The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton

Giving

Giving is an inspiring look at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and organizations—and by individuals—to solve problems and save lives both “down the street and around the world.” Then it urges us to seek out what each of us, “regardless of income, available time, age, and skills,” can do to help, to give people a chance to live out their dreams. “We all have the capacity to do great things,” President Clinton says. “My hope is that the people and stories in this book will lift spirits, touch hearts, and demonstrate that citizen activism and service can be a powerful agent of change in the world.”

The Honorable Al Gore

The Assault on Reason

“We are at a pivotal moment in American democracy. The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, has reached levels that were previously unimaginable. It's too easy and too partisan to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. Reasoned, focused discourse is vital to our democracy to ensure a well-informed citizenry. But this is difficult in an environment in which we are experiencing a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time--from the O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson trials to Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith. Never has it been more vital for us to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from the climate crisis to the war in Iraq to the deficits and health and social welfare. Today, reason is under assault by forces using sophisticated techniques such as propaganda, psychology, and electronic mass media. Yet, democracy's advocates are beginning to use their own sophisticated techniques: the Internet, online organizing, blogs, and wikis. Although the challenges we face are great, I am more confident than ever before that democracy will prevail and that the American people are rising to the challenge of reinvigorating self-government. It is my great hope that those who read my book will choose to become part of a new movement to rekindle the true spirit of America.” - Al Gore

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Infidel

Readers with an eye on European politics will recognize Ali as the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was himself assassinated). Even before then, her attacks on Islamic culture as "brutal, bigoted, [and] fixated on controlling women" had generated much controversy. In this suspenseful account of her life and her internal struggle with her Muslim faith, she discusses how these views were shaped by her experiences amid the political chaos of Somalia and other African nations, where she was subjected to genital mutilation and later forced into an unwanted marriage. While in transit to her husband in Canada, she decided to seek asylum in the Netherlands, where she marveled at the polite policemen and government bureaucrats. Ali is up-front about having lied about her background in order to obtain her citizenship, which led to further controversy in early 2006, when an immigration official sought to deport her and triggered the collapse of the Dutch coalition government. Apart from feelings of guilt over van Gogh's death, her voice is forceful and unbowed—like Irshad Manji, she delivers a powerful feminist critique of Islam informed by a genuine understanding of the religion.

President Vicente Fox

Revolution of Hope

In Revolution of Hope, President Fox outlines a new vision of hope for the future of the Americas. For the first time, President Fox reveals the ups and downs of his close but rocky relationships with world leaders from President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair to Fidel Castro, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chávez. He speaks out forcefully on hot global topics like immigration, the war in Iraq, racism, globalization, the role of the United Nations, free trade, religion, gender equity, indigenous rights and the moral imperative to heal the global divide between rich and poor nations. From the man who brought true democracy to Mexico, Revolution of Hope is a personal story of triumph and a political vision for the future.

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

FREAKONOMICS

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives - how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In FREAKONOMICS, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and - if the right questions are asked - is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. FREAKONOMICS establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. FREAKONOMICS will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto

Mark Siegel

Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West

In Reconciliation, Prime Minister Bhutto recounts in gripping detail her final months in Pakistan and offers a bold new agenda for how to stem the tide of Islamic radicalism and to rediscover the values of tolerance and justice that lie at the heart of her religion. After reading this book, it will become even clearer what the world has lost by her assassination.

Mark Siegel, a close confidante to Prime Minister Bhutto, collaborated with her on this book over the last months of her life. He writes the following in the forward: “This book was written under extraordinary circumstances. It was my privilege to work with Benazir Bhutto on this manuscript over the last very difficult months. Benazir and I collaborated on the book, at times while Benazir was under house arrest by the Musharraf regime, and under the constraints of Emergency Rule, tantamount to Martial Law. This book was very important to her and she threw herself into it with the complete attention and intensity that she did in so many things in her life. Benazir was convinced that the battle between democracy and dictatorship, and extremism and moderation were the two central forces of the new millennium. She believed that the message of her cherished religion, Islam, was being politicized and exploited by extremists and fanatics. And she believed that under dictatorship, extremism festered and grew, threatening not only her homeland of Pakistan but also the entire world. That’s why she wrote this book. That’s why it was so important to her. And that’s why she devoted herself totally to this project, quite literally until the early morning of her death, when I received her final edits of this manuscript. While I helped Benazir to research and write this book, it is her work from beginning to end: a positive statement of reconciliation between religions and nations; a bold assertion of the true nature of Islam, and a practical roadmap for bringing societies together. Benazir Bhutto was the bravest person I have ever known, and a dear, irreplaceable friend. My only satisfaction is that the last thing people will remember of her will not be the carnage of that brutal murder, but the legacy of this book which manifests the strength, optimism and vision of a great and noble woman.”

Torie Clarke

Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game

Torie Clarke, renowned and respected in political and business circles as one of the nation's most gifted communicators, offers a complete guide to the new age of transparency. Clarke's message is refreshing and straightforward: No more spin. Always a dubious proposition, spin has become increasingly vulnerable as information sources have proliferated; spin is simply no longer viable. Or put another way, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." Distilling her twenty-five years of experience and wisdom into eight concise rules, Clarke counsels that politicians and executives need to tell the truth early, often, and in plain language. Clarke's experience is incomparable: She was the Pentagon's communications chief during the early years of George W. Bush's presidency and, prior to that, a high-ranking adviser to the first President Bush and to Senator John McCain. Clarke shows that a policy of transparency not only protects you, but that you even stand to gain from it - because once you figure out that you can't put lipstick on a pig, you've actually learned something far more powerful: not to create a pig in the first place. Entertaining, approachable, and full of crucial insight and practical guidance, Lipstick on a Pig will be indispensable for business leaders, public figures, and anyone working in media relations. With humor and savvy, Clarke's vision offers truly new opportunities for communications in the Information Age.

Dee Dee Myers

Why Women Should Rule the World

When President Bill Clinton was elected, Dee Dee Myers was told she would act as his Press Secretary, but only for the transition. There was no guarantee she would keep the position after his inauguration. Only 31 at the time, Myers was too intoxicated by victory to realize she was being shortchanged. But in January of 1993, Myers did become Press Secretary in spite of the odds. She was the youngest person ever and the only woman in the history of the country to hold the position. As she writes in this poignant new book, "I wasn't the first woman to be the first woman, of course. I stand on the shoulders of the countless others who stuck their necks out – and sometimes got their heads knocked off – for going where no woman had gone before. Not all of them were trying to advance the interests of the sisterhood. Still, because of them, those of us who followed have had more, different, and better opportunities. I know I have." Told through the prism of her own life, this book explores the trials woman have boldly faced throughout history to achieve opportunities in places where their presence was once denied. Filled with anecdotes from her tenure in the white house, Myers provides a fresh take on the achievements woman have made in all aspects of public life.

Elizabeth Edwards

Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers

She charmed America with her smart, likable, down-to-earth personality as she campaigned for her husband, then vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. She inspired millions as she valiantly fought advanced breast cancer after being diagnosed only days before the 2004 election. She touched hundreds of similarly grieving families when her own son, Wade, died tragically at age sixteen in 1996. Now she shares her experiences in Saving Graces, an incandescent memoir of Elizabeth Edwards’ trials, tragedies, and triumphs, and of how various communities celebrated her joys and lent her steady strength and quiet hope in darker times, once again affirming Edwards’ belief in the power of community to make our lives better and richer.

Bill O'Reilly

Kids Are Americans Too

Back again with a dialogue on rights that will have everyone talking, O'Reilly and his co-author Charles Flowers dole out the kind of blunt, cogent, commonsense commentary you count on them for. Together they explore timely questions being debated in and out of courts today including:

• Can a kid wear an antigay T-shirt on campus?
• Does a school newspaper have the right to bad-mouth a principal?
• Does a mother have the right to eavesdrop on her daughter's telephone conversations?

Some of the answers will surprise you. Some will empower you. All of them will make you think.

Cokie Roberts

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped our Nation

In her new book Ladies of Liberty (on sale April 8, 2008, Morrow) Cokie Roberts draws on personal correspondence, private journals and other primary sources in this second installment to her bestselling Founding Mothers. The book is peppered with entertaining gossip from the early days of the capital, but it also captures the great shift that occurred in American history as the country continued its expansion. Throughout, Ms. Roberts captures the heart and soul of the American spirit and offers new insights on the women who have helped make our nation great.

Steven V. Roberts

My Fathers' Houses: Memoir of a Family

In this remarkable memoir, Steven V. Roberts tells the story of his grandparents, his parents, and his own life, vividly bringing a period, a place, and a remarkable family into focus. The period was the forties and fifties, when the children of immigrants were striving to become American in a booming postwar world. The place was one block in Bayonne, New Jersey, and the house that Roberts's grandfather, Harry Schanbam, built with his own hands, a warm and reassuring home, just across the Hudson River from "the city," where Roberts grew up surrounded by family and tales of the Old Country. An emotional, compelling story of fathers and sons, My Fathers' Houses encapsulates the American experience of change and continuity, of breaking new ground using the tools and traditions of the past.

R. Glenn Hubbard

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System

This book explains how several much-decried problems in the U.S. health system-glaring gaps in the quality and efficiency of care, high rates of uninsurance, and out-of-control costs-can be resolved by empowering patients.

James McGregor

One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China

Destined to become the bible for business people in China, One Billion Customers shows how to navigate the often treacherous waters of Chinese deal making. Brilliantly written by an author who has lived in China for nearly two decades, the book reveals indispensable, street-smart strategies, tactics, and lessons for succeeding in the world's fastest growing consumer market. McGregor has seen or experienced it all, and now he shares his insights into how China really works. With nearly 100 strategies for conducting business in China, this unprecedented account combines practical lessons with the story of China's remarkable rise to power.

Irshad Manji

The Trouble With Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith

In this open letter, Irshad Manji unearths the troubling cornerstones of mainstream Islam today: tribal insularity, deep-seated anti-Semitism, and an uncritical acceptance of the Koran as the final, and therefore superior, manifesto of God's will. But her message is ultimately positive. She offers a practical vision of how Islam can undergo a reformation that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities, and fosters a competition of ideas. Her vision revives "ijtihad," Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking. In that spirit, Irshad has a refreshing challenge for both Muslims and non-Muslims: Don't silence yourselves. Ask questions---out loud. The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith is a clarion call for a fatwa-free future.

Mary Cheney

Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life

As a senior adviser to her father, she was in the middle of every major event of the 2000 and 2004 presidential contests - at the conventions, the debates, and on the trail. Both elections made history - and so did Mary. And for the first time ever, she writes about what it was like to be at the center of her father's campaigns as his daughter, as a member of the senior staff, and, though she never intended it, as a political target for the other side. In Now It's My Turn, a frank, funny, and down-to-earth memoir, Mary Cheney describes life inside the bubble of a national campaign. As she describes it, life inside a presidential campaign can be uplifting, frustrating, and heartbreaking, but no matter what else it may be, it's always entertaining.

Governor Mario Cuomo

Why Lincoln Matters : Today More Than Ever

In his newest book, Why Lincoln Matters: Today More Than Ever, Governor Mario Cuomo shows how the big issues - equality, the role of government, war and peace, the responsibilities of the fortunate few - resonate in today's political climate as he brings to life the contemporary relevance of Lincoln's message for today's hot-button issues. Today's political discourse often lacks depth and wisdom, but Governor Cuomo's analysis of Abraham Lincoln will inspire readers to believe that government can still be a force for greater good in American society.

President Fernando Cardoso

The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir

What is it like to govern one of the world's most notoriously ungovernable, most vibrant countries? Brazil's former president offers a candid, wry, illuminating view. Fernando Henrique Cardoso received a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to be the new Finance Minister of Brazil. As he put the phone down and stared into the darkness of his hotel room, he feared he'd been handed a political death sentence. The year was 1993, and he would be responsible for an economy that had had seven different currencies in the previous eight years to cope with inflation that had run at 3000 percent a year. Brazil had a habit of chewing up finance ministers with the ferocity of an Amazon piranha. This was just one of the turns in a largely unscripted and sometimes unwanted political career. In exile during the harshest period of the junta that ruled Brazil for twenty years, Cardoso started his political life with a tentative run for the Federal Senate in 1978. Within fifteen years, and despite himself, this former sociologist was running the country.

Al Roker

Big Shoes: A Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood

Bestselling author and beloved Today show personality Al Roker teams up with his celebrity friends to share personal thoughts, stories, and reflections on fathers and fatherhood in this heartwarming collection dad is always there to provide support and encouragement just when it's needed most, as well as help teach us some of life's most invaluable lessons-from how to fly a kite and pitch a tent to how to change a tire, negotiate a raise, or take on our first big home improvement project. Now it's time to say thank you! In Big Shoes, Al Roker and 45 other well-known personalities share personal stories about how their fathers have been there for them during times of both adversity and triumph, and the countless large and small ways they've shaped their lives throughout the years. These essays remind us of the important-and lasting-legacy of our dads, even as we've grown up and gone on to start families of our own.

Ambassador Dennis Ross

Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World

Statecraft is as old as politics: Plato wrote about it, Machiavelli practiced it. After the demise of Communism, some predicted that statecraft would wither away. But Ambassador Ross explains that in the globalized world—with its fluid borders, terrorist networks, and violent unrest—statecraft is necessary simply to keep the peace. In illuminating chapters, he outlines how statecraft helped shape a new world order after 1989. He shows how the failure of statecraft in Iraq and the Middle East has undercut the United States internationally, and makes clear that only statecraft can check the rise of China and the danger of a nuclear Iran. He draws on his expertise to reveal the art of successful negotiation. And he shows how the next president could resolve today’s problems and define a realistic, ambitious foreign policy. Statecraft is essential reading for anyone interested in foreign policy—or concerned about America’s place in the world.

Moises Naim

Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy

Black-market networks are stealthily transforming global politics and economics. Filled with fast-paced, vivid examples that are as real as they are surprising, Illicit shows how we got to this dangerous point - and stresses the interconnections between these illegal enterprises, how they endlessly recombine to breed new lines of business, distort the economy of entire countries and industries, enable terrorists and even take over governments. From pirated movies to weapons of mass destruction, from human organs to endangered species, drugs or stolen art, Illicit reveals the inner workings of these amazingly efficient international organizations and shows why it is so hard - and so necessary - to contain them. Illicit offers a fresh, ingenious and compelling vision of this untold story of globalization. It provides a powerful new lens with which to assess how today's world really works and where it may be headed.

Mary Lou Quinlan

Time Off for Good Behavior: How Hardworking Women Can Take a Break and Change Their Lives

In Time off for Good Behavior: How Hardworking Women Can Take A Break and Change their Lives , Mary Lou Quinlan tells her own story and those of nearly 40 other women who hit the moment of truth and gave themselves permission to step away and create happier, more satisfying lives. Time Off for Good Behavior is the result of listening to women like her, who realized enough was enough. Quinlan tells no-holds-barred stories of dozens of women who sacrificed their health, relationships, their good humor and a good night’s sleep until they found the courage to ask themselves if they were happy with the life they were living and made the decision to take life-saving breaks.

Dr. David Katz

Dr. David Katz's Flavor-Full Diet: Use Your Tastebuds to Lose Pounds and Inches with this Scientifically Proven Plan

Lose weight easily with Dr. Katz's groundbreaking approach to appetite control. Dr. David Katz's Flavor-Full Diet shows you how to fill up to complete satisfaction on fewer calories, calm the appetite center, and drop up to 16 pounds in just 6 weeks while eating delicious and nutritious food suitable for the whole family. With a Mediterranean-inspired 6-week meal plan, more than 100 delicious, simple, family-friendly recipes, and hundreds of insights available nowhere else, the Flavor-Full Diet will lead to weight control and better health, and to food you love that loves you back.