Three on the Third is a monthly series in which we highlight three books new to the library collection. Summaries of the books are provided. For the month of May, we’re sharing a variety of ebooks. Links to the ebooks are below and you can access them from the comfort of your own home!
Shoe Dog
by Philip Knight
Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), opening up about how he went from being a track star at an Oregon high school to the founder of a brand and company that changed everything. You must forget your limits. It was only when Nike founder Phil Knight got cut from the baseball team as a high school freshman that his mother suggested he try out for track instead. Knight made the track team and he found he could run fast and even more he liked it. Ten years later, young and searching, Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high quality running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car to start, he and his gang of friends and runners built one of the most successful brands ever. Phil Knight encountered risks and setbacks along the way, but always followed his own advice. Just keep going. Don’t stop. Whatever comes up, don’t stop. Filled with wisdom, humanity, humor, and heart, the young readers edition of the bestselling Shoe Dog is a story of determination that inspires all who read it.
Book Link – Shoe Dog
One Small Yes: Small Decisions Lead to Big Results
by Misty Lown
Misty … is literally the Steve Jobs of the dance world, and the steps she’s taken to build her business apply to any business owner out there” (Cody Foster, CEO, Advisors Excel). It’s the small decisions that lead to big results. People were born to live a life of significance. But busyness and fear of failure can overwhelm and get in the way. Now Misty Lown-founder of More Than Just Great Dancing and MoreThanDancers.com-shares her secrets for following your passion toward success. One Small Yes was written for people who want to make an impact, but are not sure where to start. One Small Yes is for you if you have ever wondered: “What am I here for?” “What is my calling?” “Can I follow my calling without losing my family or my sanity?” If what I see in my mind is possible, how on earth can I get it all done’ Forget about complicated calendars or excessive goal setting exercises. Following your calling is about moving forward, one small yes decision at a time. No matter the size of your dream or the difference you feel called to make, your journey starts with One Small Yes. If you want to build a life and a business that makes a difference, Misty Lown will show you the way. What she has accomplished one ‘yes’ at time is an inspiration to entrepreneurs everywhere.
Book Link – One Small Yes
Thick and Other Essays
by Tressie McMillan Cottom
In these essays exploring beauty, media, money, and more, the author – an award-winning professor – embraces her role as a purveyor of wit, wisdom, and Black Twitter snark about all that is right and much that is wrong with this thing we call society.
Why are some technologies such as fiberglass vaulting poles and hinged skates accepted in sport while performance-enhancing drugs are forbidden? Yes, performance-enhancing drugs are against the rules, but the people who play and govern sport create those rules; rules can be changed. Should we level the playing field by allowing all competitors to use drugs that allow them to run faster or longer, leap higher, or lift more? In this provocative exploration of what draws us to sport as participants and spectators, Good Sport argues that the values and meanings embedded within our games provide the guidance we need to make difficult decisions about fairness and performance-enhancing technologies. Good Sport reveals what we care about in sport. It describes how the reckless use of biomedical enhancements undermines those values. Implicit in sport’s history, rules and practices are values and meanings that provide a sturdy foundation for an ethics of sport that celebrates natural talents and dedication. The way a sport adapts to innovations in equipment, tactics and players makes visible its values and meanings. Performance-enhancing drugs distort the connection between natural talents, the dedication to perfect those talents, and success in sport. Through understanding the fundamental role of values and meanings, we can see not just what we champion in the athletic arena but more broadly what we value in human achievement.
Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York’s Blackwell’s Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, “a lounging, listless madhouse.” Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the island’s inhabitants. We also hear from the era’s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. And we follow the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell’s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Damnation Island shows how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us—and reminds us how much work still remains.
The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery–these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson’s answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out the approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality.
When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone, and Cam becomes an expert at both. Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship, one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self—even if she’s not quite sure who that is.
Dex is the proprietor of Stumptown Investigations, and a fairly talented P.I. Unfortunately, she’s less adept at throwing dice than solving cases. Her recent streak has left her beyond broke – she’s into the Confederated Tribes of the Wind Coast for 18 large. But maybe Dex’s luck is about to change. Sue-Lynne, head of the Wind Coast’s casino operation, will clear Dex’s debt if she can locate Sue-Lynne’s missing granddaughter. But is this job Dex’s way out of the hole or a shove down one much much deeper?
Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the few Black kids at Jefferson Academy. At home she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. When a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, the game is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. No one knows Kiera is the game developer– until an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for “anti-white discrimination.” Can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?
One of the most followed antitrust cases of recent times–United States v. Apple–reveals a missed truth: what Americans most fear is competition itself. In 2012 the Department of Justice accused Apple and five book publishers of conspiring to fix e-book prices. The evidence overwhelmingly showed an unadorned price-fixing conspiracy that cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet before, during, and after the trial millions of Americans sided with the defendants. Pundits on the left and right condemned the government for its decision to sue, decrying Amazon’s market share, railing against a new high-tech economy, and rallying to defend beloved authors and publishers. For many, Amazon was the one that should have been put on trial. But why? One fact went unrecognized and unreckoned with: in practice, Americans have long been ambivalent about competition. Chris Sagers, a renowned antitrust expert, meticulously pulls apart the misunderstandings and exaggerations that industries as diverse as mom-and-pop grocers and producers of cast-iron sewer pipes have cited to justify colluding to forestall competition.
Hivemind: A collective consciousness in which we share consensus thoughts, emotions, and opinions; a phenomenon whereby a group of people function as if with a single mind. Our views of the world are shaped by the stories told by our self-selected communities. Whether seeking out groups that share our tastes, our faith, our heritage, or other interests, since the dawn of time we have taken comfort in defining ourselves through our social groups. But what happens when we only socialize with our chosen group, to the point that we lose the ability to connect to people who don’t share our passions? What happens when our tribes merely confirm our world view, rather than expand it? The advent of social media and smartphones has amplified these tendencies in ways that spell both promise and peril. Our hive-ish natures benefit us in countless ways–combating the mental and physical costs of loneliness, connecting us with collaborators and supporters, and exposing us to entertainment and information beyond what we can find in our literal backyards. But of course, there are also looming risks–echo chambers, political polarization, and conspiracy theories that have already begun to have deadly consequences. Leading a narrative journey from the site of the Charlottesville riots to the boardrooms of Facebook, considering such diverse topics as zombies, neuroscience, and honeybees, psychologist and emotion regulation specialist Sarah Rose Cavanagh leaves no stone unturned in her quest to understand how social technology is reshaping the way we socialize. It’s not possible to turn back the clocks, and Cavanagh argues that there’s no need to; instead, she presents a fully examined and thoughtful call to cut through our online tribalism, dial back our moral panic about screens and mental health, and shore up our sense of community.
Between 1999 and 2017, an estimated 250,000 Americans died from overdoses involving prescription painkillers, a plague ignited by the aggressive marketing of OxyContin by its maker, Purdue Pharma. Purdue, owned by a wealthy and secretive family–the Sacklers–knew early on that teenagers and others were abusing its billion dollar “wonder” drug. But Justice Department officials balked a decade ago when it came to meting out justice, allowing an opioid crisis to evolve into a catastrophe. Originally published in 2003 and hailed since as groundbreaking, Meier–in this thoroughly updated edition–reveals new and shocking information about how long the drug maker knew about OxyContin’s abuse, even as it marketed it aggressively, and the way government officials passed up opportunities to protect hundreds of thousands of lives. Equal parts crime thriller, medical detective story, and business expos, ̌ Pain Killer is the origin story of the opioid crisis, a hard-hitting look at how a supposed wonder drug became the gateway drug to a national tragedy.
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses–until things become much more serious. Most of the island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten. When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past. A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.
Are you looking to start the new semester off on the right foot? Look no further, the McGraw-Page Library has a fresh display to help support your pursuit of academic and personal success. Featuring both e-books and print books, below is a selection of 5 books from the display that will help get you on the right track. For more selections, come down to the Library and check out our display!
College survival just got graphic! There’s so much more to college than course guides and picking your dorm. From doing your own laundry to making friends to scoring a job and staying healthy, there’s no shortage of things to figure out! No need to panic. The Infographic guide to college has you covered with illustrated, realistic advice on how to: avoid the freshman 15, ace your exams, declare a major, master study habits, get around town, get along with your roommate, apply for a loan, and so much more!
Taking a skills-building approach, Kickstarting Your Academic Career is a primer on the common scholastic challenges first-year social sciences students face upon entering college or university. Based on the challenges that instructors most often find students need help with, the authors offer practical advice and tips on such topics as communicating with instructors, note taking, how to read a textbook, writing exams, and researching and writing papers. The succinct writing and clear organization make this an essential reference for first-year students as they encounter post-secondary work for the first time, and a useful refresher for upper year students looking to refine their skills.
What if a few new habits could dramatically increase your productivity, and even 5x or 10x it in key areas? What if you could get an an hour a day to read, exercise, or to spend with your family. New York Times bestselling author, Kevin Kruse, presents the remarkable findings of his study of ultra-productive people. Based on survey research and interviews with billionaires, Olympic athletes, straight-A students, and over 200 entrepreneurs—-including Mark Cuban, Kevin Harrington, James Altucher, John Lee Dumas, Pat Flynn, Grant Cardone, and Lewis Howes—-Kruse answers the question: what are the secrets to extreme productivity?
Each of us has the ability to develop and improve our minds in amazing ways. All you need is motivation, an effective method, and an expert guide. Ramon Campayo’s method shows you the fastest, easiest and most effective way to: -Drastically and almost immediately increase your memorization capacity and reading speed.-Enhance your learning methods, study techniques, and psychological preparation.-Improve your study habits and prepare for exams. Maximize Your Memory is for students who want to reach their best potential, as well as anyone else who dreams of increasing his or her mental capacity. As Campayo himself declares, “It is possible to learn the things I can do. And everyone can learn. I am the world champion in speed memory, but my wife is second and my brother is eighth. After one hour of training with my methods, my students can triple their reading speed.
their academic career, even when their chosen concentration isn’t English or Literature. While there are countless textbooks dedicated to the subject, there are virtually no books dedicated to providing practical, down-to-earth advice that will allow the college student to write concisely, coherently, and successfully. Essential Writing Skills for College & Beyond is a refreshing take on college writing instruction for students in any major.
Henosis is the Greek word for oneness/unity. Since time immemorial this universal concept has been championed within traditional wisdom, ancient philosophy and theology. The psychoanalyst, Carl Jung referred our shared human experience with the phrase “collective unconscious,” while physicists use the term “quantum entanglement” to describe how every particle is inherently connected to the whole. The missing links between the wisdom of ancient philosophy and the startling insights within modern psychology to transform suffering, transcend circumstances, and increase our capacity for love are explored in The Promise of Wholeness.
When everything has been taken from you, what else is there to do but run? From Seattle to Washington, DC, Annabelle is running through mountain passes and suburban landscapes, from long lonely roads to college towns. She’s not ready to think about the why yet, just the how – muscles burning, heart pumping, feet pounding the earth. But no matter how hard she tries, she can’t outrun the tragedy from the past year, or the person – The Taker – that haunts her. Followed by Grandpa Ed in his RV and backed by her brother and two friends (her self-appointed publicity team), Annabelle becomes a reluctant activist as people connect her journey to the trauma from her past. Her cross-country run gains media attention and she is cheered on as she crosses state borders, even thrown a block party and given gifts. The support would be nice, if Annabelle could escape the guilt and shame from what happened back home. They say it isn’t her fault, but she can’t feel the truth of that. Through welcome and unwelcome distractions, she just keep running to the destination that awaits her. There, she’ll finally face the miles of love and loss behind her…and what still lies ahead.
Evan is shy, lonely, and bullied for it. He has a chance encounter with Connor Murphy–just before Connor commits suicide. Evan’s life suddenly gets turned around, and suddenly he isn’t invisible anymore to the girl of his dreams–Connor’s sister, Zoe, who believes Evan was Connor’s only friend. As Evan goes from being a nobody to everyone’s hero and a social media superstar, Evan is filled with confidence … until things start unraveling.
The works presented in Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic raise questions about race, gender, and the politics of representation by portraying contemporary African American men and women using the conventions of traditional European portraiture. The exhibition includes an overview of the artist’s prolific fourteen-year career and features sixty paintings and sculptures. Wiley’s signature portraits of everyday men and women riff on specific paintings by Old Masters, replacing the European aristocrats depicted in those paintings with contemporary black subjects, drawing attention to the absence of African Americans from historical and cultural narratives. The subjects in Wiley’s paintings often wear sneakers, hoodies, and baseball caps, gear associated with hip-hop culture, and are set against contrasting ornate decorative backgrounds that evoke earlier eras and a range of cultures. Through the process of “street casting,” Wiley invites individuals, often strangers he encounters on the street, to sit for portraits. In this collaborative process, the model chooses a reproduction of a painting from a book and reenacts the pose of the painting’s figure. By inviting the subjects to select a work of art, Wiley gives them a measure of control over the way they’re portrayed.
When it comes to viewing art, living in the information age is not necessarily a benefit. So argues Michael Findlay in this book that encourages a new way of looking at art. Much of this thinking involves stripping away what we have been taught and instead trusting our own instincts, opinions, and reactions. Including reproductions of works by Mark Rothko, Paul Klee, Joan Miro , Jacob Lawrence, and other modern and contemporary masters, this book takes readers on a journey through modern art. Chapters such as “What Is a Work of Art?” “Can We Look and See at the Same Time?” and “Real Connoisseurs Are Not Snobs,” not only give readers the confidence to form their own opinions, but also encourages them to make connections that spark curiosity, intellect, and imagination. “The most important thing for us to grasp,” writes Findlay, “is that the essence of a great work of art is inert until it is seen. Our engagement with the work of art liberates its essence.” After reading this book, even the most intimidated art viewer will enter a museum or gallery feeling more confident and leave it feeling enriched and inspired.
Cy Twombly was one of the most fascinating and remarkable artists of our time. His ceuvre, the paintings sculptures, drawings, photographs, and prints have been widely exhibited, both in America and Europe. His worldwide recognition is still growing. Twombly’s art reconciles grand themes of the memoriae of ancient topographies as well as modernism with the individual, personal experience of contemporary life. Seldom has an artist achieved such a distinctive, broad range of an ever new, surprisingly unique language, exploring and celebrating the poetic possibility of painting and drawing.