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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

by Naomi Klein

Klein, a Canadian journalist, author and activist, well known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization, will speak on her book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, an international and New York Times bestseller. The Shock Doctrine argues that the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics have gained a stronghold and risen to prominence in countries that were experiencing shock from disasters or upheavals, including Chile under Pinocet, Russia under Yeltsin and the United States.

A Wolf at the Table

by Augusten Burroughs

Burroughs is the bestselling author of Dry and Running with Scissors. In his new book, A Wolf at the Table, he explores the terrifying relationship between father and son in this riveting look at his childhood and his own father, a man whose alcoholic rages created a world where no one was safe and unconditional love was non existent. Those expecting the Burrough’s humor to soften the nightmarish reality of his childhood will find in its place a gripping and chilling look at the pain of his past, but will ultimately be left with “the profound joy of simply being alive.”

Eat More, Weigh Less

by Dr. Dean Ornish

Dr. Dean Ornish, MD, is the founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif., where he holds the Safeway Chair. He is clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and received his medical training in internal medicine from the Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. In his book, Eat More, Weigh Less, Ornish explains that the key to good health and weight loss is not necessarily eating less and restricting calories but in eating foods that are high in fiber, low in fat. These foods can be eaten in abundance and not only lead to weight loss but to health and well-being without deprivation.

On Human Nature

by E.O. Wilson

In his Pulitzer Prize winning work, scientist and biologist E.O. Wilson, examines the link between genetic inheritance and the human mind, and the limits that social and environmental factors have on behavior.

“Twenty-five years after its first publication, Harvard University Press has re-released Edward O. Wilson’s classic work, On Human Nature. A double Pulitzer Prize winner, Wilson is a writer of effortless grace and stylish succinctness and this is one of his finest, most important books... A highly influential, elegantly written book,“ commented Robin McKie, The Observer.

The Forever War

by Dexter Filkins

Award winning New York Times correspondent, Dexter Filkins, paints a portrait of the realities of the war in Iraq, told not from a political perspective, but from the human perspective taking the reader along on a visceral journey of the terrors of a war that has become the most defining conflict of our time. Filkins focuses on the day to day, as he takes the reader across the vast landscape of a war torn country.

Emotional Awareness

by Dr. Paul Ekman

Psychologist, Dr. Paul Ekman, joins with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to explore the connections between the science of emotions and spirituality, the bonds between east and west and our emotional lives. These conversations take us on a spiritual journey that leads to a better understanding to the nature of our emotions and the quality of our emotional lives.

The Ten Cent Plague

by David Hajdu

Hajdu explores that time after World War II and prior to American television when the comic book was the medium that explored the changes that the country was experiencing its own “pulpy, brightly colored way.” The comic book captured the essence of the irreverence of the changing culture that was transitioning from pre war to post war standards. This brief period in history revised popular culture as we know it today and was the precursor to the rock and roll generation. The Ten Cent Plague is Hajdu’s third book. His other two books include Lush Life: a Biography of Billy Strayhorn and Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina. He is a critic for the New Republic and is also a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals

by Jane Mayer

Investigative journalist, Jane Mayer takes a hard look at the Bush Administration’s use of torture at the expense of American ideals and ethics in the War on Terror. In The Dark Side, Mayer, who has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1995 and co authored two books, Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas and Landslide: The Unmaking of a President, 1984-1988, “examines both the controversial war on terror and the home front struggle to circumvent legal obstacles to is prosecution.” The Dark Side is “essential reading for those who think they can stand the truth,” commented Bob Herbert, The New York Times.

An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the Twenty-First Century

by James Orbinski

Canadian physician, humanitarian and former president of Doctors Without Borders, James Orbinski, M.D., shares his insights from spending his life bringing humanitarian work to the front lines of the most dangerous areas of conflict in the world. The book not only inspires us but enlightens us as to the courage of those who are suffering and how to contribute to alleviating their plight without losing sight of their inherent dignity and need to act in their own behalf. Dr. Orbinski received the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize for MSF in Oslo, Norway.