friendly book.” —Gloria Steinem

“in his searching book, Life Is What You Make It, peter Buffettchallenges us all to balance ambition and service, personal goalsand work for the common good. it is a book of value and honesty.”

—Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues

“peter Buffett’s ‘Concert & Conversation’ was a thoroughly movingexperience. through multimedia, his own special music andinteraction with the audience, peter kept us engaged and absorbedin his philosophy, his can-do spirit and his attitude toward life andliving. the audience arrived intrigued with peter’s famous lastname. At the conclusion, the audience left convinced that there isnothing that they couldn’t accomplish as individuals. truly, arewarding evening.”

—Dr. R. Mark Sullivan, President, The College of Saint Rose

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE ITFind Your Own Path to FulfillmentBy Peter Buffett

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


Website: www.PeterBuffett.com

Key FACTs:Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Leadership & Motivation

Campus Visits:



What path will you choose?

This is a very personal book about values and identity. I make no claim of specialexpertise in the conduct of life, still less in the mystery of life’s meaning. But here andthere in this book, I do presume to offer advice, and I make no apology for that. Thereare certain things I passionately believe to be true. Where I can make a case for thosetruths, where I think I can provide some clarity and perspective, I have not been shyabout doing so.

By the luck of the draw—what my father calls “winning the Ovarian Lottery”—Iwas born into a caring and supportive family, a family whose first and most importantgift to me was emotional security. Over time, as a bonus that came as a gradual andwonderful surprise, my family also got to be wealthy and distinguished. My dad,Warren Buffett—by dint of hard work, solid ethics, and steady wisdom—has becomeone of the richest and most respected men in the world. But those are hisaccomplishments, not mine. No matter who your parents are, you’ve still got your ownlife to figure out.

Life moves incredibly fast, and it is filled with distractions. As clutter builds up atthe periphery—streams of data coming from every direction and the unremittingbombardment of the media—it becomes ever more challenging to filter out the noise,to remember where the center is.

But, ultimately, we create the lives we live. This is our greatest burden and greatestopportunity. It is also the most basic, bedrock premise of everything I have to say inthis book.

What sort of people will we choose to be? Will we choose the path of leastresistance—or the path of potentially greatest satisfaction? In our dealings with others,will we shy away from intimacy and honesty and tolerance—or will we open ourselvesto robust and candid relationships? In our work lives, will we settle for making a livingor aim at the higher goal of earning a life?

Answers to these questions can only come from inside each of us. The goal of thisbook is simply to raise the questions, to offer a framework for thought and, I hope,discussion.

Your life is yours to create. Be grateful for the opportunity. Seize it with passionand boldness. Whatever you decide to do, commit to it with all your strength . . . andbegin it now.

Peter Buffett

45Inspiration and Guidance

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TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life’s Greatest LessonBy Mitch AlbomAfter learning of his former professor’s terminal illness, Mitch Albom flew to BrandeisUniversity, reunited with his old friend, and returned every Tuesday thereafter to visit withhim. Morrie Schwartz turned these visits into one final “class”: a lesson in how to live. Thisbook is a magical chronicle of Mitch and Morrie’s time together.Selected for Common Reading at Concordia University, SUNY New Paltz, University of Buffalo, University of North Dakota,and others.

Broadway | TR | 978-0-7679-0592-3 | 224pp. | $13.99/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • Ethics/decision making • identity

WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate QuestionBy Po Bronson“What should I do with my life?” Po Bronson was asking himself that very question when hedecided to write this book—an inspiring exploration of how people successfully transformtheir lives, and a template for how we can answer this question for ourselves. Filled withhumor, empathy, and insight, this edition includes nine new stories not included in thehardcover edition.Selected for Common Reading at Rutgers College, Sam Houston State University, and others.

Random House | TR | 978-0-375-75898-0 | 432pp. | $16.00/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00Ballantine | MM | 978-0-345-48592-2 | 464pp. | $7.99/$10.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Ethics/decision making • identity • Life skills

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

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

Website: www.MitchAlbom.com

Website:www.PoBronson.com

Website: www.GiveTheBestAdvice.com

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47Inspiration and Guidance

THE FREEDOM WRITERS DIARYHow a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around ThemBy The Freedom Writers With Erin GruwellStraight from the front line of urban America, this is Erin Gruwell’s inspiring story of onefiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students. The “Freedom Writers” movementwas born in 1994 from her simple notion—inspire young, underprivileged students to pick uppens instead of guns. Since then the Freedom Writers Foundation has evolved into a renownedcharitable organization led by Gruwell, with the unwavering support of the original FreedomWriters.Selected for Common Reading at Austin Peay State University, Bloomsburg University, Indiana University Northwest, andWestern New England College.

Broadway | TR | 978-0-385-49422-9 | 336pp. | $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Leadership & motivation • Life skills • social Justice Indiana University Northwest’s Reading Guide is available. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/6qrsefc

Also Available by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell

TEACHING HOPEStories from the Freedom Writer Teachers and Erin GruwellForeword by Anna QuindlenBroadway | TR | 978-0-7679-3172-4 | 384pp. | $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLEOne Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the ExtraordinaryBy Bill Strickland With Vince RauseMacArthur Fellowship “genius” award winner Bill Strickland has spent the past thirty yearstransforming the lives of thousands of people through Manchester Bidwell, the jobs trainingcenter and community arts program he founded in Pittsburgh. Working with corporations,community leaders, and schools, he and his staff strive to give disadvantaged kids and adultsthe opportunities and tools they need to envision and build a better, brighter future.Make the Impossible Possible ultimately teaches us how to build on our passions and strengths,dream bigger and set the bar higher, achieve meaningful success, and inspire the lives of others.Selected for Common Reading at Frank Phillips College, Indiana University Pennsylvania, Juniata College, Kendall College,Mt. Union College, North Dakota State University, Penn State–New Kensington, Purdue University, University of New Haven,University of Southern Indiana, Voorhees College, Winthrop University, and others.

Crown Business | TR | 978-0-385-52055-3 | 240pp. | $14.00/$17.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Leadership & motivation • service • social Justice

LIFE WITHOUT LIMITSInspiration for a Ridiculously Good LifeBy Nick VujicicLife Without Limits is an inspiring book by an extraordinary man. Born without arms or legs,Nick Vujicic overcame his disability to live not just independently but a rich, fulfilling life,becoming a model for anyone seeking true happiness. Now an internationally successfulmotivational speaker, his central message is that the most important goal for anyone is to findhis life’s purpose despite whatever difficulties or seemingly impossible odds stand in his way. Doubleday Religion | HC | 978-0-307-58973-6 | 256pp. | $19.99/$22.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $10.00themes: peer group skills • perseverance/personal strength • service

Website: www.FreedomWritersFoundation.org

Website: www.LifeWithoutLimbs.org

Website: www.Bill-Strickland.comTo watch a video of Bill Strickland speaking at the

Random House Luncheon during the First YearExperience® 2010 Conference, go to:

http://tinyurl.com/334reoj

About the Author: Katherine BookAtHERiNE Boo is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and a former reporter and editor for TheWashington Post. She is the winner of a MacArthur “Genius" Award, a National Magazine Award forFeature Writing, and the Pulitzer Prize. She has divided her time between the U.S. and India for 10 years.This is her first book.

In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years ofuncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change

and inequality is made human.Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotelsnear the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper,Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective andenterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” inthe recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a womanof formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty,has identified an alternate route to the middle class: politicalcorruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon become its firstfemale college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, likeKalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inchingcloser to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.” But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shockingtragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressedtensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turnbrutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatestglobal truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed.And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people ofAnnawadi. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connectshuman beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change,Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one ofthe twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of peopleimpossible to forget.“i couldn’t put Behind the Beautiful Forevers down even when iwanted to—when the misery, abuse and filth that Boo so elegantlyand understatedly describes became almost overwhelming. Herbook, situated in a slum on the edge of mumbai’s internationalairport, is one of the most powerful indictments of economicinequality i’ve ever read.” —Barbara Ehrenreich

“there is a lot to like about this book: the prodigious research that itis built on, distilled so expertly that we hardly notice how much weare being taught; the graceful and vivid prose that never callsattention to itself; and above all, the true and moving renderings ofthe people of the mumbai slum called Annawadi. garbage pickersand petty thieves, victims of gruesome injustice—ms. Boo draws usinto their lives, and they do not let us go. this is a superb book.”

—Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains and Strength in What Remains

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERSLife, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai UndercityBy Katherine Boo



Key FACTs:Themes: Group Dynamics, Human Rights, Regional: India

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As jobs and capital whip around the planet, college students will graduate into a worldwhere economic instability and social inequality are increasing and geographic boundariesmatter less and less. Unfortunately, globalization and social inequality remain two of the mostover-theorized, under-reported issues of our age. My book is an intimate investigative accountof how this volatile new reality affects the young people of an Indian slum called Annawadi.Like young people elsewhere, the Annawadians are trying to figure out their place in a worldwhere temp jobs are becoming the norm, adaptability is everything, and bewildering change isthe one abiding constant.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers took me three hard years to report, and one thought thatsustained me was that I had a unique opportunity to show American readers that the distancebetween themselves and, say, a teenaged boy in Mumbai who finds an entrepreneurial niche inother people’s garbage, is not nearly as great as they might think. In the two decades I’ve spentwriting about poverty and how people get out of it, I’ve come to believe, viscerally, that thereare deep connections among individuals that transcend specificities of geography, culture,religion, or class. The problem is that, in a time of high walls and security gates, it’s gettingharder for people of means to grasp the struggles of less privileged people.

Behind one such high wall, near the increasingly glamorous Mumbai airport, a sensitivegirl is studying Othello in a makeshift hut by a vast sewage lake and dreading an arrangedmarriage that might send her to a rural village. A convention-defying disabled woman islonging to be acknowledged as a valid human being. A smart teenaged boy named Mirchi isresisting the garbage-recycling work that is his family trade. Instead he dreams of being awaiter at a fancy hotel, sticking toothpicks into cubes of cheese. “Watch me,” he snaps at hismother one day. “I’ll have a bathroom as big as this hut!” Over the course of time, as Mirchiand the other residents of the slum apply their imaginations to overcoming corruption andinjustice and making better lives for themselves, the broader contours of the market-global ageare gradually revealed.

Although I’m elated when readers join me in thinking about how to build a fairer worldfor people, I don’t consider didactic lectures an effective way to engage people—particularlyyoung people—in questions about fairness and justice. Nor do I think young people wantmawkishly sentimental or sensationalized nonfiction. Stereotypes put them off, and theyknow when they’re being manipulated. What they want, in my experience, is good, concreteinformation from which they can work out what they think for themselves.

With a combination of extensive observation and documents-based reporting, I try to pullthe reader in close to the lives and dilemmas of the poor while unfolding a story that ispowerful and honest enough to keep readers turning the pages. By the last page, I’d like tobelieve that some young readers will also find themselves wrestling with essential questions ofour time: about how opportunity is distributed across the world; about what an individualshould be willing to give up to get ahead; about the interconnections between, say, the collapseof investment banks in Manhattan and the price Mumbai waste-pickers receive for theirempty plastic water bottles; about whether it is possible to be good and moral in a society thatis not good and moral; and about the ultimate value of a human life.

Katherine Boo

49History and Society

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

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They arethe ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying;

who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favorworking on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although theyare often labeled “quiet,” it is to introverts we owe many of the greatcontributions to society—from Van Gogh’s sunflowers to theinvention of the personal computer.Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled withindelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically weundervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. SusanCain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal over the twentieth centuryand explores its far-reaching effects—how it influences everythingfrom how parishioners worship to who excels at Harvard BusinessSchool. And she draws on cutting-edge research on the biology andpsychology of temperament to reveal how introverts can modulatetheir personalities according to circumstance, how to empower anintroverted child, and how companies can harness the natural talentsof introverts. This extraordinary book has the power to permanentlychange how we see introverts and, equally important, how introvertssee themselves.“Cain’s intelligence, respect for research, and vibrant prose put Quietin an elite class with the best books from malcolm gladwell, danielpink, and other masters of psychological non-fiction.”

—Teresa Amabile, Professor, Harvard Business School, and coauthor, The Progress Principle

“susan Cain’s Quiet is superb. Based on meticulous research, it is acompelling reflection on how the Extrovert ideal shapes our livesand why this is deeply unsettling. it will open up a new and differentconversation on how the personal is political.”

—Brian R. Little, Ph.D., Distinguished Scholar, Department of Social andDevelopmental Psychology, Cambridge University

“several aspects of Quiet are remarkable. First, it is well informed bythe research literature but not held captive by it. second, it isexceptionally well written, and ‘reader friendly.’ third, it is insightful.i am sure many people wonder why brash, impulsive behavior seemsto be rewarded, whereas reflective, thoughtful behavior isoverlooked. this book goes beyond such superficial impressions to amore penetrating analysis.”

—William Graziano, Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences,Purdue University

QUIETThe Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop TalkingBy Susan Cain

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Communication, Discovering Differences,Inclusion

Website: www.ThePowerOfIntroverts.com

Campus Visits:



I first thought about the powers and challenges of introversion some twenty-six years ago, when Ibegan my freshman year at Princeton University.

From the minute I set foot on campus, I saw that college could be an extraordinary place forintroverts and extroverts alike. A place where you were expected to spend your time reading andwriting. A place where it was cool to talk about ideas. A place where you could create your own brandof social life. If you were an introvert, you could find friends with common interests and enjoy theircompany one-on-one or in small groups; if you were an extrovert, the social possibilities were endless,just the way extroverts like them.

I was an introvert, and I thrived.

Not that it was always easy. At Princeton, as on many campuses, many social and academicstructures seemed designed for extroverts. I wondered why the cafeteria was arranged so that the largecircular tables, where the most gregarious students sat, were located near the sunny windows, while thebooths for quieter chats were off in the shadowy margins of the room. I wondered whether any of myclassmates longed to munch on a sandwich behind a newspaper as I did, instead of being expected toparticipate in a social free-for-all three times a day. I learned to participate in Princeton’s excellentseminars, but privately I preferred lectures where you could soak up knowledge and think your ownthoughts instead of having to perform them out loud.

Today, after interviewing hundreds of current and former college students, I know I wasn’t the onlyone who felt this way. Not by a long shot.

Did you know that one-third to one-half of the population is introverted? That’s one out of everytwo or three students on campus. But most schools, workplaces, and religious institutions are organizedwith extroverts in mind—even though many of the achievements that have propelled society, from thetheory of evolution to The Cat in the Hat, came from people who were quiet, cerebral, and sensitive.Even in less obviously introverted occupations, like finance, politics, and activism, some of the greatestleaps forward were made by introverts: Eleanor Roosevelt. Al Gore. Warren Buffett. Gandhi.

This is no coincidence. There are specific physiological and psychological advantages to being anintrovert and I’ll share them with your students through the lens of my book, Quiet. I’ll tell yourstudents how we can all learn from the introverts among us, including how to be more creative, thinkmore carefully, love more gently, and organize our schools and workplaces more productively. Quietalso challenges contemporary myths of human nature, including the belief that creativity isfundamentally collaborative, and our preference for charismatic leaders.

But Quiet offers insights and advice for extroverts too, and it gives all students the license to talkabout a social dynamic they’ve been living and breathing but never given voice to.Introversion/extroversion is as fundamental a difference between people as gender, yet until now we’velacked the vocabulary—and the cultural permission—to talk about it. I’ve never presented the ideas inQuiet without getting people buzzing about whether they and their friends are introverts or extroverts,and what that means for their relationships, career choices, and life paths. Quiet is sure to sparkanimated discussions across campus, from the psychology and social-science classroom to the dormroom and dining hall.

I look forward to continuing these discussions around campuses nationwide, as part of yourFreshman Experience Programs. Please contact me through my blog, ThePowerofIntroverts.com, todiscuss opportunities.

Susan Cain


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

When Sarah Glidden took a “Birthright Israel” tour, shethought she knew what she was getting herself into. But

when she got to Israel, she found that things weren’t quite sosimple. How to Understand Israel is Sarah’s memoir not only of herIsraeli government–sponsored trip through Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, theGolan Heights, Masada, and other famous locations, but of theemotional journey she never expected to take while she was there.Her experience clashes with her preconceived notions again andagain, particularly when she tries to take a non-chaperoned tripinto the West Bank. Sarah is forced to question first her politicalbeliefs and, ultimately, her own sense of identity, until she finds thatto understand Israel she first must come to understand herself.“[A] touching and often funny story. . . . the simplicity of thedrawing is offset by bright, delicate watercolors that belie ourheroine’s unresolved struggle with history and heritage.”


“Beautiful watercolors and well-chosen viewpoints detail the landand architecture, and a richly individuated cast of characterscarries the reader into and beyond the israel glidden experiencesas she comes to the realization that others don’t need to agree withher in order for her to feel heard by them. Although aimed atadults, this graphic novel is also a good choice for collectionsserving older teens and good discussion material for current-events classes as well as ethnic studies curricula.” —Booklist

HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESSWritten and Illustrated by Sarah Glidden

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Coming of Age, Identity, Regional: Middle East

Website: www.SmallNoises.com

Campus Visits:


When I used to think about growing as a person, I visualized my life as a sort of graph: a steadilyclimbing, (sometimes dipping) line that would crawl forward over time until a certain age when thegraph would plateau into a stable flatness. The way I looked at it, one’s teens and early 20s are all aboutdiscovering who you are and what you think about the world. At some point, all my opinions, beliefs,and values would become fixed into a solid identity that I would carry with me into the future like anamber shield.

This fantasy carried over into the way I approached other topics, such as history and politics. I hadbeen interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for some time but felt fatigued by it; and I was itchingto just figure it out and then move on. I was familiar with the “two sides” of the conflict in Americandiscourse. Conservatives blamed the Palestinians, calling them “terrorists” and “monsters,” whileliberals maintained that the Israelis were occupiers and thus the real monsters. While I had alwaysidentified more with the latter camp, there was always something unsettling to me about defining aconflict as a struggle between “good vs. evil.” I wanted to truly understand the mess in the Middle East.I had read plenty on the subject, had gone to lectures, and had watched many documentaries. The onlystep left was to go visit the country to see it with my own eyes. The finish line was in Jerusalemsomewhere, and all I had to do was to get there.

Luckily, there was a free way for me to do this. Birthright-Israel is a foundation that offers free ten-day tours of the country to anyone Jewish between the ages of 18 and 26. I was just about to turn 27,and my main connection to my Judaism was my love for my grandmother’s matzo ball soup, but I stillqualified—barely. I decided to take the opportunity to see Israel, and then afterwards, I would stay on inthe country and even travel into the West Bank. I was mindful that Birthright could be propagandisticand one-sided, but I had done my homework and was ready for whatever the group would try to tell meabout the conflict. And anyway, I was planning to create a comic book about my trip. The morepropaganda Birthright threw at me, the more material I would have for a book. Bring it on!

The idea that I could finally “understand” the conflict by going on a Birthright trip is, of course,absurd. Instead, I sunk deeper into the morass. As I traveled the country, I was able to see parts of Israelthat don’t usually make it into the newspapers and to meet ordinary people who call this land of turmoiltheir home. At the same time, I was constantly worried I was being manipulated by my tour guides.

In the end, I didn’t flip to the “other side,” but neither did I come back from Israel saying, “Yup, it’strue: they’re all monsters.” What I discovered through wrestling with the trip was that there are no easyor absolute answers when it comes to complex issues. There are very few situations in which one groupis always “right” and the other is always “wrong.” The reality is that there is no finish line forunderstanding.

In creating this book, I tried to remain honest about my own flaws as I embarked on an almostquixotic quest for knowledge. Combining simply drawn characters with painterly backgrounds, I bringmy readers into the story so that they can feel as if they are right there experiencing all the interiorbattles and struggles, and getting inside my character’s imagination, daydreams, and doubts. I don’t letmyself off lightly; my character succumbs to hurried judgment, reactive emotions, and irrational fears.But these are traits that we all share at times, and rather than be ashamed of them, they should berecognized as the parts of us that help us to grow.

Sarah Glidden


About the Author: Kristen IversenkRistEN iVERsEN is Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Memphisand Editor-in-Chief of The Pinch, an award-winning literary journal. She is also the author of Molly Brown:Unraveling the Myth, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Biography and the Barbara Sudler Awardfor Nonfiction, and Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, the first textbook to cover themajor subgenres of creative nonfiction. She has two sons and lives in Memphis.

Full Body Burden is a haunting work of narrative nonfictionabout a young woman growing up in a small Colorado town

close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant oncedesignated “the most contaminated site in America.” It’s the story ofgrowing up in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at oncestartlingly beautiful and—unknown to those who lived there—tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It’s also a book about the destructive power of secrets—both familysecrets and government secrets. Her father’s hidden liquor bottles,the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truthabout what they made at Rocky Flats (cleaning supplies, her motherguessed)—best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But asIversen grew older, she began to ask questions. In her early thirties,she even worked at Rocky Flats for a time, typing up memos inwhich accidents were always called “incidents.” And as this memoirunfolds, it also reveals itself as a brilliant work of investigativejournalism—a shocking account of the government’s sustainedattempt to conceal the effects of the toxic and radioactive wastereleased by Rocky Flats, and of local residents’ vain attempts to seekjustice in court. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPAdocuments, and class action testimony, this taut, beautifully writtenbook promises to have a very long half-life.“this terrifyingly brilliant book—as perfectly crafted andmeticulously assembled as the nuclear bomb triggers that lie at itscore—is a savage indictment of the American strategic weaponsindustry, both haunting in its power, and yet wonderfully,charmingly human as a memoir of growing up in the Atomic Age.”

—Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman

“part memoir, part investigative journalism, Full Body Burden is atale that will haunt your dreams. it’s a story of secrecy, deceit, andbetrayal set in the majestic high plains of Colorado. kristen iversentakes us behind her family’s closed doors and beyond the securityfences and the armed guards at Rocky Flats. she’s as honest andrestrained in her portrait of a family in crisis as she is indocumenting the incomprehensible betrayal of citizens by theirgovernment, in exposing the harrowing disregard for public safetyexhibited by the technocrats in charge of a top-secret nuclearweapons facility.”

—John Dufresne, author of Louisiana Power and Light; professor, MFA Program in Creative Writing, Florida International University

FULL BODY BURDENGrowing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky FlatsBy Kristen Iversen

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Coming of Age, Environment, Regional: Colorado, Science & Society

*To request a FREE Advance Reader’s Copy,email [email protected].

PublishingJune 2012*

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Website: www.KristenIversen.com

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

Shortlist, Nike Prize

On an average night in northern Uganda, tens ofthousands of children head for the city centers to avoid

capture by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). They findrefuge on the floors of aid agencies or in the streets. In recentyears, the civil society was almost completely destroyed bythe LRA, itself made up almost entirely of kidnappedchildren. Piecing together what has been broken is proving tobe a nearly impossible task.Polish journalist Wojciech Jagielski inserts himself into thishellish landscape and finds a way to speak of these childrenand their wounded world. In The Night Wanderers, Jagielskishows his readers the horror of children who have beenabducted from their homes and forced to kill their ownfamily members; children who, even after they have escapedthe LRA, carry the weight of their own acts of murder ontheir young shoulders. Jagielski portrays Uganda throughtheir eyes as well as his own.Carrying on the rich tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński,Jagielski digs himself deep into the Ugandan landscape andemerges with a compassionate, incisive, painful, magisterialaccount of a world that is just starting to pull itself out of thehorrors of war. The original Polish edition of The NightWanderers is shortlisted for the Nike Prize, considered to bethe most prestigious literary award in Poland.“wojciech Jagielski’s Night Wanderers in not only a bitterstory about a forgotten civil war in Uganda, but it is also aliterary masterpiece, a reportage in every sense of the word.”

—Wiadomosci24 (Poland)

THE NIGHT WANDERERSUganda’s Children and the Lord’s Resistance ArmyBy Wojciech JagielskiTranslated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

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


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

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My book started with my years’ long fascination with Uganda, one that made mevisit Uganda on several occasions and to think a lot about its recent history. The reignof Idi Amin and then the bloody civil wars destroying the country afterwards became,in my mind, the symbol of the “Heart of Darkness” of our time, where one canobserve, or maybe even understand, the essence of evil that under certaincircumstances becomes a part of human nature.

Initially, my idea was to tell the story of the child soldiers of the Lord’s ResistanceArmy, a macabre rebel group commanded by Joseph Kony, a person who, by his owndescription, was possessed by ghosts. I always perceived him more as a leader of somegloomy religious sect than a guerilla leader. My last two research journeys, dedicatedexclusively to interviewing child soldiers, made me realize how hard it is tocommunicate with them. All the more difficult, then, to attempt to understand theirlife experiences.

Night Wanderers tells a story about Uganda and how its ghosts are interfering inthe lives of people, about children forced to play adults, and adults seeing children astheir worst threat, as monsters bringing death and pain. It tells a story about the limitsof our understanding when it comes to learning about a world far different from theone we know.

As adults who are still fairly young—who are relatively free of the heavyexperiences of past decades, who don’t yet know the measure of evil or the depths ofhuman tragedy, who enter a world of extreme ideologies, in many cases ones that mayseem totally alien—my hope is that this book can help students to understand theways in which this foreign-seeming world is only apparently remote. I hope the bookwill help them understand many different kinds of occurrences, including ones forwhich 9/11 was a warning sign. Maybe by seeing children as murderers as well asvictims students will be more willing to reflect on the complexity of human nature. Iwanted to show the dangers of easy categorization, of condemning certain people ascriminals, and also how difficult the path to becoming human again can be for suchpeople.

Finally, Night Wanderers is my search for hope and humanity in all participants inthe drama that is Africa today. I want the book to serve as a warning againstindifference toward evil in the world, especially the evil that takes place out of oursight. The evil might be closer than we think.

—Wojciech Jagielski, journalist and author of Night Wanderers and Towers of Stone, September 12, 2011


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

In 1933 William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered history professorfrom Chicago, was chosen by Roosevelt to be America’s first

ambassador to Nazi Germany. At first he and his family areentranced by the “New Germany,” and Dodd’s daughter Martha hasseveral affairs, including with the first chief of the Gestapo, RudolfDiels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, her fathertelegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Departmentback home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, thepress is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin tocirculate. The Dodds’ experience of excitement and romancemorphes into horror when a climactic spasm of violence andmurder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, In the Garden ofBeasts lends a stunning, eyewitness view of events as they unfold inreal time, revealing what it was like for those living there, withoutthe perspective of history neatly rendering their judgments. Theresult is a compelling tale that explores why the world did notrecognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe,were awash in blood and terror.“Larson captivated our community when he came here to speakabout his book, the creative process, and how to weave history andfiction into one brilliant and bone-chilling masterpiece. Heanswered the many questions our students had about his work,and provided them with valuable and insightful information intothe writing process.” —Sanford J. Ungar, President, Goucher College

“By far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history. . . .powerful, poignant . . . a transportingly true story.”


“Larson has meticulously researched the dodds’ intimate witnessto Hitler’s ascendancy and created an edifying narrative of thishistorical byway that has all the pleasures of a political thriller. . . .a fresh picture of these terrrible events.”

—The New York Times Book Review

IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTSLove, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s BerlinBy Erik Larson

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Ethics, Genocide, Perseverance/Personal Strength

Also by Erik Larson

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITYMurder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed AmericaFinalist, National Book AwardsVintage | TR | 978-0-375-72560-9 | 464pp. | $15.95/$17.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

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

Website:www.ErikLarsonBooks.com

Campus Visits:


Excerpt from In the Garden of Beasts

Once, at the dawn of a very dark time, an American father and daughter found themselvessuddenly transported from their snug home in Chicago to the heart of Hitler’s Berlin. Theyremained there for four and a half years, but it is their first year that is the subject of the story tofollow, for it coincided with Hitler’s ascent from chancellor to absolute tyrant, when everythinghung in the balance and nothing was certain. That first year formed a kind of prologue in whichall the themes of the greater epic of war and murder soon to come were laid down.

I have always wondered what it would have been like for an outsider to have witnessedfirsthand the gathering dark of Hitler’s rule. How did the city look, what did one hear, see, andsmell, and how did diplomats and other visitors interpret the events occurring around them?Hindsight tells us that during that fragile time the course of history could so easily havechanged. Why, then, did no one change it? Why did it take so long to recognize the real dangerposed by Hitler and his regime?

Like most people, I acquired my initial sense of the era from books and photographs thatleft me with the impression that the world of then had no color, only gradients of gray and black.My two main protagonists, however, encountered the flesh-and-blood reality, while alsomanaging the routine obligations of daily life. Every morning they moved through a city hungwith immense banners of red, white, and black; they sat at the same outdoor cafés as did thelean, black-suited members of Hitler’s SS, and now and then they caught sight of Hitler himself,a smallish man in a large, open Mercedes. But they also walked each day past homes withbalconies lush with red geraniums; they shopped in the city’s vast department stores, held teaparties, and breathed deep the spring fragrances of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s main park. Theyknew Goebbels and Göring as social acquaintances with whom they dined, danced, and joked—until, as their first year reached its end, an event occurred that proved to be one of the mostsignificant in revealing the true character of Hitler and that laid the keystone for the decade tocome. For both father and daughter it changed everything.

This is a work of nonfiction. As always, any material between quotation marks comes from aletter, diary, memoir, or other historical document. I made no effort in these pages to writeanother grand history of the age. My objective was more intimate: to reveal that past worldthrough the experience and perceptions of my two primary subjects, father and daughter, whoupon arrival in Berlin embarked on a journey of discovery, transformation, and, ultimately,deepest heartbreak.

There are no heroes here, at least not of the Schindler’s List variety, but there are glimmers ofheroism and people who behave with unexpected grace. Always there is nuance, albeitsometimes of a disturbing nature. That’s the trouble with nonfiction. One has to put aside whatwe all know—now—to be true, and try instead to accompany my two innocents through theworld as they experienced it.

These were complicated people moving through a complicated time, before the monstersdeclared their true nature.


Excerpted from In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, copyright © 2011 by Erik Larson. Originally published in hardcover by CrownPublishers in 2011 and subsequently in trade paperback by Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a divisionof Random House, Inc., in 2012. All rights reserved.

About the Author: Rebecca sklootREBECCA skLoot has taught at the University of Memphis, New York University, and the Universityof Pittsburgh. She has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s RadioLab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW, andher writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; ColumbiaJournalism Review; and elsewhere.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa.She was a poor southern tobacco farmer who worked the

same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without herknowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine.The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they were vitalfor developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer,viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to importantadvances in cloning, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping; andhave been bought and sold by the billions, with devastatingconsequences for her family.Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the“colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to starkwhite laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’ssmall, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slavequarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today,where Henrietta’s children, unable to afford health insurance,wrestle with feelings of pride, fear, and betrayal. “what is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks really about? science,African American culture and religion, intellectual property ofhuman tissues, southern history, medical ethics, civil rights, theoverselling of medical advances? . . . the book’s broad scope wouldmake it ideal for an institution-wide freshman year readingprogram.”

—David J. Kroll, Professor and Chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences, North Carolina Central University

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was an excellent summerreading selection. over 2,100 first-year students as well as facultymembers, research professionals, and university staff took part inover 80 discussion groups during VCU’s welcome week. Hermessage inspired students to become passionate and engagedwith both learning and inquiry. throughout their first semester, thebook continued to serve as an excellent model of research writingfor our newest students.”

—Daphne L. Rankin, Ph.D., Associate Vice Provost for Instruction, Virginia Commonwealth University

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKSBy Rebecca Skloot

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


Selected for Common Reading at more than 100 colleges/universities including:University of Arkansas, University of California–SantaBarbara, Morehouse College, Spelman College,Virginia Commonwealth University, University ofWisconsin, and others. To view the complete list, go tohttp://tinyurl.com/3xwrwze

Key FACTs:

Themes: Ethics/Decision Making, Human Rights, Science & Society, Social Justice

Website: www.RebeccaSkloot.comTo view video of author at DePauw University’s Ubben Lecture,

go to: http://tinyurl.com/24h6xux

Visit the author’s website at www.RebeccaSkloot.com for the latestbook-related special features, teachingguide, and other classroom resources.

Named by more than 60 critics as one of the best books of the yearWinner of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, andInstitute of Medicine’s 2011 Communication Award for Best BookWinner of 2010 Wellcome Trust Book PrizeWinner of the 2010: • Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction • American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Young Adult Science Book Award

Campus Visits:




I first learned about HeLa cells, and the woman behind them, as a teenager sitting in a freshmanbiology class. I knew only fragments of Henrietta’s story, but those fragments inspired me to start askingquestions—about science and mortality, bioethics, and how I’d feel if my own cells were used inresearch. I didn’t yet know that her cells had launched a multibillion-dollar industry while her childrenlived in poverty, or that the cells had devastating consequences for the family.

Henrietta’s story captures the imagination of students in any number of disciplines, including thesciences, medicine, African American studies, sociology, philosophy, law, bioethics, journalism, andcreative writing. I’ve spoken about HeLa at schools around the country, where students are transfixedby the story. I tell them that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown on a scale they would weighmore than one hundred Empire State Buildings, and that HeLa has been fused with mouse cells tocreate Henrietta-mouse hybrid cells. It’s the stuff of science fiction, but it’s true, and students love it.Combine that with the story of Henrietta’s family—a tale about science, religion, race, and class—andstudents’ reactions are powerful.

During Q&As, the first question is usually: “Wasn’t it illegal to take her cells and use them inresearch without asking?” The answer is no—not in 1951, and not in 2011. Today, most Americans havetheir tissue on file somewhere through routine blood tests or biopsies. And since the late sixties, whentesting newborns for genetic diseases became required by law, each baby born in the United States hashad blood taken, and those samples are often stored and used by scientists. This means that themajority of college students in this country have tissues of their own being used in research, and neitherthey nor their parents likely realize it.

As a college professor, I always look for books that bring together the many disparate fields thatstudents will study throughout their careers and that allow them to explore the real-world consequencesof intellectual discoveries. Other professors tell me The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks does just that,bringing together health, community, family, ethics, religion, science, storytelling, history, business, law,and humanity.

Since spring 2010, I have talked about my book at more than one hundred schools nationwide. As aregular guest lecturer who’s also worked as a correspondent for radio and television, I understand theimportance of being an engaging speaker, and my talks have been called “moving and engaging of boththe heart and mind.” You can visit the events page of my website at RebeccaSkloot.com to see if I’ll bespeaking at your school, and you can contact me through the site. I look forward to visiting even moreschools as part of their Freshman Experience Programs.

As a college biology major, I couldn’t have imagined that Henrietta’s story would lead me tobecome a writer, or that writing this book would be a ten-year journey. There’s no telling what effectthis story could have on students. I can’t wait to find out.

Rebecca Skloot


Rebecca skloot talks with students and signs books at depauw University and University of Alabama

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FREEDOM Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human RightsBy Amnesty International USAIn honor of its fiftieth anniversary, Amnesty International, the notable and noble human rightsorganization, has brought together several internationally acclaimed writers, asking them tocontribute stories inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Empathetic andthought-provoking, but never didactic, Paulo Coehlo, Nadine Gordimer, Yann Martel, JoyceCarol Oates, and many more present ruminations and meditations on struggles for freedomand equality, and efforts against repression and injustice, encouraging an understanding of thevictories that have been won and how much more still needs to be done to ensure that the basicrights of all are respected and protected. Broadway | TR | 978-0-307-58883-8 | 432pp. | $16.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Ethics • Human Rights • social Justice

NO GOD BUT GODThe Origins, Evolution, and Future of IslamBy Reza AslanAlthough it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded in ignoranceand fear. While there are academic books that treat Islam as religion and popular books thatcover the history of Islam, there are no popular books that examine, explain, and historicallycontextualize the Islamic faith. Beginning with a vivid account of the social and religiousmilieu in which the prophet Muhammad lived, then moving on to Islam in the modern worldand how Muslims have developed conflicting strategies to reconcile traditional Islamic values,Reza Aslan’s No god but God is an elegantly written account of the roots of this reformation andthe future of Islamic faith.“Grippingly narrated and thoughtfully examined . . . a literate, accessible introduction to Islam.”


Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8244-2 | 384pp. | $17.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: discovering differences • identity • Regional: middle East

THE SOCIAL ANIMALThe Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and AchievementBy David BrooksIn this landmark exploration, written by New York Times columnist and bestselling author ofBobos in Paradise, David Brooks draws upon revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience andcognition to offer a completely original and incisive analysis of how and why human beingsinteract the way they do. Brooks then goes on to detail concrete ways in which such behaviorsmay be positively shaped, both for the greater society as well as for the individual.“Multifaceted, compulsively readable. . . . Brooks’s considerable achievement comes in his abilityto elevate the unseen aspects of private experience into a vigorous and challengingconversation about what we all share.” —San Francisco ChronicleRandom House | TR | 978-0-8129-7937-4 | 448pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: discovering differences • group dynamics • identity • science & society

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

Website: www.AmnestyUSA.org

Website:www.RezaAslan.com

Website:www.HollowingOutTheMiddle.com

Website:www.Brooks.blogs.nytimes.com

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I DON'T WISH NOBODY TO HAVE A LIFE LIKE MINETales of Kids in Adult LockupBy David ChuraWinner, PASS Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency

In I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine, a veteran teacher gives an “inside” view of thelives of juveniles sentenced as adults.David Chura taught high school in a New York county penitentiary for ten years—five days aweek, seven hours a day. In these pages, he gives a face to a population regularly demonized andreduced to statistics by the mainstream media. Through language marked by both the grit of thestreet and the expansiveness of poetry, the stories of these young people break down thedivisions we so easily erect between us and them, the keepers and the kept—and call intoquestion the increasing practice of sentencing juveniles as adults.“Riveting. . . . An indictment of the system.” —Sam Roberts, The New York Times

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

LOGAVINA STREET: Life and Death in a Sarajevo NeighborhoodBy Barbara DemickIn this “beautifully rendered portrait” (Mark Danner, New York Review of Books), BarbaraDemick records what she saw and heard from one city street as a modern city was held undersiege. The neighbors of Logavina Street, Muslim, Serb, and Croat, tried to keep their societyintact as their country was torn apart by ethnic warfare.“Brilliantly captures the sense of civilian Sarajevo heroism—its pluck, irony, stoicism. . . . Focusingon one Sarajevo street, Demick is able to evoke the reality of life in the city with accuracy andnuance.” —David Rieff, Philadelphia Inquirer

“A first-rate reporter. (Demick) has spared us the soggy history of old Balkan hates andgeopolitical claptrap. . . . If you can read only one book about Bosnia, this should be the one.”

—Mary McGrory, Washington Post columnist

Do not order before 4/12/2012.Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-8129-8276-3 | 208pp. | $16.00/$18.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Human Rights • Regional: Balkans

NOTHING TO ENVY: Ordinary Lives in North KoreaBy Barbara DemickWinner, Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction; Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

American journalist Barbara Demick interviewed six North Koreans who attempted to buildcareers, relationships, and lives in North Korea, only to defect when they realized the extent ofthe government’s deception and abuse of its own citizens. Never before has such a penetratingview of contemporary North Korea been published. Readers will be amazed by this insider’saccount of the world’s most isolated state. “Demick’s potent blend of personal narratives and piercing journalism vividly and evocativelyportrays courageous individuals and a tyrannized state within a saga of unfathomable sufferingpunctuated by faint glimmers of hope.” —Booklist, starred review

Spiegel & Grau | TR | 978-0-385-52391-2 | 336pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: discovering differences • Human Rights • Regional: North korea/Asia

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

Selected for Common Reading at Hofstra University.

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

Website: www.NothingToEnvy.com

Blog: www.KidsInTheSystem.wordpress.com

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THE INNOCENT MAN: Murder and Injustice in a Small TownBy John GrishamIn 1982, a twenty-one-year-old waitress in Oklahoma named Debra Sue Carter was raped andmurdered. For reasons that were never clear, the police suspected former local baseball star RonWilliamson and his friend Dennis Fritz, whom they charged with capital murder. With theprosecution’s case built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts,Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence, and Williamson was sent to death row. Thisbook is a disturbing account of the very real flaws in the criminal justice system. A must-readfor those interested in law and justice.Selected for Common Reading at Greensboro College.

Delta | TR | 978-0-385-34091-5 | 400pp. | $16.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00Dell | MM | 978-0-440-24383-0 | 448pp. | $7.99/$11.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Ethics/decision making • perseverance/personal strength • social Justice

CUBA: My RevolutionBy Inverna Lockpez and Dean Haspiel Illustrated by Dean HaspielSeventeen-year-old Sonia, a medical student with dreams of becoming a modernist painter, iscaught up in Fidel Castro’s revolution from the moment it captures Havana on New Year’s Eve1958. While her eccentric mother hatches an increasingly desperate series of plans to flee Cuba,Sonia joins the militia and volunteers as a medic at the Bay of Pigs—where she encounters hermortally wounded high school sweetheart as an enemy fighter, then is arrested and tortured fortreating another CIA-trained brigadier.Scarred, yet clinging to her revolutionary ideals, she seeks fulfillment in an artists’ collective,only to be further disillusioned by increasing repression under Castro. Finally, she flees toAmerica where she has been a painter and influential arts activist.Vertigo | TR | 978-1-401-22218-5 | 144pp. | $17.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • perseverance/personal strength • Regional: Cuba

BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME: A True StoryBy Timothy B. TysonWinner, Grawemeyer Award for Religion; Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Awardt; A New York Public Library Book toRemember

In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic work of con-science. Tim Tyson’s riveting narrative of a fiery summer of racial conflict and one family’sstruggle to build bridges in a time of destruction is a complex rendering of a true story in whichviolence and faith, courage and evil, despair and hope all mingle to powerful effect.“Blood Done Sign My Name is a most important book and one of the most powerful meditationson race in America that I have ever read.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

Selected for Common Reading at Furman University, Queens University of Charlotte, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,University of Wisconsin at Richland, University of Wisconsin’s College of Letters and Science, Villanova University, and others.

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-1-4000-8311-4 | 368pp. | $14.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: inclusiveness • social Justice

COVERING The Hidden Assault on Our Civil RightsBy Kenji YoshinoWinner, Myers Outstanding Book Award; Winner, American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Award

In Covering, one of the country’s most brilliant young legal scholars fashions a new paradigm ofcivil rights. Drawing on his experiences as a gay Japanese American, Yale law professor KenjiYoshino argues that the culturally sanctioned suppression of our authentic selves is a harm fromwhich the law should sometimes protect us. More profoundly, he also claims that law will be lessimportant to the civil rights of the future than a common culture of authenticity.Selected for Common Reading at Pomona College, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Virginia CommonwealthUniversity, Yale University, and others.

Random House | TR | 978-0-375-76021-1 | 304pp. | $15.95/$19.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: discovering differences • identity • inclusiveness • social Justice

Website:www.JGrisham.com

Website: www.KenjiYoshino.com

Website: www.InvernaLockpez.com

65Life and College Guides

COLLEGE RULES!, 3RD EDITIONHow to Study, Survive, and Succeed in CollegeBy Sherrie Nist-Olejnik, Ph.D., and Jodi Patrick Holschuh, Ph.D.

sHERRiE Nist-oLEJNik, ph.d., is a professor emeritus at the University of Georgia and theformer director of the Division of Academic Enhancement. An active researcher and sought-after lecturer, she has published numerous articles and textbooks focused on studying andlearning at the college level.

Jodi pAtRiCk HoLsCHUH, ph.d., is an associate professor in the Department ofCurriculum and Instruction at Texas State University. An award-winning educator, she teachesundergraduate courses on building effective and efficient study habits. She also works withcollege instructors on enhancing students’ capacity to learn at the university level.

An updated, expanded edition of the popular guide written bytwo college professors that gives students a crash course in

college survival 101.In a sink-or-swim environment, this handbook is a lifeline, helpingstudents navigate the uncharted waters of university life. Nowextensively revised, College Rules! shares essential advice andstrategies that are not taught in lectures or seminars. Students learnhow to study effectively, handle stress, prepare for tests, staymotivated, balance academics and a social life, and avoid commonrookie mistakes. Offering much more than study tips, this go-toguide provides students with the tools they need to thrive, both intheir classes and in the campus community.This updated and expanded edition of College Rules! gives studentsthe tools to:· Study smarter—not harder

· Plan their course schedule

· Master computerized learning technologies

· Figure out their professors’ expectations

· Research efficiently—at the library and online

· Read so they can actually remember things at test time

· Organize effective study groups

· Feel engaged and interested—even in “yawn” courses

· Learn killer test strategies and survive exam week

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

· Set themselves up for stellar recommendations

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

About the Authors: sherrie Nist-Olejnik, Ph.Dand Jodi Patrick Holschuh, Ph.D.

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

Key FACTs:

Themes: Life Skills, Peer Group Skills, Transition

Selected for Common Reading:Tennessee Wesleyan College

Campus Visits:


10 THINGS EMPLOYERS WANT YOU TOLEARN IN COLLEGE, REVISEDThe Skills You Need to SucceedBy Bill CoplinStudents learn a lot of things in college, but there’s one thing thetextbooks won’t teach them: how to acquire marketable job skillsbefore graduation. Award-winning college professor and studentadviser Bill Coplin has been developing skill-based liberal artscurricula for more than 30 years and has helped thousands ofstudents get great jobs. Here, he offers the essential skills you needto survive and succeed in today’s job market, based on his extensiveinterviews with employers, recruiters, human resource specialists,and employed college grads. Going beyond test scores and GPAs,Coplin teaches students how to develop real-world know-how inten crucial skill groups:


Revised Edition Coming July 31, 2012. Free Advance Reader Copy Available.

Email [email protected] request a copy.

MAJOR IN SUCCESS, 5TH EDITIONMake College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams, and Get a Great JobBy Patrick Combs Foreword by Jack Canfield

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

The book’s practical approach will help students to develop apersonalized plan for boosting these and other critical skills duringtheir college years and to get the most out of their professionallives.“Clear, concise, and complete. the ultimate playbook for collegestudents.” —Pierre Mornell, author, Hiring Smart

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

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

· Work Ethic · Physical Performance · Speaking · Writing

· Teamwork · Influencing People · Research

· Number Crunching · Critical Thinking · Problem Solving

Key FACTs:Themes: Identity, Life Skills

Campus Visits:


Key FACTs:Themes: Life Skills, Peer Group Dynamics

Campus Visits:

Website:www.MakeCollegePayOff.blogspot.com

Website: www.PatrickCombs.com

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THE ONE-WEEK JOB PROJECTOne Man, One Year, Fifty-Two JobsBy Sean AikenLike many others of his generation, Sean Aiken graduated from college and asked himself,“What should I do with my life?” Thus, he started the One-Week Job Project, where hetransformed his uncertainty about his future and traveled around the world, working fifty-twojobs in fifty-two weeks. All of his wages were donated to charity. Inventive and empowering,witty and wise, The One-Week Job Project is a book that will give students the courage to followtheir passions.Selected for Common Reading at The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Villard Books | TR | 978-0-345-50803-4 | 320pp. | $15.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: identity • Leadership & motivation • Life skills • peer group skills

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

GETTING THE BEST OUT OF COLLEGERevised and UpdatedInsider Advice for Success from a Professor, a Dean, and a Recent GradBy Peter Feaver, Sue Wasiolek, and Anne CrossmanGoing beyond basic study skills, this updated edition of Getting the Best Out of College explainseverything freshman orientation might overlook, including topics such as how to developrewarding relationships with professors, choose a major that will move you toward your long-term goals, use lesser-known campus resources to your advantage, manage relationships backhome, and more. New chapters address contemporary issues such as how to transfer tointernational colleges and universities; if and when it’s a good idea to delay, transfer, or dropout of college; and how to make the most of a “gap year.”“Witty, wise, and down-to-earth. . . . A wonderful resource for students and their parents.”

—Elizabeth Kiss, President of Agnes Scott College

Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8856-5 | 264pp. | $14.95/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00Revised Edition coming April 2012. Do not order before 4/17/2012.Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-60774-144-2 | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Life skills • peer group skills

THE MONEY CLASSLearn to Create Your New American DreamBy Suze OrmanIn 2011, the American Dream may very well have been dashed. Paying the everyday bills, letalone saving for college or buying a house, is a challenge. Suze Orman offers a bold, inspiringcall to redefine the American Dream, showing how economic security, and even prosperity, isstill attainable. She explains how to escape credit-card debt and invest wisely, even if you arejust starting your career. Orman knows how to thrive in this new economic landscape—andshe shares this knowledge in this necessary, timely book. Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-1-4000-6973-6 | 304pp. | $26.00/$30.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00themes: motivation • personal Finance

Website: www.OneWeekJob.com

Website: www.TheInvisibleGorilla.com

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

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MADE TO STICKWhy Some Ideas Survive and Others DieBy Chip Heath and Dan HeathWhy do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthyideas? Chip and Dan Heath tackle these vexing questions head-on. In this indispensable guide,we discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax, to acoach’s lessons on sportsmanship, to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their powerfrom the same six traits. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stickreveals the vital components of winning ideas—and shows us how to make our own messagesstick.Random House | HC | 978-1-4000-6428-1 | 336pp. | $26.00/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $13.00themes: group dynamics • Leadership & motivation • Life skills

SWITCHHow to Change Things When Change Is HardBy Chip Heath and Dan HeathThis compelling narrative about the difficulty of bringing about genuine, lasting change inourselves and in others—especially when one has few resources and no title or authority—is ariveting read that will change lives. Combining psychology, sociology, management, and casestudies from a host of different fields, the authors tell countless stories of people andorganizations that have successfully created significant change by using what the authors callBright Spots to break bigger goals down into more manageable steps—what the authors callSmall Steps.Crown Business | HC | 978-0-385-52875-7 | 320pp. | $26.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.00Spanish Language Edition: Vintage | TR | 978-0-307-74235-3 | $15.95/$17.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: group dynamics • Life skills • social Justice

NOT QUITE ADULTS Why 20-Somethings Are Choosing a Slower Path to Adulthood, and Why It’s Good for EveryoneBy Richard Settersten, Ph.D., and Barbara E. RayThe stereotypes about today’s twenty-somethings are familiar: They are immature; won’tcommit to marriage, childrearing, and a stable job; and remain too attached to theiroverbearing “helicopter” parents. However, the data presented here flies in the face of theseassumptions. The millennial generation is growing up in a world markedly different from thatof their parents; therefore, their different pathways to adulthood may be just what they need toensure their long-term happiness and success. Because it is so unlike much of what is writtenabout this generation, Not Quite Adults offers a thoughtful read for compelling discussion. Bantam | TR | 978-0-553-80740-0 | 272pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Coming of Age • identity • peer group skills

THE BLACK SWAN Second Edition The Impact of the Highly ImprobableBy Nassim Nicholas TalebA black swan is a highly improbable event that is unpredictable, carries a massive impact, andlater appears more predictable than it was. Why do we not acknowledge these black swans untilafter they occur? According to Taleb, humans are hardwired to learn specifics when theyshould be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and repeatedlyfail to consider what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities;too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize; and not open enough torewarding those brave enough to imagine the “impossible.”Selected for Wellesley Reads 2010.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-7381-5 | 480pp. | $17.00/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Ethics/decision making • group dynamics

Website: www.HeathBrothers.com

Website: www.FooledByRandomness.com

Website: www.NotQuiteAdults.com


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ALL WORK, NO PAYFinding an Internship, Building Your Résumé,Making Connections, and Gaining Job ExperienceBy Lauren BergerTen Speed Press | TR | 978-1-6077-4168-8 | 208pp. $12.99/$14.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

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

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

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

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

Also Available:

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

THE CAREER COUNSELOR’S HANDBOOKBy Howard Figler and Richard N. BollesTen Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8870-1 | 320pp. $19.99/$24.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

LECTURE NOTES A Professor’s Inside Guide to College SuccessBy Philip Freeman, Ph.D.Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8754-4 | 160pp. $14.99/$18.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

THE NEW JOB SECURITY, REVISEDThe 5 Best Strategies for Taking Control of Your CareerBy Pam LassiterTen Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-377-5 | 224pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

GENERATION EARNThe Young Professional’s Guide to Spending,Investing, and Giving BackBy Kimberly PalmerTen Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8236-5 | 240pp. $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

RÉSUMÉ 101A Student and Recent Grad Guide to Crafting Résumésand Cover Letters That Land JobsBy Quentin J. SchultzeForeword by Richard N. Bolles

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

Donald Asher is an internationally acclaimed author and speaker specializingin professional development and higher education. He is a featured speakeron university and corporate campuses around the country with more than100 engagements per year. He is the author of eleven books including:

HOW TO GET ANY JOB Second EditionLife Launch and Re-Launch for Everyone Under 30 (or How to Avoid Living in Your Parents’ Basement)Combines the most innovative thinking on post-college career launch with strategic guidelines foraligning life goals with job opportunities.Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-5800-8947-0 | 240pp. $15.99/$19.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Books by Donald Asher

THE OVERNIGHT RÉSUMÉ 3rd EditionThe Fastest Way to Your Next JobA step-by-step approach to résumé writing for allcareer stages and most educational backgroundsthat shows job-seekers how to develop and craft afocused, successful résumé in one sitting.Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-091-0 | 134pp. $12.99/$15.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00

Website: www.DonaldAsher.com

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FAREWELL, MY SUBARU An Epic Adventure in Local LivingBy Doug FineDid you know it takes more water to sustain a vegetable crop in New Mexico for a year than itwould to sustain a Bangladeshi village of 500? Did you know almost all components of a solar-powered water pump are made in Japan or Denmark? Did you know it takes 16,000 gallons ofjet fuel to fly an organic banana from Honduras to Silver City, New Mexico? Neither did DougFine. Farewell, My Subaru is the hilarious and inspirational account of a Long Islandsuburbanite’s attempt to go green—extreme green—in rural New Mexico.Selected for Common Reading at The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Villard Books | TR | 978-0-8129-7789-9 | 224pp. | $15.00/$17.50 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Environment • Ethics/decision making • global Citizenship

PLANETWALKER 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence.By John Francis, Ph.D.Gold Winner, Nautilus Book Awards in the categories of Ecology/Environment and Independent Press

After witnessing the devastating effects of the 1971 oil spill in San Francisco Bay, John Francisbegan a remarkable, solitary pilgrimage that would change his life irrevocably. An amazinghuman-interest story with a vital message about saving our environment, Planetwalker is alsoan engaging coming-of-age odyssey, full of the positive experiences, the challenging times, thecharacters encountered, and the learning gained along the way.Selected for Common Reading at Graceland University and University at South Carolina Upstate.

National Geographic | TR | 978-1-4262-0405-0 | 288pp. | $16.95/$20.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Environment • Leadership & motivation • Life skills

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

ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCEThe Hidden Impacts of What We BuyBy Daniel Goleman“The theme of ecological awareness and environmental sustainability emerged as we considereda variety of books. The selection committee felt that such a theme would offer many options forengagement and use of the book across all colleges and disciplines. It could connect with newuniversity efforts in the area of heightened environmental awareness and action and provideopportunities to facilitate community service options for students and faculty.”

—Ron Daniel, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, Virginia Tech

Selected for Common Reading at Virginia Tech.

Crown Business | TR | 978-0-385-52783-5 | 288pp. | $16.00/$19.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Environment • Ethics/decision making • science & society

Website: www.DougFine.com

Website: www.PlanetWalker.org

Website: www.DanielGoleman.info

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71Go Green / Environmental Studies

PLENTY: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile DietBy Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnonPlenty relates the remarkable, amusing, and inspiring adventures of a Canadian couple whomake a yearlong attempt to eat only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius oftheir apartment. This food-focused experiment offers a way to think about globalization,monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and community, as the authors reveal ameaningful way to relate to the very essence of human survival: the food we eat.“A funny, warm, and seductive account of how we might live better—better for this earth, betterfor the community, better for our bellies!” —Bill McKibben

Selected for Common Reading at Humboldt State University.

Clarkson Potter | TR | 978-0-307-34733-6 | 272pp. | $13.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Environment • science & society • social Justice

THE YOUNG ACTIVIST’S GUIDE TO BUILDING A GREEN MOVEMENT AND CHANGING THE WORLDBy Sharon J. SmithForeword by Julia Butterfly HillIn The Young Activist’s Guide to Building a Green Movement and Changing the World, authorand activist Sharon J. Smith shares proven strategies and lessons learned from the winners ofEarth Island Institute’s Brower Youth Awards—America’s top honor for young green leaders.Here are all the tools environmental organizers need—from planning a campaign andrecruiting supporters to raising money and attracting media attention. The Guide also has tipson how students can boost the sustainability of their college campuses, with contributions byEarth Day Network, and tips on how to launch a career in the environmental movement.Ten Speed Press | TR | 978-1-58008-561-8 | 224pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Environment • global Citizenship • Leadership & motivation

HARVEST THE WINDAmerica’s Journey to Jobs, Energy Independence, and Climate StabilityBy Philip WarburgIn Harvest the Wind, Philip Warburg brings us the people behind the green economy-poweredresurgence in Cloud County and communities like it across the United States. This corner ofKansas is the first stop on an odyssey that introduces readers to farmers, factory workers,biologists, and high-tech entrepreneurs—all players in a transformative industry that is takinghold across America and around the globe.Harvest the Wind serves as an earthly antidote to the more abstract treatises on global warmingand green energy. By showing us how practical solutions are being implemented at the locallevel, Warburg offers an inspirational look at how we can all pursue a saner and moresustainable energy future.Beacon Press | HC | 978-0-807-00107-3 | 256pp. | $27.95/$32.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $14.00themes: Environment • science & society

GREEN VOLUNTEERS, 8TH EDITIONBy Fabio AusendaUniverse | TR | 978-88-89060-19-3 | 256pp. $16.95/$18.95 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Environment • social Justice

GO GREEN, LIVE RICH50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying By David Bach and Hillary RosnerBroadway | TR | 978-0-7679-2973-8 | 192pp. $14.95/NCR | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Environment

Also Available:

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

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

Website: www.AlisaSmith.ca

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

From the heroic lawyer who spoke out against Clarence Thomasin the historic confirmation hearings twenty years ago, Anita

Hill’s first book since the bestselling Speaking Truth to Power.On the 20th anniversary of the historic Clarence Thomasconfirmation hearings, where she spoke out so courageously aboutworkplace sexual harassment, Anita Hill turns her attention to thetopic of home. As our country reels from the subprime mortgagemeltdown and the resulting devastation of so many families, somany communities and even cities, Hill takes us inside the “crisis ofhome” we are confronting. Along the way she exposes its deep rootsin race and gender inequities that continue to haunt the countryand imperil every American’s ability to achieve the AmericanDream. Reaching back to the story of her slave ancestors, as well asnarrating the stories of individuals who are now caught in thecrossfire of the current housing collapse, she invites us into homesacross America, from her grandparent’s homestead in Arkansas toBaltimore’s toughest neighborhoods. Hill bridges the experiences ofwomen and men struggling to make homes in our country and theworld of high finance and mortgage lending. In this period ofrecovery and its aftermath, what is at stake is the inclusivedemocracy the Constitution promises. The achievement of thatideal, Hill argues, depends on each American’s ability to secure aplace that provides access to every opportunity our country has tooffer. Building on the great strides of the women’s and civil rightsstruggles, Hill presents concrete proposals, which encourage us tobroaden our thinking about home and to reimagine equality forAmerica’s future.“in a book that is rigorous and heartfelt, sharply analytical anddeeply moving, Anita Hill examines the idea of what ‘home’ meansto Americans. Bringing to bear her formidable skills as a scholar ofAmerican law, history, and culture, Hill has produced a personalnarrative that reaches across color and class to explore how ourfamily homes and our national home are inextricably linked to howwe understand achievement, opportunity, and equality.”

—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor,Harvard University

REIMAGINING EQUALITYStories of Gender, Race, and Finding HomeBy Anita Hill

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Gender Issues, Group Dynamics, Social Justice

Campus Visits:


Website: www.facebook.com/ProfAnitaHill


It’s hard to believe that almost two decades have passed since the dramaticClarence Thomas Senate confirmation hearing that had such an impact on somany in our nation, including perhaps some of you. I’ve been very proud of theera of heightened awareness and concern about sexual harassment that followedthat frankly grueling experience. I have had the privilege of meeting exceptionalwomen and men in nearly every state in the country who seek nothing more thanto end behavior, like sexual harassment, that keeps women from reaching theirfull potential. Some real good did emerge. And I wrote an autobiographical bookthat some of you may remember, Speaking Truth to Power, back in 1997.

For me the positive developments of the recent past are just the beginning.Starting from the premise that a fair and just society is in everyone’s best interest,I have spent a great deal of time studying, researching, and lecturing about howimportant it is that we strive for full equality in our nation, no matter howdifficult an achievement it may seem. I’ve been working on my new book,Reimagining Equality, that reflects my ideas about how we can begin to realizeequality for women, for blacks, and, particularly, for black women. In it I lookback at my ancestors, and forward, based on my experiences and discoveries sincethe hearing. I hope you will enjoy the stories and ideas presented here.

I wanted to publish this new book on the twentieth anniversary of thehearing—when there will be a fresh round of media and other attention—notonly to shine a bright light on the accomplishments of the past twenty years butalso to examine the issues that continue to trouble me and many of you. It’s myhope that this book will help a new generation to better understand and meet thechallenges of remaking our society into one that might actually reach the goal ofliberty and justice for all. Thank you for your support of my work, past andpresent, and all best wishes for a successful year.

Anita Hill

73Social Action

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

This is the incredible story of the man behind TOMS Shoes andOne for One, the revolutionary business model that marries

fun, profit, and social good. Blake Mycoskie, the charismatic youngfounder and “chief shoe giver” of the wildly successful TOMSShoes, shares his transformation from a “regular business guy,”motivated primarily by profit, into one of the emerging leaders in anew movement toward Conscious Capitalism. His transformative“one for one” philosophy offers a new way of thinking aboutsuccess, defined by creating work that simultaneously fulfills ourhunger for material success, philanthropic impact, and personalmeaning.“the toms story has already inspired many, and Start SomethingThat Matters supplements that inspiration with wisdom andpractical experience that will help to catalyze the next generationof social entrepreneurs. this is exactly the book that my studentsand i have been waiting for!”

—Jim Schorr, Professor of Social Enterprise, Vanderbilt University

START SOMETHING THAT MATTERSBy Blake Mycoskie

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Global Citizenship, Leadership & Motivation,Service



oNE FoR oNEFor every book purchased, Random House willdonate a book to a child in need through First

Book. For twenty years, First Book has providedwonderful new books to children without booksof their own, and Random House has supported

that mission every step of the way. Togetherthey have brought the joy and power of books

to millions of young readers.www.FirstBook.org

Website: www.StartSomethingThatMatters.comFor author video, go to: http://tinyurl.com/3qvbubf

Additional online resources below*

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

• TOMS Teaching Resources—Start Something That Mattersdiscussion guide and documentary, TOMS Teaching Guide, video resources on TOMS’ giving, business model and more. Please contact www.Toms.com/teaching-resourcesfor more information.

• Start Something That Matters event resources—Host an event to engage students on your campus! Guide and resources are available at: http://tinyurl.com/7swgj5l

• TOMS Campus Club program—Awareness groups on thousands of campuses in the U.S. and Canada: www.TOMSCampusClubs.com

• TOMS Event ideas: Documentary screenings, Style Your Sole events (shoe decorating party) and TOMS annual awareness day, One Day Without Shoes. More info available in this guide: http://tinyurl.com/884ft3t

Campus Visits:

75Social Action

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

Alison Thompson, a filmmaker living in New York City, wasenjoying Christmas with her boyfriend in 2004 when she saw

the news reports online: A 9.3 magnitude earthquake had struck thesea near Indonesia, triggering a massive tsunami that hit much ofsouthern Asia. As she watched the death toll climb, Thompson hadone thought: She had to go help. A few years earlier, she had spenteight months volunteering at Ground Zero after 9/11. She learnedthen that when disaster strikes, it’s not just the firemen and RedCross who are needed—every single person can make a difference. With 300 dollars in cash, some basic medical supplies, and a vagueidea that she would go wherever she was needed, Thompson headedto Sri Lanka. Along with a small team of volunteers, she settled in acoastal town that had been hit especially hard and began tending topeople’s injuries, giving out food and water, playing games with thechildren, collecting dead bodies, and helping rebuild the local schooland homes that had been destroyed. Thompson had intended to stayfor two weeks; she ended up staying for fourteen months. She andher team helped start new businesses and set up the first tsunamiearly-warning center in Sri Lanka, which continues to save livestoday. The Third Wave tells the inspiring story of how volunteering changedThompson’s life. It begins with her first real introduction to disasterrelief after 9/11 and ends with her more recent efforts in Haiti, whereshe has helped create and run, with Sean Penn, an internally-displaced-person camp and field hospital for more than 65,000Haitians who lost their homes in the 2010 earthquake. In The ThirdWave, Thompson provides an invaluable inside glimpse into whatreally happens on the ground after a disaster—and a road map forwhat anyone can do to help. As Alison Thompson shows, with someresilience, a healthy sense of humor, and the desire to make adifference, we all have what it takes to change the world for the better.“Readers will marvel at thompson’s ability to leave her lifemidstream to help others, clearly relishing the adventure as much asthe opportunity to serve. she urges readers to redefine heroism bydoing whatever they can with examples of small efforts (maintaininga toilet at ground zero) with great impact.”


“in a world of turmoil, The Third Wave is a welcome and inspiringaccount of what one woman and her friends can accomplish againstthe greatest odds. Ride this wave and feel better about thegeneration ready to lead us all ashore.” —Tom Brokaw

THE THIRD WAVEA Volunteer StoryBy Alison ThompsonWith Meimei Fox

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


Key FACTs:Themes: Global Citizenship, Human Rights, Regional: Southeast Asia, Service, Social Justice

©Os

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Website: www.TheThirdWaveBook.com

Campus Visits:



September 11, 2011, marked the ten-year anniversary of my journey around theworld as a volunteer. On that day in 2001, when all I knew was that a tower hadcollapsed and that my good friend had been in it, I strapped on my rollerblades,packed up my first aid kit, and headed downtown to see what I could do to help. Iended up staying at Ground Zero for nine months, sifting through the rubble,collecting bodies, and tending to the firemen and ironworkers. Since then, I’ve madeit my life’s mission to be on the ground whenever a major disaster strikes. I spentfourteen months in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, and I currently work as a full-timevolunteer in Haiti, where I moved right after the 2010 earthquake.

I wrote The Third Wave in order to provide a glimpse of what it’s really like on theground after a disaster. I wanted to show readers that anyone can help, that small actsof kindness can create great change in the world. Although my experience as a nurse’said has come in handy, much of the work I do on a daily basis can be done by anyone.You don’t need specialized skills to make a difference; everyone can hand out water orgive someone a hug. At our clinic in Haiti, I recently met a shy girl who had a runnynose and scabies eating away at her head. She asked me for water. I poured a tinymedical cup full of it, and she leaned back with a smile, slowly letting it slide into hermouth like chocolate. I realized that it was probably the first time she had ever tastedpure water. I felt humbled as I poured her another cup, and then another. I gave hermother a few sanitary pads, a bar of soap, and a can of milk, and she cried at thewonderful presents. That is why I volunteer.

Another reason I wrote The Third Wave was to show that you don’t need tobelong to an organization in order to have an effect. When I first went to SriLanka after the tsunami of 2004, I connected with a ragtag group of other volunteers,and together we rebuilt a village that wasn’t on any of the large NGOs’ radars. Today’snatural and man-made disasters are growing too large for governments and aidgroups to handle them alone. We are all needed. Every college student has the skills tohelp, whether it’s for an hour in one’s own community, for a week over spring break,or throughout the semester.

I believe that college students today are looking for more than a classroomeducation; they expect to grow as individuals throughout their four years at college, tofigure out what their place is in the world and what they can do to make it a betterplace. My hope is that The Third Wave will inspire students to think more broadlyabout their own potential and challenge them to take action.

Alison Thompson

77Social Action

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AN UNQUENCHABLE THIRSTFollowing Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic LifeBy Mary JohnsonAt seventeen, Mary Johnson felt called to join Mother Theresa and the Missionaries of Charity.As Sister Donata, she worked alongside Mother Theresa for twenty years. In this luminousmemoir, she offers a glimpse into a world apart, one marked by poverty and devotion, yetinhabited by young women who, like all young women, wrestle with identity, faith, andmeaning.Spiegel & Grau | HC | 978-0-385-52747-7 | 592pp. | $26.00/NCR | Exam Copy: $13.00themes: Coming of Age • gender issues • identity • service

THE ENOUGH MOMENT Fighting to End Africa’s Worst Human Rights CrimesBy John Prendergast with Don CheadleIn their follow-up to the bestselling Not on Our Watch, which brought awareness to thegenocide in Sudan, human rights activist John Prendergast and Oscar-nominated actor andphilanthropist Don Cheadle present The Enough Moment, an empowering look at how people’smovements and inspired policies can stop genocide, child soldier recruitment, and rape as awar weapon in Africa. Prendergast and Cheadle shed light on this burgeoning mass movementagainst human rights crimes, showing how it involves citizen activism, social networking,compassion, celebrities, and globalization. “An important, valuable toolkit that will inspire many.” —Kirkus Reviews

Three Rivers Press | TR | 978-0-307-46482-8 | 304pp. | $14.99/$16.99 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Human Rights • Regional: Africa • social Justice

THE LIFE YOU CAN SAVEHow to Do Your Part to End World PovertyBy Peter SingerIn The Life You Can Save, philosopher Peter Singer makes the irrefutable argument that givingwill make a huge difference in the lives of others without diminishing the quality of our own.This book is an urgent call to action and a hopeful primer on the power of compassion—whenmixed with rigorous investigation and careful reasoning—to lift others out of despair.Used for: Wesleyan Integrative Summer Experience.

Random House | TR | 978-0-8129-8156-8 | 240pp. | $15.00/$17.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Ethics/decision making • Leadership & motivation • social Justice

CITIZEN YOUHow Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing the WorldBy Jonathan M. Tisch With Karl WeberForeword by Mayor Cory A. BookerThis is a stirring call to “active citizenship,” which moves beyond charity and volunteerism,advocating instead a holistic, systemic approach to changing the world. This call to action willinspire readers to join this empowering and world-changing mission.“Tisch documents a shift from volunteerism to active citizenship, less about alleviatingsymptoms and more about addressing root causes in problems like poverty, hunger,homelessness, and disease. By the time a concluding list of 51 ways to ‘join the movement’ rollsaround, it’s likely Tisch will have inspired readers to take him up on one of them.”


Crown | TR | 978-0-307-58849-4 | 288pp. | $13.00/$15.00 Can. | Exam Copy: $3.00themes: Leadership & motivation • service • social Justice

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

Website: www.EnoughProject.org

Website: www.CitizenYou.org

Website: www.TheLifeYouCanSave.com

79www.CommonReads.com

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ATTeNTION LIBRARIANs


10 THINGS EMPLOYERS WANT YOU TO LEARN IN COLLEGE ........................................66

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT, THE..............................46

BLACK SWAN, THE ..............................................68

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CAREER GUIDE FOR CREATIVE ANDUNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE, THE....................69

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FULL BODY BURDEN ..........................................54

FUNNY IN FARSI..................................................25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I KNOW WHY CAGED BIRD SINGS ........................24

IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, THE ........60

IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN....................................41

IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS ................................58

INNOCENT MAN, THE ..........................................64

INTO THE FOREST ................................................41

INVISIBLE GORILLA, THE ....................................67

Iversen, Kristen ..................................................54

Jagielski, Wojciech ............................................56

Jay-Z ..................................................................26

Jenkins, Carol ....................................................10

JOB HUNTERS SURVIVAL GUIDE, THE ..................69

Johnson, Mary ..................................................78

JOKER ONE..........................................................24

Author/title index

81www.CommonReads.com

Kerman, Piper ....................................................12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author/title index

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Who We Are:The Random House Speakers Bureau is a full-service lecture agency whose primaryfocus is to help you find the best speaker for your event. Our dynamic roster includesNobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times bestselling authors, businessleaders, journalists, medical luminaries, and many others.

How We Can Help:We work with universities year-round in helping them fulfill their lecture needs. Webook authors for college common reads, panel discussions, lecture series, writingfestivals, and a host of other university events. In addition, we help coordinate booksignings for every event, from ordering direct through the signing itself. Here is a sample of five recent university events we have provided speakers for:n Peter Buffett, Emmy Award–winning musician, philanthropist and bestselling author

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

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

n Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the national Book Award, the nAACP Image Award, and the Mark Lynton History Prize, among other honors, has traveled the country as a university favorite from the University of Delaware to MIt, UnC Chapel Hill, and Princeton talking about e Warmth of Other Suns. (For book description, go to: tinyurl.com/7z668kv)

n Darin strauss, national Book Award winner for Memoir, launches his lecture year at Arkansas state University discussing Half a Life (page 20).

n John Prendergast, human rights activist and cofounder of the Anti-Genocide Group, e Enough Project, and author of e Enough Moment (page 78) and Unlikely Brothers(page 18), has been a visiting professor at stanford, Pitt, Eckerd, st. Johns, and the University of san Diego where he regularly works with student groups and meets with students about human rights issues. In Fall 2010, John delivered a lecture at Vanderbilt University on how to confront genocide.

Contact Us:To book a speaker for your next event, please call us at 212-572-2013 oremail us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!

Need a speaker for your next university event? The Random House speakers Bureau can help!

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selecting the right title is only the first step toward making your First-Year Readingprogram a success; publisher support is also very important. the Random House, Inc.Academic Marketing Department is here to help make sure that your program runs assmoothly and successfully as possible, and that your needs and requests are handled in

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Director, Academic MarketingRandom House, Inc.1745 Broadway

New York, NY 10019Tel. (212) 782-8387

[email protected]/in/michaeldgentile)

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

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