No Impact Man; The Adventures Of A Guilty Liberal Who Attempts To Save The Planet and The Discoveries He Makes About Himself And Our Way Of Life ...

By Colin Beavan
"Beavan... chronicles his yearlong effort to leave as little impact on the environment as possible. Realizing that he had erred in "thinking that condemning other people's misdeeds somehow made [him] virtuous," he makes a stab at genuine (and radical) virtue: forgoing toilet paper and electricity, relinquishing motorized transportation, becoming a locavore and volunteering with environmental organizations. Beavan captures his own shortcomings with candor and wit and offers surprising revelations:..."
Check Our Catalog

Unfriendly Fire: How The Gay Ban Undermines The Military And Weakens America

By Nathanial Frank
"Wide-ranging critique of the U.S. military's controversial policy. Frank....quickly and effectively sketches the long history of gays in the military, including many interesting details. Most readers will be unaware, for example, that the first homosexual American soldier was expelled during the Revolutionary War. The bulk of the book, however, is taken up with the debate over the current "don't ask, don't tell" guidelines, enacted into federal law in the early days of President Clinton's administration. The law bars gay service members from disclosing their sexual orientations or speaking about their relationships on penalty of expulsion."
Check Our Catalog

Israel Is Real; An Obsessive Quest To Understand The Jewish Nation And Its History

By Rich Cohen
"An accessible primer on a complex nation and its faith.Many of the facts about Israel are well-known. It's a Jewish state in the middle of an Islamic region of the world; its enemies question its right to exist; many European Jews have emigrated there in the decades following World War II; and its status in relation to Palestine and the rest of the region is complicated, controversial and often violent. Rolling Stone contributing editor Cohen ... takes a long, idiosyncratic view, explaining the history of a people and its religion from the time Zealots revolted against their Roman occupiers to the rise of the Zionists, who helped build the current republic. "
Check Our Catalog

Colossal Failure Of Common Sense; The Inside Story Of The Collapse Of Lehman Brothers

By Lawrence G. McDonald

"A former vice president of Lehman Brothers explains the financial collapse of the securities giant in 2008, what led to the financial crisis, and who had been responsible for its downfall."
Check Our Catalog

The Future Of America 2008; The Story Of An Extraordinary Election

By Dan Balz & Haynes Johnson
"A superior piece of political reportage and interpretation....By this account, the 2008 presidential campaign began in 2005....Although we all know how things turned out, the authors know how to work a cliffhanger, and, as they effectively demonstrate, things could have turned out differently at any number of turns."
Check Our Catalog

Inside Jihadism: Understanding Jihadi Movements Worldwide

By Farhad Khosrokhavar
"...as this thought-provoking book demonstrates, jihadism is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon that is much broader than al Qaeda. Khosrokhavar, a first-rate academic expert on Islamic radicalism, distinguishes two types of jihadi movements: one rooted primarily in the Sunni Islamic countries and the other based in the West. He explains the differences between these two movements and analyzes their major motivations for resorting to extreme acts of violence. In addition, he traces the origin and development of fundamentalism in Islam, distinguishes religious fundamentalism from jihadism, reviews the jihadi critique of conservative Islam, and identifies principal theological and political causes of jihadi violence in today's world. "
Check Our Catalog

Gangs In Garden City; How Immigration, Segregation and Youth Violence Are Changing America's Suburbs

By Sarah Garland
"In this engrossing case study of suburban gangs in Long Island's Nassau County, investigative journalist Garland demystifies the sensationalist rhetoric and simplistic media coverage stemming from the economic and demographic transformation of suburbia. Garland humanizes her subject through long-term, in-depth interviews with current and former gang members; extensive footwork across the U.S. and Central America; and a formidable command of relevant foreign and public policy decisions. While offering a detailed look inside such notorious gangs as Mara Salvatrucha and its self-styled affiliates, Garland makes a persuasive case that her subjects' attraction to gang life had less to do with what gangs offered than with "what America did not." "
Check Our Catalog

The Waxman Report; How Congress Really Works

By Henry Waxman
"How does Congress work? With utmost difficulty, reveals longtime House member Waxman, but those who hold it in low regard, he adds, "lack a full appreciation for what Congress really does."...After 35 years in the House of Representatives, Waxman, the mustached congressman from California, offers a very readable insider's account of his 35 years in the House. The longtime governmental watchdog crusaded for AIDS awareness, the Clean Air Act and stronger tobacco regulations as chairman of the Health and Environment subcommittee. The book chronicles the strategies and horse trading necessary to enact these regulations, including coalition building, raising public awareness and remaining informed on the countless issues affecting his constituency..... His conviction that government can better the lives of citizens is uplifting and strengthened by his record of implementing landmark legislation. "
Check Our Catalog

Next Stop, ReloVille; Life Inside America's New Rootless Professional Class

by Peter T. Kilborn
"Former New York Times reporter Kilborn examines the nomadic lifestyles of the estimated ten million American professionals "who were moved in the last year or two and will be moved again soon."The number of these "Relos" has boomed since the 1970s with the growth of the U.S. economy and foreign trade, giving rise to suburban communities across the country (Relovilles) where most residents are white, affluent and continually on-the-go. The author tells much of his story through portraits of nearly 20 Relo couples who create an "insular, portable, and parallel culture" as they move through the suburbs of Atlanta, Denver, Dallas and even Bombay and Beijing. Often starting out as top graduates at public universities in the Great Plains and Midwest, where job opportunities are limited, Relos transfer every few years within and across companies to get ahead. They often forego close ties to family, friends and the comforts of hometowns in exchange for higher salaries, growing home equity and a chance to enter senior management."
Check Our Catalog

Cheap; The High Cost Of Discount Culture

By Ellen Ruppel Shell
"Atlantic correspondent Shell (The Hungry Gene) tackles more than just "discount culture" in this wide-ranging book that argues that the American drive toward bargain-hunting and low-price goods has a hidden cost in lower wages for workers and reduced quality of goods for consumers. After a dry examination of the history of the American retail industry, the author examines the current industrial and political forces shaping how and what we buy. In the book's most involving passages, Shell deftly analyzes the psychology of pricing and demonstrates how retailers manipulate subconscious bargain triggers that affect even the most knowing consumers. The author urges shoppers to consider spending more and buying locally, but acknowledges the inevitability of globalization and the continuation of trends toward efficient, cost-effective production.
Check Our Catalog

Catastrophe: How Obama, Congress, and the Special Interests Are Transforming A Slump Into A Crash,Freedom Into Socialism...

By Dick Morris
"Explores the challenges facing America in 2009--from economic failures and two wars to what the authors describe as the world community's eagerness to take advantage of current issues--and assess the Obama administration's first one hundred days."
Check Our Catalog

Border Crosser: One Gringo's Illicit Passage From Mexico Into America

By Johnny Rico
"The vexed issue of illegal immigration is goosed in this raucous, hammy odyssey. Rico, a self-proclaimed gonzo journalist and "soft, white... middle-class American" with no Spanish, set out to portray the Mexican migrant experience by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, and spends the book searching the border's 2,000-mile length for a safe, convenient place to do so. Such does not exist along a frontier controlled on one side by the U.S. Border Patrol and on the other by drug cartels and gang-affiliated coyotes, and Rico's quest eventually reduces him to an almost authentic state of semicriminal desperation. Along the way, he debates and mocks ideologues on all sides, from nutty Minutemen border vigilantes to nave open-border activists. ..... he conveys an arresting panorama of an out-of-control borderland full of seething rancor and foolish dreams. "
Check Our Catalog

Enough; Why The World's Poorest Starve In An Age Of Plenty

By Roger Thurow
"Two reporters from the Wall Street Journal join to examine the global food crisis; to indict the economic, political, and social policies of the United States, Britain, and Europe, claiming that they perpetuate famine in Africa; and to issue a passionate call for change before it's too late."
Check Our Catalog

Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against An Out-Of-Control Government, Inspired By Thomas Paine

By Glenn Beck

"Revisits Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" in light of contemporary American issues, and suggests that some of the very freedoms given as reasons that independence was first necessary are again in jeopardy."
	"

Check Our Catalog