The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers

By Scott Carney
"In this impressively reported expos', Wired magazine contributing editor Carney raises disturbing questions about egg and organ donation, medical-school skeletons (some come from robbed graves), and adoption (some babies are stolen from their birth parents). Technically, organs may be donated, but big money is involved in transplanting them. Hospitals get $67,500 to harvest a kidney, and placing it into a recipient costs $259,000. Livers go for $523,000, and intestines for $1.2 million. Not surprisingly, many patients head overseas for bargain-basement deals. Carney also wants us to reconsider how pharmaceutical companies test drugs. Just out of grad school and poor, Carney was paid $3,200 to be a guinea pig for the first-phase dosage safety trial for the erectile dysfunction drug Levitra, and wound up with a splitting headache. Carney draws some controversial conclusions, advocating transparency: Every bag of blood should include the name of the original donor, every adopted child should have full access to his personal history, and every transplant recipient should know who gave him an organ. Like a top trial attorney, Carney makes his case convincingly."    (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

Manana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans

By Jorge G. Castaneda
"Mexico, poised somewhere between developing nation and developed liberal democracy, and the obstacles to its advancement into modernity occupy the nations former foreign minister in this analytic work. Venturing on the slightly perilous topic of national character, Castaeda considers half a dozen traits of Mexican society within the context of Mexican history, how they have evolved as revealed by opinion surveys, and what dynamism in these traits portends for Mexicos future. Seasoning the presentation with his own experiences and ruminations by Mexican writers, Castaeda identifies corruption and disregard for law as critical impediments to national economic development. Those problems he sees as emanating from such widespread attitudes as the propensities of Mexicans to view themselves and their country as victims and become obsessed with their history as such, an exaggerated individualism that stifles formation of civic organizations, and a psychic aversion to conflict in interpersonal relations and politics. Also touching hot-button issues like immigration and drug trafficking, this is a debate-stoking current events necessity for most collections."  (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground

By Jonathan Kay
"This hugely entertaining book takes a hard, critical look at Truthers, Birthers, Holocaust deniers, anti-vaccine activists, Tea Partiers, and other conspiracy-minded groups. The key to understanding these various organizations, the author stresses, is to realize that they are not all nutballs, even if they believe nonsense............. The problem, the author points out, is that many people, hearing what sounds like a plausible argument, accept it without realizing that it is without factual foundation. Kay doesnt adopt the derisive tone of some who write about people whose ideas are outside the mainstream; this isnt a book about weird people and their weird ideas. Its a thought-provoking exploration of the conspiracist subculture that exists just under the surface of American society and its serious, but reparable, cognitive consequences.( Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America

By Leila Ahmed
"In Cairo in the 1940s, Leila Ahmed was raised by a generation of women who never dressed in the veils and headscarves their mothers and grandmothers had worn. To them, these coverings seemed irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety. Today, however, the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West?
When she began her study, Ahmed assumed that the veil's return indicated a backward step for Muslim women worldwide. What she discovered, however, in the stories of British colonial officials, young Muslim feminists, Arab nationalists, pious Islamic daughters, American Muslim immigrants, violent jihadists, and peaceful Islamic activists, confounded her expectations. Ahmed observed that Islamism, with its commitments to activism in the service of the poor and in pursuit of social justice, is the strain of Islam most easily and naturally merging with western democracies' own tradition of activism in the cause of justice and social change. It is often Islamists, even more than secular Muslims, who are at the forefront of such contemporary activist struggles as civil rights and women's rights. Ahmed's surprising conclusions represent a near reversal of her thinking on this topic.
Richly insightful, intricately drawn, and passionately argued, this absorbing story of the veil's resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, suggests a dramatically new portrait of contemporary Islam."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff

By James B. Stewart
" A bestselling author presents an investigation of our era's most high-profile perjurers, revealing the alarming extent of this national epidemic. With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, "Tangled Webs" goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know

By Charles D. Ferguson
"Originally perceived as a cheap and plentiful source of power, the commercial use of nuclear energy has been controversial for decades. Worries about the dangers that nuclear plants and their radioactive waste posed to nearby communities grew over time, and plant construction in the United States virtually died after the early 1980s. The 1986 disaster at Chernobyl only reinforced nuclear power's negative image. Yet in the decade prior to the Japanese nuclear crisis of 2011, sentiment about nuclear power underwent a marked change. The alarming acceleration of global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels and concern about dependence on foreign fuel has led policymakers, climate scientists, and energy experts to look once again at nuclear power as a source of energy.
In this accessible overview, Charles D. Ferguson provides an authoritative account of the key facts about nuclear energy. What is the origin of nuclear energy? What countries use commercial nuclear power, and how much electricity do they obtain from it? How can future nuclear power plants be made safer? What can countries do to protect their nuclear facilities from military attacks? How hazardous is radioactive waste? Is nuclear energy a renewable energy source? Featuring a discussion of the recent nuclear crisis in Japan and its ramifications, Ferguson addresses these questions and more in a book that is essential for anyone looking to learn more about this important issue."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times

By Mohamed Elbaradei

"ElBaradei shepherded the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UNs nuclear watchdog, through 12 years of unprecedented challenge, becoming a lightning rod for criticism and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. On his watch, the U.S. invaded after alleging Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, North Korea emerged as a nuclear threat, a long stalemate over Irans nuclear capacity intensified, and Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khans black marketing of nuclear arms came to light. Each crisis exposed the IAEAs limited authority to investigate and prosecute violations of nuclear nonproliferation agreements and made it the focus of intense political pressure by the worlds most powerful nations. This selection of writings is to some extent a chronicle of frustration with the abortive dialogues, mixed messages, bruised egos, political infighting, saber-rattling, and other counterproductive aspects of the tedious, wrenching business of nuclear diplomacy. But ElBaradeis accounting also stands as an unwavering affirmation of the crucial importance of fairness and multilateral cooperation to maintaining peace and stability despite the inherent asymmetry of nuclear haves and have-nots. HIgh-Demand Backstory: This is a timely look at the perspective of a man who continues to shape the future of the Middle East: since leaving the IAEA, ElBaradei has been active in domestic politics in his native Egypt and is considered a leading contender for that countrys presidency."  (booklist)  Check Our Catalog

The Convert

By Deborah Baker
"A Pulitzer Prize finalist delves into the fascinating life and letters of a young Jewish woman who converted to radical Islam and moved from suburban New York to Pakistan.
In 1962, 28-year-old Margaret Marcus left her parents' secular Jewish home to live in Lahore in the Muslim household of idealogue and Islamic political leader Maulana Mawdudi. In Pakistan, Marcus changed her name to Maryam Jameelah and penned expressive letters to her parents describing, during the next three decades, her newfound identity, community and the motivations behind her conversion and all-consuming embrace of Islam. Jameelah went on to write not only letters—the archives of which Baker (A Blue Hand: The Beats in India, 2008, etc.) came across in the New York Public Library—but an enormously popular set of books criticizing Western materialism and exalting life lived according to the laws of the Koran. Baker's account unfolds chronologically through Jameelah's letters, included in the book, as well as various articles she published in American magazines. Despite Jameelah's unwavering, outspoken disdain for Western secularism, she faced mounting obstacles in her new life, all of which the author examines as a platform to explore the broader subject of how radical idealism manifests itself. Jameelah eschewed what she viewed as the miserably misguided popular values of her native country, but this opposition did not tamp out her love for and connection to her parents. On this note, Baker, who corresponded and finally met with Jameelah in her home, opens the door to the vital questions of how radical Islam has impacted the world, and what part converts such as Jameelah have played."  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother

By Janny Scott
"... an unprecedented look into the life of the woman who most singularly shaped Barack Obama-his mother.
Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, "what is best in me." Here is the missing piece of the story.
Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this woman's inspiring and untraditional life, and to show the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today.
Dunham's story moves from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. It begins in a time when interracial marriage was still a felony in much of the United States, and culminates in the present, with her son as our president- something she never got to see. It is a poignant look at how character is passed from parent to child, and offers insight into how Obama's destiny was created early, by his mother's extraordinary faith in his gifts, and by her unconventional mothering. Finally, it is a heartbreaking story of a woman who died at age fifty-two, before her son would go on to his greatest accomplishments and reflections of what she taught him."
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Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India

By Miranda Kennedy
"Abandoning New York, 20-something freelance writer Kennedy embarks on a trip to India, and ends up staying for five years. She leads readers on a sensual and smart voyage, sharing her insights on food, culture, Bollywood (what she sees as medieval morality plays), and the multiple rigors of daily life. Kennedy constructs her story around the lives of the women in her life, while simultaneously reflecting upon her own fractured personal and professional circumstances. She discusses the devoted yet at times strained relationship with her servants (Radha, a poor Brahmin, and Manheesh, a member of the sweeper caste) as well as the hurdles faced by her two single middle-class girlfriends, dealing with India's conservative, family-centric culture. Kennedy dives into such topics such as the lingering caste system, extreme poverty, the byzantine relationships between the sexes, and the pressure on women to marry and have children. She zigzags agilely between these women's stories and her own, shedding an intimate light on life in a rapidly developing but at times unchanging India"  (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog