Personal growth and branch change go hand in hand. That's the idea behind the ˇAdelante! Book of the Month Club, a component of AAUW's diversity outreach program.
Book clubs are a fun, social way to open a dialogue on women, diversity, and change. Many AAUW members share a love of reading, and that love, partnered with a desire to seek out books written from diverse perspectives, launched a new component of AAUW's diversity outreach program in 1996 - AAUW's ˇAdelante! Book of the Month Club.
Since then, AAUW members have enjoyed exploring new ideas and perspectives through monthly discussions, both in person and through e-mail. ˇAdelante! book groups meet in book stores, libraries, other public venues, and online, gathering both members and nonmembers to talk about issues of social justice based on the month's selection.
Should any of these selections not seem suitable for your group, feel free to select an alternative book of your choice.
This year, AAUW has introduced three lists of book club selections. In 2008-2009, the ˇAdelante! Book Club selections include:
AAUW has a new partnership with Barnes & Noble's online sales site, BN.com. Customized for AAUW members, the Barnes & Noble website is our own AAUW bookstore. AAUW members automatically receive a 5 percent discount on purchases (10 percent periodically) - and that’s on top of other available discounts that apply to the purchase. You will also find information on
Barefoot Heart is a vividly told autobiographical account of the life of a child growing up in a family of migrant farm workers. Elva Trevino Hart was born in south Texas to Mexican immigrants and spent her childhood moving back and forth between Texas and Minnesota, eventually leaving that world to earn a master's degree in computer science/engineering.
Growing up in the fifties, Carolyn Spiro was always in the shadow of her more intellectually dominant and social outgoing twin, Pamela. But as the twins approached adolescence, Pamela began to succumb to schizophrenia, hearing disembodied voices and eventually suffering many breakdowns and hospitalizations.
Divided Minds is a dual memoir of identical twins, one of whom faces a life sentence of schizophrenia, and the other who becomes a psychiatrist, after entering the spotlight that had for so long been focused on her sister. Told in the alternating voices of the sisters, Divided Minds is a heartbreaking account of the far reaches of madness, as well as the depths of ambivalence and love between twins. It is a true and unusually frank story of identical twins with very different identities and wildly different experiences of the world around them.
Green Grass, Running Water is the story of five Blackfoot Indians in the town of Blossom and its nearby reserve, whose very different lives nevertheless continually cross. Alberta, a university professor who wants a child but not a marriage, is involved with two men who seem to represent opposite possibilities: Charlie, a flashy lawyer, and Lionel, a self-effacing TV salesman. Latisha, Lionel's sister, runs the Dead Dog Cafe, a local hangout and tourist trap. And then there's Eli, who moved to the city and its white man's establishment, never intending to look back to Blossom or the reservation's ancient way of life. All the while, four old Indians, escapees from a mental institution, drift mysteriously and hilariously in and out of time, from the beginnings of the universe to its undecided future. Wildly combining Native American and Western spiritual traditions in the stories they tell, they attempt to recreate and reorder the world. And the trickster Coyote follows along, wreaking havoc as he prowls through the novel. This is a rich tale, weaving subtle, magical humor, revisionist history, muted nostalgia, and sacred humanity into one bright, whole cloth.
In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade. An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.
The Difference reveals that progress and innovation may depend less on lone thinkers with enormous IQs than on diverse people working together and capitalizing on their individuality. Page shows how groups that display a range of perspectives outperform groups of like-minded experts. Diversity yields superior outcomes, and Page proves it using his own cutting-edge research. Moving beyond the politics that cloud standard debates about diversity, he explains why difference beats out homogeneity, whether you're talking about citizens in a democracy or scientists in the laboratory. He examines practical ways to apply diversity's logic to a host of problems, and along the way offers fascinating and surprising examples, from the redesign of the Chicago "El" to the truth about where we store our ketchup.
Page changes the way we understand diversity--how to harness its untapped potential, how to understand and avoid its traps, and how we can leverage our differences for the benefit of all.
The first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. In The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, Du Bois argued against the conciliatory position taken by Booker T. Washington, at the time the most influential black leader in America, and called for a more radical form of aggressive protest-a strategy that would anticipate and inspire much of the activism of the 1960s.
Du Bois's essays were the first to articulate many of Black America's thoughts and feelings, including the dilemma posed by the black psyche's "double consciousness," which Du Bois described as "this twoness-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings . . . in one dark body." Every essay in The Souls of Black Folk is a jewel of intellectual prowess, eloquent language, and groundbreaking insight. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the struggle for Civil Rights in America.
By the time she dies at age 106, Esther Gottesfeld, the last survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, has told the story of that day many times. But her own role remains mysterious: How did she survive? Are the gaps in her story just common mistakes, or has she concealed a secret over the years? As her granddaughter seeks the real story in the present day, a zealous feminist historian bears down on her with her own set of conclusions, and Esther's voice vies with theirs to reveal the full meaning of the tragedy.
A brilliant chronicle of the event that stood for ninety years as New York's most violent disaster, Triangle forces us to consider how we tell our stories, how we hear them, and how history is forged from unverifiable truths.
In a heartrending and astonishing novel, Eggers illuminates the history of the civil war in Sudan through the eyes of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee now living in the United States. We follow his life as he's driven from his home as a boy and walks, with thousands of orphans, to Ethiopia, where he finds safety - for a time. Valentino's travels, truly Biblical in scope, bring him in contact with government soldiers, janjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation - and a string of unexpected romances. Ultimately, Valentino finds safety in Kenya and, just after the millennium, is finally resettled in the United States, from where this novel is narrated. In this book, written with expansive humanity and surprising humor, we come to understand the nature of the conflicts in Sudan, the refugee experience in America, the dreams of the Dinka people, and the challenge one indomitable man faces in a world collapsing around him.
Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession.
Gene Robinson is bishop of the tiny, rural Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, but he's at the center of a storm of controversy raging in the Episcopal Church and throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion involving homosexuality, the priesthood, and the future of the Communion. This book offers an honest, thoughtful portrait of Robinson, the faith that has informed his life, and the controversy that continues to rock his Church.
Infidel is the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. With a gimlet eye and measured, often ironic, voice, Hirsi Ali recounts the evolution of her beliefs, her ironclad will, and her extraordinary resolve to fight injustice done in the name of religion. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries largely ruled by despots. In her early twenties, she escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim immigrant women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Even though she is under constant threat -- demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from her family and clan -- she refuses to be silenced.
Casey Han's four years at Princeton gave her many things, "But no job and a number of bad habits." Casey's parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working in a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold on to their culture and their identity. Their daughter, on the other hand, has entered into rarified American society via scholarships. But after graduation, Casey sees the reality of having expensive habits without the means to sustain them. As she navigates Manhattan, we see her life and the lives around her, culminating in a portrait of New York City and its world of haves and have-nots. Free Food for Millionaires offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves.
Updated with a new chapter that draws on behavioral finance, the field that studies the psychology of investment decisions, here is the best-selling, authoritative, and gimmick-free guide to investing. Burton Malkiel evaluates the full range of investment opportunities, from stocks, bonds, and money markets to real estate investment trusts and insurance, home ownership, and tangible assets such as gold and collectibles. This edition includes new strategies for rearranging your portfolio for retirement, along with the book's classic life-cycle guide to investing, which matches the needs of investors in any age bracket. A Random Walk Down Wall Street long ago established itself as a must-read, the first book to purchase before starting a portfolio. So whether you want to brief yourself on the ways of the market before talking to a broker or follow Malkiel's easy steps to managing your own portfolio, this book remains the best investing guide money can buy.
How to Invest $50 - $5,000 has been a trusted adviser to investors for twenty years. This ninth edition has been completely revised and updated to cover the full range of small investing-from selecting a bank to saving for college and retirement to making sense of financial pages. Step-by-step instructions guide even the most inexperienced investor through the maze of stocks, bonds, treasuries, mutual funds, and more, with new sections on how to recognize a swindle or scam; what to do when fired; ten sources of instant cash; and the top 25 online financial Web sites. These low-risk, high-value tips are perfect for every investor.
Norton Garfinkle paints a disquieting picture of America today: a nation increasingly divided between economic winners and losers, a nation in which the middle-class American Dream seems more and more elusive. Recent government policies reflect a commitment to a new supply-side winner-take-all Gospel of Wealth. Garfinkle warns that this supply-side economic vision favors the privileged few over the majority of American citizens striving to better their economic condition.
Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century - an astounding net worth of $10 billion, and counting. His awesome investment record has made him a cult figure popularly known for his seeming contradictions: a billionaire who has a modest lifestyle, a phenomenally successful investor who eschews the revolving-door trading of modern Wall Street, a brilliant dealmaker who cultivates a homespun aura.
Do you have outstanding balances on your credit cards? Are you afraid to change jobs? Will you retire with nothing? If you answered yes to any of these questions, behaviors that you learned as a girl may be denying your prosperity. Now, with the same frank advice and empowering information that made Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office a bestseller, Lois P Frankel, Ph.D. tackles the 75 money mistakes that stand between women and the wealth they deserve.
India is everywhere: on magazine covers and cinema marquees, at the gym and in the kitchen, in corporate boardrooms and on Capitol Hill. Through incisive reportage and illuminating analysis, Mira Kamdar explores India's astonishing transformation from a developing country into a global powerhouse. She takes us inside India, reporting on the people, companies, and policies defining the new India and revealing how it will profoundly affect our future - financially, culturally, politically.
Insurance For Dummies introduces readers to the basics - as well as the more complicated issues - of every kind of insurance. Packed with expert advice and step-by-step guidance, it shows you how to find the right amount of protection at the best possible price, for your life, health, car, home, and anything else you can think of.
How can you provide a financially sound future for your loved ones while avoiding estate planning or even making a will, unsure about how to effectively plan for the disposition of your assets? Estate planning is essential-no matter how much money or property you intend to leave to your heirs. In this handy Q&A guide, you'll find answers to all your questions about taxes, gifts, wills, will substitutes, and much more.
Written by Kim Kiyosaki, the wife of bestselling author Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Woman is for women who insist on being financially independent - without depending on a man, family, company, or government to take care of them. In her book, Kiyosaki applies the same moneymaking strategies that have made Rich Dad, Poor Dad one of the great publishing success stories of all time - but in a voice that is aimed directly at women. No matter what your financial background is or your current job situation, Rich Woman provides the essential road map for any woman who aspires to be financially free.
Your home is the single most valuable thing you can own, yet making it pay can intimidate and confuse even the savviest investor. Now, in an indispensable new book, finance expert Gerri Willis leads you step-by-step through the entire experience of buying, maintaining, and selling a home, and shows you how to come out ahead-maybe even way ahead.
The former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan shares the story of his life first simply with an eye toward doing justice to the extraordinary amount of history he has experienced and shaped. But his other goal is to draw readers along the same learning curve he followed, so they accrue a grasp of his own understanding of the underlying dynamics that drive world events. In the second half of the book, having brought us to the present and armed us with the conceptual tools to follow him forward, Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour de horizon of the global economy. He reveals the universals of economic growth, delves into the specific facts on the ground in each of the major countries and regions of the world, and explains what the trend-lines of globalization are from here. The distillation of a life's worth of wisdom and insight into an elegant expression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand as Alan Greenspan's personal and intellectual legacy.
This book examines the myths and cultural 'truths' about marriage and money. It helps women make their marriage financially transparent so they understand their marital finances. Women need this because once they say "I Do", they become one-half of a legal and financial partnership. Whatever a woman's husband is doing financially, she is doing it too, whether she knows about it or not! The book redefines intimacy, showing it as the opposite of romance. It is a step by step guide for how a woman can protect herself against the financial consequences of divorce or widowhood. The information is based on the author's own story of being widowed without warning, yet prepared for what she needed to know and do to regain control of her life. The book contains a separate chapter For Husbands Only - a direct and no nonsense letter to husbands everywhere.