Spring Convocation & MSU Award Winners

About Spring Convocation

In recognition of their award and in gratitude for their work at MSU, the library asked award winners to recommend a book to encourage reading, exploration, creativity, and cross-disciplinary discovery. Recommendations were displayed in Bobcat Browse, a popular reading collection located in the library’s atrium, at the beginning of the spring semester.

Recommended books were given a book plate listing the award winner, their department, college, or office, award name, and year awarded.

2021 Award Winners

For the second year, MSU Library presented an award at Spring Convocation. The Excellence in Open Education award recognizes a faculty member for their work in making Open Educational Resources available to students. This year's winner was Stacey Hancock, assistant professor of statistics.

Dr. Hancock is the course supervisor for STAT 216 (Introduction to Statistics), one of the largest courses on campus with over 30 sessions each year. For the course, Dr. Hancock adopted and adapted an open source textbook, created in-class activities and case studies, course videos, and writing R functions for simulation-based inference. With over 1,500 students per year in STAT 216, availability of a free, open access software has a tremendous impact on MSU students.

MSU Library offers congratulations to Dr. Hancock and to all the award winners. You can read more about each winner by visiting the Spring Convocation webpage.

Katie Bark, Health & Human Development
Excellence in Innovative Service

Rebecca Belou, Office of Planning & Analysis
President's Commission on Status of University Women Award

Alix Byrd, MilTech
Excellence in Outreach Award/ Staff

David Claudio, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Academic Advising Award/ Faculty

Susanne Cowan, Architecture
President's Award for Excellence in Service Learning

Hannah DelCurto Animal & Range Sciences
Teaching Innovation Award

Donald Demetriades, History & Philosophy
Phi Kappa Phi Anna K. Fridley Award- Non-Tenure

David Dickensheets, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Charles and Nora L. Wiley Award for Meritorious Research and Creativity

Ann Ewbank, Education
Phi Kappa Phi Anna K. Fridley Award- Tenure

Michelle Flenniken, Plant Sciences & Plant Pathology
Excellence in Outreach Award/ Faculty

Stacey Hancock, Mathematical Sciences
Excellence in Open Education

Sharlyn Izurieta, Computer Science
Academic Advising Award/ Staff

Marilyn Lockhart, Education
Women's Faculty Caucus Distinguished Mentor Award

Jennifer Luebeck, Mathematical Sciences
Provost's Award for Exemplary Land Grant

Nicolas Lux, Education
Excellence in Online Teaching

Stephanie McCalla, Chemical & Biological Engineering
Vice President for Research's Meritorious Technology/Science Award

Carrie Myers, Education
Provost's Award for Graduate Research/Creative Mentoring

Molly Todd, History & Philosophy
Betty Coffey Award

David Varricchio, Earth Sciences
Cox Faculty Award for Creative Scholarship and Teaching

J. Mitchell Vaterlaus, Health & Human Development
James and Mary Ross Provost's Award for Excellence

Maria Velazquez, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
President's Excellence in Teaching Award

Robert Walker, Chemistry & Biochemistry
Fox Faculty

2021 Award Winner Book Recommendations

Reading Recommendations

The titles found below were recommended by 2021 Spring Convocation award winners.
They are available for checkout through MSU Library.

Recommended by Katie Bark
Health & Human Development

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
ISBN: 9780062976581
Publication Date: 2019-10-22
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER · USA TODAY BESTSELLER "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is not only a thought-provoking, discussion-worthy story, the book itself is an object of art."- Elizabeth Egan, The New York Times From British illustrator, artist, and author Charlie Mackesy comes a journey for all ages that explores life's universal lessons, featuring 100 color and black-and-white drawings. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" asked the mole. "Kind," said the boy. Charlie Mackesy offers inspiration and hope in uncertain times in this beautiful book, following the tale of a curious boy, a greedy mole, a wary fox and a wise horse who find themselves together in sometimes difficult terrain, sharing their greatest fears and biggest discoveries about vulnerability, kindness, hope, friendship and love. The shared adventures and important conversations between the four friends are full of life lessons that have connected with readers of all ages.

Recommended By Rebecca Belou
Office of Planning & Analysis

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
ISBN: 9781419729072
Publication Date: 2019-03-12
Winner of the 2019 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Winner of the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives. Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women, diving into women's lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor's office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

Recommended By Alix Byrd
MilTech

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
ISBN: 9781400069286
Publication Date: 2012-02-28
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * This instant classic explores how we can change our lives by changing our habits. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal * Financial Times In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives. Praise for The Power of Habit "Sharp, provocative, and useful."--Jim Collins "Few [books] become essential manuals for business and living. The Power of Habit is an exception. Charles Duhigg not only explains how habits are formed but how to kick bad ones and hang on to the good."--Financial Times "A flat-out great read."--David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity "You'll never look at yourself, your organization, or your world quite the same way."--Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind "Entertaining . . . enjoyable . . . fascinating . . . a serious look at the science of habit formation and change."--The New York Times Book Review

Recommended By David Claudio
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
ISBN: 9780060883287
Publication Date: 2006-02-21
"One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. . . . Mr. Garcia Marquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound, meaningful, and meaningless in life." --William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women--brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul--this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.

Recommended By Susanne Cowan
Architecture

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher; William L. Ury; Bruce Patton
ISBN: 9780143118756
Publication Date: 2011-05-03
The key text on problem-solving negotiation-updated and revised Getting to Yes has helped millions of people learn a better way to negotiate. One of the primary business texts of the modern era, it is based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that deals with all levels of negotiation and conflict resolution. Getting to Yes offers a proven, step-by-step strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict. Thoroughly updated and revised, it offers readers a straight- forward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting angry-or getting taken.

Recommended By David Dickensheets
Electrical & Computer Engineering

Academic Duty by Donald Kennedy
ISBN: 0674002229
Publication Date: 1997-10-24
The university is under attack from all sides. Parents and students resent the escalating costs of education and wonder where the money is being spent. Aspiring scholars feel betrayed by an institution that prepares them for nonexistent jobs. Critics on the right condemn teachers who negelect the canon while critics on the left condemn the creeping corporatism on campus. Politicians seek greater control over the conduct of research and add new conditions to the use of government funds. Academics themselves are increasingly uneasy in an environment that fosters competition, discourages co-operation and has made publish or perish a condition of survival.

Recommended By Ann Dutton Ewbank
Education

Caste (Oprah's Book Club) by Isabel Wilkerson
ISBN: 9780593230251
Publication Date: 2020-08-04
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * "An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. NAMED THE #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME MAGAZINE AND ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY People * The Washington Post * Publishers Weekly AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * O: The Oprah Magazine * NPR * Bloomberg * Christian Science Monitor * New York Post * The New York Public Library * Fortune * Smithsonian Magazine * Marie Claire * Town & Country * Slate * Library Journal * Kirkus Reviews * LibraryReads * PopMatters LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD AND THE PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION "As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not." In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.

Recommended By Michelle Flenniken
Plant Sciences & Plant Pathology

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
ISBN: 9781503902374
Publication Date: 2018-05-01
Soon to be a major television event from Pascal Pictures, starring Tom Holland. Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, the USA Today and #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man's incredible courage and resilience during one of history's darkest hours. Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He's a normal Italian teenager--obsessed with music, food, and girls--but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents force him to enlist as a German soldier--a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler's left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich's most mysterious and powerful commanders. Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share. Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.

Recommended By Stacey A. Hancock
Mathematical Sciences

Calling Bullshit by Carl T. Bergstrom; Jevin D. West
ISBN: 9780525509189
Publication Date: 2020-08-04
Bullshit isn't what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data. Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it's increasingly difficult to know what's true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school bullshit that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don't feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school bullshit presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In Calling Bullshit, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data. You don't need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern bullshit. We have always needed people who call bullshit when necessary, whether within a circle of friends, a community of scholars, or the citizenry of a nation. Now that bullshit has evolved, we need to relearn the art of skepticism.

Recommended By Sharlyn Izurieta
Computer Science

The Sound of Mountain Water by Wallace Stegner
ISBN: 9780525435433
Publication Date: 2017-08-08
A book of timeless importance about the American West and a modern classic by National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Wallace Stegner. The essays, memoirs, letters, and speeches collected in The Sound of Mountain Water encompass memoir, nature conservation, history, geography, and literature. Compositions delve into the post-World War II boom that brought the Rocky Mountain West--from Montana and Idaho to Utah and Nevada--into the modern age. Other works feature eloquent sketches of the West's history and environment, directing our imagination to the sublime beauty of such places as Robbers Roost and Glen Canyon. A final section examines the state of Western literature, of the mythical past and the diminished present, and analyzesd the difficulties facing any contemporary Western writer. Written over a period of twenty-five years, a time in which the West witnessed rapid changes to its cultural and natural heritage, and by a writer and thinker who will always hold a unique position in modern American letters, The Sound of Mountain Water is a hymn to the Western landscape, an affirmation of the hope emobided therein, and a careful and rich investigation of the West's complex legacy.

Recommended By Marilyn Lockhart
Education

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
ISBN: 9780735225299
Publication Date: 2019-04-09
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, the Seattle Times, the Washington Independent Review of Books, PopSugar, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, BookBrowse, the Spectator, and the Times of London Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography "Excellent...This book is as riveting as any thriller, and as hard to put down." -- The New York Times Book Review "A compelling biography of a masterful spy, and a reminder of what can be done with a few brave people -- and a little resistance." - NPR "A meticiulous history that reads like a thriller." - Ben Macintyre A never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine. In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.

Recommended By Jennifer Luebeck
Mathematical Sciences

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
ISBN: 0525950494
Publication Date: 2008-02-14
A New York Times bestseller people can believe in--by "a pioneer of the new urban Christians" (Christianity Today) and the "C.S. Lewis for the 21st century" (Newsweek). Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics, and even ardent believers, have about religion. Using literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand their ground against the backlash to religion created by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics, he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God.

Recommended By Carrie Myers
Education

Mama's Last Hug by Frans de Waal
ISBN: 9780393635065
Publication Date: 2019-03-12
A New York Times Bestseller and winner of the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. Frans de Waal has spent four decades at the forefront of animal research. Following up on the best-selling Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, which investigated animal intelligence, Mama's Last Hug delivers a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals. Mama's Last Hug begins with the death of Mama, a chimpanzee matriarch who formed a deep bond with biologist Jan van Hooff. When Mama was dying, van Hooff took the unusual step of visiting her in her night cage for a last hug. Their goodbyes were filmed and went viral. Millions of people were deeply moved by the way Mama embraced the professor, welcoming him with a big smile while reassuring him by patting his neck, in a gesture often considered typically human but that is in fact common to all primates. This story and others like it form the core of de Waal's argument, showing that humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy. De Waal discusses facial expressions, the emotions behind human politics, the illusion of free will, animal sentience, and, of course, Mama's life and death. The message is one of continuity between us and other species, such as the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: we don't have a single organ that other animals don't have, and the same is true for our emotions. Mama's Last Hug opens our hearts and minds to the many ways in which humans and other animals are connected, transforming how we view the living world around us.

Recommended By Molly Todd
History and Philosophy

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
ISBN: 9781608195213
Publication Date: 2013-09-17
Named one of the Best Books of the Century byNew York Magazine Two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward (Salvage the Bones, Sing, Unburied, Sing) contends with the deaths of five young men dear to her, and the risk of being a black man in the rural South. "We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped." --Harriet Tubman In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life--to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth--and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn says the answer was so obvious she felt stupid for not seeing it. But it nagged at her until she knew she had to write about her community, to write their stories and her own. Jesmyn grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi. She writes powerfully about the pressures this brings, on the men who can do no right and the women who stand in for family in a society where the men are often absent. She bravely tells her story, revisiting the agonizing losses of her only brother and her friends. As the sole member of her family to leave home and pursue higher education, she writes about this parallel American universe with the objectivity distance provides and the intimacyof utter familiarity. A brutal world rendered beautifully, Jesmyn Ward's memoir will sit comfortably alongside Edwidge Danticat'sBrother, I'm Dying, Tobias Wolff'sThis Boy's Life, and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Recommended By David Varricchio
Earth Sciences

The Lost World by Arthur Doyle; Harry Rountree (Illustrator); Maple White (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781606600887
Publication Date: 2016-11-16
The creator of Sherlock Holmes dabbled in many other genres including science fiction, and in this 1912 fantasy he transported readers to the wilds of the Amazon for a rollicking adventure among dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. The Lost World is the first and best of Arthur Conan Doyle's five stories about the eccentric paleontologist Professor Challenger. This splendid hardcover edition reprints the tale as it first appeared in The Strand Magazine and includes the original brush-and-wash illustrations by Golden Age masters Harry Rountree. Doyle, using his Maple White alias, provides artwork as well.

Recommended By Mitch Vaterlaus
Health & Human Development

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
ISBN: 9781501160837
Publication Date: 2020-09-08
Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller A People Book of the Week, Book of the Month Club selection, and Best of Fall in Good Housekeeping, PopSugar, The Washington Post, New York Post, Shondaland, CNN, and more! "[A] quirky, big-hearted novel...Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it's a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure." --People From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined. Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix their own marriage. There's a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world. Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them--the bank robber included--desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next. Rich with Fredrik Backman's "pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature" (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope--the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.

Recommended By Maria A. Velazquez
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
ISBN: 9780385349949
Publication Date: 2013-03-11
The #1 international best seller In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg reignited the conversation around women in the workplace. Sandberg is chief operating officer of Facebook and coauthor of Option B with Adam Grant. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TED talk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which has been viewed more than six million times, encouraged women to "sit at the table," seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto. Lean In continues that conversation, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to change the conversation from what women can't do to what they can. Sandberg provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career. She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment, and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women both in the workplace and at home. Written with humor and wisdom, Lean In is a revelatory, inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth that will empower women around the world to achieve their full potential.

Recommended By Blake Wiedenheft
Microbiology & Immunology

American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club) by Jeanine Cummins
ISBN: 9781250209764
Publication Date: 2020-01-21
#1 New York Times Bestseller OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK "Extraordinary." --Stephen King "This book is not simply the great American novel; it's the great novel of las Americas. It's the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful." --Sandra Cisneros También de este lado hay sueños. On this side, too, there are dreams. Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. Even though she knows they'll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy--two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same. Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia--trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier's reach doesn't extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to? American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a literary achievement filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the most important books for our times. Already being hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath for our times" and "a new American classic," Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.