Trade Books for Courses :: Trade Books For Courses: First-Year Reading First-Year Reading Books

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102 Minutes

The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers

Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn Times Books

"102 Minutes does for the September 11 catastrophe what Walter Lord did for the Titanic in his masterpiece, A Night to Remember . . . Searing, poignant, and...

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National Book Awards - Finalist - Nonfiction

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Awards

Trade Paperback : $18.00 Buy	3 Minutes or Less Life Lessons from America's Greatest Writers Pen/Faulkner Foundation Bloomsbury USA An anthology of never-before-published short essays by America's literary greats. Each October at the PEN Gala, well-known authors take the stage of the Folger...

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The 9/11 Report

A Graphic Adaptation

Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón; Foreword by Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton Hill and Wang

"The 130-page 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation . . . arguably places the attacks in context better than any nonpictorial book could, or any film or television show has done so far. And in the simple visual retelling of the written report's results, it carries a profound emotional impact that is disarming . . . Perhaps most important, the 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation takes a document that is more than 500 pages long and often difficult to penetrate and makes it accessible to a much wider audience—tightening the narrative and increasing the spectacle without the fictionalization . . . The finished product is so solid that Sept. 11 commission Chairman Thomas Kean went from skepticism about a Sept. 11 report comic book to writing the foreword."—Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

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All But My Life

A Memoir

Gerda Weissmann Klein Hill and Wang

"Soul searching and human . . . A moving personal testament to courage."—Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times

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American Jesus

How the Son of God Became a National Icon

Stephen Prothero Farrar, Straus and Giroux Paperbacks

A Chicago Tribune Best Nonfiction Book

"[Prothero presents] a cultural history of Jesus as American image and icon [in] vivid, engrossing detail . . . Within his narrative, ostensibly a popular and often entertaining account of the rendering of Jesus in song, story, and spirituality, [the author] has embedded a fairly detailed history of American religion itself."—R. Scott Appleby, The New York Times

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Amexica

War Along the Borderline

Ed Vulliamy Picador

“Vulliamy, with a mix of irony and pathos, writes like a latter-day Graham Greene . . . Like all good travel writing, Amexica is vivid, colorful, and exotic, filled with striking vignettes and larger-than-life characters.”—Tamar Jacoby, The New York Times Book Review

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Animal Factory

The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment

David Kirby St. Martin's Griffin

“Animal Factory, by David Kirby, documents the scandal of today’s industrial food animal production system in the same compelling way Upton Sinclair alerted Americans to the abuses of the meat packing industry in his 1906 The Jungle. The well being of animals produced for human consumption, the fate of rural communities, the health of farm workers, and the protection of the environment are daily compromised for the sake of profit.”—Robert S. Lawrence, M.D., Director, of the Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

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Arc of Justice

A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age

Kevin Boyle Holt Paperbacks

Winner of the National Book Award

"Masterful . . . An important, scholarly work . . . The writing is graceful [and] it endows the story with the majesty and consequence of an epic . . . This is the kind of book that causes students to major in history."—Paul Butler, The Boston Globe

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National Book Awards - Winner - Nonfiction
National Books Critics Circle Awards - Nominee - Nonfiction
Society of Midland Authors Book Awards - Winner - Adult Nonfiction
Michigan Notable Books - Winner - Notable Book

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Awards

Trade Paperback : $15.00 Buy	Assumption A Novel Percival Everett Graywolf Press Paper A baffling triptych of murder mysteries by the author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier Ogden Walker, deputy sheriff of a small New Mexico town, is on the trail of...

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Authentic Patriotism

How to Restore America's Ideals---Without Losing Our Tempers or Our Minds

Stephen P. Kiernan St. Martin's Griffin

"Kiernan's book and speaking appearances are certain to change lives and make a significant difference for those fortunate enough to read his book or cross his path. I have been witnessing these kinds of appearances for decades and I could not recommend any writer or speaker with more enthusiasm. Stephen Kiernan will change your life."—David Wolk, president, Castleton State College

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Better

A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

Atul Gawande Picador

"'What does it take to be good at something, when failure is so easy?' asks writer/physician Gawande . . . Diligence, ingenuity and 'doing right' . . . Gawande illustrates each of these qualities with stories from his own experience, [and] his observations of and conversations with other physicians . . . For young doctors . . . Gawande suggests five strategies: Ask unscripted questions, don't complain, 'count something' (be a scientist as well as a doctor), write something (to make yourself part of a larger world) and change in response to new ideas. A must-read for medical professionals-and a discerning, humanizing portrait of doctors at work for the rest of us."—Kirkus Reviews

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Beyond Oil

The View from Hubbert's Peak

Kenneth S. Deffeyes Hill and Wang

"This work would be useful as a current holding for serving students of political science, economics, science, and technology."—W.C. Peters, Choice

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The Bill McKibben Reader

Pieces from an Active Life

Bill McKibben St. Martin's Griffin

“McKibben has just edited The Bill McKibben Reader, an anthology of forty-four essays on topics as diverse as being arrested at a demonstration, spending time with writer Wendell Berry and putting his Christian faith into action.”—Susan Larson, The Times Picayune (New Orleans)

"Collected here are 44 trenchant essays written for various publications over the past 25 years by an astute observer of contemporary life and the environment. In some, McKibben reflects on personal experiences; in others, he discusses the sources of his environmental activism . . . Though McKibben worries about consumerism and the environment, he sees reason for optimism, too . . . There are all sorts of sweet things in this world, McKibben writes, many of which are us, and many of which are not. Thankfully, McKibben has borne witness to them with grace and style."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Quick Facts about Bill McKibben

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The Blue Sweater

Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World

Jacqueline Novogratz Rodale Books

"The decency of Jacqueline Novogratz shines through these pages and so does her strength. The stories she shares about the people she has met show the nobility of the human spirit and the breadth of the desire to stop suffering, to feed the hungry, to care for the sick, to empower the poor - in short, to make the world a better place. The Blue Sweater is a book of hope written by a practical idealist who won't take 'no' for an answer when it comes to building a better world. Jacqueline breathes new life into the phrase "a life of meaning" and she is living one everyday even as she asks us to join her."—Senator Bill Bradley

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Born Under a Million Shadows

A Novel

Andrea Busfield St. Martin's Griffin

"Former journalist Busfield first traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 to cover the fall of the Taliban. Her first novel presents the aftermath of that event through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy . . . Readers who like to explore other cultures and current events through fiction will find here an intriguing picture of contemporary Afghanistan. Extras for book clubs are appended."—Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati State Technical & Community College, Library Journal

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Bottlemania

Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America's Drinking Water

Elizabeth Royte Bloomsbury USA

"Fascinating . . . look at the water wars: between bottled water and tap water, between big corporations and local water interests, between consumers who say they want the convenience, cleanliness and even status of bottled water, and environmentalists who condemn bottled water as 'the moral equivalent of driving a Hummer,' producing tons of plastic bottles, racking up huge transportation fees and leaving behind a significant carbon footprint."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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Bright-Sided

How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America

Barbara Ehrenreich Picador

“In this hard-hitting but honest appraisal, America’s cultural skeptic Barbara Ehrenreich turns her focus on the muddled American phenomenon of positive thinking. She exposes the pseudoscience and pseudointellectual foundation of the positive-thinking movement for what it is: a house of cards. This is a mind-opening read.”—Michael Shermer, author of Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

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Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist

Ray C. Anderson with Robin White St. Martin's Griffin

"Ray Anderson is a personal inspiration for me and for anyone trying to find their way in this new world of green business. He may be ‘radical’ but he’s also a profit-seeking businessman. Confessions tells an amazing first-hand story of a personal and business transformation, a journey from being a cold-eyed capitalist to being . . . a cold-eyed capitalist, but just with a much larger perspective on what profitable really means. Ray has found a new path that’s good for the planet and great for his business. He’s showing the world how it’s done yet again."—Andrew Winston, environmental strategist, author of Green Recovery and co-author of Green to Gold

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Video

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Can't Stop Won't Stop

A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

Jeff Chang; Introduction by DJ Kool Herc Picador

"The birth of hip-hop out of the ruin of the South Bronx is a story that has been told many times, but never with the cinematic scope and the analytic force that Chang brings to it. Robert Moses unleashes the destructive juggernaut of the Cross-Bronx Expressway; landlords set fire to worthless tenements; police stand by and do nothing; and, against a backdrop of gang warfare, peacemaking d.j.s lay down the heavy beats and spidery loops around which a rapping, dancing, graffiti-painting culture grows. This is one of the most urgent and passionate histories of popular music ever written. Chang is blind to no one's greed or viciousness, but he retains an idealistic view of a music that speaks the truth about the alternately stultifying and horrifying urban landscapes that the parents who hate hip-hop have made."—The New Yorker

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Catfish and Mandala

A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

Andrew X. Pham Picador

"An engaging and vigorously told story . . . a fresh and original look at how proud Vietnamese on the war's losing side reconciled having their identity abruptly hyphenated to Vietnamese-American."—Gavin Scott, Chicago Tribune

Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize - Winner - Pacific Rim Nonfiction
Guardian First Book Award - Nominee - Nominee
Oregon Book Award - Nominee - Nonfiction

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Awards

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The Checklist Manifesto

How to Get Things Right

Atul Gawande Picador

“Few medical writers working today can transmit the gore-drenched terror of an operation that suddenly goes wrong—a terror that has a special resonance when it is Dr. Gawande himself who makes the initial horrifying mistake. And few can make it as clear as he can what exactly is at stake in the effort to minimize calamities.”—The New York Times

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Choosing Civility

The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct

P. M. Forni St. Martin's Griffin

"Choosing Civility is a beautiful book that lifts the spirit, warms the heart, and provides clear direction for a balanced life."—Arthur P. Ciaramicoli, Ed.D., Ph.D., author of The Power of Empathy

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The Civility Solution

What to Do When People Are Rude

P. M. Forni St. Martin's Griffin

"Though his new book deals with many kinds of incivility, Dr. Forni has devoted a sizeable chunk of it to workplace and high-tech rudeness . . . his approach to incivility is rooted in his academic career researching and teaching Italian literature. Some fundamentals of good behavior, he says, go back hundreds of years."—The Wall Street Journal

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Class Matters

The New York Times Company; Introduction by Bill Keller Times Books

"The newly released book Class Matters is just such a journalist-led research effort, the culmination of an extraordinary decision by The New York Times to carry out a year-long research project on social class, based on a commissioned survey as well as much ethnographic legwork . . . Class Matters is a resounding success, and the New York Times is to be commended for making it happen."—David B. Grucky, Contexts

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