Written in the tradition of The Tipping Point, Made to Stick, and The Black Swan, In Pursuit of Elegance will change the way you and your students think about the world. 

In this thought-provoking exploration of why certain events, products, and people capture our attention and imaginations, Matthew E. May examines the elusive element behind so many innovative breakthroughs in fields ranging from physics and marketing to design and popular culture. Combining unusual simplicity and surprising power, elegance is characterized by four key elements—seduction, subtraction, symmetry, and sustainability. In a compelling, story-driven narrative that sheds light on the need for elegance in design, engineering, art, urban planning, sports, and work, May offers surprising evidence that what’s “not there” often trumps what is.

The Columbus College of Art and Design’s Foundation Studies program has selected In Pursuit of Elegance for its Freshman Summer Reading for 2010. 

To read an excerpt, click here.

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Bill Strickland’s Make the Impossible Possible: One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary has been adopted for common reading at several colleges and universities, including Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Frank Phillips College, Voorhees College, and Winthrop University.  At IUP, the book was selected by a panel of faculty and staff.  To qualify for adoption in the program, a book must be relevant to today’s students, offer interdisciplinary appeal, and provide opportunities for additional and diverse programming.

To view the author’s presentation at the recent 2010 First-Year Experience conference please click here. Later this month Strickland will be conferred with honorary degrees from Babson College and Marywood University. A full listing of his honorary degrees can be found here.

From the ghetto to Harvard Business School, Make the Impossible Possible is Strickland’s personal story. It has been positively reviewed by many publications, including Publishers Weekly, which says: “It’s the American dream with a twist: for Strickland, it was never about shedding his past and getting ahead but about following his bliss and making a difference.”

Strickland is president and CEO, Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, and Bidwell Training Center.

Award-winning journalist María Hinojosa recently interviewed Bill Strickland. For video, click here.

For more information on the book or author, including an author video, click here.

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In The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How, bestselling author Daniel Coyle reveals the simple yet powerful mechanisms through which human beings acquire skill–the kinds of practice, motivation, and coaching that grow myelin, a substance in our brains–the fastest. Through visits to the world’s best soccer players, bank robbers, violinists, fighter pilots, artists, and skateboarders, and to the labs where myelin is being investigated. This compelling and instructive book will transform the way we view talent and enable all of us to develop our full potential and is recommended for courses on education, business, psychology, and sociology. 

This Fall 2010, University of Michigan’s Principles of Macroeconomics course will be using The Talent Code.

“This book is not only quite convincing about the role of hard work in gaining skills, but gives insight into the ‘type’ of hard work that pays off. In line with the experimental evidence for educational gains from convincing students that diligent study can rewire the brain, I am assigning the book as a recommended reading to improve the performance of my college students in a class covering unrelated topics. In other words, I view this as a book for ‘learning how to learn.’” –Miles Kimball, Professor of Economics, University of Michigan 

Click here to read an excerpt.

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Since its publication in February 2010, this amazing book has been already been selected for several 2010-2011 Common Reading programs, including Fairmont State University, Grand Valley State University, Honors College at University of Arizona, Johns Hopkins University, Keene State College, Loyola Marymount University (English Dept.), Marian University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Siena Heights University, St. Bonaventure College, Sweet Briar College, University of California, Merced, University of Kansas School of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Big Reads, Virginia Commonwealth University, and is also being used in several classes at California State University Los Angeles, Fairmont State University, Henderson State University, Ohio University, Old Dominion University, Stockton College, University of Colorado-Boulder, and the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is an ideal book for classroom discussions in bioethics, history of science, and science journalism. Author Rebecca Skloot does an exceptional job of raising critical issues that should encourage both scholars and students to reevaluate the research decision making process, the way research subjects are treated, and the balance of power in this country as determined by race, economics, and even education. An incredibly readable and smart text that should be a part of countless university discussions.” — Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, and Professor of Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison 

“This book not only describes the enormous contributions of Henrietta Lacks, her family and the many physicians and scientists to the history of science  –  it humanizes their contributions. In this way the public owes a debt to Rebecca Skloot for explaining science and its ethical issues in a way that should enlighten and inform. In my mind, she’s written the perfect bioethics book.”– Eric M. Meslin, Ph.D.  Director, Indiana University Center for Bioethics 

“Deftly weaving together history, journalism and biography, Rebecca Skloot’s sensitive account tells of the enduring, deeply personal sacrifice of this African American woman and her family…A stunning illustration of how race, gender and disease intersect to produce a unique form of social vulnerability, this is a poignant, necessary, and brilliant book.”—Alondra Nelson, associate professor of sociology, Columbia University 

Also visit the blog post by Case Western professor, Jacqueline D. Lipton, Professor; Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research; Co-Director of the Center for Law Technology and the Arts; Associate Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center. Click here. 

For a review in Health Affairs Journal, click here.

For Booklist’s Story Behind the Story: Rebecca Skloot’s Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, click here.

Author website: www.rebeccaskloot.com

For more information on the book or author, click here.

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This just in!  Whitworth University in Washington has selected Switch by Chip and Dan Heath for their Introductory Psychology course this Fall 2010.  From the authors of the acclaimed Made to Stick, Switch combines theory and case studies from Psychology, Sociology, and Business Management, to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern—one we can use to make the changes that matter most to us. 

Here’s what Professor Peter Lorenzi has to say about Switch:

“Switch offers practical leadership lessons to direct the rider, to motivate the elephant, and to shape the path in all of us, to effect social change. Blending a solid basis of academic research and common sense successes, Heath and Heath provide an interesting and instructive manual for moving mountains by understanding the importance of mole hills.”–Peter Lorenzi, Professor, Loyola University Maryland (Executive MBA Students will be reading Switch) 

CHIP HEATH is a professor of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. DAN HEATH, a former researcher at Harvard Business School, is now a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s CASE Center, which supports social entrepreneurs.

Click here to read an excerpt.

For a limited time, we are offering a FREE review copy to professors. Simply email us and mention this blog.

Visit the authors’ websites at: www.madetostick.com or www.madetostick.com/blog/

Heinrichs’ bestselling book on the topic, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion, renders the principles of argument clearly and simply — and keeps students engaged all the way.  Dozens of colleges including Purdue University (for an English 106 – English Composition course) and Columbia University have selected the book for their curriculum.

“Magazine executive Heinrichs is a clever, passionate and erudite advocate for rhetoric, the 3,000-year-old art of persuasion, and his user-friendly primer brims with anecdotes, historical and popular-culture references, sidebars, tips and definitions.” —Publishers Weekly

Want to ask the author a question?  Visit Author Website: www.figarospeech.com/.   The author also offers free phone or e-chats to classes using the book. To contact him, click here.

For more information on the book and the author, click here.

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David Wessel’s In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic was among six finalists for FT/Goldman Sachs 2009 Business Book of the Year.

This is a breathtaking and singularly perceptive look at a historic episode in American and global economic history. 

Texas State University’s McCoy College of Business will be using In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic in its Eco 3311 – Money and Banking course this Fall 2010.

“Wessel delivers an engrossing account of Bernanke’s improvisational responses to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”—Fortune Magazine 

Website: www.infedwetrust.com/

For more information on the book or author, click here.

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“Drawing on his capacious intelligence Daniel Goleman dissects the issues involved in the attainment of long term sustainability and details promising and intriguing solutions. Once again, he has written an essential book.”– Howard Gardner, author and Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Virginia Tech has selected Ecological Intelligence for its 2009-2010 Common Book Project as well as Antioch University McGregor’s Graduate Management Program for its Fall course on Environmental Management.

Official Website: www.danielgoleman.info/

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For more information on the book, click here.

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Le Moyne College is teaching Against the Machine this Fall.

For more information on the book and the author, click here.

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