From the editors of the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning comes another collection of terse true tales—this time simple sagas exploring the complexities of the human heart. Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak contains hundreds of personal stories about the pinnacles and pitfalls of romance. Brilliant in their brevity, these insightful slivers of passion, pain, and connection capture every shade of love and loss—six words at a time.

2. WHY HIM?  WHY HER?  Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type

by Helen Fisher
Why do you fall in love with one person rather than another? In this fascinating and informative book, Helen Fisher, one of the world’s leading experts on romantic love, unlocks the hidden code of desire and attachment. Each of us, it turns out, primarily expresses one of four broad personality types—Explorer, Builder, Director, or Negotiator—and each of these types is governed by different chemical systems in the brain. Driven by this biology, we are attracted to partners who both mirror and complement our own personality type.
Dr. Fisher was featured on 20/20 about two weeks ago and here in our office to talk to earlier this week.  I’ll be posting my podcast with her shortly!

3. Love The One You’re With by Emily Giffin

How do you know if you’ve found the one? Can you really love the one you’re with when you can’t forget the one who got away?

Emily Giffin, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof, poses these questions—and many more—with her highly anticipated, thought-provoking new novel Love the One You’re With.

4. DESSERT FOURPLAY: Sweet Quartets from a Four-Star Pastry Chef by Johnny Iuzzini & Roy Finamore

Whether you’ve sworn off the whole dating game or you have someone to share it with…there is no love like the love of sweets.

Far from the conventional slice of cake at the end of a meal, Johnny’s seasonal creations—four mini desserts in a quartet of complementary flavors and textures—are a culinary adventure. In Dessert FourPlay, he shares his secrets and inspirations, delivering standout recipes for incredible desserts that can be served alone or combined into his signature fourplay groupings, creating the perfect sweet finale for any meal.

5. LOVE by Toni Morrison

No list of books about love would be complete without Toni Morrison.

May, Christine, Heed, Junior, Vida–even L: all women obsessed with Bill Cosey. The wealthy owner of the famous Cosey’s Hotel and Resort, he shapes their yearnings for father, husband, lover, guardian, and friend, yearnings that dominate the lives of these women long after his death. Yet while he is either the void in, or the center of, their stories, he himself is driven by secret forces–a troubled past and a spellbinding woman named Celestial.

This audacious exploration into the nature of love–its appetite, its sublime possession, its dread–is rich in characters, striking scenes, and a profound understanding of how alive the past can be.

6. THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES by Gary Chapman

Are you and your spouse speaking the same language?

While love is a many splendored thing, it is sometimes a very confusing thing, too. And as people come in all varieties, shapes, and sizes, so do their choices of personal expressions of love. But more often than not, the giver and the receiver express love in two different ways. This can lead to misunderstanding, quarrels, and even divorce. Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.  Dr. Gary Chapman identifies five basic languages of love and then guides couples towards a better understanding of their unique languages of love.

7. LOVE MATTERS by Delilah

Delilah opens her heart to explain why love is, truly, what matters most…

Delilah dominates nighttime radio with her mesmerizing voice and unique offering of popular music, superb storytelling and sympathetic listening.

In this unforgettable book Delilah presents her favorite listener stories compiled from the thousands she receives every week.

8. THE GHIRARDELLI CHOCOLATE COOKBOOK

The cover photo on this book is enough to make me not need another date for quite some time.  Yum!

America is experiencing a chocolate renaissance, and the epicenter is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Ghirardelli has long been the standard-bearer for great chocolate.  The experts at Ghirardelli are back with a revised and updated collection of classic cookies, bars, cakes, and drinks. The recipes range from simple sweets to show-stopping desserts, with a special section on hosting a chocolate party.

9. AskMen.com Presents THE GUY’S GUIDE TO ROMANCE by James Bassil
The Guy’s Guide to Romance is an indispensable handbook filled with fundamentals that every man can use to enter into or maintain a happy, healthy relationship. Divided into 11 rules, The Guy’s Guide to Romance helps you cater to your girlfriend’s wants and needs and teaches you how to get her to do the same for you.

10. LOVE by Ferdinand Protzman

Universally desired and uniquely experienced, love finds expression in every land and culture. This enchanting new book celebrates the depth and diversity of love—at many moments in history, and at every human age—in an exquisite collection of photographs from National Geographic’s famous archives and beyond. Each picture tells a tantalizing story and captures an intimate, unforgettable glimpse of love’s many facets, from courtship to friendship to charity and more.

With only five days left, my lead is insurmountable. The competition can’t catch up. And for the third year in a row, I’ll triumph. In second place will be the president of the United States. Our contest is not about sports or politics. It’s about books. It all started on New Year’s Eve in 2005. President Bush asked what my New Year’s resolutions were. I told him that as a regular reader who’d gotten out of the habit, my goal was to read a book a week in 2006. Three days later, we were in the Oval Office when he fixed me in his sights and said, “I’m on my second. Where are you?” Mr. Bush had turned my resolution into a contest. [...]At year’s end, I defeated the president, 110 books to 95. My trophy looks suspiciously like those given out at junior bowling finals. The president lamely insisted he’d lost because he’d been busy as Leader of the Free World. [...] A glutton for punishment, Mr. Bush insisted on another rematch in 2008. But it will be a three-peat for me: as of today, his total is 40 volumes to my 64.

So the suggestion is that the leader of the free world was reading almost 2 books a week in 2006.  I’m not commenting on Bush’s education in any way, that is not a question here, my question is merely this, should the President have enough time to be reading two books a week, in addition to spending time with his family, reading the paper (or whatever a president does to stay up to date) and, you know, running the country?  (To be clear, I would be more than a little bit concerned if Obama were claiming to have done the same thing so this has nothing to do with politics).

As a full time social media/brand writing professional who works for a book company I don’t have enough time to read two books a week and I’m a pretty quick reader… so how does GWB pull it off? Especially during a war? I don’t know, reader, I just don’t know.

-We had a big week, and so did National Book Award Winner (for non-fiction) Annette Gordon-Reed (did you listen to our interview with her yet?)
-We embraced the new Google Books
-Tara described “The Obsession” of Antiquarian, Rare and Collectable books
-We polled you about comics and movies
-Destinie dabbled in DC and Delta Airlines.  Oh alliteration and Greenfest!
-Chip was flabbergasted by dating sites
-Dana interviewed Karen White, maybe she’ll win an award now(!)
-We showed you the Top 10 bestsellers of all time… in 1978.

The White Tiger, written by Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize.  From the website: “The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year.  Adiga is the fourth debut novelist to win the prize.

Also from the site:

Top Ten list coming Friday!

Who will fully appreciate the brilliance of this book?  It’s not until someone says that right thing at that right time that it strikes me. You would appreciate this book. You have proven yourself worthy.  You deserve my book.

When I hear a guy go on about a girl, song, and movie in one breath, I know he deserves to read High Fidelity.  When some Dude says “I feel like the only manly thing I do is open jars and replace the water cooler jug in the office,” I say you deserve to read Fight Club.

Some people appreciate geysers. Some people are fascinated by geysers. I spent a summer working in Yellowstone National Park and I saw Old Faithful.  Watching Old Faithful erupt is like watching water shoot out of the ground.  It just didn’t appreciate the science and the reliability of the matter.

I had more fun watching the people watching Old Faithful, some people were amazed, some were texting their friends, and some were making out.  Later that summer a friend offered me his book on geysers. Based on actually seeing a geyser, I wasn’t sure about the book, but he insisted so I took it from him. Reading the book was as rewarding as reading a book about hot water coming out of the ground.  I didn’t deserve that book.

Two weeks later I had a cute friend come and visit me.  She was so cute I bought her a cute 700 dollar ticket for her to come visit me. At that altitude you don’t care about money.  As I took my cute friend to see Old Faithful I remembered those two making out as Old Faithful did his thing.  As I went in to kiss my cute friend she didn’t even notice; she was too amazed at this hot water coming out of the ground. I nearly fell in love with her as I watched her study the geyser.  I had a book she deserved.

Another friend of mine believed she was psychic.  She let me borrow a Silvia Brown book.  If you do not know already, Silvia Brown is one of the most successful psychics out there.  I accidentally left the book at the airport. When I told my psychic friend I lost her book she seemed surprised. Perhaps she isn’t a psychic.

It doesn’t take a psychic to see that Better World Book is going to continue to realize the value of used books and erase illiteracy one book at a time. Better World Books is like that friend that deserves books.

To see thoughts from our conversation, note the comments below, and feel free to join in!

Justin: Always Be Testing, Collapse (Audiobook), Watchmen
Cory: The Big House, The Glass Castle
Geoff: Obama’s Challenge
Eddie: Web Analytics an Hour a Day, Watchmen
Xavier: Let My People Go Surfing
Jack: Blink, Doctor Zhivago
Ryan: Where the Wild Things Are, Post Office
Elina: Lonely Planet Travel Guide: Barcelona (lucky!!!)

This won’t affect us TOO much so the vitriol is dialed down, but this kind of exclusivity, should it become more commonplace, won’t exactly make booksellers love Chelsea Green.  For that matter, with B&N leading the way, it would be surprising if other booksellers didn’t take the hint and get on board for next time.

The reason this is such a problem is that this book is poised to make some noise in the book market.  This summer, two of the 5 bestsellers in this area (hardcover non-fiction) have been Obama bashing books, namely, current #1 seller Obama Nation and current #6 The Case Against Barack Obama.  With the wild popularity of this polarizing figure, the time for a well-written positive book to come out is now, where sales will be massive in counter to these bashing books sales.  The lucrative nature of this means that Amazon paid a premium for this exclusivity and that it hurts local and indie stores even more on a guaranteed success.

Penguin teamed up with Match.com and they’re trying to make it happen for you literary types out there who haven’t seen much action at the library lately.  This is especially good if you’re not using your local bookstore as much and instead you shop at Betterworld.com (that is until we install a virtual reality version where you can see all the other customers “in the store”).  This will have to do for now.

While we’ve spotlighted green book sources before, I do believe that Better World Books might be the only place you’ll be shopping in the future.

Here’s what makes them so great, and my new top pick for book buying:

1. All books sold help fund high-impact literacy projects around the world.
2. Not only do they sell new books, but they collect and sell donated books as well. Not only is this a great way to reduce/reuse/recycle, it also has helped to generate $4.5 million in funding for literacy and education. So far, over 6,000 tons of books have avoided landfills.
   
3. To date, Better World Books has donated over 1 million books to literacy programs.
4. Every order is shipped carbon neutral, using offsets from Carbonfund.org.
5. The company was started by college students who knew first-hand about the importance of passing on textbooks, literacy and business with a social conscience.

Ah, that feels good… like a warm towel after a shower.  Head over to Green Daily for great tips on how to greenify your life, a little bit at a time, and a sweet “Top Ten Green Kids’ Books” list that I’m way jealous I didn’t think of first.

G. Norman Collie said, “In free countries, every man is entitled to express his opinions and every other man is entitled not to listen.”  Well here in the US of A, we’re facing a huge election–involving the first fresh face in our leadership in eight years.  The success of any election in democracy relies on those same platonic ideals as free capitalism: perfect information for all involved.  Well, I don’t have that information for you reader, and here’s a hint, neither Fox News nor Drudge Report nor Keith Olbermann nor Pat Robertson nor the Daily Show has it for you.  You’re going to have to go out there and cull it for yourself from all the myriad places.  There’s going to be a lot of opinions, reader, and you’re entitled to listen, or not.

On the plus side, we’ve never had so many different sources of information, but at the same time we’ve never had so many sources of misinformation at the same time.  One thing you can be sure of however, is that your own thoughts and arguments are infinitely bolstered by knowing those of the other side (little debate tactic for you, yeah, I was in forensics in high school).  In honor of that, it doesn’t matter who you think is the best candidate, get out there and educate yourself.  I promise you that there are facts about each presidential candidate that you don’t know and may change your view.

Don’t let this come down to “I’m a _______ so I’m going to vote for their candidate.”  McCain is one of the most liberal Republicans in many years, tempering conservative ideals with an understanding of the problems of the people and Obama is one of most likely to spur on positive change in the political process and to be willing to do whatever is necessary for those in need.

Educate yourself, reader.  Besides, everyone knows that “reading is sexy” and as Oscar Wilde would quip “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”

To get you started, the latest texts from the preeminent candidates:

Roselle – Smart Women Finish Rich (by David Bach, video interview with DB coming soon!)
Erin – Hell to Pay & Soul Circus & American Gods & Good Omens
Lora – Manner of Death & 11 on Top & Thr3e & The Good Guy & The Taking (overachiever!)
Jozi – Emotional Intelligence & Christine & The Enchantress of Florence & She Got Up Off the Couch
Courtney – The Five Love Languages
Angela – The Last Juror
Will – Black Voices
Ayanna – Shattered Trust & Rich Dad, Poor Dad & Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
[Library Team member] – Think and Grow Rich & No Plot, No Problem

Xavier: The Landmark Herodotus (seriously it’s like 980 pages of history)
Geoff: Let My People Go Surfing & Crossing the Line
Justin: The World is Flat & The World Without Us
Elina: Chinese Takeout: a Novel
Jack: Made to Stick & Jitterbug Perfume

Hey all, Happy Memorial Day!  Hope you’re enjoying some barbequeing and friends and honoring those who’ve sacrificed for US freedom.

If you’re looking for some good reading on the topic, may I suggest the following:
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (drama, fiction)
The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (non-fiction, very well done)
The First World War by John Keegan (a real authority on the topic)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (a totally screwed version of someone who was involved in the Dresden bombings… typical (awesome) Vonnegut)

Enjoy the day off get some reading done to remind you of what people did to get you more than just a four day work week…

On one hand, I’m tempted to post this just because of its prose, which is beautifully done.  On the other hand I’m tempted to post this because it’s a Nobel lecture for literature, which is certainly a worthy post.  But what made me give in to temptation was her involvement with getting books to the African continent (something we know a little about, having shipped 920,000+ books to our partners…)

I am standing in a doorway looking through clouds of blowing dust to where I am told there is still uncut forest. Yesterday I drove through miles of stumps, and charred remains of fires where, in ‘56, there was the most wonderful forest I have ever seen, all now destroyed. People have to eat. They have to get fuel for fires.

This is north-west Zimbabwe in the early eighties, and I am visiting a friend who was a teacher in a school in London. He is here “to help Africa,” as we put it. He is a gently idealistic soul and what he found in this school shocked him into a depression, from which it was hard to recover. This school is like every other built after Independence. It consists of four large brick rooms side by side, put straight into the dust, one two three four, with a half room at one end, which is the library. In these classrooms are blackboards, but my friend keeps the chalks in his pocket, as otherwise they would be stolen. There is no atlas or globe in the school, no textbooks, no exercise books, or biros. In the library there are no books of the kind the pupils would like to read, but only tomes from American universities, hard even to lift, rejects from white libraries, or novels with titles like Weekend in Paris and Felicity Finds Love.

There is a goat trying to find sustenance in some aged grass. The headmaster has embezzled the school funds and is suspended, arousing the question familiar to all of us but usually in more august contexts: How is it these people behave like this when they must know everyone is watching them?

Read on at the Nobel site

Some years ago, I was awakened early one morning by a phone call from a friend. She had just broken up with a boyfriend she still loved and was desperate to justify her decision. “Can you believe it!” she shouted into the phone. “He hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!”

We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility.

Reading this, (despite the overt and somewhat heavy handed Pushkin reference that flies in the face of Donadio’s later quip a la Burroghs about the guy holding Beckett’s “Proust”) I was intrigued. We’ve all had relationships that went one way or the other and education and taste in books (and movies) has definitely been an issue in the early stages. I remember a girl I dated who was rather offended when I referred to Grisham as “beach worthy kitsch” and another who could never understand my lack of appreciation of the perfection of Austen’s complete works.

Fundamentally though, it’s the boring, hipster-esque snarkiness that creeps into the article that begins to take over any agreement, mocking men’s reading as middlebrow should they briefly embrace Ayn Rand, John Irving or Virginia Woolf (heaven forbid we read something with feminist tones that is actually well written!  Stupid guys…).

The two quotes that really do it for me are “…Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” beloved of searching young men. “When a guy tells me it changed his life, I wish he’d saved us both the embarrassment,” Heiblum said, adding that “life-changing experiences” are a “tedious conversational topic at best.”  The next time a girl is telling me about a life changing experience or a book she likes I’ll make sure to act like a total jerk, talking about how painfully quotidian her experiences are.  Geez.  If you can’t talk to me about the latest installation at MoMa (which is way overrated, I liked ______ better when people didn’t know his work as well) then you may as well embrace gender as social construct and pay your own bill and leave.

Then Donadio paints an altogether different picture, of someone not bored to tears, but actually amused by the banal baseness of a would be beau: “I did have to break up with one guy because he was very keen on Ayn Rand,” said Laura Miller, a book critic for Salon. “He was sweet and incredibly decent despite all the grandiosely heartless ‘philosophy’ he espoused, but it wasn’t even the ideology that did it. I just thought Rand was a hilariously bad writer, and past a certain point I couldn’t hide my amusement.”  I will give Donadio this, can’t you just see this woman sitting across the table from a guy tittering about the clunky language of someone undertaking the task of 400+ pages of philosophic bildungsroman written in her non-native tongue?  Clearly Rand should’ve taken cues from Solzhenitisyn’s “First Circle!”

Donadio notes “Naming a favorite book or author can be fraught. Go too low, and you risk looking dumb. Go too high, and you risk looking like a bore — or a phony.”  Trouble is, in this article she can’t navigate her own advice, at once sounding disingenuous and flippantly certain.  I like the concept of the article but trying to wade through all the Big Apple affectations of over-education is as rewarding as wading through the garbage in the East River (people wonder why I couldn’t swim until I was 12 even though I grew up in the Bronx…)

Luckily I remembered it was a fluff piece just in time… “If that person slept with the novelist in question, that would probably be a deal breaker — more than, ‘I don’t like Don DeLillo, therefore we’re not dating anymore.”

(that would be a deal breaker…)

On my trip, I’ve been to a number of fantastic places, including the St. Louis Arch, the Great Plains, Arches National Park and today the Grand Canyon.  Tomorrow I’ll be going to the Hoover Dam and crashing in L.A. (anyone have a place to stay?).  In honor of this I thought I’d find some books about each of them because seriously, if you’ve never been, go to them!  Tomorrow’s post will be chock full of great books about some of the landmarks that you should check out be you a visitor to the US or someone who lives here.  (The drive through the Rockies on I-70W is of the “life-changing” variety.  Unbelievable).

Also, meeting the incredible people I’ve met, in diners, gas stations, national parks and on the road helps keep me even more in touch with our mission of simultaneously promoting global literacy while lining your bookshelf.

By the way, if you’re traveling, may I suggest the “Lonely Planet” series.  They’re funny when they need to be and well laid out.  I lived in Ireland and traveled around most of the countries in Europe and without my guides I would probably still be lost in Germany somewhere.

Anyway, in honor of the holiday, the Better World Books team has narrowed our list of most amazing, substantial and generally badass women (and through thorough debate and numerous arm-wrestling tournaments) down to 10.  We’ll be the first to admit that it is not all inclusive, but it’s a start … Just in case you don’t feel comfortable conversing on any of these fine women, we’ve included book suggestions:

(Listed in NO particular order … seriously, that would be impossible)

Dian Fossey – Gorillas in the Mist

Maria Faustina Kowalska – Diary of…

Mother Teresa – In My Own Words


Princess Diana by Richard Buskin


Jehan Sadat – A Woman of Egypt

Eleanor Roosevelt by Russell Freedman


True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis deMontfort

Lynne Cox – Swimming to Antarctica

Jane Goodall – In the Shadow of Man

Rosa Parks – My Story

So get reading and here’s your excuse to worship the ladies in your life (as if you don’t all the time)

Apparently the writer bought some books from us at www.betterworld.com and has this to say about that:

I’ve been reading Christopher Buckley for the past month now.

1. No Way to Treat a First Lady
2. Thank You for Smoking
3. The White House Mess
4. Florence of Arabia
5. Wry Martinis

I’m on book #4 right now and I was so thrilled to find this:

It’s Christopher Buckley’s autograph~!

… now Johann and I have to change our names to Kerry and Susan. ^_^

My favorite is still No Way to Treat a First Lady. Florence of Arabia is really funny. ^_^

We also got a copy of Irving Stone’s Passions of the Mind — his take on Sigmund Freud.

We received a library copy and it still has the old library record. ^_^

I like that my books have a story. ^_^

So what have we learned? Used books have a story (that’s more than the one cleared by an editor) and sometimes a surprise. And did I mention they’re loads cheaper? Ah, well in case I didn’t…

Hope you’re all getting cozy with your loved ones, but if you’re like me then hopefully you’re getting all cozy with a book and a cup of tea.  For the old school take on love try some Jane Austen or the (soon to be movie!) Love in the Time of Cholera (yes guys, it’s an excellent book.  Seriously).

If you’re looking for love with a twist try on the latest effort from the hilarious Christopher Moore: You Suck: A Love Story.

Do yourself a favor and read one less Hallmark card that sounds like it was written either by a 7 year old or by someone your age (but in 1950 maybe) and try on some actual literature.  You won’t be disappointed.  After all, what girl wouldn’t wilt as you leave her on the balcony and say:

“‘Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.’
Oh wait, I left my keys, can you throw those down?”    (we can’t all be perfect!)

The Detroit Public Schools Book Depository has been destroyed by fires and weather for over 20 years since the city chose to walk away and leave it to ruin.  Everyday here at Better World Books we deal in the business of getting resources to where they belong: to those in need.  Meanwhile, here in our own country, there are pallets full of unopened textbooks from Houghton-Mifflin, piles of unopened workbooks or trees growing in the waste.  How could a local government or a community’s leaders decide to let something like this happen?

The blog Sweet Juniper is responsible for this story and these photos, check out the full story there and get a little riled up, it’s good for you, and better yet it could be good for your community.

In reference to this demographic, Richard Riley, former Secretary of Education (1993-2001) in the US commented in his March of 2000 speech, “54 percent of all teachers have limited English proficient (LEP) students in their classrooms, yet only one-fifth of teachers feel very prepared to serve them.”

In response to this state of affairs, the NCFL, our partner in US literacy, sponsors hundreds of programs all around the US and they have never been more important than today.  You don’t have to become a teacher to help the situation, check out the NCFL’s website for ideas.  Their latest approach offers “five $600,000 educational grants to benefit hispanic and other immigrant families for literacy efforts.”  It’s not just Johnny who can’t read.

Something we all have to contend with, however, if we live outside the public transport savvy cities, as so many do, is that we need a car (I usually ride my bike everywhere, but considering there are 6 inches of snow in Boston right now, you can be assured I’ll be borrowing my roommates car for that grocery store trip…).

OK, so you need a car.  Every car dealer out there is telling you that they’re green friendly and the numbers of “City MPG” or “Highway MPG” (sidebar: is this known as “Freeway MPG” in California?) are dizzying.  Let “GOOD Magazine” break it down a bit for you, to see which car company talks the talk AND walks the walk in this article.

Also, the future plans for green cars from each company in the graph will warm your heart, and hopefully not completely empty your wallet…

(p.s. If you don’t know about GOOD, they give all of your money to non-profits if you subscribe to their magazine.  Check out their info.

Honda’s (not yet released) Concept Car, runs on hydrogen
fuel cell, thereby creating 0 emissions!
[Image courtesy of MSNBC]

If not in the car market, or looking for something a bit different, look into this book at www.BetterWorld.com with some suggestions for making your daily life a little bit greener (and get it shipped carbon neutral, natch):

This year, however, think about last year and what you made happen.  Maybe this year you forget about buying the gym membership that you used 3 times all year and perhaps recreating that “Pete & Pete” episode in which Pete ”travels through time” by crossing the time zone boundary after midnight is somewhat misguided–if fun.  Maybe you want to consider something else, go green with your cleaners, dip your toe into solar (or just read about it first), learn a language (Swahili anyone?), get some hiking gear and get out there, learn to ski, adopt a penguin, or maybe just read a little more.  If you want it enough you can do it, and if you look, you’ll see we can help.

2007 is just a memory, we look forward to seeing you in the future!

Subject: Container to Kenya
Hello -

I am pleased to inform you that a 40-foot container of textbooks left our St. Paul warehouse today bound for the port of Mombasa, Kenya for distribution in that area of Africa.  Funding for a 20-foot container was provided for this container; BFA has utilized $1k from the Better World Books Fund to defray shipping costs of boosting this to a 40-foot container.

Thank you for this support of education in Kenya!
-Pat

This is just the first of a number of shipments that will be sponsored by the newly-formed Better World Books Fund – this 40-foot container holds about 35,000 books! Stay tuned for more BWB Fund updates.

Representing Friends and Alumni of KU at the ceremony were Dr. Leah Keino and Dr. Ebby Luvaga of Iowa State University, Dr. Jane Rose Njue of Northern Illinois University, Dr. Agnes Odinga of Hamline University, and Dorothy Rombo (faculty on study-leave from KU) of the University of Minnesota, who have all been actively involved in this project since October 2006. Also present were Wilfred Pere, and James Wakiaga, First Counsellor at the Kenyan Embassy.

It’s hard to start anew. I just moved to Boston and started a new job and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I like the area I moved in to and I like the mission of Better World Books, but how will I adapt? Will the people in each area live up to the fantastic experiences I’ve had in the past? Today I can say: Yes, and then some.

I’ve only been with BWB for a month, but from meeting the amazing people at the warehouse, talking to Pat at Books for Africa on a conference call, to even joining an “office” March Madness pool (which I am getting beaten soundly in, by the way), I feel at home already. The first people I met working here were so diverse in background and outlook, but there is one goal that we share: global literacy. This experience has truly made me feel like this is a job that I can, and will, succeed at because of their support system and enthusiasm. I can name at least 10 people who have saved me already, and I’m sure that list will extend, and hopefully, with our new hires I can start building a reputation as an answer guy too.

The best thing about starting though was the crop of emails from book drives encouraging me and showing such excitement about our program. Gary Chang, a Phi Theta Kappa member in New York City sent me the attached photo of how many books he has in his room at the beginning of the semester. You all know how much a picture is worth so I keep this one above my desk, with my eye on the prize.

We are excited to announce that John Wood, Founder and CEO of one of our partner organizations, Room to Read, has written and published a book detailing how he left Microsoft and started Room to Read.  As you know, Room to Read is an award-winning organization dedicated to providing children across the developing world with an opportunity to gain the lifelong gift of education.  Better World Books has raised over $150,000 for Room to Read over the past two years from our book drives and online book sales.

The Book is called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and it is available to buy now!  Room to Read has partnered with Giveline, Inc. (www.giveline.com/roomtoread) so that the margin from purchasing this book will be donated directly back to Room to Read.  The book is also available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Borders sites.

Leaving Microsoft details John’s incredible journey from corporate executive to social entrepreneur.  John was once a rising executive at Microsoft.  He thought he had it all: the big paycheck, the corporate apartment, and proximity to legendary software giant Bill Gates.  However, in 1998, he took a vacation that changed his life.

While trekking in the Himalayas, John visited a rural Nepali school and was confronted by the harsh reality faced by millions of children in the developing world — there were no books in the library!

As John left the village that day, the headmaster made a simple request: “Perhaps, Sir, you will some day come back with books.”  This request became a mission, one which John has dedicated “the second chapter of his adult life” to fulfilling:  changing the world one book and one child at a time by setting up schools and libraries across the developing world.

As of July 2006, Room to Read has opened nearly 3,000 libraries with 2 million books, set up over 2000 girls with long term scholarships, and opened nearly 200 schools.   Nearly a million children now have the opportunity to gain the lifelong gift of education.  To learn more visit: www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com and www.roomtoread.org.

The team at Better World Books has read John’s memoir and we highly recommend it.  Publishers Weekly agrees – in a starred review, they described the book as “an infectiously inspiring read [in which] Wood endears himself to the reader with his honesty and introspection.”

We hope that you will not only buy the book, but also share this mail with others.  Better World Books is proud to be funding the amazing work of Room to Read, and we believe that the launch of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World is a wonderful opportunity to share this story with millions of potential supporters.

Sincerely,

The Better World Books Team