Current Events
by Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson
We are on the verge of a crippling energy crisis that could undermine our economy and change our way of life. In Who Turned Out the Lights?, Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson, editors of the award-winning nonpartisan Web site PublicAgenda.org, offer a much-needed reality check.
Children of Dust is an extraordinary adventure that reveals the diversity of Islamic beliefs, the vastness of the Pakistani diaspora, and the very human search for home. It is a spellbinding portrayal of a life that few Americans can imagine.
Between 2007 and 2009, Rich Benjamin, a journalist-adventurer, packed his bags and embarked on a 26,909-mile journey throughout the heart of white America, to some of the fastest-growing and whitest locales in our nation.
International bestselling author and controversial religion theorist Michael Baigent turns his keen attentions to modern-day Jerusalem and its increasingly important role in global affairs, exploring yet another of his explosive theories: that hardliners within the three great Abrahamic religions are working to hasten our end as prophesized in each of their texts and traditions of faith.
The Audacity of Help unrolls the blueprints and looks at how the packages passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama will affect healthcare, education, the environment, energy, taxes, and more.
Wasik's observations are firmly grounded in exclusive on-the-ground research, interviews with thought leaders, and the latest studies and statistics. He exposes the untold truths about home ownership: “green” isn't always so “green”; life isn't cheaper after accounting for gas, water, and taxes; and modern suburban living isn't so idyllic considering the toll it takes on our health.
Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential if they were to defeat the Taliban.
Though raised in a devout but quiet Muslim community in London, at sixteen Ed Husain discovered an intriguing political interpretation of Islam known as Islamism. Lured in by its ambitiously fundamentalist tenets, Islamism quickly became the center of his life.
While reformers and policymakers focus on achievement gaps, testing, and accountability, millions of students mentally and emotionally disengage from learning and many gifted teachers leave the field. Ironically, today's schooling is damaging the single most essential component to education -- the joy of learning.
The Blue Sweater is the inspiring story of a woman who left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to understand global poverty and find powerful new ways of tackling it.
by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller
The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, "animal spirits" are driving financial events worldwide. In this book, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess.
With oil around $100 a barrel, drivers wince whenever they pull into the gas station and businesses watch their bottom lines shrink. "Watch out," say doomsayers, "it will only get worse as oil dries up."












