March 5, 2010
I AM NUJOOD, AGED 10 AND DIVORCED
This week, in a New York Times Op-Ed piece, Pultizer-Prize winning journalist Nicholas D. Kristof, who is also co-author of Half of the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Knopf, 2009), talks about an amazing new book, I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced (Three Rivers Press, 2010).
In the book, the now 12-year old Nujood from Yemen recounts her life story, which involved being married off at the age of 10 to a man in his 30’s, and then courageously seeking to escaping this marriage by getting a divorce.
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced is already a bestseller in several countries, and is now available in the States in a paperback format.
To have a free copy of this book sent to you, simply read the NYT article and book excerpt , then add your reactions and comments to this post to this and email us with your request. Please be sure to include your full school mailing address.
March 1, 2010
A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED Edited by Susannah Carson
by Susannah Carson, author of A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen (Random House, 2009).
“Can Jane Austen’s novels be considered the best novels of our time?”
“Why yes,” I responded, with the bewildered expression of someone who’s just been asked if she breathes air, “of course.”
But ever since that snippet of conversation I’ve been turning the topic over and over. Is it simply a devout preference? Or is it also a fact of literary history?
If we want to make the move from personal belief to universal truth, we’ll have to define our terms… Keep reading →
March 1, 2010
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February 22, 2010
SWITCH by Chip & Dan Heath
Brothers Chip Heath, professor of Organizational Behaviour at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and Dan Heath, a consultant to the Aspen Institute, have followed up their bestselling and course-adopted book Made to Stick with a groundbreaking book that addresses one of the greatest challenges of our personal and professional lives—how to change things when change is hard.
In Switch, the Heaths have written a thoroughly engaging narrative about the difficulty in bringing about genuine, lasting change—in ourselves and in others—especially when we have few resources and no title or authority. The Wall Street Journal recently published an interesting review that discusses the book’s message within the context of one reviewer’s personal life challenge, and in a recent video review social and new media maven Chris Brogan called the book ”a must read”.
Check out their reviews by clicking on the links above, and start reading the book here; then post a comment: what do you think of the authors’ message? Do you see applications in the classroom, among faculty/administration, or within your larger discipline? Can we really flip the switch?
February 1, 2010
WHY WE HATE US by Dick Meyer
by Dick Meyer, author of Why We Hate Us: American Discontent and the New Millennium (Three Rivers Press, 2009).
Since publishing Why We Hate Us: American Discontent and the New Millennium, the single question I have been asked the most is, “Will Barack Obama lead Americans to hate us less?”
The answer, I am sorry to report, is “no.”
The basic argument of my book is that Americans have developed a broad, enduring distaste and suspicion toward the main institutions and directions of our public culture. This holds true for politics, government, journalism, business, entertainment, marketing, law and even the clergy. Increasingly, Americans feel alienated from their culture and susceptible to its coarseness and toxicity. Keep reading →
January 19, 2010
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
A few years ago, in a conversation with my husband’s oldest brother, I said that I thought the only solution to illegal immigration was to help create jobs in the handful of countries that send about four in every five undocumented immigrants to the U.S.
My husband’s brother, assuming I was talking about U.S. foreign aid, got very angry. He reached for his pant pocket and yanked out his wallet. He slapped it down on the picnic table. “This is my money!” he told me. No one, he said, was going to use his hard-earned cash to help a bunch of people in another country he didn’t even know. Keep reading →
January 5, 2010
LOST TO THE WEST by Lars Brownworth
by Lars Brownworth, author of Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Crown, 2009).
There are few words as controversial—or as misunderstood—as ‘crusade’. Those who doubt that need only remember nine years ago when President George W. Bush casually used it to describe the War on Terror. The ensuing firestorm caused frantic verbal backpedaling, and resulted in the President spending the next seven years repeatedly explaining that he was not waging a war against Islam.
Yet for all the disbelief and outrage, most people today know only a few basic ‘facts’ about the Crusades. They are largely regarded as an exercise in hypocrisy, an unprovoked assault into the Middle East by an expansionist West. Goaded on by the Pope, the knights of Europe sewed crosses onto their shirts and smashed their way into Jerusalem, committing horrendous atrocities in the name of a supposedly peaceful religion. The shocking events traumatized the Islamic world, poisoning relations and leading many Muslims to conclude that the West—and Christianity in particular—was out to destroy them. The chance for peaceful co-existence was lost, and it has been war ever since.
Like so many popularly accepted storylines, this one depends on a short view of history. Keep reading →
December 18, 2009
HIGH by Brian O'Dea
Brian O’Dea, author of HIGH: Confessions of an International Drug Smuggler (Other Press 2009), responds to comments posted to his “Legalize All Drugs Now!” essay from September 23rd, 2009.
I was interviewed recently by a young reporter who grew up in the midst of the so called “drug war”. As far as she was concerned, it is perfectly alright for our government to wage a war against the weakest of our citizens, even though her entire premise for it being acceptable was built on a foundation of lies, untruths, omissions, and a complete disregarding of the facts. Numbers issued by the DEA have notoriously distorted the facts for years (a simple example is found in their excessive valuation of the drugs they seize), and even only recently, under extreme pressure from LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition –LEAP.CC) have they changed a blatant lie on their home page regarding marijuana.
At any rate, I digress, let’s return to the interview. Keep reading →
December 14, 2009
The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley
by Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why and a contributor to TIME Magazine.
One of the strange things about influenza pandemics is that they happen in slow motion, giving us time to reflect.
Looking back, it’s clear that one major challenge was (and will be) striking the elusive balance between reasonable mobilization and overreaction. We want people to wash their hands and stay home when they are sick; we don’t want people to stone buses carrying a sick passenger from another country.
How do we dial up—or down—our response to a pandemic in real time? It might help to shape public warnings and communication according to how the brain actually works. Keep reading →
