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Suggestions for the Spring of 2010.
| Title | Author | Information | Submitted by |
| Currently we are starting a new list. Please make suggestions for the next book. | |||
| The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It | Paul Collier | $16.25 at Amazon | Jo Noble |
| Fluent, thought-provoking book. David Smith, The Observer Rarely can a book on this subject have been such a pleasurable read. David Smith, The Observer Every politician should read this. Simon Shaw, Irish Mail on Sunday. There are hundreds of books on development but none as well written and authoritative as Paul Collier's 'The Bottom Billion' Edmund Conway, Daily Telegraph Every politician should read this. Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday This is a short book, but one which brilliantly challenges conventional views about development and aid. Nick Rennison, Sunday Times This extraordinarily important book should be read by everyone who cares about Africa. Max Hastings, Sunday Times A splendid book... rich in both analysis and recommendations... read this book. Martin Wolf, Finacial Times It will change the way you look at the tragedy of persistent poverty in a world of plenty. Martin Wolf, Financial Times Set to become a classic. His book should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the thankless task of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty. The Economist An arresting, provocative book. If you care about the fate of the poorest people in the world, and want to understand what can be done to help them, read this book. If you don't care, read it anyway. Tim Harford, author of 'The Undercover Economist' " | |||
| Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World | Tracy Kidder | $11 at Amazon | Orah Elron |
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Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the _master of the non-fiction narrative._ This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur _genius_ grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life's calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer_brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti_blasts through convention to get results. Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that 'the only real nation is humanity' - a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.'s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb _Beyond mountains there are mountains_: as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too. Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation,_ says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, _[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it. | |||
| Catastrophe | Dick Morris and Eileen Mcgann | $17 at Amazon | Paul Weisskopf |
| Product Description - It's time to take back our country. Now. It's that simple. It's that urgent. So begins Dick Morris and Eileen McGann's latest and most important book. They say that we must act before President Barack Obama fully implements his radical political agenda. Because after Obama has won his war on prosperity and canceled the war on terror, it will be too late to regain our liberty or our security. At a time when we needed a pragmatic centrist to lead us out of recession, we got a doctrinaire socialist who wants to use the crisis to put the government in charge of the economy and enact European socialism here in the United States. Cars, banks-what's next? He will keep at it until Washington governs every major business in America and sets all our salaries. It's a catastrophe. Dick Morris and Eileen McGann saw the meltdown coming. In their book Outrage, they called out the house of cards that was Fannie Mae. In Fleeced, they went after the credit card companies, the subprime mortgage lenders, and the hedge fund billionaires who conspired to wreck the economy-and Barack Obama, whose policies, they predicted last summer, would 'trigger a stock market crash.' Now, in Catastrophe, Morris and McGann take a hard look at America in free fall-and at how Obama is transforming a vulnerable America into a socialist state. They tell the truth about Obama and his radical policies: He will destroy our health care system so that no one gets adequate care. He designed his bank rescue plan to pave the way for nation-alization of the banks and socialization of the economy. He firmly believes in government control of our major industries-he's already commandeered the banks and the automobile industry. He plans to reshape the political landscape to keep the left in power for decades by cooking the census, enfranchising illegal immigrants, muzzling talk radio, and coercing workers into unions. He is attacking those who fight terrorism while letting the terrorists go free. He gives aid to Hamas while Shariah Law threatens to take over America. He has repealed the Declaration of Independence and put us under a worldwide, European-dominated financial regulatory system. But Obama is not working alone. Morris and McGann spell out how Congress is complicit: How Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Charlie Rangel use special interests and special friends for their own enrichment and glorification. How Ted Kennedy Jr. is exploiting his father's health care power. 'This is no time for apathy or alienation or hopelessness,' Morris and McGann remind us. 'It's a time for action.' And that action must begin now-before it's too late. " | |||
| Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture | Thom Hartman | $17 at Amazon | Linda Stelzer |
| Linda Stelzer writes " 'As the first decade of the twenty-first century close s amid economic collapse and the seeming ruin of the American Dream, Thom Hartmann 's THRESHOLD could not be more relevant. We've reached a moment of cultural recko ning. If we are to make progress toward a more stable future, not just economical ly, but culturally and environmentally--it will require a paradigm shift, an evolu tion in mainstream thinking. In his latest work, top talk-radio host and pr ogressive commentator Thom Hartmann defines three critical breaking points--econom ic, demographic, and environmental--that we've reached. In clear and impassioned prose, he bursts the yths and ideologies of religious fundamentalism, apitalism ru n amok, male domination, and miltarism that are draining our world of its natural and human resourses and exacerbating the suffering of millions for the benefit of the few.' I've read about half of this book and find it well worth reading and one that will lend itself to robust discussion. Hartmann's style is easy to read but thought provoking and he deals with world-wide issues and problems that shoul d engage BWAG. I heartily recommend it. " | |||
| Weapons of Mass Instruction | John Taylor Gatto | $25 | Art Smoot |
| A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling 'In this book, the noisy gadfly of U.S. education takes up the question of damage done in the name of schooling. Again he touches on many of the same questions and finds the same answers. Gatto is a bold and compelling critic in a field defined by politic statements, and from the first pages of this book he takes even unwilling readers along with him. In Weapons of Mass Instruction, he speaks movingly to readers' deepest desires for an education that taps their talents and frees frustrated ambitions. It is a challenging and extraordinary book that is a must read for anyone navigating their way through the school system.' - Ria Julien - Winnipeg Free Press John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of familiar schooling that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a by-product of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, put that now-famous expression of the title into common use worldwide. Weapons of Mass Instruction promises to add another chilling metaphor to the brief against schooling. Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate, following high-level political theories constructed by Plato, Calvin, Spinoza, Fichte, Darwin, Wundt, and others, which contend the term _education_ is meaningless because humanity is strictly limited by necessities of biology, psychology, and theology. The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable. Realizing that goal demands that the young be conditioned to rely upon experts, remain divided from natural alliances, and accept disconnections from the experiences that create self-reliance and independence. Escaping this trap requires a different way of growing up, one Gatto calls _open source learning._ In chapters such as _A Letter to Kristina, my Granddaughter_; _Fat Stanley_; and _Walkabout:London,_ this different reality is illustrated. John Taylor Gatto taught for thirty years in public schools before resigning from school-teaching in the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal during the year he was named New York State's official Teacher of the Year. Since then, he has traveled three million miles lecturing on school reform. " | |||
| Great Decision 2010 | Various | $18 | Art Smoot |
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| Factory Girls | Leslie Chang | $10 at Amazon | Yeida Chang |
| " About the life of young Chinese women who leave the countryside and work in the large factories. " | |||
| Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded--and What We Need to Do to Remake | John Perkins | $17 at Amazon | Tony Wells |
| John Perkins has been in and out of the world of high finance and low ethics, and in Hoodwinked he not only illuminates that world with dramatic stories and keen insights, but suggests what we might do to create a better society.' _Howard Zinn, bestselling author of A People's History of the United States " | |||
| Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | Malcolm Gladwell | $10 at Amazon | John Cowley |
| Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of 'thin slices' of behavior. The key is to rely on our 'adaptive unconscious'--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea. | |||
| Whoops! | Sherwin B. Nuland | $?? Amazon | Joe Schlotthauer |
| Among the huge number of men and women practicing medicine during the past century, only a few have been able to write well about their profession for the general reader. Of the most accomplished among them, it can be said that their words are a natural extension of their healing. Any physician becoming familiar with the stories and essays--and the poems too--of such doctors soon recognizes the depth of their concern for those who come to them for help and their understanding of the difficulties and satisfactions of caring for the sick. | |||