Author: tedweinstein

Steve Jobs is technology’s most famous CEO, the man who revolutionized computers in the 1970s and 80s (with the Apple II and the Mac), animated movies in the 1990s (with Pixar), and digital music in the 2000s (with the iPod and iTunes). He’s also one of the most controversial CEOs in history, allegedly throwing epic tantrums, firing staff in elevators, and taking credit for other people’s achievements. Based on interviews with more Apple insiders than any previous author, Leander Kahney, former Wired News editor and the author of The Cult of Mac, has distilled the principles that guide Jobs and written the immediate New York Times bestseller Inside Steve’s Brain, explaining how Jobs launches killer products, attracts fanatically loyal customers, and manages some of the world’s most powerful brands. USA Today called Inside Steve’s Brain “a rich, essential read for [fans] to get inside Jobs’ head and discover what makes Apple insanely great,” and picked it as one of the Best Business Books of 2008. This expanded edition includes a new chapter on Jobs’s very public health crisis and the debate about Apple’s future. (Portfolio/Penguin)

Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World is an exposé of an empire that continues to grow every year — and which, officially, it isn’t even there. It is the adventurous, insightful, and often chilling story of a young geographer’s road trip through the underworld of U.S. military and C.I.A. “black ops” sites, a shadow nation of state secrets: clandestine military bases, ultra-secret black sites, classified factories, hidden laboratories, and top-secret agencies making up what defense and intelligence insiders themselves call the “black world.” Trevor Paglen is a scholar in geography, an artist and a provocateur. His impassioned, rigorous and relentless research into areas that officially don’t exist leads him on a globe-trotting investigation into a vast, undemocratic and uncontrolled hidden empire. Traveling to the Middle East, Central America, and even around our nation’s capital and its suburbs, he interviews the people who live on the edges of these blank spots. National Book Critics Circle Award Winner Rebecca Solnit says, “Some of the worst crimes in the American landscape are hiding in plain sight, and nobody has ever pursued them more thoroughly or explained them more chillingly and engagingly than Trevor Paglen. What he is doing is important, fascinating, and groundbreaking.”(Dutton Books/Penguin Group)

From organic groceries to fuel-efficient cars and toxicity-free dry cleaning, the opportunities to profit from a business that builds local communities, heals the environment, and feeds the growing green demand are almost endless. As an entrepreneur who has built several successful, eco-friendly businesses, Scott Cooney gives you expert advice and guidance on starting, building, and growing a green business–and then delivers a gold mine of business ideas for every kind of product and service. Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur also gives you: Green Entrepreneur Rules that will get you started on the right foot, marketing, advertising and networking techniques that build a loyal customer base, and lots of other valuable resources, including green franchises, contacts and web links for more information. Whether you’re a novice or a veteran business developer, Scott points the way to productivity and profit strategies you can build into any small business model. (McGraw-Hill)

Ms. Cahill for Congress: One Fearless Teacher, Her Sixth-Grade Class, and the Election That Changed Their Lives Forever is the remarkable story of a teacher who ran a grassroots campaign for Congress… from her sixth-grade classroom. “You can’t run for office in this country unless you’re a millionaire or you know a lot of millionaires.” This offhand remark from one of her students dismayed public school teacher Tierney Cahill. When she told the kids that in a democracy anyone can run for office, they dared her to prove it — by running herself. With her eager students leading the way, and a war chest of just seven thousand dollars (compared to opponents with one hundred times the funds), Cahill not only got her name on the ballot but she won the Democratic primary. And as the campaign moved forward, Cahill’s students blossomed beyond her wildest expectations. Ms. Cahill for Congress is the inspiring story of an exceptional teacher who proved that anyone really can run for office — and even without money or connections, make a difference in a great many lives. (Ballantine/Random House).

Self-published in 2005, personal branding consultant Peter Montoya‘s The Brand Called You: Make Your Business Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace is a step-by-step guide for professionals looking to develop a strong company brand. In its first edition, the book became an international sensation, selling more than 65,000 copies worldwide and hitting #3 on Japan’s business bestseller list. Now revised and completely updated, this invaluable guide teaches you the vital principles and skills of personal branding, including how to craft an emotionally resonant branding message, create top-quality branding tools, and attract a constant flow of business. Robert G. Allen and Mark Victor Hansen, coauthors of The One-Minute Millionaire say “Montoya’s Personal Branding ideas are going to change how business owners and professionals promote themselves.” (McGraw-Hill)

Before the mid-seventeenth century, scholars generally agreed that it was impossible to predict something by calculating mathematical outcomes. One simply could not put a numerical value on the likelihood that a particular event would occur. Even the outcome of something as simple as a dice roll or the likelihood of showers instead of sunshine was thought to lie in the realm of pure, unknowable chance. The issue remained intractable until Blaise Pascal wrote to Pierre de Fermat in 1654, outlining a solution to the “unfinished game” problem: how do you divide the pot when players are forced to end a game of dice before someone has won? The idea turned out to be far more seminal than Pascal realized. From it, the two men developed the method known today as probability theory. In The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern, acclaimed popular mathematics writer Keith Devlin, known to millions of NPR listeners as “The Math Guy” on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, tells the story of this correspondence and its remarkable impact on the modern world: from insurance rates, to housing and job markets, to the safety of cars and planes, calculating probabilities allowed people, for the first time, to think rationally about how future events might unfold. (Basic Books/Perseus)

What we eat does have an impact on global warming, and you can enjoy being part of the global-warming solution by following these easy recipes, tips, and techniques outlined by chef and environmental educator Laura Stec and meteorologist Eugene Cordero. Cool Cuisine: Taking The Bite Out of Global Warming presents a realistic view of food and drink and their impact on greenhouse-gas emissions. The food-environment connection is clearly defined with food solutions coming from doctors, ranchers, farmers, dairymen, chefs, and food service professionals. Stec’s friendly, entertaining style and Cordero’s no-nonsense data combine culinary art and science in a way that inspires and instructs. (Gibbs Smith)

The Autobiographer’s Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir, edited by Jennifer Traig with an introduction by Dave Eggers, received this starred review in Publisher’s Weekly: “Put out by 826 Valencia, the San Francisco-based nonprofit Eggers started to provide creative writing instruction for middle and high school students, this book presents straightforward, practical ideas and advice from a double-handful of contemporary writers. Edited by memoirist Traig (Devil in the Details), a longtime 826 Valencia tutor, it’s comprised largely of excerpts from wide-ranging, insightful round-table discussions among nonfiction practitioners like Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), Nick Hornby (Housekeeping vs. the Dirt), Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes) and Sarah Vowell (Assassination Vacation)… Besides lessons on celebrating the ordinary and the importance of humor, contributors also offer ways to push through the inevitable writer’s block and handle miffed family and friends. Their guidance, complemented by writing exercises and work plans, should prove useful, informative and motivating for writers at just about any level.” (Henry Holt).

We are running a collective chemical fever that we cannot break. Everyone everywhere now carries a dizzying array of chemical contaminants, the by-products of modern industry and innovation that contribute to a host of developmental deficits and health problems in ways just now being understood. Almost everything we encounter – from soap to soup cans and computers to clothing – contributes to a chemical load unique to each of us. In The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being, former Portland Oregonian and Arizona Republic investigative journalist Nena Baker explores the many factors that have given rise to this condition, draws back the curtain on its untold impact. The Washington Post calls it a “an illuminating, consumer-oriented book” that is “balanced in its approach.” E – The Environmental Magazine says “This is it: The book that finally chronicles the chemical invaders tainting us and the environment – the phthalates and Bisphenol-A (BPA), the flame retardants and non-stick surfaces. And investigative journalist Nena Baker’s book is enough to induce outrage.” (North Point/Farrar Straus & Giroux)

Invisible Chains: Shawn Hornbeck and the Kidnapping Case that Shook the Nation is the wrenching true story of the kidnapping of 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck from his rural Missouri hometown by Michael Devlin, an innocuous-seeming pizza-shop manager who repeatedly abused and tortured Shawn for four years. Kristina Sauerwein, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the L.A. Times, reveals the unusual psychological aspects of Hornbeck’s captivity and the full details of his eventual rescue. Publishers Weekly says “An impeccable, on-target true crime narration, this book of loss, perversity and redemption illuminates not only the desperate pangs of a predator’s sexual hunger but the steadfast love of two families for their missing children.” (Lyons Press)

Used properly, a simple drawing on a humble napkin is more powerful than Excel or PowerPoint. It can help crystallize ideas, think outside the box, and communicate in a way that people simply “get.” In The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, Dan Roam argues that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, even those who swear they can’t draw. Drawing on twenty years of visual problem solving combined with the recent discoveries of vision science, this book shows anyone how to clarify a problem or sell an idea by visually breaking it down using a simple set of visual thinking tools — tools that take advantage of everyone’s innate ability to look, see, imagine, and show. Publishers Weekly says “Roam has developed a remarkably comprehensive system of ideas. Everything in the book is broken down into steps, providing the reader with ‘tools and rules’ to facilitate picture making. For forward-thinking management types, there is enough content in these pages to drive many a brainstorming session.” (Portfolio/Penguin)

Developed by a problem-solving software engineer who was tired of diets that are too hard to stick with, The No-S Diet: The Strikingly Simple Weight-Loss Strategy That Has Dieters Raving — and Dropping Pounds has attracted a passionate following online thanks to its elegant simplicity – and its results. Unlike fad diets based on gimmicks that lead to short-term weight-loss followed by backsliding and failure, The No-S Diet is a maintainable life plan that reminds us of the commonsense, conscious way we all know we should be eating. In this book software engineer Reinhard Engels and health and nutrition writer Ben Kallen offer readers the tips, tricks, techniques and testimonials they’ll need to stick with No-S for life. (Perigee/Penguin)

Forget apologies and excuses – sometimes, a well-spoken insult is the proper response. And now, with a cigarette in one hand and a martini in the other, fictional socialite Lady Arabella Snark (aka linguist A. C. Kemp) shows you how to use malicious language and stinging zingers to your advantage in The Perfect Insult for Every Occasion: Lady Snark’s Guide to Common Discourtesy. From dealing with drunks to sabotaging your husband’s mistress, The Perfect Insult for Every Occasion is a funny and offbeat tour of the dark side of manners. Aggravating coworkers, nasty neighbors, mean in-laws? They’re all rendered powerless when you have the perfect comeback-for any situation. Public radio’s A Way With Words says “It’s a humorous question-and-answer back-and-forth of what happens when high and low culture meet, with quizzes, example sentences, and smart-aleck remarks.” A.C. Kemp’s innovative classes on slang and American culture have been profiled in the Boston Globe and Christian Science Monitor. (Adams Media)

Jessica Hagy is a different kind of thinker. She has an astonishing talent for visualizing relationships, capturing in pictures what is difficult for most of us to express in words. At ThisIsIndexed.com, she posts charts, graphs, and Venn diagrams drawn on index cards that reveal in a simple and intuitive way the large and small truths of modern life. Praised throughout the blogosphere as “brilliant,” “incredibly creative,” and “comic genius,” Jessica turns her incisive, deadpan sense of humor on everything from office politics to relationships to religion in her new collection, Indexed. With new material along with some of her greatest hits, this utterly unique book will thrill readers who demand humor that makes them both laugh and think. (Viking Studio/Penguin)

Publishers Weekly, in a STARRED review, says “In her introduction, certified credit counselor Erica Sandberg writes, ‘When I became pregnant with my daughter Lillian, I was caught off-guard by how little I — someone who has been in the personal finance field for over a decade — knew about the monetary aspects of pregnancy and new parenthood.’ Expecting Money: The Essential Financial Plan for New and Growing Families is Sandberg’s response to that uncertainty, a compilation of the advice that she craved for herself. Sandberg opens with familiar chapters like ‘The Meaning of Money’ and ‘The Dangers of Debt’ that prepare readers for an uncluttered financial picture going into familyhood. The different needs of different families are addressed in chapters like ‘On the Double: Partner Issues’ and ‘On Your Own: Single Solutions.’ Most valuable of all, Sandberg costs out what new parents need to spend on the average (U.S.) baby’s clothing, child care and other basic needs, even going so far as to compare the costs for different birthing options. Later she compares types of day care and analyzes different ways of meeting long-term needs. These concrete details are what make this book most valuable and helpful for new parents who need real numbers and facts to plan out their family’s financial future.” (Kaplan Publishing)

What happens when a species vanishes? Once gone, can it be brought back? In American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, national journalist Susan Freinkel explores these timely questions through the story of one of this country’s most important native trees, at least until the early 20th century, when it was obliterated by an imported plague known as chestnut blight. Billions of trees died in what has been described as “the worst ecological disaster to hit North America since the Ice Age.” Now, a handful of hardy optimists are working to resurrect the tree, some relying on age-old breeding methods and others on modern gene-splicing techniques. Publishers Weekly says “time after time, this impassioned book strikes resonant emotional chords that transform dry facts into dynamic prose.” Mary Roach, bestselling author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife says “In prose as strong and quietly beautiful as the American chestnut itself, Freinkel profiles the silent catastrophe of a near-extinction and the impassioned struggle to bring a species back from the brink. A perfect book.” (University of California Press)

The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS: Solving Crime with Mathematics is the official companion book to the hit prime-time TV crime series NUMB3RS. The authors are acclaimed popular mathematics writer Keith Devlin, known to millions of NPR listeners as “The Math Guy” on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, and Caltech professor Gary Lorden, the principal math advisor to the TV show. The book explains the actual mathematical techniques used by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to catch and convict criminals. (Penguin Group/Plume)

Probiotics are the powerful health-promoting microbes in each of us. Because of their remarkable benefits and safety, probiotics have become the focus of intense scientific interest. Consumer Reports recently proclaimed, “If they’re not in your diet, they should be.” In The Probiotics Revolution: The Definitive Guide to Safe, Natural Health Solutions Using Probiotic and Prebiotic Foods and Supplements, one of the most prominent researchers in the field, Gary Huffnagle, Ph.D., and best-selling co-author Sarah Wernick present an up-to-the-minute, highly accessible guide to this emerging field. The book demonstrates how probiotics can improve overall health, enhance immune function, fight chronic bowel diseases, prevent and relieve allergies and asthma, counter antibiotic side effects and more, and the book offers comprehensive step-by-step guidance on including probiotic foods and supplements in your lifestyle. Publishers Weekly says the book offers “a convincing health plan that’s easy to understand and to follow.” (Bantam/Random House)

As Americans personal debt skyrockets, and new bankruptcy laws make it harder than ever to find ones way back to solvency, more and more Americans find themselves facing financial crisis. In Help! I Can’t Pay My Bills: Surviving a Financial Crisis, a readable, accessible volume, CPA Sally Herigstad shows how to get out of debt and on the road to financial security. Having survived a financial crisis herself, Herigstad is familiar with both the emotional and financial issues caused by money problems. (St. Martin’s Press)

Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood, is an intimate and inspiring guide to the Zen wisdom found in the everyday lessons of early motherhood. The author, Karen Maezen Miller is a mother, wife, writer and Zen Buddhist priest. She began her Zen training in 1993 as a student of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, the founding abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, one of the first Japanese masters to bring Zen to the West and a seminal figure in 20th century Zen. Momma Zen reveals how the daily challenges of parenthood can become the mostprofound spiritual journey of our lives. Combining humor, honesty and plainspoken advice, Momma Zen distills the doubts and frustrations of early motherhood into vignettes of Zen wisdom. (Shambhala/Trumpeter Books).

Office Haiku: Poems Inspired by the Daily Grind, by James Rogauskas, is a wry and witty poetry collection. In this spare, refined art form, the author takes aim at daydreaming, boredom, co-worker jealousy, and the innumerable little annoyances of 9-to-5 life, with sections including “Monday Mornings Suck,” “Paper Cuts, Office Equipment, and Other Maladies,” and “Departmental Meetings.” For every Dilbert strip taped to a filing cabinet or pinned to a bulletin board, there is a haiku from this collection waiting to take its place alongside. (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press).

One month after his son Nick’s birth, Chuck Acquisto secretly began writing every day to at least one successful person in the world, asking for advice on achieving success in life to pass along to his son. Former President George Bush was the first to reply to Nicholas. Then Oprah. Charlton Heston sent his autobiography with his letter to Nick. Comedian/actor Robin Williams responded, twice. To Chuck’s surprise, scores of mostly handwritten letters continued to arrive at his law office. Nine baseball Hall of Famers, eight Academy Award winners, seven golfing legends, six Heisman Trophy recipients, five best-selling authors, four Top 40 singers, three famous attorneys, two former U.S. Presidents (and the current President) and a “Patridge Family” star are a small sample of the hundreds of responses received by Nicholas. Wisdom to Grow On: Incredible Letters And Inspiring Advice for Getting the Most Out of Life, is the result, a touching, inspirational collection of letters of advice from a wide range of sports legends, politicians, beloved entertainers and many other famous individuals, giving a young boy advice on how to achieve success. Chuck is donating all the book’s proceeds to the San Francisco-based Good Tidings Foundation. (Running Press/Perseus).

Open Doors: Vietnam POWs Thirty Years Later, by Taylor Baldwin Kiland and Jamie Howren, is the companion volume to a traveling museum exhibit profiling and celebrating the personal triumphs of 30 Vietnam-era POWs. Open Doors takes an intimate look at these men – the longest-held group of POWs in our nation’s history – as husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. It is a tribute to their individual persistence in the pursuit of personal and professional happiness upon their return from Hanoi, echoing the comments of Commander Paul Galanti, U.S. Navy (Ret.): “There’s no such thing as a bad day when you have a door knob on the inside of the door.” (Potomac Books).

Merriam-Webster, move over! One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, by Craig Conley, is a surprising and fascinating compendium of 1,000+ definitions of the 26 letters of the alphabet. Until now, no English dictionary ever found the fun or the fascination in revealing the meanings of letters. One-Letter Words, A Dictionary illuminates the more than 800 surprising definitions associated with each letter in the English alphabet. For instance, Conley uncovers 69 different definitions for the letter X, the most versatile and printed letter in the English language. Using facts, figures, quotations, and etymologies, the author provides a complete and enjoyable understanding of the one-letter word. With the letter B, Conley teaches us that its many different meanings span multiple subjects including science – B denotes a blood type and also is a symbol for the element Boron on the Periodic table – and history – in the Middle Ages, B was branded on a blasphemer’s forehead. With the letter A, he reminds us that A is not only a bra size, but also a musical note. This book is the essential desk companion, gift, or reference volume for a vast array of readers, puzzle lovers, teachers, students, librarians, or armchair linguists. Once they pick it up they’ll never be able to put it down.  (HarperCollins).

The Dynamite Fiend: The Chilling Tale of a Confederate Spy, Con Artist, and Mass Murderer, by Ann Larabee, Ph.D., is a fascinating historical true crime story about a former Confederate secret service agent who later went on to terrorize the Atlantic shipping lanes and cause one of the bloodiest catastrophes of the nineteenth century. It brings to light the stunning story behind one of the most devious criminals of the nineteenth century, Alexander “Sandy” Keith. Beginning his dark career as a Confederate secret agent, Keith helped orchestrate some of the most infamous terrorist plots of the Civil War. In peacetime, dogged by creditors and victims of his frauds, Keith kept on the move, leaving more scams, schemes, and cheated women in his wake. As his situation became more desperate, his obsession with explosives and violence became more intense, leading to a horrifying plot that he put together while posing as a prosperous American businessman living in Germany. In 1875, one of Keith’s bombs exploded on a dock, killing eighty people and injuring fifty more. The world heralded the deed as the “Crime of the Century” and Keith became the “Dynamite Fiend” and a true mass murderer. In The Dynamite Fiend, author Ann Larabee unfolds this engrossing tale of hidden identity, technological obsession, and an unparalleled lust for power and profit. (Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press)

Kitty Bartholomew’s Decorating Style: Affordable, Beautiful and Comfortable Decor for Real People Living with Real Budgets, by beloved TV personality Kitty Bartholomew and interior design journalist Kathy Price-Robinson, offers a wide range of clever, creative, non-costly ideas that have wowed millions of viewers of Kitty’s HGTV show and her enormously popular appearances on Oprah. Kitty believes that home decorating can be stylish and comfortable, budget-conscious and beautiful. Rather than suggest expensive, over-the-top solutions to decorating dilemmas, she comes up with inventive, resourceful ideas that are within the average person’s means. In this, her first book, Kitty brings her knowledge, decorating savvy, and enthusiasm to bear on every aspect of home design, from window, door, ceiling, wall, and floor treatments to furniture, lighting, and mirrors. There’s even a chapter on flea-market shopping, where readers will learn how to find the treasures buried among the trash and how to turn them into better-than-new décor. (Rodale Books)

More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, by technologist Ramez Naam, an exciting tour of the way emerging technologies — from cloning and genetic engineering to life-extension techniques and brain-computer interfaces — are affecting our lives. Throughout this remarkable trip, Naam shares an impassioned vision for the future, with revealing insight into the ethical dilemmas posed by twenty-first-century science. Encouraging us to celebrate rather than fear these innovations, his powerful book separates fact from myth with elegant lucidity, arguing that these controversial technologies have the power to transform the human race for the better. (Broadway Books/Random House)

The Math Instinct: Why You’re a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs), by Stanford mathematician and NPR’s “Math Guy” Keith Devlin, an accessible, entertaining look at the instinctive math used by dogs, cats, birds, bees and, yes, even humans. Filled with wonderful stories and examples, it offers the inverse message of John Allen Poulos’ Innumeracy, by explaining and celebrating the innate math sense of all kinds of animals and giving even the most number-phobic readers greater confidence in their own mathematical abilities. (Thunder’s Mouth Press/Avalon Publishing)

Rid yourself of eczema forever. Eczema-Free for Life, by dermatologist Adnan Nasir, M.D. Ph.D. and journalist Priscilla Burgess, is the only comprehensive, up-to-date medical guide for eczema sufferes and their families, reflecting the latest research on eczema’s underlying genetic causes, debunking myths such as the effect of diet on the malady, and offering new techniques to fight the condition. Based on new research, this book has everything the millions of eczema sufferers need to know to free themselves from unbearable itching and unsightly rashes. Dr. Nasir offers guidance for home care and ways to cope with the psychological impact of the disorder. None of the popular books about eczema currently on the market is written by a practicing dermatologist and none is based on up–to–date science. New research has conclusively demonstrated that eczema is the result of the abnormal development of some twenty genes responsible for controlling how the skin interacts with the environment. Dr. Nasir will explain new and more powerful treatments that are being developed based on these new discoveries as well as point out reliable holistic remedies that have worked for centuries. (HarperCollins)

A Path and a Practice: Using Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching as a Guide to an Awakened Spiritual Life, by William Martin, is a new translation of the Tao revealing it as not just a collection of wise insights but as a cohesive guide to our spiritual path. Before now, no modern translation has captured the essential thrust of Lao Tzu’s work as a practical guide to living an awakened life. Now Bill, whose acclaimed previous reinterpretations of the Tao (for parents, couples, and elders) have introduced or reacquainted this classic text to thousands of readers, strikingly translates the Tao for our times. He frames his new translation with two illuminating, groundbreaking sections: “A Path,” which introduces the Tao’s nonlinear construction and explains how it works its themes, and “A Practice,” which provides practical guidance for readers exploring each of the Tao’s themes in depth. This new translation for the first time reveals how directly the Tao speaks to readers who are on or about to embark upon a spiritual journey. (Marlowe & Co./Avalon Publishing)

A provocative work by medical ethicist James Hughes, Ph.D., Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future argues that technologies pushing the boundaries of humanness can radically improve our quality of life if they are controlled democratically. Hughes challenges both the technophobia of Leon Kass and Francis Fukuyama and the unchecked enthusiasm of others for limitless human enhancement. He argues instead for a third way, “democratic transhumanism,” by asking the question destined to become a fundamental issue of the twenty-first century: How can we use new cybernetic and biomedical technologies to make life better for everyone? These technologies hold great promise, but they also pose profound challenges to our health, our culture, and our liberal democratic political system. By allowing humans to become more than human – “posthuman” or “transhuman” – the new technologies will require new answers for the enduring issues of liberty and the common good. What limits should we place on the freedom of people to control their own bodies? Who should own genes and other living things? Which technologies should be mandatory, which voluntary, and which forbidden? For answers to these challenges, Citizen Cyborg proposes a radical return to a faith in the resilience of our democratic institutions. (Westview/Perseus Books)

“I was 28 years old when I voted for the first time. I dropped the ball and now it’s come to this,” begins Stephen Elliott in Looking Forward to It: Or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the American Electoral Process. From crashing campaign parties to clashing with seasoned journalists, Steve offers uncommon — and often hilarious — insight into the 2004 presidential election. Dave Eggers says Looking Forward to It is “Savvy, loose, very funny and — truly — full of rare insights.” (Picador USA)

The Identity Theft Protection Guide: Safeguard Your Family, Protect Your Privacy, Recover a Stolen Identity, by Amanda Welsh Ph.D., is the first comprehensive, down-to-earth consumer guide to help families guard themselves against identity theft and protect their computer security and personal privacy in the information age. (St. Martin’s Press)

American Nightingale: The True Story of Frances Slanger, the Forgotten Heroine of Normandy, by Bob Welch is the heart-wrenching and inspirational story of the first American nurse to die after the WWII landings at Normandy. Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Americana, says “Through indefatigable research and a nearly obsessive quest to inhabit a great moment in time, Bob Welch achieves something rare among works of military history: He brings one person, a single extraordinary person, to vivid life upon the page. Read American Nightingale, and you’ll never think of D-Day in the same way again.” James Bradley, best-selling author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys, says “Bob Welch has done the country a service by recalling Frances Slanger’s story… enrich your life and read this touching story.” (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster)

The Weight Loss Diaries, by Courtney Rubin, is an unsparing, empowering and inspirational memoir by Shape Magazine’s popular “Weight Loss Diary” columnist, looking at her daily struggles with weight, the challenges and triumphs of taking up marathon running, and her larger efforts to keep food and weight issues from consuming her life. (Contemporary Books/McGraw-Hill)

Lessons to Learn: Voices from the Front Lines of Teach for America, by Molly Ness, offers an in-depth look at the innovative national program that places young teachers in disadvantaged public school districts. The book includes interviews and essays from Teach For America corps members as well as a wide range of education experts, reflecting on the program’s successes and failures, the life lessons gathered along the way, and the broader challenges facing our nation’s public schools. (RoutledgeFalmer)

Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe, by Valarie Ziegler Ph.D., is the first full-length biography of the noted suffragist, author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and creator of Mother’s Day. The work won the 2002 Trinity Prize, which recognizes and encourages an emerging writer or scholar whose cross-disciplinary work offers new perspectives on biblical, cultural, ethical, theological or religious issues with broad applications for a general audience. Publishers Weekly called Diva Julia “A revealing treatment of Julia Ward Howe’s life…. able to meaningfully discuss the larger implications of Howe’s message during difficult times…. No one has been so thorough or bold as Ziegler.” (Trinity Press/Continuum)

The Skeptic’s Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions, by Bob Carroll Ph.D., was praised by John Allen Paulos, the author of Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper,as “a refreshing compendium of clear thinking, a welcome and potent antidote to the reams of books on the supernatural and pseudoscientific.” The GuardianUK called it “A handy volume… [with a] coolly rational tone,” and New Scientist said “this superb work… elegantly written and level-headed… is a treat to savour.” (John Wiley & Sons)

Paris in Mind: Three Centuries of Americans Writing About Paris, edited with an introduction by Jennifer Lee, received superb reviews in many of America’s most prestigious publications. It features a wide range of notable Americans writing about the City of Light, with sections devoted to love and seduction, cooking and gastronomy, how to be “civilized,” and that timely topic, the love-hate relationship between Americans and the French. John Leonard in Harper’s Magazine praised it as “an engaging anthology,” while Newsday’s Hillary Frey called it “impressive in its scope… There are real gems here.” MSNBC’s Fall travel books preview urged readers to “Pick up this slim paperback to read on the plane on your way to de Gaulle.” Frank Prial in the New York Times imagined Josephine Baker singing ‘I have two loves, My own country and Paris‘ as “the musical theme for this attractive book,” and Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post called Paris in Mind “Terrific in just about every respect.” (Vintage Books/Random House)

Reel Views: The Ultimate Guide to the Best Modern Movies on DVD and Video, by James Berardinelli, is a compendium of reviews by one of America’s best known and most respected independent film critics, whose reviews appear on the Reel Views Web site. In his forward to the book, noted film critic Roger Ebert says “James Berardinelli stands above the crowd. He is opinionated, well-informed and a good writer of literate, intelligent reviews.” (Justin, Charles & Co.)