Ok, so it’s a short list, but that’s a temporary ailment. More to come…

1. Wikinomics

Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success. A brilliant primer on one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand the key forces driving competitiveness in the twenty-first century.

2. The Trial of Socrates

“The philosopher we meet on these pages is an arrogant, bullying elitist who welcomed death and did his best to antagonize the jury that sentenced him,” stated PW. “In this iconoclastic portrait of a secular saint, Socrates emerges as a thoroughly dislikable, albeit superior, man who upheld unpopular truths.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

3. God’s Politics

“Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican?” From the outset, Jim Wallis throws heavy blows to the bloated midsection of the self-pious and sometimes snarling challenge of the “Religious Right”. Two chapters in, the thesis has been unveiled. And while much of what follows is repetitive, Wallis drives his points home, with only occasional hints of personal political partisanship. In a thesis that certain sectors of Christianity may want to dismiss as “mere social gospel” he persistently stays close to the teachings of Jesus. (Wesley Janssen, Amazon reviewer)

4. Imperial Life in the Emerald City

“This revealing account of the postwar administration of Iraq, by a former Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post, focusses on life in the Green Zone, the American enclave in central Baghdad. There the Halliburton-run (and Muslim-staffed) cafeteria served pork at every meal—a cultural misstep typical of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which had sidelined old Arab hands in favor of Bush loyalists. Not only did many of them have no previous exposure to the Middle East; more than half had never before applied for a passport. While Baghdad burned, American officials revamped the Iraqi tax code and mounted an anti-smoking campaign. Chandrasekaran’s portrait of blinkered idealism is evenhanded, chronicling the disillusionment of conservatives who were sent to a war zone without the resources to achieve lasting change.” (the New Yorker)

5. The Guns of August

“Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledge of her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for the first time, just how the war started, why, and why it could have been stopped but wasn’t. A classic historical survey of a time and a people we all need to know more about, THE GUNS OF AUGUST will not be forgotten.” (Chicago Tribune)