Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction
by David Sheff (Author)

A father's description of his son's battle with drug addiction. It is so well written that it is a page-turning narrative even if you are not involved, personally or professionally, with drug addiction. It is moving and insightful and will be helpful to many.
I feel bad about making any reservations about such a magnificent book, and I wouldn't want to be construed as advocating legalization or minimizing the problems addressed but some comments are in order.

Beautiful Boy's the introduction includes poignant stories of parents whose children have lost their lives to drugs. The lethality, the danger of death, does vary with different drugs. (Naltrexone is not mentioned). In most cases this is a chronic rather than an acutely life-threatening disease. There is some disconnect between the danger to life and the adverse effects on behavior and character. Nick's drug of choice was methamphetamine but he was a multiple user, including shooting heroin.

Detox regimes for different drugs differ markedly. There are accepted medical detox regimes for alcohol and heroin, whereas with cocaine and crystal meth and club drugs the withdrawal is just cold turkey. Paradoxically we have a lot of scientific knowledge about the action of these drugs but little in the way of treatment has come out of the neuroscience.
The book places some emphasis on marihuana as a gateway drug. No mention is made of the use of amphetamines (disguised as Ritalin, Cnncerta, Focalin, Adderall etc) to treat ADHD.

As regards the moral issue, I think Sally Satin's logic is impeccable; the brain imaging studies show results not causes. On the other hand there is clinical evidence for a disease concept. Some people get jittery and have an unpleasant sensation if they take amphetamines; some get nauseated and cannot even tolerate taking Percocet for a toothache. Such people are not likely to become addicts, but that seems to be due to some chemical factor, perhaps inherited, not because they are nicer or wiser than anyone else.

A New Earth

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
by Eckhart Tolle (Author)

The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy bestselling inspirational book, The Power of Now
With his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived "in the now." In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.

The Power of Now was a question-and-answer handbook. A New Earth has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.

Within about 5 minutes of opening A New Earth (at the pain-body chapter) I was in ecstasy. Why? I already know all this stuff. I even teach it. What is it about Eckhart and his writing style that is so unusual?

I first read the Power of Now when it came out. I dismissed it as another fairly good book, but not such a big deal. In retrospect, I didn't really want it to be as good, or him to be as successful, as it was and he was. Some kind of sibling rivalry.

Then I went through something in my life that was so difficult that I found myself grabbing the book off the shelf, and taking it everywhere with me for quite a while. The only other book that I suddenly "knew" I MUST read was Byron Katie's book Loving What Is, toward which I had projected a similar kind of attitude. Now these two books were my saving grace, not just because of what they say, but because of the authenticity of the voice of the people saying it.

There is something about Eckhart that is very powerful and beautiful -- at least when you are looking for a connection to higher consciousness. I have found this book to be very clear and in many ways better than The Power of Now, because it goes into greater detail about the emotional ramifications of both enlightenment and identification with the ego, and also explains and unravels the pain-body more deeply. Most books about enlightenment consider all this just something to transcend, which makes the whole process very dualistic.

A Civilization of Love

A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World
by Carl Anderson (Author)

Is it possible for our Catholic faith to transform our increasingly secular culture? Carl Anderson answers that question with a resounding "Yes!" in his new book "A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World." Anderson is the leader of the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal group. He has worked closely with both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and has served on several Vatican committees. In "A Civilization of Love," he relies heavily on the teachings of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, especially the theology of the body and Pope Benedict's recent encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).

Anderson begins with St. Paul's visit to Athens between 50 - 58 AD to illustrate how one person could begin to change a culture. The Greeks believed in many gods, but they had a shrine to an "unknown god." While this was primarily to make sure that they were not angering any gods that they might have forgotten, St. Paul used this as a jumping off point to begin to introduce them to the Judeo-Christian God. Anderson argues that "the responsibility of Christians in our own time remains as it was in Paul's - to radically transform culture, not by imposing values from above, but through a subtler yet more powerful process - living a vocation of love in the day-to-day reality of our lives."

Our world has become increasingly secular. A faith in God has been replaced by a faith in progress. The belief in a creator who has endowed us all with certain unalienable rights is falling by the wayside. "Human life is reduced to a meaning and purpose only in reference to this world, which is asking of this world something that it does not have the power to give." In contrast, Jesus' great commandment was to love God and one another. "It is the vocation to love that not only makes each person, but makes each person human."

"A Civilization to Love" focuses on Catholic social values, what it means to love our neighbor. Especially as lay persons, we are called to work in the world. We are called to change society by the way we raise our families and conduct our business affairs. We are called to witness to what it means to be a people rooted in faith. Everything we possess has been given by God. "Every talent is given as a gift. Every moment is a chance and an opportunity for conveying love. . . Fundamentally, one of the only ways in which we can show our love for God physically is through service to him through people."

Anderson focuses on the ways we can serve in our families, our workplaces, and in the global economy. He discusses many of the social ills that face Catholics and the world today such as the breakdown of the family, the reality of abortion, the increase in working hours, the loss of the Sabbath rest, the need for more ethical behavior in the workplace and government, and adjusting to a changing Church. He offers concrete ways Catholics can make a difference.

Catholics do have the power to transform the world. "They will do so by their actions, by their attitudes, and by their influence. But above all, they will do so by their love. This love is a matter not of mere high-minded sentimentality but of genuine compassion tempered with a well-grounded realism. It is a love that offers hope not only for eternity but for a better way of life on this earth." "A Civilization of Love" invites us all to be part of that transformation. It is up to us to answer the call.

Retribution

Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
by Max Hastings (Author)

Hailed in Britain as “Spectacular . . . Searingly powerful” (Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Telegraph), a riveting, impeccably informed chronicle of the final year of the Pacific war. In his critically acclaimed Armageddon, Hastings detailed the last twelve months of the struggle for Germany. Here, in what can be considered a companion volume, he covers the horrific story of the war against Japan.

By the summer of 1944 it was clear that Japan’s defeat was inevitable, but how the drive to victory would be achieved remained to be seen. The ensuing drama—that ended in Japan’s utter devastation—was acted out across the vast stage of Asia, with massive clashes of naval and air forces, fighting through jungles, and barbarities by an apparently incomprehensible foe. In recounting the saga of this time and place, Max Hastings gives us incisive portraits of the theater’s key figures—MacArthur, Nimitz, Mountbatten, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. But he is equally adept in his portrayals of the ordinary soldiers and sailors—American, British, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese—caught in some of the war’s bloodiest campaigns.

Retribution is the companion volume to Armageddon. As is typical of Hastings, readers probably won't agree with 100% of his judgments and opinions. But the way he organizes his facts and presents his narrative, he presents a formidable case that's hard to deny.

With unprecedented insight, Hastings discusses Japan’s war against China, now all but forgotten in the West, MacArthur’s follies in the Philippines, the Marines at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Soviet blitzkrieg in Manchuria. He analyzes the decision-making process that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—which, he convincingly argues, ultimately saved lives. Finally, he delves into the Japanese wartime mind-set, which caused an otherwise civilized society to carry out atrocities that haunt the nation to this day.

Retribution is a brilliant telling of an epic conflict from a master military historian at the height of his powers.

Into the Wild

Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer (Author)

This is a poignant, compelling narrative about Chris McCandless, an intelligent, intense, and idealistic young man, who cut off all ties to his upper middle class family. He then reinvented himself as Alexander Supertramp, a drifter living out of a backpack, eking out a marginal existence as he wandered throughout the United States. A modern day King of the Road, McCandless ended his journey in 1992 in Alaska, when he walked alone into the wilderness north of Denali. He never returned.

Into the Wild is story of Chris McCandless,well-educated son of a well-off family took himself off to Alaska for an adventure to test himself solo against the wilds. He sold most of his possesions and took the most minimal amount of equipment with him for his survival test. Why he did this, and his ultimate fate, were unraveled by Jon Krakauer in this dramatic account. Itis a true story.

Krakauer felt drawn to Chris McCandless because as a young man, he also had tested himself against nature and danger by attempting a solo climb of the Devil's Thumb. This affinity led him on the trail of what happenend to Chris, intuitively finding the motive and thoughts that were not revealed in the little notebook that Chris left behind in an abandoned shell of a bus, where he met his end in the wilds of Alaska.

Strangely, Chris might have survived were it not for a simple and understandable mistake, or if he had taken more than the extreme minimum with him on his quest. Some people felt he had sought his death and that his adventure was suicidal. However, his struggle was heroic and probably was a case of a very intense and sincere young man trying to test himself in the purest way, against the monstrous forces of nature.

This is a sad story, but also uplifting in a way. The intensity of Chris McCandless and his search for himself won't be forgotten by anyone who reads this book.

Bringing Down the House

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
by Ben Mezrich (Author)

The story is told through the eyes of the author, who met one of the students at a party and was so intrigued by his outrageous tale that he was compelled to put it into a book. This is a story of a group of math whizzes, most of Asian descent, who used the art of card counting, worked as teams, and legally won as much as 4 million dollars during the few years they spent their weekends in the Vegas casinos, living the high life.

As a physician I have my fill of non-fiction with an abundance of journals so when I read for relaxation I want a story that keeps me excited, interested and sleepless until it is finished. Bringing Down the House is such a book and reads like a Clancy or Pollock with a little lower body count, but with no less excitement.

Ben Mezrich is superb writer and story teller with the amazing ability to weave the excitement of a Las Vegas casino, the mathmetics of card counting with enjoyable interpersonal dynamics so that this is a consuming story with people you care about. His description of the high roller lifestyle in Vegas takes you to the tables playing sums you watch others wager with the adrenaline rush like you were part of the team. I bought the book in Boston having just missed him at a book signing and had a hardtime finishing the conference. I found myself in the room reading a book I could not put down instead of going out in one of the towns in which the story was set. It was that engrossing.

Unaccustomed Earth

Unaccustomed Earth
The tight arc of a story is perfect for Lahiri’s keen sense of life’s abrupt and powerful changes, and her avid eye for telling details. This collection’s five powerful stories and haunting triptych of tales about the fates of two Bengali families in America map the perplexing hidden forces that pull families asunder and undermine marriages. ‘Unaccustomed Earth,’ the title story, dramatizes the divide between immigrant parents and their American-raised children, and is the first of several scathing inquiries into the lack of deep-down understanding and trust in a marriage between a Bengali and a non-Bengali. An inspired miniaturist, Lahiri creates a lexicon of loaded images. A hole burned in a dressy skirt suggests vulnerability and the need to accept imperfection. Van Eyck’s famous painting, The Arnolfini Marriage, is a template for a tale contrasting marital expectations with the reality of familial relationships. A collapsed balloon is emblematic of failure. A lost bangle is shorthand for disaster. Lahiri’s emotionally and culturally astute short stories (ideal for people with limited time for pleasure reading and a hunger for serious literature) are surprising, aesthetically marvelous, and shaped by a sure and provocative sense of inevitability. Lahiri writes insightfully about childhood, while the romantic infatuations and obstacles to true love will captivate teens.

Mistaken Identity

Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope
Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.

This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?

Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.

And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.

Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.

This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?

Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.

And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.

Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

Eclipse

Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)
Reading the third installment in the Twilight series was as satisfying to me as munching through a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms. The big ones.

Because, after all, Eclipse is BIG--629 pages--and in this volume of the story about Bella Swan, a mortal teenager, and vampire Edward Cullen, several big What If questions are explored: What if Bella decides once-and-for-all to become a vampire like Edward; how can she possibly know when she's ready? What if Edward relents and redraws his "many careful lines" for his physical relationship with Bella? What would it look like if something so evil were to terrorize the Olympic Peninsula that Bella's good vampires and her werewolf friends had to try to unite to fight it, despite their ancient animosity? And how would Bella's closest friend Jacob, probably the swiftest of the Quileute werewolves, compete with her supposedly true love Edward for her eternal devotion?

Once again, Stephenie Meyer has written a compelling and often humorous sequel set in the lush environment surrounding the small town of Forks, Washington. Her colorful characters feel like real people rather than types--a big thing for me. And what situations could've been written morosely or indelicately came off instead as, well, as a kind of sensuous elegance. Even though the more private moments of pain or pleasure were described honestly, with realistic detail, they weren't stripped of their intimacy by such telling. That impressed me. And there are lots of these kinds of moments throughout the book. I just ate it up.

One thing that might bog down readers is the tremendous amount of backstory that must be covered in order for the action and some characters' points of view to make sense. It makes for a lot of exposition (as opposed to plain ol' action), even when the stories are coming out of the characters' mouths. But at least the stories are told in varied styles, according to the characters relating them, so monotony is not an issue. It's just a LOT of information to keep straight.

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
I rated this book 5 stars for its timeliness.
In my opinion, most people do not even begin to understand what is going on in the credit market and those who could are either in self-denial or lying to the public. This book is an excellent primer on the subject.
I expect that by the time more in-depth books are written the problem will be evident for all to see.
The last chapter, although well intentioned, is highly opinionated. However, the rest of the book is objective.
I am learning a lot reading this, even though I've followed the economy for years. The preface summarizes the situation and outlines the book, but is maybe slightly dense and technical for the average person. But the first chapter is great for giving perspective on how the US economy has evolved, especially the troubles of the stagflation period and what caused that. The book goes up to November 2007, with a clear understanding that the credit bubble was going to have to unwind, and it was either going to cost $1 trillion, or, if the government tried to paper it over, a lot more.

Do Hard Things

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations
A growing movement of young people is rebelling against the low expectations of today's culture by choosing to "do hard things" for the glory of God. And Alex and Brett Harris are leading the charge.

Do Hard Things is the Harris twins' revolutionary message in its purest and most compelling form, giving readers a tangible glimpse of what is possible for teens who actively resist cultural lies that limit their potential.

Combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility, the authors weave together biblical insights, history, and modern examples to redefine the teen years as the launching pad of life. Then they map out five powerful ways teens can respond for personal and social change.

Written by teens for teens, Do Hard Things is packed with humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life rebelutionaries in action. This rallying cry from the heart of an already-happening teen revolution challenges a generation to lay claim to a brighter future, starting today.

Climate Confusion

Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor by Roy Spencer is a breath of fresh wind. Written by a highly qualified NASA scientist, Climate Confusion examines the current evidence about global warming and the debate surrounding it.

Well written for a mass audience and expertly researched and documented, Climate Confusion should be read by all sides of the climate debate. One thing that everyone should note is that their is not massive agreement among the scientific community about global warming. Spencers book is but one voice among many that cries out that we are all being fed a bill of goods by the doom and gloom crowd. He is to congratulated on work well done.

If you listen to the media, you would think that man-made environmental catastrophe was about to engulf the world and imperil civilization. From Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth to nightly jeremiads about CO2 emissions and carbon footprints, we are bombarded around the clock with alarmist reports that disasterous global warming is on the rise and that it's our fault. In Climate Confusion, noted climatologist Roy Spencer shows that fears about global warming are vastly exaggerated and are driven by politics, not truth. He shows that a global superstorm has already arrived-but it is a storm of hype and hysteria. Climate Confusion is a ground-breaking book that combines impeccable scientific authority with great wit and literary panache to expose the hysteria surrounding the myths of global warming and climate change. Spencer shows that the earth is far more resilient than exopessimists pretend and that increasing wealth and technology ingenuity, far from being the enemies of the environment, are the only means we possess to solve environmental problems as they arise.

Sacred Hunger

Good writers can "spin a good yarn" from the point of view of one, perhaps two or three, characters. The better writers (in my opinion) are good at getting into the minds of several of their own diverse creations. The very best writers must do that and more; they must be masterminds, able to weave these separate tales into a whole rope to hang their realized universe upon. Barry Unsworth has achieved mastermind status here in Sacred Hunger.

Sacred Hunger is a story that explores 17th Century Britain's quest to increase its empire through financial means (though most of us are more familiar with Britain's wartime strategies of that period). Through the eyes of men from all walks of life, we see the birthing, launch and journey of a merchant ship bound for the slave trade in Africa. Individual human dramas course through the tale: the merchant Kemp who is pinning his last hopes upon the profits from this voyage; his son Erasmus, whose future as an upwardly mobile husband-to-be depends on a perfect reputation; members of the crew who are kidnapped or tricked into signing on; a captain who secretly barters human blood for safe passage with unknown deities; and the ship's doctor, Matthew Paris, for whom this posting is a strange penance for his sins past.

Matthew Paris slowly develops as the sympathetic underdog, observing and participating in the slave trade with steadily growing sense of conviction and dread. I believe he is Unsworth's archetype of the best of our civilized Western world, with all of his intelligence and compassion. Erasmus Kemp is Paris' counter, amoral and ruthless once his youthful hopes for romance have begun to sour. We follow into the turnings of their minds most often throughout this tale, and it is through these two that we glimpse Unsworth's best insights into the Great Question of human nature that the author is exploring, namely: would mankind, if shed of the evils of modern civilization and living in Paradise, be able to abide together peacefully?

The Volumetrics Eating Plan

Watch for flying pigs: here's a weight-loss plan that's sensible and simple. And for those of you who can only think of bacon when the word "pig" is mentioned, prepare to go hog wild: the Volumetrics plan is designed to let you indulge in your favorite goodies every now and then, so you're much more likely to stick to the program. Developed by a nutritionist who has worked with the National Institutes of Health, the Volumetrics plan focuses on foods that are low in "energy density." In other words, fruits, vegetables, and soups—all high in water content—are low in energy density, and therefore allowed in greater quantities. These foods tend to be more filling, so you eat less—and that's how easy weight loss can result. Author Barbara Rolls includes forms for charting one's daily food intake and weight-loss progress, as well as dozens of tempting recipes for the likes of Risotto Primavera and Chicken Fajita Pizza. After years of watching friends remove the buns from their hamburgers and banish croutons from their salads, it's nice to see common sense making a comeback.

The beauty of "The Volumetrics Eating Plan" is you learn how to incorporate all the foods you love like chocolate, cheese, pizza etc volumetrically so you can eat them and lose weight!
She also includes several weeks of menu plans. These are simple to understand with easy to find ingredients. One drawback is that a whole weeks worth of menus are on one page so its a bit hard to read. Other than the weekly menu plans which are squished on a page, the rest of the book is generously laid out with easy to read text and lots of full color photographs.

The one weak area in the book is the lack of success stories. Though Dr. Rolls shares a few letters she has received from clients, I would like to have seen more letters and some before and after photographs.

Overall, the book is excellent and clearly explains how you can have your cake and lose weight too!

John Adams

Although it is not his best book, McCullough largely (not to say "hugely," a sloppy modifier for which he has a repetitive weakness) delivers on the high expectations for his thick biography of the Braintree Sage. His research is good and he has skillfully employed the two best aspects of John Adams' life in his account: Adams' own voluminous, revealing writings and his marriage to the irresistible Abigail. His accounts of Adams' finest hours--the creation of the Declaration of Independence and his refusal to declare war against France in 1798--are dramatically structured and emotionally moving.
The challenge of writing a popular biography is considerable, but it should not be met at the expense of ignoring the intellectual dimension of one's subject or of scanting the extensive recent scholarship dealing with the person you're writing about. As with H. W. Brands's THE FIRST AMERICAN, on Benjamin Franklin, McCullough provides the joys and virtues of a good story but does almost nothing to explain why that story of a great life matters beyond its sheer entertainment value.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that no fan will make it to the end unscathed. Luckily, Rowling has prepped loyal readers for the end of her series by doling out increasingly dark and dangerous tales of magic and mystery, shot through with lessons about honor and contempt, love and loss, and right and wrong. Fear not, you will find no spoilers in our review--to tell the plot would ruin the journey, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is an odyssey the likes of which Rowling's fans have not yet seen, and are not likely to forget. But we would be remiss if we did not offer one small suggestion before you embark on your final adventure with Harry--bring plenty of tissues.

The heart of Book 7 is a hero's mission--not just in Harry's quest for the Horcruxes, but in his journey from boy to man--and Harry faces more danger than that found in all six books combined, from the direct threat of the Death Eaters and you-know-who, to the subtle perils of losing faith in himself. Attentive readers would do well to remember Dumbledore's warning about making the choice between "what is right and what is easy," and know that Rowling applies the same difficult principle to the conclusion of her series. While fans will find the answers to hotly speculated questions about Dumbledore, Snape, and you-know-who, it is a testament to Rowling's skill as a storyteller that even the most astute and careful reader will be taken by surprise.

A spectacular finish to a phenomenal series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a bittersweet read for fans. The journey is hard, filled with events both tragic and triumphant, the battlefield littered with the bodies of the dearest and despised, but the final chapter is as brilliant and blinding as a phoenix's flame, and fans and skeptics alike will emerge from the confines of the story with full but heavy hearts, giddy and grateful for the experience.

Human Smoke

Bestselling author Nicholson Baker, recognized as one of the most dexterous and talented writers in America today, has created a compelling work of nonfiction bound to provoke discussion and controversy -- a wide-ranging, astonishingly fresh perspective on the political and social landscape that gave rise to World War II.

Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources -- including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries -- the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate and examine the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust.

Praised by critics and readers alike for his exquisitely observant eye and deft, inimitable prose, Baker has assembled a narrative within Human Smoke that unfolds gracefully, tragically, and persuasively. This is an unforgettable book that makes a profound impact on our perceptions of historical events and mourns the unthinkable loss humanity has borne at its own hand.

Lush Life

Richard Price paints a gritty realistic picture of New York in his latest book LUSH LIFE. It is an absorbing book about less than perfect characters who nevertheless come alive through sparkling (if sometimes coarse) dialogue.

The plot of Lush Life centers on an apparent mugging gone wrong. Eric Cash, Ike Marcus and Steve Boulware are walking around late one evening when a pair of wannabe crooks try to rob them. Ike is a little too defiant and gets shot. Steve is out cold, dead drunk and a series of events lead the police to believe Eric is the killer. It is sorted out relatively quickly, but not soon enough to for Eric to avoid a tough interrogation and a few hours in jail.

Lush Life is a crime story, but not the typical sort. It focuses less on the hunt for a murderer and more on the repercussions on all involved. For Eric, the brief arrest is merely the culmination of a very bad evening and the trauma - including dealing with his own cowardice during the mugging - will lead him on a self-destructive path. Similarly, Ike's father, Billy, is unable to cope with the loss of his son. The third principal character, Detective Matty Clark, tries to find the real killer despite an unwillingness by the police brass to really pursue the case (after the embarrassment of Eric's wrongful arrest, they'd like the whole thing to go away). Matty also has to deal with the increasingly unhinged Billy while confronting the effects of his own poor parenting techniques.

The Appeal

John Grisham will be ending his absence from the New York Times Best Seller's List (fiction) with the arrival "The Appeal." Grisham's first legal thriller since the Broker (2005) is a gripping and compelling read that will be hard to put down. It is also timely since it highlights the underbelly of today's election politics.

The story centers on a small Mississippi law firm who wins a big verdict over a chemical giant, Krane, that has spread carcinogenic pollutants. Krane, fearful that this verdict, if not overturned, would set a precedent that would eventually destroy it, goes into action. It files an appeal that will find its way to the state supreme court, and hires a "dirty tricks" firm to unseat a sitting justice believe to be unfriendly. This is a viable strategy since Mississippi elects their Supreme Court justices and 69% of its voters know little about the court's candidates.

So, while there is some serious food for thought in the book, it is also a solid novel well in the tradition of Grisham's other books: full of suspense; fast moving; and well written. I was not wild about the ending, but found it interesting that goodness and justice did not triumph as they often end up doing in novels. This one is more realistic.

The Shack

In the book world, it's hard to explain "the buzz." What causes word of mouth to start spreading? What turns an unknown author and novel into a surprise bestseller? Even more inexplicable for the book snobs is when a story fails to meet their literary standards and yet touches the masses in an undeniable way.

"The Shack" is the buzz book of the past few months. I hadn't even heard of it in November, but by the end of December I'd had relatives, friends, and online pals from across the country telling me I "had" to read this one. I've been burned by such recommendations in the past, particularly in relation to spiritually oriented titles. (Can anyone say "The Prayer of Jabez" and "Left Behind"?), but I was willing to give it a shot.

William P. Young's book has an intriguing premise. Years ago, a father name MacKenzie Phillips took his children camping and lost one of them to a man who has kidnapped and killed others. Mack has grieved since then. His marriage has struggled. Understandably, his relationship with God has suffered. Then, one wintry day, he receives a note in his mailbox inviting him back to the woods, to the shack in which his daughter's dress and bloodstains were found. The note, it would seem, is from God.

From this simple yet effective premise, Young leads Mack Phillips back to his point of despair and anger. The encounters he then has with God there in "The Shack" serve as thought-provoking moments for both Mack and the reader. This is not the God of stodgy Sunday school classes. This is not a flannel-graph Jesus. This is not limited to a fluttering dove of the Holy Spirit. The descriptions here are startling, while remaining true to the nature of God's love and grace as portrayed through Scripture. Not only are they startling, they're wise and moving and beautiful.

How Come That Idiot's Rich and I'm Not?

In How Come That Idiot’s Rich and I’m Not? bestselling author Robert Shemin reveals for the first time the inner-circle secrets of the mega-wealthy. Have you ever wondered why some people attract wealth while others stay financially trapped and in debt? The key is wealth-friendly, upside-down thinking. Stick with all the old moneymaking rules and stay broke. Break them and get rich. This is the book that shows you how.

We’ve all read about the college kid who made millions on a brainstorm, or the couple who made a fortune in real estate, or the guy in his thirties who waved good-bye to his boss and now lives on his investments. But until now, how they did it—the rules they followed or flouted, the tricks they stumbled on—have remained a mystery.

That’s about to change. Whether you’ve been trying to get rich but haven’t quite made it yet, or just need the confidence to dream big, this is the book for you. As experienced as Shemin is at showing high-net-worth individuals how to get richer, his real love is helping self-described “financial disasters” earn millions. And he uses his own odds-defying story to illustrate the outside-the-box thinking that gets the job done. Here, you’ll learn how to:

• set only one powerful success goal—and make it a big one
• play while your money goes to work
• stop building someone else’s business and start building your own
• live and think like a millionaire while you’re becoming one
• use the power and “smarts” of other Rich Idiots to help you join the Rich Idiot Club
• add OPI (other people’s ideas), OPT (other people’s time), and OPE (other people’s experience) to do less and make more
• tap into timeless secrets that unlock the energy and spiritual power of money

Learn which three assets you must own to become a Rich Idiot and how to obtain them with little or no money of your own. Learn why Rich Idiots outearn almost all the so-called wealth experts and how you can, too. Above all, learn how doing just one thing a day will bring you to your big goal.

The 4-Hour Workweek

What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this
controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer:

“I race motorcycles in Europe.”
“I ski in the Andes.”
“I scuba dive in Panama.”
“I dance tango in Buenos Aires.”

He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now.

Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:

• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements"
• What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income
• How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair
• What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks
• How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet
• What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are
• How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50–80% off
• How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office

You can have it all—really.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy bestselling inspirational book, The Power of Now With his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived "in the now." In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence. The Power of Now was a question-and-answer handbook. A New Earth has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics.

20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack Obama
Q: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?
A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.

Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?
A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.

Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?
A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn’t matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.