Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions
Martha Nussbaum
Cambridge Univ. Press
$39.95 / $31.96

In this wide-ranging book philosopher Martha Nussbaum draws on philosophy, psychology, anthropology, music and literature to illuminate the role emotions play in our thoughts about important goals.

Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris
Little, Brown, and Company, pb
$14.95 / $11.96

"The lunacy of language is Sedaris's chief delight.... He is a prime candidate for funniest writer alive."- Salon.com

5 Moral Pieces
Umberto Eco
Harcourt
$23.00 / $18.40

One of the world's leading writers and intellectuals reflects on the most pressing social, political, and cultural issues of the day. Embracing the web of multiculturalism that has become a fact of contemporary life, Eco argues that we are more connected to people of other traditions and customs than ever before, making tolerance the ultimate value in today's world.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in Boom-Time America
Barbara Ehrenreich
Henry Holt
$23.00 / $18.40

Social critic Barbara Ehrenreich goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity.

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Andrew Solomon
Simon & Schuster
$28.00 / $22.40

With uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition, award-winning author Andrew Solomon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease.

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World
Michael Pollan
Random House
$24.95 / $19.96

Weaving fascinating anecdotes and accessible science into gorgeous prose, Pollan takes us on an absorbing journey that will change the way we think about our place in nature. "Michael Pollan is a sensualist and a wonderful, funny storyteller. He is so engaging that his profound environmental messages are effortlessly communicated. He makes you fall in love with Nature."- Alice Waters

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy
Thomas Frank
Random House, pb
$14.95 / $11.96

In a book that has been raising hackles far and wide, the social critic and editor of The Baffler skewers one of the most sacred cows of the 90s: the idea that the new free-market economy is good for everyone. "This book will infuriate businesspeople - which is precisely why they should read it."- Harvard Business Review

War in a Time of Peace
David Halberstam
Simon & Schuster
$28.00 / $22.40

In the long-awaited successor to The Best and the Brightest, Halberstam reveals how post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy has been haunted by the legacy of Vietnam - and how domestic politics have determined our role as a world power.

Patience and Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture
Nicholas Basbanes
HarperCollins
$35.00 / $28.00

Basbane's A Gentle Madness focused on the obsessive lives of book collectors. Now he considers the more comprehensive concept of book culture- and the continual relevance of books in our lives.

Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet
Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon
Perseus
$26.00 / $20.80

In this groundbreaking book, three world-renowned psychologists reveal how professionals can succeed in carrying out Good Work-work that is both expert and socially responsible-even in these relentlessly market-driven times.

The Compassionate Life
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama
Wisdom Publications
$19.95 / $15.96

Collected here for the first time are four of the Dalai Lama's most accessible and inspiring teachings on compassion. In these teachings, imbued with the gentle humor and extraordinary kindness of this incomparable teacher, His Holiness explores altruism and the need for compassion on an individual as well as a global scale. He offers specific practices for developing loving-kindness and compassion in even the most difficult situations.

Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue
Paul Woodruff
Oxford Univ. Press
$19.95 / $15.96

This short, elegiac volume makes an impassioned case for the fundamental importance of the forgotten virtue of reverence, and how awe for things greater than oneself can- indeed must- be a touchstone for other virtues like respect, humility, and charity. Elegantly written, thoughtful yet urgent.

Empire
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri
Harvard Univ. Press, pb
$18.95 / $15.16

Empire identifies a radical shift in concepts that form the philosophical basis of modern politics, concepts such as sovereignty, nation, and people. They show how the power of transnational corporations and the increasing predominance of postindustrial forms of labor and production help to define the new imperial global order.