• First Edition May 2010
• National Best Seller

J. Courtney Sullivan’s celebrated debut novel is a sparkling tale of friendship and a fascinating portrait of the first generation of women who have all the opportunities in the world, but no clear idea about what to choose.
 
Assigned to the same dorm their first year at Smith College, Celia, Bree, Sally, and April couldn’t have less in common. Celia, a lapsed Catholic, arrives with a bottle of vodka in her suitcase; beautiful Bree pines for the fiancé she left behind in Savannah; Sally, preppy and obsessively neat, is reeling from the loss of her mother; and April, a radical, redheaded feminist wearing a “Riot: Don’t Diet” T-shirt, wants a room transfer immediately. Written with radiant style and a wicked sense of humor, Commencement follows these unlikely friends through college and the years beyond, brilliantly capturing the complicated landscape facing young women today.

Amazon Exclusive: Allison Winn Scotch Reviews Commencement

Allison Winn Scotch is the New York Times bestselling author of Time of My Life and The Department of Lost & Found. Her third novel, The Happiest Days of My Life, will be published in 2010. Read her exclusive Amazon guest review of Commencement:

There is a curious thing that happens to nearly all of us in the haze of our post-college years, and that is this: we anticipate the prospect of becoming honest-to-God adults with both heady excitement and unfathomable dread. Dread because we know, wisely, that once we cross this threshold, we cannot go back; there is no sleeping in past eleven, no immature antics that can still be written off to childhood, no phoning our parents when the checkbook hits zero. Excitement because it is such a relief to evolve into something bigger than we were before, to embrace the world as ready, steady grown-ups. And J. Courtney Sullivan, via her debut novel, Commencement, explores these very complexities and growing pains of leaving behind our adolescences and surrendering to adulthood.

As I followed the intertwining paths of her four protagonists, each written honestly and tenderly, I couldn’t help but recall my own tangled path toward adulthood, the missteps, the right steps, the paths that have lead to a content life. And this is what the very best fiction does: it draws you in, resonating, asking you to reflect not just on the characters, but yourself. There is Celia, who can’t get unstuck from her rut; there is April, whose convictions threaten to overshadow the rest of her life; there is Bree, who faces a choice between her happiness and that of her family’s; and there is Sally, who is taping herself back together after the loss of her mother who held her family together.

The four of them, united as freshmen at Smith, slowly bond to form their own family, and like even the best of families, they find themselves both dependent and also fractured at various points in their lives. Sullivan does a fabulous job steering the quartet through realistic, life-changing events, events that so many of us have experienced in these growing years that usher us into our thirties. She never loses control of the plots, never lets the characters spill into something false or untrue. An unplanned pregnancy, a dead-end job, a relationship that might be worth salvaging, but who really knows how or if?

What I enjoyed most about Commencement, and there were many things—the smart writing, the laugh-out-loud dialogue, the ending that I truly couldn’t predict—was that it reminded me so much of how much I loved those years of my life. And how much I loved my friends who I have been fortunate enough to have along in my journey. I found myself rewinding through memories, sifting through old pictures, smiling as I was reading because Sullivan managed to transport me. She created indelible characters who became part of my life, and thus, allowed my life to become part of her book. This is also what the best fiction does, it pulls you along for the ride as if you were there, as if you were in between the pages, as if Sullivan knew my own story and made it hers. —Allison Winn Scotch

Bestselling author Mitch Albom was recently asked to speak at his nephew's high school graduation from a small school in Nice, France.  Although it is something he rarely does, he agreed. On a Friday afternoon, in a small auditorium far from home, Albom created a memorable testament to what we know and what we need to learn. In his passionate, touching and frequently funny address, he warned the class of 2008 of the many things they should watch out for in life, from sushi at airports to religions that advertise in the back of magazines.

But he also cautioned them to avoid feeling so special that it led to a superiority complex, and to be wary of speed, which he called "the enemy of your generation." Full of insight and sage humor, Albom's speech is an inspiring call to action that will appeal to people of all ages.

Albom will donate all proceeds from the sale of this speech to S.A.Y. Detroit, a non-profit charity he founded which distributes money to homeless shelters in Detroit for brick-and-mortar projects specifically designed to help those most in need.

Mitch Albom is the author of the international bestsellers Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and For One More Day, as well as six other books.  He also writes screenplays and stage plays.  Albom serves on numerous charitable boards, and has founded three charities in the Detroit area.  Albom lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan.

Bestselling author Mitch Albom was recently asked to speak at his nephew's high school graduation from a small school in Nice, France.  Although it is something he rarely does, he agreed. On a Friday afternoon, in a small auditorium far from home, Albom created a memorable testament to what we know and what we need to learn. In his passionate, touching and frequently funny address, he warned the class of 2008 of the many things they should watch out for in life, from sushi at airports to religions that advertise in the back of magazines.

But he also cautioned them to avoid feeling so special that it led to a superiority complex, and to be wary of speed, which he called "the enemy of your generation." Full of insight and sage humor, Albom's speech is an inspiring call to action that will appeal to people of all ages.

Albom will donate all proceeds from the sale of this speech to S.A.Y. Detroit, a non-profit charity he founded which distributes money to homeless shelters in Detroit for brick-and-mortar projects specifically designed to help those most in need.

Mitch Albom is the author of the international bestsellers Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and For One More Day, as well as six other books.  He also writes screenplays and stage plays.  Albom serves on numerous charitable boards, and has founded three charities in the Detroit area.  Albom lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan.

Thousands of years before Luke Skywalker would destroy the Death Star in that fateful battle above Yavin 4, one lone Padawan would become a fugitive hunted by his own Masters, charged with murdering every one of his fellow Jedi-in-training! From criminals hiding out in the treacherous under-city of the planet Taris, to a burly, mysterious droid recovered from the desolate landscape of a cratered moon, Padawan Zayne Carrick will find unexpected allies in his desperate race to clear his name before the unmerciful authorities enact swift retribution upon him!

In this beguiling anthology of more than 200 excerpts from the best commencement addresses given during the last twenty-five years, editor Peter J. Smith proves that, in the right hands, the graduation speech is thriving.

Far from being a tired truism, the commencement address can be a thoughtful, heartfelt epistle, a dispatch from the front lines of adulthood to the fresh recruits of the newly graduated. In "Onward! Twenty-Five Years of Advice, Exhortation, and Inspiration from America's Best Commencement Speeches," Smith has culled what the best minds (and hearts) have imparted to college graduates and in the process has created both a remarkable social history and a stirring celebration of the human spirit.

Arranged by year (and introduced with a recap of each year's cultural trends and events), the excerpts in "Onward!" spring from people with a wide array of talent, experience, and perspective: presidents and novelists, actors and news anchors, scientists and comedians. Their wisdom -- much of it surprising, all of it compelling -- will inform, delight, and inspire.

"We live in an age in which men have walked on the moon, have harnessed the vast power of nuclear energy, and have created enormous material wealth and riches. Yet our age is marked by ethical retardation, and by the passive tolerance of racism and poverty."

-- VERNON JORDAN, 1976

"I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are."

-- TONI MORRISON, 1979

"The best thing you can give yourselves for graduation is the gift of possibility. And the best thing you can give each other is the pledge to go on protecting that gift ineach other as long as you live."

-- PAUL NEWMAN, 1990

"Do not let people make you cynical. And do not think for a minute that you can have a good, full life if you don't care about what happens to the other people who share this nation and this planet with you."

-- BILL CLINTON, 1995

"In all things in life, choose your conscience, and trust your instincts and lead your lives without regrets. It is simply easier that way."

-- DAVID HALBERSTAM, 1996

Full of equal measures of common sense and goodwill, "Onward!" is the ideal companion with which to begin one's journey into adulthood.

The last, and potentially most meaningful, bit of education your college throws your way comes at the very moment you're least likely to hear and comprehend it, let alone contemplate and cogitate on it. No, it's not in that 8 a.m. lecture class or evening seminar, but out among your fellow graduates on commencement day. There you are, resplendent in your cap and gown, ostensibly listening to someone famous and wise, but more likely awash in the exhilarations, fears, and hangovers of graduation. When you stride proudly into the sunset with your diploma, it's unlikely that you'll carry with you any of that carefully honed commencement address.

And that's a shame. Commencement speeches, historically, contain more nuggets of wisdom and insight than most spoken words you're likely to have heard or likely to hear. So we owe Peter J. Smith a considerable amount of gratitude for culling the best of the myriad observations and admonitions that have been aired at graduations over the last 25 years. The result is a remarkable anthology, replete with perspicacious bits that transcend the years, and imbued with historical markers that reflect the social and political changes of the past quarter century. It's a volume destined to be popular as a commencement gift and treasured as a reference tool for social scholars.

Smith includes highlights from such speakers as Art Buchwald, Isaac Asimov, George Plimpton, and Madeleine L'Engle in the 1970s, up through the Dalai Lama, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Andy Rooney, and Madeleine Albright in the 1990s. You can compare the 1977 speeches of Studs Turkel and Shirley Chisholm, the 1990 speeches of Desmond Tutu and Gary Larson, the 1993 remarks of Jodie Foster and Ronald Reagan, the 1995 addresses of Annette Bening and Ann Richards, and the 1999 presentations of Alan Greenspan and Mumia Abu-Jamal. You can track the cultural shift of issues and values through the wit and exhortations of the speakers. And, if you read these snippets of sagacity in a quiet moment when you can concentrate and reflect, you might actually be able to absorb some of the acumen that was deflected by your mortarboard during your own commencement. --Stephanie Gold

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Published just in time for graduation day, this inspiring collection of commencement addresses celebrates the value of education, and its crucial place in the weaving of our social fabric. By turns playful and profound, Graduation Day includes speeches from Jodi Foster, Russell Baker, Alice Walker, Robert Redford, Bill Clinton, Ann Richards, Toni Morrison, and others. This unique anthology will be well cherished long after graduation day.

Graduation is a high moment in everyone's life. It's a time to enjoy one's accomplishments and to anticipate what lies ahead. Knowing this, the best commencement speakers fill their speeches with advice and encouragement regarding the future, while sharing keys essential to living life well and finishing strong. Graduate Moments is a powerful collection of statements from well-known speakers who share the inspirations and wisdom graduates need to launch out to fulfill the next stage of their lives.

Allen Sharpe has just graduated from one of the most prestigious Ivy League universities in the nation and is eager to get started on making his “American dream” come true. However, the dream becomes a nightmare when Allen finds himself looking for work in the midst of an economic recession. Allen quickly discovers that finding a job is much harder than he expected and realizes that it’s going to take more than a fancy diploma to make it in the world.
This is the first part of a four-part journey in which Allen learns important life lessons that he couldn’t ever get from a college textbook.

Allen Sharpe has just graduated from one of the most prestigious Ivy League universities in the nation and is eager to get started on making his “American dream” come true. However, the dream becomes a nightmare when Allen finds himself looking for work in the midst of an economic recession. Allen quickly discovers that finding a job is much harder than he expected and realizes that it’s going to take more than a fancy diploma to make it in the world.
This is the first part of a four-part journey in which Allen learns important life lessons that he couldn’t ever get from a college textbook.

South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) - From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, - 15th Dec. 1899 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Louis Creswicke is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Louis Creswicke then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.