Every serious reader dreads being caught in a lobby or on a train with nothing to read. When Jonathan Safran Foer experienced this mind-numbing, soul-crushing boredom while munching on a Chipotle burrito, he had a revelation. Wondering why there was nothing to read on his cup, he emailed Chipotle’s CEO, and “Cultivating Thought” was born. An author series curated by Safran Foer, it features original and thought-provoking text by a diverse selection of writers printed on Chipotle’s beverage cups and to-go bags. A wonderfully whimsical democratization of literature, “Cultivating Thought” brings the musings of George Saunders, Toni Morrison, and more to a whole new audience. However, if you want to discover their writings beyond what’s printed on a Chipotle cup, here are the books to pick up.
Chipotle’s Literary Salon: The Books Behind the Burritos
A National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times ten best books of 2013, Tenth of December is an honest and moving story collection from an undisputed master of the form. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, George Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, these stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into what it is that makes us good and what makes us human.
A National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times ten best books of 2013, Tenth of December is an honest and moving story collection from an undisputed master of the form. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, George Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, these stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into what it is that makes us good and what makes us human.
When a small group of Wall Street guys figure out that the US stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders and is controlled by the big Wall Street banks, they band together and set out to reform the financial markets. The Flash Boys have somehow preserved a moral sense in an environment where you don’t get paid for that—and are willing to go to war against institutionalized injustice.
When a small group of Wall Street guys figure out that the US stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders and is controlled by the big Wall Street banks, they band together and set out to reform the financial markets. The Flash Boys have somehow preserved a moral sense in an environment where you don’t get paid for that—and are willing to go to war against institutionalized injustice.
Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in the blink of an eye. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others stumble into error? Why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.
Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in the blink of an eye. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others stumble into error? Why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.
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The highly distinguished mastermind behind Chipotle’s literary cups, Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man—also named Jonathan Safran Foer—sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of World War II, an amorous dog, and a Ukrainian translator who habitually butchers the English language, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.
The highly distinguished mastermind behind Chipotle’s literary cups, Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man—also named Jonathan Safran Foer—sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of World War II, an amorous dog, and a Ukrainian translator who habitually butchers the English language, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.
When Augusten Burroughs’s mother gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist, he found himself living in a bizarre situation. Residing in a dilapidated Victorian home with a pedophile in the backyard shed, there were no rules and no school. Valium was consumed like candy and when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs. By turns foul and harrowing, this compelling and maniacally funny memoir chronicles an ordinary boy’s survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.
Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor’s bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock- therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy’s survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.
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This brilliant, buoyant, and beloved novel gives voice to four sisters growing up in two cultures. The García family fled the Dominican Republic for New York City in 1960 when their father’s role in an attempted coup was discovered. In the wild and wondrous and not always welcoming USA, their parents try to hold on to their old ways, but the girls try to find new lives: forgetting their Spanish, straightening their hair, and wearing bell bottoms. How the García Girls Lost Their Accents captures how it is both liberating and excruciating to navigate the old world and the new.
This brilliant, buoyant, and beloved novel gives voice to four sisters growing up in two cultures. The García family fled the Dominican Republic for New York City in 1960 when their father’s role in an attempted coup was discovered. In the wild and wondrous and not always welcoming USA, their parents try to hold on to their old ways, but the girls try to find new lives: forgetting their Spanish, straightening their hair, and wearing bell bottoms. How the García Girls Lost Their Accents captures how it is both liberating and excruciating to navigate the old world and the new.
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Paulo Coelho’s universally admired masterpiece tells the story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams. With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist continues to change the lives of readers forever.
Paulo Coelho’s universally admired masterpiece tells the story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams. With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist continues to change the lives of readers forever.
Told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist preacher who moves his family to the Belgian Congo in 1959, this engrossing epic is the story of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel established Barbara Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers.
This family epic set in the Belgian Congo in 1959 is narrated by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist missionary. Told over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa, it is the story of one family and one nation’s tragic undoing.
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This adaptation of Walter Isaacson's phenomenal bestseller stars Kate Winslet, Seth Rogan, Jeff Daniels, and, most importantly, Michael Fassbender as the enigmatic and divisive Apple co-founder who revolutionized life in the digital age.
Release Date: October 9, 2015
This adaptation of Walter Isaacson's phenomenal bestseller stars Kate Winslet, Seth Rogan, Jeff Daniels, and, most importantly, Michael Fassbender as the enigmatic and divisive Apple co-founder who revolutionized life in the digital age.
Release Date: October 9, 2015