Popular Non-Fiction Recent Picks

October 2009

The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

The next 100 years : a forecast for the 21st century, by George Friedman. (2009)
""Conventional analysis suffers from a profound failure of imagination. It imagines passing clouds to be permanent and is blind to powerful, long-term shifts taking place in full view of the world." - George Friedman.
In his long-awaited and provocative new book, George Friedman turns his eye on the future - offering a lucid, highly readable forecast of the changes we can expect around the world during the twenty-first century. He explains where and why future wars will erupt (and how they will be fought), which nations will gain and lose economic and political power, and how new technologies and cultural trends will alter the way we live in the new century.
The Next 100 Years draws on a fascinating exploration of history and geopolitical patterns dating back hundreds of years. Friedman shows that we are now, for the first time in half a millennium, at the dawn of a new era...." (Amazon)

Things I learned about my dad in therapy : essays, edited by Heather B. Armstrong.
"Compiled by Heather B. Armstrong, award-winning publisher and uber-mistress of the phenomenally popular dooce.com®, this hilarious and heartwarming celebration of "everything dad" features original stories from some of the country's most celebrated bloggers.... From a new father's comparison of pregnancy to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, to a mother's story of bravely surviving a husband-son infatuation with Star Wars, to the mini triumphs and tragedies of toddlerhood, this book provides a unique, no-holds-barred glimpse into the quirks and candid moments of modern dads.
Whether we relish or fear growing up to be like our fathers... whether we've inherited his nose, sense of humor, or entire value system, our dads loom large in who we are and the choices we make. Things I Learned about my Dad in Therapy touches upon the many joys and discoveries of fatherhood, one essay at a time." (Amazon)

When skateboards will be free : a memoir of a political childhood, by Said Sayrafiezadeh. (2009)
"Amazon Best of the Month, March 2009: While images of athletic and Hollywood celebrity decorated the rooms of his classmates, the walls of Said Sayrafiezadeh's youth were adorned with fierce glares from heavily-bearded revolutionaries. As the son of an Iranian father and Jewish-American mother--two souls united by a commitment to an impending socialist revolution--young Said spent his childhood working to make the comrades proud. He hawked the movement's rag, embraced a moniker of "the little revolutionary," and even embarked on a confusing trip to Cuba to spark his political awareness. Despite the seriousness of his cause, When Skateboards Will Be Free describes a politically-charged childhood with an innocence that forces smiles in unexpected places and reveals the heartache of a home soaked in idealism. The arrival of a socialist state not only promised to bring skateboards in bubblegum-bright colors to the masses; it also pledged to repair the rifts within Sayrafiezadeh's own home. - Dave Callanan." (Amazon)

It sucked and then I cried : how I had a baby, a breakdown, and a much needed margarita, by Heather B. Armstrong. (2009)
"Heather Armstrong gave up a lot of things when she and her husband, Jon, decided to have a baby: beer, small boobs, free time -- and antidepressants. The eighteen months that followed were filled with anxiety, constipation, nacho cheese Doritos, and an unconditional love that threatened to make her heart explode. Still, as baby Leta grew and her husband, Jon, returned to work, Heather faced lonely days, sleepless nights, and endless screaming that sometimes made her wish she'd never become a mother. Just as she was poised to throw another gallon of milk at her husband's head, she committed herself for a short stay in a mental hospital -- the best decision she ever made for her family. To the dedicated millions who can't get enough of Heather's unforgettably unique style and hilarious stories on her hugely popular blog, there's little she won't share about her daily life as a recovering Mormon, liberal daughter of Republicans, wife of a charming geek, lover of television that exceeds at being really awful, and stay-at-home mom to five-year-old Leta and two willful dogs." (Amazon)

Keeping poultry and rabbits on scraps, by Alan Thompson and Claude H. Goodchild.
"First issued in 1941, when the national crisis made it essential for every scrap of kitchen waste and spare time to be used for increasing the nation's food resources, this book enabled the meagre official wartime rations to be supplemented in thousands of homes by a regular supply of eggs and meat, at a minimum of trouble and expense. It now reappears, in response to many requests, to play its part in the hardly less urgent food-production drive of peacetime. Everything that the small-scale raiser of rabbits or of poultry, whether for egg-production or for table use, needs to know is here: buying, housing, feeding, breeding, diseases, are all fully dealt with by experts, the instructions being given in simple and practical language for the beginner." (Amazon)

The rise and fall of Communism, by Archie Brown.
"The inexorable rise of Communism was the most momentous political phenomenon of the first half of the twentieth century. Its demise in Europe and its decline elsewhere have produced the most profound political changes of the last few decades. In this illuminating book, based on forty years of study and a wealth of new sources, Archie Brown provides a comprehensive history as well as an original and compelling analysis of an ideology that has shaped the world. Tracing the story of Communism from its nineteenth-century roots, the book shows how the political movement Karl Marx described as a 'spectre haunting Europe' expanded throughout the world during the twentieth century, and how the principles and precepts of this revolutionary system became a living reality for many millions of ordinary people." (Amazon)

Masters of sex : the life and times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the couple who taught America how to love, by Thomas Maier. (2009)
"In Masters of Sex, critically acclaimed biographer Thomas Maier offers an unprecedented look at William Masters and Virginia Johnson, their pioneering studies of intimacy, and the sexual revolution they inspired." (Amazon)

Wages don't work! : earn up to $400,000 per year as an apprentice real estate agent, by John Wills.

How to keep your cool if you lose your job : a workbook for surviving redundancy, by Kathryn Jackson.

Hos, hookers, call girls, and rent boys : prostitutes writing on life, love, work, sex, and money, edited by David Henry Sterry and R.J. Martin, Jr.

Hell is other parents : and other tales of maternal combustion, Deborah Copaken Kogan.

Cults, conspiracies, and secret societies : the straight scoop on Freemasons, the Illuminati, Skull and Bones, black helicopters, the New World Order, and many, many more, by John Campbell.
"An indispensable guide, Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies connects the dots and sets the record straight on a host of greedy gurus and murderous messiahs, crepuscular cabals and suspicious coincidences." (Amazon)

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