2011-2012 CORE Book

Outliers:  The Story of Success
     By Malcolm Gladwell
 

Hidden Heritage:  The Story of Paul LaRoche
By Barbara Marshak
 

Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

A spiritual legacy of one man’s ordinary Minnesota lifestyle, suddenly fused with a rich, Lakota heritage that enabled him to cross boundaries far beyond his own expectations.

Imagine waking up one day to discover you belong to a completely different culture. Paul Summers, a 38-year-old father of two, has just discovered that his birth mother was a member of the Lakota tribe from South Dakota. Drained physically, emotionally, and financially following his attempts to pursue a career in music, Paul hits rock bottom.

How do you prepare to face truths that have been hidden for years? Kathy Summers knows how deeply her husband is hurting and begins steps to trace his roots. As details unravel, the Summers family arranges to meet Paul's Lakota relatives. More than anything, Paul fears rejection by the family and culture he had never known. But the trip to the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation in South Dakota is more than a reunion; it's a soulful homecoming that changes Paul's life forever.

Paul finds the answer...and walks away from his civil engineering job in the Twin Cities, moving his family to the reservation. Stirred by the rustic landscape of the plains, Paul's musical passions come to life. Honoring his adoptive parents and embracing his newfound family, he creates a unique synthesis of the two cultures.

Paul and his award-winning band, Brule, tour the U.S. each year, performing at various venues for thousands of fans. Initially drawn by the contagious music, they find themselves completely captured by the story at the heart of it all. This compelling book addresses the tensions and triumphs of family life, and touches on the themes of identity, purpose, and reconciliation while following a dream. Going beyond cultural borders, it invites readers to heal racial, spiritual, and economic divides within themselves and others.