Now available!
Knights of the Gridiron: A History of Carleton College Football, 1883-2005
by Bob Sullivan, former Carleton College football coach
Bob Sullivan, former Carleton football coach (1979-2000) and professor emeritus, has written a book on the history of Carleton football from 1883-2005. "This book is filled with pictures, anecdotes, and interviews with former players, as well as a complete history of Carleton football," Sullivan says. "Carleton has enjoyed a long, glorious and winning football tradition and it has been a labor of love, as well as therapeutic, for me to write about it." All former Knights and their families will find Knights of the Gridiron to be a must have.
Hardcover. $29.95

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
by Kai Bird (Class of '73) and Martin J. Sherwin
Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
2006. From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. Though many recognize Oppenheimer (1904–1967) as the father of the atomic bomb, few are as familiar with his career before and after Los Alamos. Martin Sherwin (A World Destroyed) has spent 25 years researching every facet of Oppenheimer's life, from his childhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side and his prewar years as a Berkeley physicist to his public humiliation when he was branded a security risk at the height of anticommunist hysteria in 1954. Teaming up with Kai Bird, an acclaimed Cold War historian (The Color of Truth), Sherwin examines the evidence surrounding Oppenheimer's "hazy and vague" connections to the Communist Party in the 1930s — loose interactions consistent with the activities of contemporary progressives. But those politics, in combination with Oppenheimer's abrasive personality, were enough for conservatives, from fellow scientist Edward Teller to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, to work at destroying Oppenheimer's postwar reputation and prevent him from swaying public opinion against the development of a hydrogen bomb. Bird and Sherwin identify Atomic Energy Commission head Lewis Strauss as the ringleader of a "conspiracy" that culminated in a security clearance hearing designed as a "show trial." Strauss's tactics included illegal wiretaps of Oppenheimer's attorney; those transcripts and other government documents are invaluable in debunking the charges against Oppenheimer. The political drama is enhanced by the close attention to Oppenheimer's personal life, and Bird and Sherwin do not conceal their occasional frustration with his arrogant stonewalling and panicky blunders, even as they shed light on the psychological roots for those failures, restoring human complexity to a man who had been both elevated and demonized.
Paperback. Regularly $17.95. Now 15% off—only $15.26!

Becoming Mr. Henry: One Man's Path From Learning to Teaching
by Peter Henry, Carleton Class of '83
The true story of an American teacher, Becoming Mr. Henry traces the development of the author from a young boy bewildered by the world to a knowing mentor of street-wise youth. Along the way, Mr. Henry dispenses ample insight on current educational debates involving high-stakes testing, abstinence education and zero tolerance drug policies. Often off-beat and funny, and sometimes touching and poignant, Becoming Mr. Henry is mainly about teaching – why it matters, how it can be successful, and why it may be an essential tool for liberating the human spirit.
SterlingHouse Publisher. Paperback. $17.95

Totem Tale: A Tall Story from Alaska
by Deb Vanasse
illustrated by Erik Brooks, Carleton Class of '94
On a full-moon night in Alaska, a traditional native totem pole magically comes to life. The Grizzly, Beaver, Frog, and Raven all stretch and scratch and voice their relief at being free at last. But then the first dawn light appears on the horizon, and the totems have to reassemble themselves in the proper order before morning. Who should be on top of whom? Can wise Raven reason with these contentious creatures? Deb Vanasse’s enchanting text and Erik Brooks’s lively illustrations make this a memorable modern folktale.
Sasquatch Books. Paperback. $10.95

A Nation Gone Blind: America in an Age of Simplification and Deceit
by Eric Larsen (Class of '63)
2006. America's citizens seem plagued by despair and frustration, much deeper today than the “malaise” President Jimmy Carter noted twenty years ago. Our political and social cultures are driven by issues morally complex and yet presented with simple-minded hostility. Born in 1941, novelist, critic, and teacher Eric Larsen sees his own lifetime as paralleling the arc of a national dissolution, and in three penetrating essays he describes an increasingly desperate situation. Larsen offers an impassioned critique of where we once were, where we are, and where we're very soon going if we don't watch out.
Paperback. $16.00

What Carleton is reading!

These are the top ten bestselling titles at the Carleton Bookstore from the winter term.

1. The Eros Conspiracy
by Greg Hewett, Associate Professor of English
Romantic poets, revolutionaries, and gay icons lend their voices to these communiques from lover to beloved, turning starry-eyed cliches on their heads. A carnivalesque eroticism pervades as Beauty, History, Love, and Revolution meet in this intrigue-fueled dramatic monologue from Minnesota poet Greg Hewett, whose previous collection Red Suburb was a BookSense Poetry Top Ten selection and winner of the Publishing Triangle Award.
Paperback. $15.00

2. Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
Twenty-four years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, Gilead reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life.
Paperback. $14.00

3. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism
by Derrick Bell
The noted civil rights activist uses allegory and historical example to present a radical vision of the persistence of racism in America. These essays shed light on some of the most perplexing and vexing issues of our day: affirmative action, the disparity between civil rights law and reality, the “racist outbursts” of some black leaders, the temptation toward violent retaliation, and much more.
Paperback. $15.00

4. Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform
by Derrick Bell
When the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education was handed down in 1954, many civil rights advocates believed that the decision finding public school segregation unconstitutional could become the Holy Grail of racial justice. Derrick Bell shatters this shining image of one of the Court's most celebrated rulings. He notes that, despite the onerous burdens of segregation, many black schools functioned well and racial bigotry had not rendered blacks a damaged race. Brown's recognition of racial injustice, without more, left racial barriers intact. Given what we now know about the pervasive nature of racism, the Court should have determined — for the first time — to rigorously enforce the "equal" component of the "separate but equal" standard. In Silent Covenants, Bell condenses more than four decades of thought and action into a powerful and eye-opening book.
Paperback. $14.95

5. Plain Songs: Stories and Poems by Carleton Writers
edited by Keith Harrison, Professor of English-Emeritus
Plain Songs features nine members of Carleton's faculty.
Paperback. $11.95

6. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition
by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
You know the authors' names. You recognize the title. You've probably used this book yourself. This is The Elements of Style, the classic style manual, now in a fourth edition. The revisions to the new edition are purposely kept minimal in order to retain the book's unique tone, wit, and charm. A new Glossary of the grammatical terms used in the book provides a convenient reference for readers. The discussion of pronoun use is revised to reflect the contemporary concern with sexist language. A new Foreword by Roger Angell reminds readers that the advice of Strunk & White is as valuable today as when it was first offered. This book has conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. Use the fourth edition of “the little book” to make a big impact with writing
Paperback. $7.95

7. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. Kate DiCamillo takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the bustling streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.
Hardcover. $18.99

8. A Million Little Pieces
by James Frey
The electrifying and highly-controversial opening of James Frey's book, A Million Little Pieces, smash-cuts to the then 23-year-old author on a Chicago-bound plane "covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood." Frey is on a steep descent from a dark marathon of drug abuse. His stunned family checks him into a famed Minnesota drug treatment center where a doctor promises "he will be dead within a few days" if he starts to use again. This edition includes a publisher's note and an author's note addressing the controversies over this book.
Paperback. $14.95

9. Brokeback Mountain
by Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many readers and reviewers, Brokeback Mountain is her masterpiece. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.
Paperback. $9.95

10. The Sudoku Book: An Introduction to Sudoku with 101 Puzzles
by Sam Griffiths-Jones
Like all the best puzzlers, Sudoku is fiendishly simple. The game is composed of a 9 x 9 grid with a few preselected numbers entered. Players add numbers and the only rule is that each row and column must include each number from one to nine exactly once. True Sudoku puzzles — like the ones presented in this book — have only one correct answer. Meaning "single number" in Japanese, Sudoku puzzles help teach logic and math skills, while imparting greater patience. Not only that, but they're great for trips or long waits, and the book's handy 5" x 5" format makes it easy to take it anywhere. Complete with three skill levels and hints, Sudoku is perfect for anyone who wants to start sharpening their logic while enjoying an addictive game.
Paperback. $6.95