January 17, 2012

A Message from Author Teju Cole

Teju Cole discusses his novel Open City (now in paperback) and its potential for use in  college common reading programs:

Open City is narrated by Julius, a young psychiatrist of mixed Nigerian and German heritage. The story begins in 2006 in New York City and is essentially an account of the year that follows in the life of Julius. He wanders the post-9/11 city, at times talking to strangers and at other times keeping to himself, but always sorting through 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 a loner and he is distrustful of causes, and as we follow his life—in addition to New York, he travels briefly to Brussels, and he remembers incidents from his Nigerian childhood—we see that he is also averse to drama. Because of his mixed heritage, he was an outsider Continue reading →

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November 29, 2011

How Rebecca Skloot Built The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, has been interviewed a multitude of times on the story behind the book, but The OPEN Notebook chose instead to focus on these two interesting topics: the structure of the story, and Skloot’s decision to put herself in the book.

Skloot, who received her MFA in nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh, is certainly no stranger to structuring stories, and can in fact, become quite obsessed with it.

“My philosophy is,” Skloot tells The OPEN Notebook, “once you understand what structure is, then you can talk about characters and narrative arcs and how to fill in the story. But for me, structure can just completely make or break something.”

To read the full article, including Skloot’s own personal photos of her impressive color-coded index card collection made while organizing the story, click here.

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November 7, 2011

Mark your calendars for the Eighth Annual Random House First-Year Experience Author Luncheon!

      

Random House announces its Eighth Annual Author Luncheon at the 2012 First-Year Experience Conference in San Antonio, TX.

Authors in attendance include:

Sam Bracken, author of My Orange Duffel Bag: A Journey to Radical Change
Peter Buffett, author of Life is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment
Elizabeth Moon, author of The Speed of Dark: A Novel
Blake Mycoskie, author of Start Something That Matters
Darin Strauss, author Half a Life: A Memoir

WHEN: Monday, February 20th, 11:30AM-1:30PM
WHERE: Room #007 on River Level at the Henry B. Gonzalez
Convention Center, 200 E. Market Street, San Antonio, TX
WHY: To hear five authors speak about their books

Join us for FREE books and FREE lunch!

RSVP soon, email: rhacademic@randomhouse.com. Space is limited!

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October 18, 2011

A Volunteer’s Story to Inspire & Challenge Students

THE THIRD WAVE by Alison Thompson

Alison Thompson, author of The Third Wave: A Volunteer Story (Spiegel & Grau, 2011), recalls her experiences as a volunteer; experiences she believes will both inspire and challenge students to pursue their own journeys of service and action:

September 11th, 2011, marked the ten year anniversary of my journey around the world as a volunteer. On that day in 2001, when all I knew was that a tower had collapsed 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. I ended 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 made it my life’s mission to be on the ground whenever a major disaster strikes. I spent fourteen months in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami, and I currently work as a full-time volunteer 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 the ground after a disaster. I wanted show readers that

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September 23, 2011

Teaching Students How to Live

Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live, has a message to share with her readers on why she chose to write Montaigne’s new biography:

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.

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September 15, 2011

Academics are Buzzing About Susan Cain’s forthcoming book QUIET

We’ve been getting some great buzz about the forthcoming book, Quiet (Jan, 2012), from academics. A professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University had this to share regarding the application of Susan Cain’s book to the classroom:

“Thank you for sending me a copy of Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.

We may be able to use the book here at Purdue University in our upper division undergraduate class on the psychology of personality. Perhaps we can have the students read it before they read the textbook.

Several aspects of Susan Cain’s book are remarkable. First, it is well informed by research. That being said, it uses the research literature but is not held captive by it. She offers a big picture analysis, Continue reading →

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September 9, 2011

A Message for Empowering Introverts

Susan Cain, author of the new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, has a message to share with her readers on her own hurdles in not only finding acceptance in her introversion, but ultimately, great power. Check out the encouraging and insightful message Cain has for introverts and extroverts alike here:

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.
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September 9, 2011

Reluctant Reviewer Won Over by Blake Mycoskie

Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, author and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes, was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal review, “Doing Good by Shoeing Well.” The article highlights how Mycoskie cobbled together a for-profit enterprise that has donated footwear to a million poor people around the world, but it also reveals how the hesitant reviewer was ultimately won over by the book.

“So I was ready to be irritated by ‘Start Something That Matters,’ and the book does include a fair amount of gushy do-goodism. By the end, though, I was sold. Mr. Mycoskie tells a convincing and lively story.”

To read the full article in the WSJ, click here.

In Start Something That Matters, Mycoskie tells the story of TOMS, short for “Tomorrow’s Shoes,” one of the fastest-growing shoe companies in the world, and combines it with lessons learned from such other innovative organizations as method, charity: water, FEED Projects, and TerraCycle.

Mycoskie presents the six simple keys for creating or transforming your own life and business, from discovering your core story to being resourceful without resources; from overcoming fear and doubt to incorporating giving into every aspect of your life. No matter what kind of change you’re considering, Start Something That Matters gives readers the stories, ideas, and practical tips that can help them get started.

We just received two brand new finished copies of Start Something That Matters hot off the press. Be the first to leave us a comment here letting us know what matters to you, or why this title might pertain to your classroom in particular, and you could receive a free copy!

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August 23, 2011

Author Wes Moore Featured in TIME Magazine

We’re very excited and proud to share this week’s cover of TIME Magazine featuring Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore. Wes is featured as one of the five heroic veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq who have created ambitious projects back home.

In his book, Wes sets out to answer a profound question of how the influence of just a select few individuals can alter the path of an entire life. In alternating narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world. It has been adopted as common reading text in over a dozen universities and schools across the country.

Be sure to check out “The New Greatest Generation” issue of TIME Magazine on stands this week. Catch up on how young war veterans like Wes are redefining leadership.

Want to check out what happened behind the scenes of the cover shoot? Click here to watch the video!

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June 29, 2011

Free Advanced Reader’s Copy of Susan Cain’s Quiet

Common Reads is feeling very generous these days, and luckily you all are the ones who benefits! We’re very excited about author Susan Cain’s upcoming book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking and we’re offering free advanced reader’s copies here!

The book isn’t officially on sale until January 2012, but the title has already created quite a lot of buzz. Cain’s incredibly insightful article, “Is Shyness an Evolutionary Tactic?” was featured as one of the most emailed articles in The New York Times Opinion Pages this past weekend.

Cain makes the point that the personality traits of introversion and shyness (two very different things, as she makes clear) are largely undervalued and negatively judged in today’s highly extrovert society.  Yet there are a surprising number of valuable assets that come with these “quieter” traits. Reading Quiet will hopefully bring us all much cause for reflection and leave us with a new outlook on embracing all personality types, quiet or loud.

Susan Cain, a self-proclaimed introvert, is a consultant to major corporations and law firms on negotiation strategies and personal presentation style. Not to shabby. Visit her website at: ThePowerofIntroverts.com.

To get your free advanced reader’s copy of Quiet, either leave a message for us here in the comment section or email us at rhacademic@randomhouse.com with your preferred shipping information.

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