Rating: 2/5 Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon Books, 2002). Herman and Chomsky assert that the best way to understand modern mass media and how it operates is using a “propaganda model.” They introduce the model and then give a slew of...

Rating: 4/5 Linda R. Monk, The Words We Live By (New York: Hyperion, 2003). This book is the entire text of the US Constitution and its 27 amendments, annotated line by line with explanations, historical motivations, and ramifications thereof. If you’re a US citizen, or just interested in politics, then understanding...

Rating: 5/5 Lierre Keith, The Vegetarian Myth: Food Justice, and Sustainability, 4th ed. (Crescent City, CA: Flashpoint Press, 2009). Everyone should read this book. Don’t let the title fool you. It’s not a book just for vegetarians. Nor is it some brutal tirade against vegetarianism. Keith was a vegan for 20 years,...

Rating: 5/5 Haim Harari, A View From the Eye of the Storm: Terror and Reason in the Middle East (New York: Regan Books, 2005). Read this book. It will only take a few hours. It is worth every minute.

Rating: 3/5 Juan Enriquez, The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future (New York: Random House, 2005). As I read the book (and specifically, as I slogged through the insane typography) I wasn’t sure whether I should accuse him of genius or hubris. After finishing the book, I decided it’s...

Rating: 5/5 Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking (New York: Viking, 2000). I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is beautifully written and I think hits some very powerful points. It’s not a history of walking per se (what would that look like?) but more a history of what walking has meant and how the...

Rating: 3/5 Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (A. Knopf Canada, 2002). If you like reading history, then you’ll enjoy the book. It’s well organized and clearly written—very accessible writing style. If history bores you, then the book will bore you. It is just what it says it is, a book on the history of salt...

Rating: 4/5 Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel (W. W. Norton, 1997). Well now I know. After 6 months, I’m still not recovered from grad school. After reading some “art for art’s sake” books, I thought I’d try Guns, Germs, and Steel, a book on my to-read list for some time. After 100-odd pages, I finally had to give...