The Healing Of America; A Global Quest For Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care

By T. R. Reid
"A timely survey filled with important lessons for the United States of how other nations have created systems that provide universal health care for their citizens.Washington Post correspondent and NPR commentator Reid... sees the health-care issue as a moral question to which all other technologically developed countries have responded well, creating affordable, effective systems. The author outlines four basic models.... The author provides a capsule history of each system, discusses its drawbacks as well as benefits and destroys some popular myths about so-called socialized medicine. Though he offers many image-shattering statistics that reveal how poorly the United States stacks up against other countries, the author's message is essentially optimistic: We can learn from the experience of other countries and use that knowledge to create a more efficient and humane system.A reasoned, well-balanced, highly readable account, especially welcome as the national debate over health care gets underway. "
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Kick The Habit; A U.N. Guide To Climate Neutrality

By Alex Kirby
"... written by experts from many disciplines and various countries, with leading research organizations involved in preparing and reviewing the publication. It presents solutions--from reducing consumption and increasing energy efficiency to offsetting emissions via carbon trading schemes--for individuals, businesses, cities and countries plus other groups that have similar characteristics such as NGO and intergovernmental organizations. The book contains case studies, illustrations, maps and graphics and serves also as reference publication."
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Say Everything; How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, And Why It Matters

By Scott Rosenberg
"As more people have discovered the joys of blogging, what has been created, Rosenberg claims, is nothing less than "a new kind of public sphere, at once ephemeral and timeless, sharing the characteristics of conversation and deliberation." Blogging allows for new possibilities in form and content and the blossoming of new talent; it's also fun. Yet Rosenberg also acknowledges the critiques of such an unbridled flood of verbiage. With patient detail—and for the most part jargon-free language—he addresses the concern that the blogosphere is nothing more than a mindless morass of trivia—that it may be creating an "echo chamber effect" where we talk to only those who agree with us, and may lead to cultural disintegration as millions of monologues replace a common discourse. Though he never dismisses them out of hand, the author concludes that these complaints are mostly baseless or overwrought.Rosenberg suggests that blogging's "outpouring of human expression" should "delight us." "
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Packing The Court; The Rise Of Judicial Power And The Coming Crisis Of The Supreme Court

By James MacGregor Burns
"This provocative book challenges the power of the U.S. Supreme Court to pass judgment on congressional legislation. Pulitzer Prize winner Burns (government, emeritus, Williams Coll.; Roosevelt, the Soldier of Freedom) rejects the precedent John Marshall set in 1803 that gave the Court that power and argues that FDR's packing plan should have been implemented, citing evidence that the framers never intended to give the judiciary veto power. ....Burns's elegant proposal is sure to stir controversy among scholars who accept judicial review as a pillar of American government. His readable history contends that the Court has been out of step too often with the needs of most Americans. "
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