"Authoritatively presents the most recent evidence that explains how our universe evolved--and the implications for how it's going to end"--Provided by publisher

"A visionary and completely original investigation that will change the way we think about health care: how and why it is failing, why expanding insurance coverage will only make things worse, and how it can be transformed into a transparent, affordable, successful system"--Provided by publisher

Maddow shows how deeply militarized our culture has become--how the role of the national security sector has shape-shifted and grown over the past century to the point of being financially unsustainable and confused in mission

Robert Lustig documents the science and the politics that has led to the pandemic of chronic disease over the last 30 years. In the late 1970s when the government mandated we get the fat out of our food, the food industry responded by pouring more sugar in. The result has been a perfect storm, disastrously altering our biochemistry and driving our eating habits out of our control. To help us lose weight and recover our health, Lustig presents personal strategies to readjust the key hormones that regulate hunger, reward, and stress; and societal strategies to improve the health of the next generation.--Excerpted from publisher

Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his investigative skills to uncover the inner workings of the Church of Scientology: its origins in the imagination of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard; its struggles to find acceptance as a legitimate (and legally acknowledged) religion; its vast, secret campaign to infiltrate the U.S. government; its vindictive treatment of critics; its phenomenal wealth; and its dramatic efforts to grow and prevail after the death of Hubbard--Excerpted from publisher description

Destined to make waves during the presidential campaign, political guru Carville and pollster extraordinaire Greenberg argue that America's voters are not as dumb as elected officials think they are

America's most respected governor explains just how close we've come to losing the republic, and how we can restore it to greatness. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has brought more change to his state in a few years than most see in decades. He turned a $700 million deficit into a billion dollar surplus, and balanced Indiana's budget even during the recession--by focusing on government's core responsibilities and spending less money than his state takes in, while distinguishing between skepticism towards big government and hostility towards all government. Daniels shows how our underperforming public schools have produced a workforce unprepared to compete with those of other countries and ignorant of the requirements of citizenship in a free society. He lays out the risk of greatly diminished long term prosperity and the loss of our position of world leadership. However, real change can't be imposed from above--it has to come from a belief that Americans, properly informed of the facts, will pull together to make the necessary changes and that they are best equipped to make the decisions governing their own lives.--From publisher description

The country music legend shares the story behind his meteoric rise to fame, including the highs and lows, and the secrets behind his biggest hits

"An instant American icon--the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court--tells the story of her life before becoming a judge in an inspiring, surprisingly personal memoir. With startling candor and intimacy, Sonia Sotomayor recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a progress that is testament to her extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself. She writes of her precarious childhood and the refuge she took with her passionately spirited paternal grandmother. She describes her resolve as a young girl to become a lawyer, and how she made this dream become reality: valedictorian of her high school class, summa cum laude at Princeton, Yale Law, prosecutor in the Manhattan D.A.'s office, private practice, federal district judge before the age of forty. She writes about her deeply valued mentors, about her failed marriage, about her cherished family of friends."--Provided by publisher

Examines the pivotal relationship between mapping and civilization, demonstrating the unique ways that maps relate and realign history, and shares engaging cartography stories and map lore

Michio Kaku, author of "Physics of the Impossible", offers a stunning and provocative vision of the future, and explains how science will shape human destiny and everyone's daily life by the year 2100

In this book the author goes deep inside ExxonMobil Corp, the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States. He investigates the secretive ExxonMobil Corporation, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil's annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries, equivalent to the GDP of Norway. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil's sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box

A heady overview of the emerging discipline of synthetic biology and the wonders it can produce, from new drugs and vaccines to biofuels and resurrected woolly mammoths. In this authoritative, sometimes awe-inspiring book, geneticist Church and veteran science writer Regis team up to explore how scientists are now altering the nature of living organisms by modifying their genomes, or genetic makeup.

A collection of stories which includes "Home," a wryly whimsical account of a soldier's return from war; "Victory lap," a tale about an inventive abduction attempt; and the title story, in which a suicidal cancer patient saves the life of a young misfit

Describes the author's early experiences as a sharecropper's son and a KFC executive before building a preeminent urban farm to feed, educate, and employ thousands of at-risk youths

Jake Tapper exposes the origins of one of the Afghan War's deadliest battles for U.S. forces and details the stories of soldiers heroic and doomed, shadowed by the recklessness of their commanders in Washington, D.C. and a war built on constantly shifting sands

When a federal judge and his secretary fail to appear for a scheduled trial and panicked clerks call for an FBI investigation, a harrowing murder case ensues and culminates in the imprisonment of a lawyer who imparts the story of who killed the judge and why

Shubin shows how the entirety of the universe's fourteen-billion-year history can be seen in our bodies as he moves from our very molecular composition (a result of stellar events at the origin of our solar system) through the workings of our eyes

"A look how social scientists and renegade thinkers are imposing a new data-driven order on the American political campaign--an industry previously run on gut instinct"--Provided by publisher

A ... study of the American struggle to comprehend the meaning and practicalities of death in the face of the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War. During the war, approximately 620,000 soldiers lost their lives. ... This book explores the impact of this enormous death toll from every angle: material, political, intellectual, and spiritual. Historian Faust delineates the ways death changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation and its understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. She describes how survivors mourned and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the slaughter with its belief in a benevolent God, and reconceived its understanding of life after death.--From publisher description

It is 1781, and Washington and his army have spent three years in a bitter stalemate, engaging in near constant skirmishing against the British. The enemy position in New York is far too strong, and all approaches covered by the Royal Navy. At last two crucial reports reach Washington. Washington decides to embark on one of the most audacious moves in American military history. He will take nearly his entire army out of New Jersey and New York, and force march it more than three hundred miles in complete secrecy