Take Students to Great Heights! Make the Impossible Possible Selected as Common Reader at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Voorhees College, and Winthrop University

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.

To read a book excerpt, click here.

To order an examination copy, click here.

Caldwell College, Flagler University and Others Adopt Tracy Kidder’s Strength in What Remains for Its Fall Course

By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this book, now in paperback, recounts the story of Deo, a young man from war-torn Burundi, who endures homelessness before pursuing an education at Columbia University and going on to medical school.

“A tale of ethnocide, exile and healing by a master of narrative nonfiction. . . . Terrifying at turns, but tremendously inspiring. . . . a key document in the growing literature devoted to postgenocidal justice.” —Kirkus Reviews

Strength in What Remains is a required textbook for three classes, two on creative nonfiction and one on college research writing at Flagler University in Florida this Summer and Fall 2010. It has also been selected for Common Reading at Caldwell College, Penn State Berks, Stanford University, and University of Delaware.

Author Website: www.tracykidder.com

To download a FREE Teacher’s Guide, click here.

Click here to read an excerpt .

To order an examination copy, click here.

University of Michigan Students are Reading The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How

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.

To order an examination copy, click here.

Professors, Get a FREE Copy of the Greatly Anticipated Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace

Professors: Be one of the first to adopt the book  Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself . Click here to request a free examination copy today.

This indelible portrait of David Foster Wallace, by turns funny and inspiring, is based on a five-day trip with award-winning writer David Lipsky during Wallace’s Infinite Jest tour. A biography in five days, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself is David Foster Wallace as few experienced this great American writer. Told in his own words, here is Wallace’s own story, and his astonishing, humane, alert way of looking at the world; here are stories of being a young writer—of being young generally—trying to knit together your ideas of who you should be and who other people expect you to be, and of being young in March of 1996. And of what it was like to be with and—as he tells it—what it was like to become David Foster Wallace.

“Highly recommended. A glimpse into the mind of one of the great literary masters of the end of the 20th century…What shines through even more is his deep passion for writing and ideas and his kind, gentle nature…Many fans of Wallace’s writing come to think of him as a friend—by the time they have finished Lipsky’s moving book, they will undoubtedly feel that even more strongly.” — Library Journal

For NPR review, click here.

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

Click here to read an excerpt.

Word of Mouth is Spreading On The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, now Adopted at Several Colleges

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 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.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Click here to order an examination copy.

Switch to Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

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/

Purdue, Penn State, and Columbia Professors Agree! Thank You for Arguing Is One of the Best Books on Rhetoric

Rhetoric—the art and science of persuasion—is not just an important skill but, according to journalist/author Jay Heinrichs, it is the essential skill.

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.

Click here to to read an excerpt.

Click here to order an examination copy.

Enter to Win a FREE Signed Copy of Dianne Hales’s La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language

For a limited time, enter to win a FREE Signed Copy of Dianne Hales’s La Bella Lingua.  To enter contest, click here.

Centuries before there was an Italy, there was Italian. Its roots date back thousands of years to the volgare, the street Latin of ancient Rome. Italian’s storia—a word that translates both as “history” and “story”—is a rich, juicy, dramatic saga virtually unknown outside of Italy. La Bella Lingua tells the adventurous tale of how Italian became Italian and follows its path through the realms of history, art, literature, manners, music, cooking, cinema and, of course, amore.

Since the publication of La Bella Lingua, Dianne Hales has been giving talks on Italy and Italian throughout the United States and Canada. Recent talks include Columbia University/Barnard College, California State University, Chico and Rutgers University. 

“Although the title may lead one to believe it deals solely with language, La Bella Lingua touches on much more. Dianne Hales, the author, writes about the history, art, music, folklore, cuisine and the every-day lives of the Italian people. She does so in an engaging manner that totally draws in the reader with, wisdom, astute observation and, always, humor. My colleagues and fellow members of the Italian Teachers Association of Central New York, a chapter of the American Association of the Teachers of Italian have heartily embraced the book recommending it to our students and friends.”
–Alfred J. Valentini, Adjunct Professor of Italian at Utica College, Vice President/Treasurer Italian Teachers of Central New York

Make La Bella Lingua required reading at your college! For a limited time, Free Copies are available now to college instructors. To order, click here.

For Author Website and a brief clip of one of her presentations, click here: 

For a free teacher’s guide, click here.

Now on the Curriculum: American Widow – for “Culture Wars” at NYU

Beautifully and thoughtfully illustrated, American Widow,  is the affecting account of one woman’s journey during the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. This graphically illustrated memoir by Alissa Torres (illus. by Sungyoon Choi), has been selected for NYU’s  Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development course: “Culture Wars” in America: Past, Present, and Future, Fall 2010.

Order an examination copy here.

Zami A New Spelling of My Name: A Biomythography Now on the Syllabus at the University of California Santa Barbara

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name is a 1982 autobiography by African American poet Audre Lorde. It started a new genre that the author calls biomythography.

“Zami is a fast-moving chronicle. From the author’s vivid childhood memories in Harlem to her coming of age in the late 1950s, the nature of Audre Lorde’s work is cyclical. It especially relates the linkage of women who have shaped her . . . Lorde brings into play her craft of lush description and characterization. It keeps unfolding page after page.”—Off Our Backs

This past Spring 2010, Zami  was used in a Feminist Studies Course, Women, Representation, and Cultural Production, at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Audre Lorde is also the author of Sister Outsider: Essays & Speechs. For more information on Lorde’s books, click here.

To order an examination copy, click here.