Here is a Message from Susan Cain:

I first thought about the powers and challenges of introversion some 26 years ago, when I began my freshman year at Princeton University.

From the minute I set foot on campus, I saw that college could be an extraordinary place for introverts and extroverts alike. A place where you were expected to spend your time reading and writing. A place where it was cool to talk about ideas. A place where there were so many people, each doing his or her own thing, that you could create your own brand of social life. If you were an introvert, you could find friends with common interests and enjoy their company one-on-one or in small groups; if you were an extrovert, the social possibilities were endless, just the way extroverts like them.

I was an introvert, and I thrived.

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

Most of all, I wondered whether I was the only one who felt this way.

Today, after interviewing hundreds of current and former college students, I know the answer:  I wasn’t the only one. Not by a long shot.

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

This is no coincidence. There are specific physiological and psychological advantages to being an introvert and I’ll share them with your students through the lens of my book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I’ll tell your students how we can all learn from the introverts among us, including how to be more creative, think more carefully, love more gently, and organize our schools and workplaces more productively. Quiet also challenges contemporary myths of human nature, including the belief that creativity is fundamentally collaborative, and our preference for charismatic leaders.

But Quiet offers insights and advice for extroverts too, and it gives all students the license to talk about a social dynamic they’ve been living and breathing but never given voice to. Introversion/extroversion is as fundamental a difference between people as gender, yet until now we’ve lacked the vocabulary— and the cultural permission—to talk about it.

I’ve never presented the ideas in Quiet without getting people buzzing about whether they and their friends are introverts or extroverts, and what that means for their relationships, career choices, and life paths. Quiet is sure to spark animated discussions across campus, from the psychology and social-science classroom to the dorm room and dining hall.

I’ll be conducting an international speaking tour this year, and I look forward to continuing these discussions around campuses nationwide, as part of your Freshman Experience Programs. I invite you to contact me through my blog, ThePowerOfIntroverts.com, to discuss opportunities.

Quiet will prepare your students for careers working alongside introverted and extroverted colleagues, bosses, and employees. And it will help them to understand the people they care about most: their classmates, their family, their partners, their children—and themselves. –Susan Cain

Author Website: www.ThePowerOfIntroverts.com

Praise for Quiet:

“This an intelligent and often surprising look at what makes us who we are.”—Booklist

“Quiet is an extraordinary book that will change forever the way society views introverts.  Superbly researched, deeply insightful, and a fascinating read, Quiet is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to understand the gifts of the introverted half of the population.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

“Susan Cain is the definer of a new and valuable paradigm. In this moving and original argument, she makes the case that we are losing immense reserves of talent and vision because of our culture’s overvaluation of extroversion. A startling, important and readable page-turner that will make quiet people see themselves in a whole new light — and lead the employers, partners and parents of quiet people to a far deeper insight.”—Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth

“Think Malcolm Gladwell for people who don’t take themselves too seriously. Mark my words, this book will be a bestseller.”—Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

“Finally someone has exposed the feet of clay of the extraversion industry. It is a wonder it took so long. Those who value a quiet, reflective life will feel a burden lifting from their shoulders as they read Susan Cain’s eloquent and well documented paean to introversion — and will no longer feel guilty or inferior for having made the better choice!”—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow and Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management, Claremont Graduate University

“Susan Cain has done a superb job of sifting through decades of complex research on introversion, extroversion, and sensitivity. This book will be a boon for the many highly sensitive people who are also introverts.”—Elaine Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person

“Susan Cain’s quest to understand introversion, a beautifully wrought journey from the lab bench to the motivational speaker’s hall, offers convincing evidence for valuing substance over style, steak over sizzle and prizing qualities that are, in America, often derided. Quiet is an introvert’s manifesto—an eloquent call for a new social order. Like the powerful introverts that fill its pages, this book is brilliant, profound, full of feeling and brimming with insights. Those who are quiet, Cain makes clear, have much to say.  Read this book and listen.”—Sheri Fink, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

“Once in a blue moon, a book comes along that gives us startling new insights. Quiet is that book: it will change the way you see yourself, other people, and the world. It’s part page-turner, part cutting-edge science. The implications for business are especially valuable: Quiet offers tips on how introverts can lead effectively, give winning speeches, avoid burnout, and choose the right roles. This charming, gracefully written, thoroughly researched book is simply masterful.”—Adam M. Grant, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Professors: To request a FREE examination copy for course adoption, email rhacademic@randomhouse.com with your course information.

Other awards include the 2010 Heartland Prize  (  http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-14/entertainment/ct-live-1115-humanities-wilson-skloot20101114_1_wilson-science-geek); the Wellcome Trust’s 2010 Wellcome Trust Book Prize (http://tinyurl.com/3ry8y2h), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 2010 Prize for Excellence in Science Books.

In 1951, an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks, stricken with cervical cancer, became an involuntary donor of cells from her cancerous tumor, which were propagated by scientist George Otto Gey to create an immortal cell line for medical research. These cells are now known worldwide as HeLa. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot brilliantly weaves together the Lacks’s story–past and present–with the story of the birth of bioethics, the story of HeLa cells, and the dark history of experimentation on African Americans. Important, powerful, and compassionate, this is a remarkable work of science and social journalism. 

Since its publication in February 2010, this amazing book has been already been selected for more than 100 Common Reading programs and courses, including:

Adelphi University; Albion College; Austin College; Bard College; Baton Rouge’s ‘One Book One Community’ read; Belmont University; Boise State Campus Reads; Case Western Reserve University ; Cleveland State University Ohio; Coastal Carolina University; College of St. Scholastica; Community College of Baltimore County; Connecticut College; Cox College ; Daniel Boone Regional Library; Dayton Big Read; Delaware County Community College; Delaware Valley College; Detroit Public Library; Elizabethtown College; Emmanuel College; Fairmont State University ; Florida State University; Florida Atlantic University Honors College; Framingham State University; Gallaudet University; George Washington University; Grand Valley State University; Green River Community College; Hamilton College; Hanover College; Henderson State University; Honors College at University of Arizona ; Johns Hopkins University; Keene State College; Loyola Marymount University (English Dept.); Marian University; Marietta College; Metropolitan State College of Denver; Mills College; Missouri State University; Moraine Valley Community College; Morehouse School of Medicine; Morgan State University; Mountain View College; North Carolina Agriculture and Technical University; North Carolina State University; Northwestern University ; Northwestern (Bookpal for Northwestern); Norwich University; Paine College; Penn State Brandywine ; Philadelphia University; Purdue University; Purdue University; Randolph-Macon Academy; Rollins College; Roosevelt University; Saint Francis University; San Diego State University; San Jose State University; Seton Hall University; Siena Heights University; Southern Methodist University; St. Bonaventure University; St. Mary’s Episcopal School ; Sweet Briar College ; Texas Christian University; Transylvania University; Tulane Freshmen Reads; University of Arkansas ; University of Alabama Birmingham; UCLA; University of California, Merced ; University of California Santa Barbara; University of Charleston; University of Delaware; University of Florida Honors Program; University of Houston Downtown; University of Kansas School of Medicine; University of Maryland; University of Mississippi; University of North Carolina at Greensboro; University Of Rhode Island; Univ. of South Carolina Upstate; University of Tennessee; University of Texas Arlington; University of Wisconsin, Madison Big Reads; Virginia Commonwealth University ; Western Michigan University; West Shore Community College. 

“Thanks to Rebecca Skloot’s remarkable book, the Lacks case is likely to become a classic in the history of biomedical ethics…Skloot is a science journalist but this book also evidences her skill as a historian…provides a profound sense of history. Students in classes covering ethics, public health, and the history of medicine, childhood, the family, women, the 1950s, and race will be engrossed by Lacks’s story. The many questions raised by the existence and use of HeLa cells will generate hours of classroom discussion.”  – Journal of the History of Medicine

“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 

Students Respond to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

“Unlike the stereotypical reading assignment that too often catalyzes students to bond over mutual dislike,” writes Connecticut College student Jesse Neikrie in the Association of American Colleges and Universities magazine, “[The Immortal Life] appealed to people with diverse interests, including literature, science, history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, medicine, and social justice.” For full article, go to: http://tinyurl.com/5uyzqvz

“If there ever was a piece of scholarship that encapsulated the interdisciplinary ideals and methods of American Studies,” writes Connecticut College student Claire Cafritz, “Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks would be it.” For full article, go to: http://tinyurl.com/6gzsjbv

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.

To read Rebecca Skloot’s conversation with Open Notebook’s David Dobbs on writing creative non-fiction, click here.

Author website: rebeccaskloot.com

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

Click here to read an excerpt.

Click here for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Teacher’s Guide.

Click here to order an examination copy.

This fall, Georgetown University has announced that noted educator, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, will be teaching a course revolving around hip hop mogul Jay Z and his book Decoded. For the millions who know him as the greatest rapper alive and an unparalleled cultural and business icon, Decoded is the story of the legendary Jay-Z, told through lyrics, images, and a powerful and surprising personal narrative. This is an intimate, first-person portrait of the life and art of Jay-Z, organized around a “decoding” of his most famous and provocative lyrics. 

Prof. Dyson describes the course as follows: “We look at his incredible body of work, we look at his own understanding of his work, we look at others who reflect upon him, and then we ask the students to engage in critical analysis of Jay-Z himself.”  For more information on the course, see video at: http://rapfix.mtv.com/2011/10/10/michael-eric-dyson-on-jay-z-georgetown-university-course/

“Compelling. . . . Part autobiography, part lavishly illustrated commentary on the author’s own work, Decoded gives the reader a harrowing portrait of the rough worlds Jay-Z navigated in his youth, while at the same time deconstructing his lyrics. . . . [P]rovocative, evocative. . . .” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“As a collection of lyrics alone, Decoded is an essential contribution. It joins a growing body of works . . . that place the rap lyric in its proper context within the American popular songbook and the broader tradition of poetry through the ages.  Throughout the book, he continually makes the case for understanding rappers as poets, complex artists capable of rendering the familiar unfamiliar, embodying paradox and tension in their lyrics, and making things beautiful – and ugly too – as artists at their best always do.” 
— Adam Bradley, co-editor of The Anthology of Rap and contributor, Salon.com

“[Decoded] is a classic American story. . . . But it’s darker—more real—than the usual Horatio Alger myth. . . . [A]n impressive leap by a man who has never been known for small steps.” —Los Angeles Times

“Hip-hop’s renaissance man drops a classic. . . . Heartfelt, passionate and slick.” —Kirkus, starred review

To order an examination copy, click here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Moving and inspiring, The Other Wes Moore is a story for our times.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here

Selected for Common Reading at:
Colleges & Universities
Bay Path College (Springfield, MA)
Berry College (Mount Berry, GA)
Bunker Hill Community College (Boston, MA)
Cabrini College (Radnor, PA)
California State University at Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA)
Goucher College (Baltimore, MD)
Marian University (Indianapolis, IN)
Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI)
Newbury College (Brookline, MA)
New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL)
Nicholls State University (Thibodaux, LA)
Southern Connecticut State University (New Haven, CT)
University of Louisville (Louisville, KY)
Valley Forge Military College (Wayne, PA)
Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA)
Washington Adventist University (Takoma Park, MD)

High Schools
Baylor School (Chattanooga, TN)
Browning School (New York, NY)

One City/One Book
Everybody Reads (Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR)
One Book, One Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA)
One Book One Waco (Waco, TX)

College Courses:
Raritan Valley Community College, College Reading and Comp II, Fall 2011
University of West Georgia , English Composition II, Spring 2011

For author website: www.theotherwesmoore.com

To read an excerpt, click here.

To order an examination copy, click here.

SOMALIS IN MAINE

Below is a note from, Kimberly A. Huisman, one of the co-editors of the new book Somalis in Maine.

Somalis are among those refugees who have witnessed many horrors and suffered great losses. Despite their relatively small numbers as refugees and immigrants, Somalis have attracted media attention nearly everywhere the global diaspora has taken them. Many of these media stories about Somalia are replete with images of starving women and children, the violence of the civil war, the lawlessness of piracy off the Somali coast, and alleged links to al-Qaeda. The media reports about Somali immigrants to North America have centered on social problems involving race, religion, and economic tensions in cities, schools, and work settings. Lewiston, Maine, for example, was a site of national and international media attention in 2002 when the mayor of Lewiston published a letter in the local newspaper asking Somalis to please stop moving to Maine. These powerful and monolithic portrayals of Somalis—as either victims or social problems—have left little room in our public imagination for more nuanced narratives about the lives and experiences of Somali immigrants. 

Somalis in Maine addresses this gap. This book is an anthology of academic essays, personal accounts, empirical research findings, and photographs, all of which include the voices of ordinary people talking against the backdrop of their extraordinary experiences. Sociologist Peter Berger purports that the wisdom of sociology lies in its power to show us that “things are not what they seem.” Thus, one of the tasks of the sociologist is to conduct empirical research that debunks social myths and reveals the layers of meaning behind the facades of everyday life. Somalis in Maine brings together perspectives from several disciplines—sociology, history, women’s studies, communication, performance studies, and Maine studies—and offers a kaleidoscope of voices and views on Somalis in Maine. The book offers a counter-narrative to the prevailing images of Somalis and highlights how the lived experiences of Somalis in Maine are often ‘not what they seem.’” 

Somalis in Maine is an invitation both to listen to some of that history and to refocus the montage of negative images by entering into cultural currents that carry new voices and views of Somalis in Maine. The book will appeal to students with a general interest in sociology as well as to more advanced students who are interested in more specialized topics such as identity formation, patterns and processes of immigration, the sociology of work, and the intersectionality of social inequalities.
]]> http://makemerequiredreading.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/a-nuanced-narrative-somalis-in-maine/feed/ 0 rhacademic 978-1-55643-926-1 http://makemerequiredreading.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/free-galley-giveaway-of-word-hero/ http://makemerequiredreading.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/free-galley-giveaway-of-word-hero/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:27:44 +0000 rhacademic http://makemerequiredreading.wordpress.com/?p=1218 ]]> Calling all educators! We’re happy to announce that we’re offering free advanced reader’s copy of Word Hero: A Fiendishly Clever Guide to Crafting the Lines that Get Laughs, Go Viral, and Live Forever by Jay Heinrichs.

The book isn’t officially on sale until October 4th, but we wanted to offer you an early release copy to check it out first! If you or anyone you know wants to learn how to use the power of words to get people laughing or talking, you’ll want this book to use as your guide.

Author Jay Heinrichs has spent more than 25 years in publishing as a magazine writer, editor, and executive. He’s quite the word-mastermind and also the author of Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. If you’d like an examination copy of Jay’s previous book, Thank You for Arguing, click here.

Leave a message for us here in the comment section if you’d like a free copy! Or email us at rhacademic@randomhouse.com with your preferred shipping information.

When Bantam first published my novel Dialogues in hardcover in 2005, it was described as a “reinvention of the psychological thriller.” Told mostly in dialogue, I wrote Dialogues as a compelling drama about a young animal shelter worker named Tory Troy who one day murders her six co-workers in the animal shelter gas chamber used to euthanize sick and unwanted animals.

Tory took a job at the animal shelter to help unwanted animals find good homes. She ended up being trained for, and working as an animal euthanasia technician. One day, after the deadly gas had done its job, she opens the chamber door and sees … a kitten who didn’t die. This begins a journey for Tory that ultimately results in a decision she alone can make: whether to live or die.

In addition to writing, I am also a Practitioner in Residence and Professor of English at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. A few years after its initial publication, I began assigning Dialogues to my English Composition and Literature students as a novel to read for the semester. I also gave them Dialogues assignments, some culled from the “Reader’s Guide to Dialogues,” written by Bantam for reading groups when the book was first published. The most important Dialogues-related assignment was a 1,000-word analytical essay in which the students had to analyze the symbolism, foreshadowing, word choice, style, tone, and all the other literary elements of the novel they had studied during the semester.

The response from my students to reading, studying, and writing about Dialogues has been consistently and overwhelmingly positive. I realized that Dialogues is an eminently teachable novel, and that it can be appreciated on several levels. It is a captivating thriller with a page-turner appeal and a stunning twist ending. Plus it can be analyzed and deconstructed on a literary level.

For example:

• The protagonist, Tory Troy, is arrested and assigned a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Baraku Bexley, who is given the task of determining is she’s fit to stand trial. All the “dialogues” between Tory and Dr. Bexley take place in a stark room of a psychiatric hospital. The hospital represents the prison of Tory’s mind, and the dialogues between her and Dr. Bexley are, in essence (and which we realize at the end of the novel), Tory talking to herself.

• A jury is impaneled, and this is a symbol for Tory’s self-judgment; her ultimate attempt at redemption for working at a job as a euthanasia technician.

• Some of Tory’s college writings are included in the novel. One novella in particular, The Baby’s Room, foreshadows the conclusion of the novel, and it has been consistently fascinating to me to see how many students recognize the fact that the novella is a replication “in miniature” of the complete Dialogues novel.

Students greatly enjoy reading Dialogues — it is, after all, a contemporary thriller — and because the novel is so layered with subtext and literary elements suitable for student interpretation, when the book is eventually discussed in class, students respond eagerly to learning its secrets and talking about what things meant, what people said, and how the book ends.

Dialogues is an excellent choice for adoption for college and high school English Composition and Literature courses. As part of the support for the book, I will provide to teachers who adopt the novel a detailed outline of the Dialogues lecture I personally deliver to my students every semester.

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

Author Website: http://www.stephenspignesi.com/

To order an examination copy, click here.

Named one of “The 10 Best Books of 2010” by the editors of the New York Times Book Review

“It has never been done before, what Jennifer Homans has done in Apollo’s Angels. She has written the only truly definitive history of the most impossibly fantastic art form, ballet…Homans accomplishment is akin to setting the most delicate and beautiful of all the imperial Faberge eggs into a fissure high on Mount Rushmore and tracking its unlikely survival…Inspired…The story of Balanchine has been told before, and at greater lengths, but never better…An eloquent and lasting elegy to an unlasting art.”—Cover Review, The New York Times Book Review

University of California, Santa Barbara selects Apollo’s Angels for its History of Modern Dance course this winter.

JENNIFER HOMANS was a professional dancer who performed with the Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Currently the dance critic for The New Republic, she earned her Ph.D. in modern European history at New York University, where she is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence.

To order an exam copy, click here.

To read an excerpt, click here.