By Dr. Carl Hart (September 27, 2013) - "High Price is the harrowing and inspiring memoir of neuroscientist Carl Hart, a man who grew up in one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods and, determined to make a difference as an adult, tirelessly applies his scientific training to help save real lives. Young Carl didn't see the value of school, studying just enough to keep him on the basketball team. Today, he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist--Columbia Universitys first tenured African American professor in the sciences--whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction. In this provocative and eye-opening memoir, Dr. Carl Hart recalls his journey of self-discovery, how he escaped a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies. Interweaving past and present, Hart goes beyond the hype as he examines the relationship between drugs and pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. His findings shed new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs, and explain why current policies are failing." (Harper Collins)
With Robert Reich (September 27, 2013) - "We're in the biggest economic slump since the Great Depression, and we can't seem to get out of it. Why? Because, exactly as in the 1920s, so much of the nation's income and wealth are going to the top, that the vast middle class doesn't have the purchasing power to keep the economy going. I've spent most of my working life concerned about what's happening to American workers -- their jobs, their wages, their hopes and fears. My father sold clothing to the wives of factory workers in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. I watched as the factories began to close, and as those families struggled with a new economy. Households kept their living standards by sending those wives and mothers into paid work -- a strategy that did the trick for a time. But when it no longer generated enough income, American families went deeper and deeper into debt -- and that's been the vicious cycle most middle class Americans have been in ever since. People are stressed. They're angry and frustrated, and the tide is only rising on that front. Their debt obligations are staggering, yet (if lucky enough to have a job), they're working harder and longer than ever before. People need to understand what's happening to them -- because from their perspective, the picture looks pretty bleak. Until we can take a step back and understand the big picture, we can't do anything to get ourselves out of this mess. Our democracy as we know it depends on it. I'm an educator. I love the classroom. But I also write books, appear on television and on the radio, and do everything else I can do to help people understand the economic truth. It's my life's work and it's more important than ever. One of the best ways to help people understand the challenges we face, is with a movie that can grab an audience and move them to action. And this movie will do exactly that."
By Monica Mehta (September 27, 2013) - "The dropout that makes billions seems to have caught lightning in a bottle--a triumph relying more on luck than skill and never to be repeated. In real life, successful entrepreneurs take classes, write business plans, and map out responses to every contingency. But if the story is such a fluke, why do we keep hearing ones like it over and over again?
The Entrepreneurial Instinct looks past the rags to riches stories of self-made entrepreneurs to explore how our mind, behavior, and brain chemistry impact our ability to be enterprising in the absence of formal training. Interviews with dozens of entrepreneurs reveal the traits and habits that allow them to take rewarding risks, overcome fear and failure, and thrive in the face of ambiguity. Conversations with experts in the fields of neuroscience and behavioral psychology expose the scientific explanation behind their seemingly innate knack and shed light on how the rest of us who may not be naturally gifted entrepreneurs can use brain chemistry to find success. The Entrepreneurial Instinct weaves together stories from entrepreneurs, pop culture figures and thought leaders (including the founders of CLIF Bar, Carol's Daughter, Marquis Jet, Skip Hop, Dogfish Head Beer, KIPP Charter School, J Brand Jeans, writers of Grey's Anatomy, rock journalist Neil Strauss, Phoenix Suns forward Grant Hill) to reveal cutting edge insight on using brain chemistry to work in ways to create a cycle of productivity, take risks that pay and tap into our creative mind to realize professional success.
In a time where millions of Americans are unemployed, underemployed or aspire for better opportunities, The Entrepreneurial Instinct offers much needed techniques for using our innate capabilities to make more with less." (McGraw-Hill)
By Billy Crystal (September 20, 2013) - "Billy Crystal is turning 65, and he's not happy about it. With his trademark wit and heart, he outlines the absurdities and challenges that come with growing old, from insomnia to memory loss to leaving dinners with half your meal on your shirt. In humorous chapters like "Buying the Plot" and "Nodding Off," Crystal not only catalogues his physical gripes, but offers a road map to his 77 million fellow baby boomers who are arriving at this milestone age with him. He also looks back at the most powerful and memorable moments of his long and storied life, from entertaining his relatives as a kid in Long Beach, Long Island, his years doing stand-up in the Village, up through his legendary stint at Saturday Night Live,When Harry Met Sally, and his long run as host of the Academy Awards. Readers get a front-row seat to his one-day career with the New York Yankees (he was the first player to ever "test positive for Maalox"), his love affair with Sophia Loren, and his enduring friendships with several of his idols, including Mickey Mantle and Muhammad Ali. He lends a light touch to more serious topics like religion ("the aging friends I know have turned to the Holy Trinity: Advil, bourbon, and Prozac"), grand parenting, and, of course, dentistry. As wise and poignant as they are funny, Crystal's reflections are an unforgettable look at an extraordinary life well lived." (Henry Holt and Co.)
A film by Jeremy Seifert (September 20, 2013) - "'GMO OMG' director and concerned father Jeremy Seifert is in search of answers. How do GMOs affect our children, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice? And perhaps the ultimate question, which Seifert tests himself: is it even possible to reject the food system currently in place, or have we lost something we can't gain back? These and other questions take Seifert on a journey from his family's table to Haiti, Paris, Norway, and the lobby of agra-giant Monsanto, from which he is unceremoniously ejected. Along the way we gain insight into a question that is of growing concern to citizens the world over: what's on your plate?"
By Edwin Lyman, David Lochbaum, and Susan Q. Stranahan (September 13, 2013) - "On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to knock the earth from its axis sent a massive tsunami speeding toward the Japanese coast and the aging and vulnerable Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors. Over the following weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted. In the first definitive account of the Fukushima disaster, two leading experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists, David Lochbaum and Edwin Lyman, team up with journalist Susan Q. Stranahan, the lead reporter of the Philadelphia Inquirer's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Three Mile Island accident, to tell this harrowing story. Fukushima combines a fast-paced, riveting account of the tsunami and the nuclear emergency it created with an explanation of the science and technology behind the meltdown as it unfolded in real time. Bolstered by photographs, explanatory diagrams, and a comprehensive glossary, the narrative also extends to other severe nuclear accidents to address both the terrifying question of whether it could happen here and how such a crisis can be averted." (The New Press)
By Reza Aslan (July 26, 2013) - "Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry--a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction; a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious "King of the Jews" whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity. Zealot yields a fresh perspective on one of the greatest stories ever told even as it affirms the radical and transformative nature of Jesus of Nazareth's life and mission. The result is a thought-provoking, elegantly written biography with the pulse of a fast-paced novel: a singularly brilliant portrait of a man, a time, and the birth of a religion." (Random House)
By Bob Ney (July 26, 2013) - "Ohio Congressman Bob Ney plead guilty to federal charges of corruption and falsification of federal documents in connection with Jack Abramoff, a Washington super lobbyist-turned criminal. As a six-term member of congress, Bob found himself caught up in a culture of greed, backstabbing, and corruption that eventually destroyed his career. In his new book, Bob recounts the events leading up to his resignation, his own guilt, and how a powerful member of congress and the Bush Administration officials played leading roles in both the Abramoff scandal and Bob's own downfall."
By Jim Wallis (July 26, 2013) - "Lincoln led America through one of the most tumultuous times in our nation's history. Reading his words today, it is clear we still have much to learn concerning what it means to be on God's side. Bestselling author, public theologian, and leading Christian activist Jim Wallis speaks directly into our current context, revealing the spiritual compass we need to effect lasting change in our society. He explains how the good news of Jesus transforms not only our individual lives but also our public lives. Jesus's gospel of the kingdom of God helps us recover a personal and social commitment to the common good and shows us--in concrete ways--how to be both personally responsible and socially just. Working together, we can reshape our churches, society, politics, and economy.
Releasing in the wake of the 2012 election cycle, this book seeks to move beyond the current media and political warfare and bring together a divided country. Wallis explores how Jesus's agenda can serve the common good, what it takes to sustain a lifelong commitment to social justice, and how reading the Bible as well as the culture can shape our lives for genuine transformation." (Brazos Press)
By Eliot Spitzer (July 26, 2013) - "Eliot Spitzer built his reputation as Attorney General of New York by redefining the role and purpose of the public prosecutor. The cases he brought against the largest corporations on Wall Street and others--both criminal and civil--targeted pervasive misconduct and structural flaws in the economy that were metastasizing in the years leading up to 2008. The cases themselves and the remedies they produced were precedent setting. Today, after the financial crisis has exposed the faults that were brewing and the ever-expanding gap between the 1% and the 99%, it is clear that Eliot Spitzer was prescient. This is Eliot Spitzer's first account of the high-profile cases he prosecuted, initially as an assistant district attorney and later as Attorney General. The book is organized by the lessons that can be learned from these cases. Well-written and argued in the first person, this is an account only Eliot Spitzer could write. The book describes the tension between capitalism, for which Eliot Spitzer is a staunch advocate, and the need for government to rein in excesses and protect those who cannot protect themselves." (Rosetta Books)
By Steve Moore (July 19, 2013) - "On the heels of his Emmy-winning It Gets Better campaign, columnist and provocateur Dan Savage weighs in on such diverse issues as healthcare, gun control, and marriage equality with characteristic straight talk and humor. Dan Savage has always had a loyal audience, thanks to his syndicated sex-advice column "Savage Love," but since the incredible global success of his It Gets Better project--his book of the same name was a New York Times bestseller--his profile has skyrocketed. In addition, he's written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Onion, GQ, The Guardian, Salon.com, and countless other widely read publications. Savage is recognized as someone whose opinions about our culture, politics, and society should not only be listened to but taken seriously. Now, in American Savage, he writes on topics ranging from marriage, parenting, and the gay agenda to the Catholic Church and sex education." (Dutton Adult)
By Michael Pollan (June 21, 2013) - "In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements--fire, water, air, and earth-to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the process, is the cook. Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan's effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements. A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire; a Chez Panisse-trained cook schools him in the art of braising; a celebrated baker teaches him how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread; and finally, several mad-genius "fermentos" (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers) reveal how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns alongside Pollan, but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships: with plants and animals, the soil, farmers, our history and culture, and, of course, the people our cooking nourishes and delights. Cooking, above all, connects us. The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat, sugar, and salt; disrupt an essential link to the natural world; and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In fact, Cooked argues, taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life." (Penguin Press)
By Julia Reed (June 21, 2013) - "In her new book, But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria!, Julia Reed, a master of the art of eating, drinking, and making merry, takes the reader on culinary adventures in places as far flung as Kabul, Afghanistan and as close to home as her native Mississippi Delta and Florida's Gulf Coast. Along the way, Reed discovers the perfect Pimm's Royale at the Paris Ritz, devours deliciouschuletons in Madrid, and picks up tips from accomplished hostesses ranging from Pat Buckley to Pearl Bailey and, of course, her own mother. Reed writes about the bounty--and the burden--of a Southern garden in high summer, tosses salads in the English countryside, and shares C.Z. Guest's recipe for an especially zingy bullshot. She understands the necessity of a potent holiday punch and serves it up by the silver bowl full, but she is not immune to the slightly less refined charms of a blender full of frozen peach daiquiris or a garbage can full of Yucca Flats. And then there are the parties: shindigs ranging from sultry summer suppers and raucous dinners at home to a Plymouth-like Thanksgiving feast and an upscale St. Patrick's Day celebration. This delightful collection of essays by Julia Reed, a master storyteller with an inimitable voice and a limitless capacity for fun, will show you how to entertain guests with style, have a good time yourself and always have that perfect pitcher of sangria ready at a moment's notice. (Macmillian)
A film by Haifaa Al Mansour (June 21, 2013) - "Every day Wadjda passes a toy store window showing a beautiful green bicycle. Although tit is forbidden for girls to ride bicycles, Wadjda concocts a plan to earn enough money to afford the bike by secretly selling "illicit products" in her schoolyard. But her plans are soon exposed, leaving her with only one last chance to make the money she needs; a Koran recital competition with a big cash prize. With her slyness and cunning mind, Wadjda tries to find a way to rise about her fellow competitors to make her most cherished dream come true...the green bicycle. The first film ever shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, WADJDA is the story of a girl determined to fight for her dreams." (Razor Films)
By Jonathan Alter (June 14, 2013) - "In The Center Holds, Jonathan Alter produces the first full account of America at the crossroads. With exclusive reporting and rare historical insight, he pierces the bubble of the White House and the presidential campaigns in a landmark election that marked the return of big money and the rise of big data. He tells the epic story of an embattled president fighting back with the first campaign of the Digital Age. Alter relates the untold story behind Obama's highs and lows, from the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound to the frustration of the debt ceiling fiasco to his unexpected run-ins with black and Latino activists. There are fresh details about the Koch brothers, Grover Norquist, Roger Ailes, and the online haters who suffer from "Obama Derangement Syndrome." Alter takes us inside Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's Boston campaign as well as Obama's disastrous preparation for the first debate. We meet Obama''s analytics geeks working out of "The Cave" and the man who secretly videotaped Romney's infamous comments on the "47 percent." The Center Holds will deepen our understanding of the Obama presidency, the stakes of the 2012 election, and the future of the country." (Simon & Schuster)
By Niall Ferguson (June 14, 2013) - "The decline of the West is something that has long been prophesied. Symptoms of decline are all around us: slowing growth, crushing debts, aging populations, anti-social behavior. But what is the cause? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, is that our institutions -- the intricate frameworks within which a society can flourish or fail -- are degenerating. Representative government, the free market, the rule of law and civil society: these were the four pillars of Western societies, which set them on the path to global dominance after around 1500. In our time, however, these institutions have deteriorated. Our democracies have broken the contract between the generations by heaping IOUs on our children and grandchildren. Our markets are distorted by over-complex regulations. The rule of law has metamorphosed into the rule of lawyers. And civil society has become uncivil society. While the Arab world struggles to adopt democracy, and while China struggles to move from economic liberalization to the rule of law, Europeans and Americans alike are frittering away the institutional inheritance of centuries. To arrest the degeneration of the West, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership and radical reform." (Penguin UK)
A Documentary written and directed by Josh Fox (June 14, 2013) - "In the original 2010 film Gasland, director Josh Fox profiled hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process of injecting a pressurized mixture of water, sand and chemicals down a drilled well, causing layers of rock deep in the earth to crack and release natural gas. The film inspired a national dialogue over the multi-layered environmental dangers potentially at risk. With GASLAND PART II, Fox examines the long-term impact of the controversial process, including claims of poisonous water, earthquakes and neurological damage, placing his focus on the people across the globe who say their lives have been irreparably changed. Traveling from the Gulf of Mexico to the heart of Texas (including Dish, home to free TV service and some of the highest concentration of gas wells in the nation), out to Los Angeles (where fracking for oil is now occuring), and back up to the Delaware River basin (where he has a family home), Fox investigates the effects of this extraction method, as well as the industry's reaction to negative allegations. The film provides startling claims that fracking may lead to earthquakes in communities that have never experienced ones before. Video footage shows wells venting methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere in massive amounts. The film also shows how the practice of fracking has gone global, as seen in a visit to rural Australia, where stoic farmers assert that their wells have been turned into potential flame-spewing gushers. And as gas drills multiply, clean-energy options are being passed over -- like hydroelectric, wind, and solar, which some experts say can provide enough energy to power the world five times over. The film argues that the gas industry is using its wealth and power to influence government policy on fracking, while buying the silence of countless American homeowners forced to move out of their longtime homes because their water has become too polluted to drink." (HBO)
By George Packer (June 7, 2013) - "The Unwinding Journeys through the lives of several Americans, including Dean Price, the son of tobacco farmers, who becomes an evangelist for a new economy in the rural South; Tammy Thomas, a factory worker in the Rust Belt trying to survive the collapse of her city; Jeff Connaughton, a Washington insider oscillating between political idealism and the lure of organized money; and Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who questions the Internet's significance and arrives at a radical vision of the future. Packer interweaves these intimate stories with biographical sketches of he era's leading public figures, from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z, and collages made from newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and song lyrics that capture the flow of events and their undercurrents. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation. Packer's novelistic and kaleidoscope history of the new America is his most ambitious work to date." (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
By Tom Shadyac (June 7, 2013) "Modern society is replete with electronics-iPads, computers, cell phones, cars, and so on--and all of these come with one important accessory: a manual that teaches you how to use and care for your device. In Life's Operating Manual, Tom Shadyac answers a simple yet provocative question: is it possible that life comes with a similar set of guidelines? Once reserved for exploration by poets, prophets, and philosophers, Shadyac, the man behind such comic hits as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, brings a new voice to the mix. Inviting us into a conversation that is both challenging and empowering, he looks at the workings of nature and the ideals of the longest lasting civilization on earth in a series of essays and dialogues between the voices of truth and fear. And through this examination, he opens our eyes to one underlying principle that should guide the human race: love. This single principle is, in essence, our operating manual... and its instructions are very simple. The question he then sets out to answer is, do we have the courage to live in accordance with this precept-to step away from how society currently works and the ills we experience because of it? Do we have the fortitude to change and cast aside the ideas that have led to war, poverty, genocide, and environmental destruction? With Shadyac's inspiring vision of what the world can be and his straightforward advice on how to move toward it, your answer to these questions will be a resounding yes." (Hay House)
By Kevin D. Williamson (June 7, 2013) - "In The End Is Near and It's Going to Be Awesome, Kevin Williamson, a National Review Online contributor, makes the bold argument that the United States government is disintegrating-and that it is a good thing. Williamson offers a radical re-envisioning of government, a powerful analysis of why it doesn't work, and an exploration of the innovative solutions to various social problems that are spontaneously emerging as a result of the failure of politics and government. Every year, consumer goods and services get better, cheaper, and more widely available while critical necessities delivered by government grow more expensive, even as their quality declines. The reason for this paradox is simple: politics. Not bad politics, not liberal politics, not conservative politics, not politics corrupted by big money or distorted by special-interest groups, but the simple practice of delivering goods and services through federal, state, and local governments and their obsolete decision-making practices. As our outmoded twentieth-century government collapses under the weight of its own incompetence and inefficiency, Williamson points to the green shoots of the brave new world that is already being born." (Harper Collins)
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