From Carmen Miranda to military base wives to tourists, Cynthia Enloe analyzes the ways in which women form an integral part of the international political web. Enloe explores questions of the true nature (or lack thereof) of feminism and how (or if) women in such different cultural contexts can be responsible for each other. A truly innovative and alternative look at world politics, Enloe's book is a must-read for anyone who considers themselves a thoughtful feminist.

Dan Savage may be thought of as just an advice columnist, but he's also an astute social critic and theorist, one who's accessible and brilliant all at the same time. The Kid is informative, heartbreaking, and joyous, reconfiguring and exposing traditional attitudes with insight and wit. A perfect guide to the process of becoming a parent, straight or queer.

Movies like American Beauty and Fight Club - or even The Matrix - have put their finger on something troubling in our post-industrial, consumerist society. The American standard of living is higher than ever before, but many of our jobs have become bureaucratic, anonymous, and unsatisfying. We are tied to belongings which cannot bring us true happiness and directed towards goals that increasingly cannot be defined.
Herbert Marcuse put his finger on the most disturbing aspects of our way of life. In a remarkably prescient book, he describes a condition that has recently preoccupied popular culture. His diagnosis of Western culture and society is penetrating and intelligent. Although most readers will ultimately disagree with his Marxist solutions, the power with which he describes contemporary society will lend critical substance to this feeling that is nagging us all.

Storm Constantine has created an absolutely stunning trilogy devoted to the next species to inherit the Earth: the Wraeththu. These beautiful, androgynous, and magical creatures wield awesome warriors' skills and wild sexual magic. Constantine, a wonderful story teller, weaves a new world of mythology & prophecy that is Biblical in proportion. This is not your usual sci-fi/fantasy story!

Pinker has done it again! He has stridden fearlessly (and with humor) through the complexities of language and its cognitive origins. Through the study of irregular verbs, Pinker is able to elucidate a great deal more than one might expect about the human mind. An excellent book for anyone befuddled by the vagaries of our mother tongue.

OK, you've read Jane Austen and wished she could be just a little meaner, and you've read George Eliot and wished her sense of humor were lighter. Discover Mrs. Oliphant! Miss Marjoribanks focuses on a young woman of "genius" finding a suitable place for herself in village society. The plot leaps and twists and keeps a reader turning pages.

At once compelling and moving, The Charioteer is a unique experience in pre-Stonewallian gay literature. No apologetic tract is this; instead, Renault debates the merits of living nobly as a homosexual in a heterosexual world.
Set during the darkest days of the Blitz, when human decency itself is fighting for survival, Laurie, a young injured corporal in the British army, must choose between two mwn. One represents an unrequited boyhood ideal, while the other promises a love that is terrible in its innocence and purity. Laurie's choice is the crescendo to this novel which manages to be romantic and pragmatic.

Canin writes with a quiet, measured voice and transforms the everyday into something universal and true. These stories of families, marriages, and the understanding of the self catch the reader by surprise - as he lulls us with seamless prose, Canin shocks with his honesty and insight.

Fun and excellent! It is the Harry Potter of "grown-up" books. An interesting twist of the familiar fable and the long-awaited return of the author of Wicked. It is a splendid trip of a tale that will keep haunting and twisting in your mind for weeks. I cannot say enough about this book. Read it and give it to a friend. Be enchanted!

Hold on to your adrenaline glands, 'cause this book really kicks things into overdrive! Anyone who is either an occasional Tom Clancy fan or a serious student of warfare must read this dramatic and detailed account of the battle that lasted less than a day, but redefined American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era.

In this evocative collection of sublimely lyrical short stories, Winterson convinces readers that she is among the most unique stylists at work today. With tones that range from childlike wonder to jaded resignation to questioning skepticism, Winterson's characters explore the uncharted territory of the self with relentless, fearless zeal. Sexuality is elastic, nature is mystical (but never cliched), and all experience is had for the purpose of refuting that which is established.
This book is for anyone with faith in creativity, belief in sincerity, and lust for mellifluous prose. Her prose is like improv jazz: spontaneous, but sophisticated, refined, and knowing.

Harry Mathews is one of the best-kept secrets in American letters. His novels are brilliantly funny and absurd. In Cigarettes, he takes on the upper crust of New York society and the New York art world. Far from the perfumed and pampered world of Edith Wharton, Mathews' New Yorkers are over-sexed, undernourished, mean-spirited, and backstabbing. What could be more American or New York than that? This is a hysterical novel that will leave you grinding your teeth hoping you'll never meet any of these people.

If you can suspend your beliefs about Mother Teresa, about whom you think she is or what you think she represents, I encourage you to allow Hitchens the opportunity to prove, with wit, thorough research and rational observation that, when the propoganda clears, the good Mother was, in no particular order, a tool of the rich and elite, a friend to dictators and killers, a denier of adequate medical aid and comfort to the sick and dying (despite vast resources) and unabashedly hypocritical and contradictory in her morals and her (mis)management. Like Hitchens, I ask you to "[judge] Mother Teresa's reputation by her actions and words rather than her action and words by her reputation." This book is a good start.

Social critic and media-savvy analyst Rushkoff guides you through the methods and dirty tricks used by advertisers, salespeople, politicians, and anyone else whose livelihood depends on getting you to think a certain way. From the psychology used on football stadium crowds to the research used in laying out malls, Rushkoff will have you looking for the angle in everything. (That's a good thing.) Trust me.