Tuesday, December 30, 2008

This Week's Bestsellers


The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck, winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph--his lucky charm.

Back home in Colorado, Thibault can't seem to get the photo--and the woman in it--out of is mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina--Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son--to be the girl he's been waiting his whole life to meet.

Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart--destroying not only their love, but also their lives.

Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, THE LUCKY ONE, is Nicholas Sparks at his best--an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the poewr of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.



Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell

Why do some people succeed far more than others?

There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story that focuses on intelligence and ambition. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we went to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking around them -- at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. The story of success is more complex -- and a lot more interesting -- than it initially appears.

Outliers explains what the Beatles and Bill Gates have in common, the extraordinary success of Asians at math, the hidden advantages of star athletes, why all top New York lawyers have the same resume, and the reason you've never heard of the world's smartest man -- all in terms of generation, family, culture, and class. It matters what year you were born if you want to be a Silicon Valley billionaire, Gladwell argues, and it matters where you were born if you want to be a successful pilot. The lives of outliers -- those people whose achievements fall outside normal experience -- follow a peculiar and unexpected logic, and in making that logic plain Gladwell presents a fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all our friends and family. Have a safe weekend and for goodness sake, go play in the snow! I'll be back on Monday with more blog action.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Run, Run, Rudolph!

Be on the lookout for this guy tonight:


Make sure you get to bed early and leave some cookies for him, or he might fly right by.
Merry Christmas from the MSU Bookstore.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

This Week's Bestsellers

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch

Meet Sarah Walters, a Charleston debutante with questionable manners and an inherited weakness for bad ideas. Sarah's brilliant older sister just dropped out of Yale to run off with an unstable graduate student from Africa. Her beautiful mother lectures her incessantly on the importance of good etiquette but tends to act cold and mysterious after she's had her nightly gin. Still, Sarah tries to follow the rules set by the Camellia Society, the creators of the debutante code. After all, this is Charleston. Decorum means everything.

But, it's not easy to be good, particularly in those summers when she and her friend run into wild Island boys in pickup trucks. When Sarah heads north to college and New York, she finds a world very different from the one promised to her by the Camellias. The girls don't say "ma'am"; the boys don't act like gentlemen. And then there's love, which comes to Sarah in the form of Max, a passionate yet emotionally closed older man who leads Sarah to her dark side and then leaves her alone to find her way back.

Events bring Sarah home to Charleston and give her a good, fresh look at her beginnings. The revelation of her mother's secret--one of many sights now plain to Sarah's eyes--shows her that the motto of her girlhood, "Once a Camellia, always a Camellia," has more truth to it than she had ever guessed.

Girls in Trucks is an irresistible debut, carried by a funny, wise voice that heralds the arrival of an exciting new writer.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman

Thomas L. Friedmans's phenomenal number-one bestseller The World is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world in a new way. In his brilliant, essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America's surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked--how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time.

Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world's middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is "hot, flat, and crowded." Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things--unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green.

This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that American cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America.

In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation's greatest natural resources.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future.

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Finals Days of Christmas

Only 3 days 'til Christmas, and hopefully your shopping is complete. If not, remember that we have shortened hours this week, but we are here for you until 4:30 PM on Christmas Eve. Our hours for this week are:

Monday - Wednesday 7:45 AM - 4:30 PM
Closed Thursday - Sunday

Friday, December 19, 2008

What I'm Reading

A new feature here on the MSU Bookstore Blog will be "What I'm Reading: Employee Book Recommendations". This addition of What I'm Reading comes from myself, Mary Uravich, your fearless blog author and Marketing Supervisor at the MSU Bookstore.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

About a month ago, my roommate mentioned to me that he was reading a book that was going to make him question the way he eats. This surprised me because my roommate is a conscientious consumer who buys locally when possible and eats organic foods almost exclusively. Shortly after that conversation, I read the article An Animal's Place by Michael Pollan in New York Times Magazine. That article alone made me switch to cage free eggs and explore more information about the topic. That's when I found this book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and realized it is what my roommate told me about weeks before.

I am about halfway through this book and finding myself more intrigued by it as time goes. I read Fast Food Nation a few years ago, and find this one to be written in a different tone. It is investigative, like Fast Food Nation, but explores similar topics from the root of the problem: corn. The first few chapters outline the United States' dependence on corn and the extent to which it is ingrained (no pun intended) into our society. Over 80% of processed foods contain corn, and over 70% contain soy. We are feeding corn to animals not meant to digest it, like cows and salmon.

So far, the book is causing me to relentlessly check food labels for corn products such as high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrin, citric acid and corn oil. I am also now purchasing cage free eggs, as mentioned before, and switched to a brand of milk that is local and from cows that are not treated with antibiotics (I know this because my roommate called the farmer to check).

Pick up this book if you are looking for an enlightening glance into the source of food in America. If you love processed food, however, I would not recommend it.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Finals Week Cheer

Here are a few pictures from the Intermountain Therapy Dogs' visit to the MSU Bookstore.



Eli, a Standard Poodle, and his owner help educate Bookstore customers about Intermountain Therapy Dogs.



















Major, a 120 pound Bernese Mountain Dog, brings cheer to the line at the Textbook Buyback window.



















MSU Bookstore Board Member, Nancy Dodd, and her Samoyed, Sasha, greet customers at the front of the store.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Moisturize!

A representative from Yellowstone Bees will be at the Bookstore today from Noon - 2 PM. Yellowstone Bees is a local Natural Body Products company that makes products to soothe and protect your skin, from head to toe. What a great time to finish up your Christmas shopping!


Below is a photo from the Intermountain Therapy Dogs' visit to the MSU Bookstore on Tuesday. The dogs spent the day trolling the Bookstore, wagging their tails at stressed out MSU students. A few of them even ventured out to the very long Buyback line. It was great to see the smiles of the students waiting in the chilly line.

More pictures to be posted on Thursday.



Tuesday, December 16, 2008

This Week's Bestsellers

In honor of the visit to the Bookstore today by the Intermountain Therapy Dogs, I present this week's Bestsellers.


The Dog Who Thought He Was Santa by Bill Wallace

Don Franklin's Dog, Frank, is a bloodhound, so he can smell when something's wrong. And a lot seems to be wrong in Don's family. Mom and Dad are worried about money, especially with Christmas right around the corner and the threat of the mine closing. Don's worried because he's just discovered how dangerous Dad's job in the mine is. And they're all worried about getting Don's little sister, Susan, what she wants for Christmas, when she won't tell anyone but Santa Claus what it is. It looks as if Christms might not be all that merry at the Franklins' house.

But Christmas is a time for miracles, whether seen from a boy's perspective or a dog's--and The Dog Who Thought He Was Santa looks at the Franklins' Christmas miracle from both.



Marley and Me by John Grogan

The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.

John and Jenny were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy -- and their life would never be teh same. Marley quickly grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound steamroller of a Labrador retriever who crashed through screen doors, flug drool on guests, stol women's undergarments, devoured couches and fine jewelry, and was expelled from obedience school. Yet Marley's heart was pure, and he remained a steadfast model of love and devotion for a growing family through pregnancy, birth, heartbreak, and joy, right to the inevitable goodbye.


Marley and Me is being made into a movie, starring everyone's fave Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston. The movie doesn't come out until December 25th, but if you can't wait, below is the trailer. The movie looks fantastically hilarious.



Monday, December 15, 2008

Get Pawtographed!

The Intermountain Therapy Dogs will be at the MSU Bookstore, Tuesday, Dec. 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The dogs will be "pawtographing" pet related books and merchandise. Featured books include Marley & Me by John Grogan and The Dog Who Thought He Was Santa by Bill Wallace.

Intermountain Therapy Dogs are representatives of Intermountain Therapy Animals. The non-profit organization specializes in providing animal-assisted therapy in the areas of physical, occupational, speech and psychotherapies, as well as special education.

For more information about Intermountain Therapy Animals, visit www.therapyanimals.org.

For more information about the event, contact Mary Uravich at 994-7472.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Finals Got You Down?

Have no fear, Buyback is here!!

The Buyback Window in the SUB is cranking out the cash buying used textbooks today. Check the Buyback List on the website to see if your books are worth anything.

And, if you are looking for some good entertainment on this very chilly weekend, check out this ridiculous Youtube video. It apparently was one of the top ten videos on You Tube this year. Why? You decide:



If that didn't do it for you, play this game. It seems simple, but you will be addicted before you know it: Vector TD

Thursday, December 11, 2008

College Kid Word of the Day

Finals Beard

Noun
A beard one grows around the time of final exams. This is done for a number of reasons, but generally it is done because their focus shifts from their face to their failing grades.

Guy 1: Hey, what's going on with Ted's face?
Guy 2: Oh, that's just his finals beard. Didn't you hear? He's failing like three classes.

Source: www.urbandictionary.com
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In other news, Textbook Buyback starts tomorrow. Hours for buyback will be:

Friday, December 12: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday, December 13: 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Monday, Dec 15 - Dec 19: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Click here for the Buyback List

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Word of the Day: Assiduous

as⋅sid⋅u⋅ous

uh-sij-oo-uhs
–adjective
1. constant; unremitting: assiduous reading.
2. constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive: an assiduous student.

Origin:
1530–40; < class="ital-inline">assiduus, equiv. to assid(ēre) to sit near, beside, dwell close to (see assess ) + -uus deverbal adj. suffix; see -ous




Definition taken from www.dictionary.com

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Buyback on Friday

The Textbook Buyback window will be open tomorrow, Friday, December 5 from 8 AM to 5:30 PM. Bring your used textbooks and receive some cash money!

The major fall Textbook Buyback is coming up. Hours for that buyback are:

Friday, December 12: 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Saturday, December 13: 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Monday - Friday, December 15 - 19: 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM

A buyback list will be posted on the MSU Bookstore website. Stay tuned for news on when that list will be available.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

This Week's Best Sellers

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck

When Eddie was twelve years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. Although his life had gotten harder--and money tighter--since his father died and the family bakery closed... Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to have his dream bike gleaming beside their modest Christmas tree that magical morning.

What he got from her instead was a sweater. "A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater" that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of the room.

Scarred deeply by the realization that kids don't always get what they want, and too young to understand that he already owned life's most valuable treasures, that Christmas morning was the beginning of Eddie's dark and painful journey on the road to manhood. It will take wrestling with himself, his faith, and his family--and the guidance of a mysterious neighbor named Russell--to help Eddie find his path through the storm clouds of life and finally see the real significance of that simple gift his mother had crafted by hand with love in her heart.

Based on a deeply personal true story, The Christmas Sweater is a warm and poignant tale of family, faith, and forgiveness that offers a glimpse of our own lives--while also making us question whether we really know what's most important in them.


Dewey by Vicki Myron

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her hear, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility (for a cat), and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.