Other books that might interest you

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  Hummingbirds - A Novel

  Joshua Gaylord

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  A wonderfully compelling novel about the intertwining-and darkly surprising-relationships between the teachers and students at an all-girl prep school, Hummingbirds marks the debut of author Joshua Gaylord, a prep school teacher himself on New York City's Upper East Side. Spanning a year at the Carmine-Casey School for Girls, this intimate private school community becomes tempestuous and dangerously incestuous as the rivalries and secrets of teachers and students interact, intersect, and eventually collide. Ultimately, Hummingbirds poses a fascinating question: who are the adults and who are the children?

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  Invisible Countries - Journeys...

  Joshua Keating

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  A journalist explores how our world’s borders came to be and how self-proclaimed countries across the globe could change the map.   What is a country? While certain basic criteria—borders, a government, and recognition from other countries—seem obvious, journalist Joshua Keating investigates what happens in areas of the world that exist as exceptions to these rules. Invisible Countries looks at semiautonomous countries such as Abkhazia, Kurdistan, and Somaliland, as well as a Mohawk reservation straddling the U.S.-Canada border, and an island nation whose very existence is threatened by climate change.   Through stories about these would-be countries’ efforts at self-determination, Keating shows that there is no universal legal authority determining what a country is. He also argues that economic, cultural, and environmental forces could soon bring an end to our long period of cartographical stasis. Keating combines history with incisive observations drawn from his travels and interviews with residents, political leaders, and scholars in each of these “invisible countries.”  

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  The Cult of the Constitution -...

  Mary Anne Franks

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  In this controversial and provocative book, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism. 
  Constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly. Fundamentalist interpretations of the Constitution elevate certain constitutional rights above all others, benefit the most powerful members of society, and undermine the integrity of the document as a whole. The conservative fetish for the Second Amendment (enforced by groups such as the NRA) provides an obvious example of constitutional fundamentalism; the liberal fetish for the First Amendment (enforced by groups such as the ACLU) is less obvious but no less influential. Economic and civil libertarianism have increasingly merged to produce a deregulatory, "free-market" approach to constitutional rights that achieves fullest expression in the idealization of the Internet. The worship of guns, speech, and the Internet in the name of the Constitution has blurred the boundaries between conduct and speech and between veneration and violence. 
  But the Constitution itself contains the antidote to fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution lays bare the dark, antidemocratic consequences of constitutional fundamentalism and urges listeners to take the Constitution seriously, not selectively.

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  The Craft of Intelligence -...

  Allen W. Dulles

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  If the experts could point to any single book as a starting point for understanding the subject of intelligence from the late twentieth century to today, that single book would be Allen W. Dulles's The Craft of Intelligence. This classic of spycraft is based on Allen Dulles's incomparable experience as a diplomat, international lawyer, and America's premier intelligence officer. Dulles was a high-ranking officer of the CIA's predecessor—the Office of Strategic Services—and was present at the inception of the CIA, where he served eight of his ten years there as director. Here he sums up what he learned about intelligence from nearly a half-century of experience in foreign affairs. 
  In World War II his OSS agents penetrated the German Foreign Office, worked with the anti-Nazi underground resistance, and established contacts that brought about the Nazi military surrender in North Italy. Under his direction the CIA developed both a dedicated corps of specialists and a whole range of new intelligence devices, from the U-2 high-altitude photographic plane to minute electronic listening and transmitting equipment.

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  Jesse Ventura's Marijuana Manifesto

  Jesse Ventura, Jen Hobbs

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  Any way you look at it, for whoever is using it, marijuana is a medicinal plant, in abundant supply. Every month and every year that goes by, we find out more positive things about it. Marijuana has been demonized through the years but obviously this plant has a great deal of positive attributes, and it's also a renewable resource. Being a cash crop, marijuana is bad for the pharmaceutical industry. Is Big Pharma pressuring the government to continue to deny sick people access? If so, that's truly a crime against American citizens. And as Jesse Ventura writes: "Our government won't do the right thing and legalize marijuana unless we the people demand it, because there are so many people within our government on the payroll, all thanks to the War on Drugs."Jesse Ventura's Marijuana Manifesto calls for an end to the War on Drugs. Just because something is illegal, that doesn't mean it goes away; it just means that criminals run it. Legalizing marijuana will serve to rejuvenate our pathetic economy, and just might make people a little happier. Ventura's book will show us all how we can take our country back.

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  99 to 1 - How Wealth Inequality...

  Chuck Collins

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  “America’s foremost opponent of inequality brilliantly shows how the 1 percent rigged the rules, looted the country, and got the ninety-nine percent to pay for it.”—Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy   Over recent decades, we’ve seen a radical redistribution of wealth upward to a tiny fraction of the population. In this book, activist Chuck Collins explains how it happened and marshals wide-ranging data to show exactly what the ninety-nine to one percent divide means in the real world and the damage it causes to individuals, businesses, and the earth.    Most important, he answers the burning question: What can be done about it? He offers a common-sense guide to bringing about a society that works for everyone: the hundred percent. This is a struggle that can be won. After all, the odds are ninety-nine to one in our favor.   “This riveting tale of America as two cities will stay with you for years to come and—watch out! It may rouse you to action on the solutions that Collins spells out with perfect precision.” —Charles Derber, author of The Pursuit of Attention

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