title: 1984
author: George Orwell
date: 1949
notes: Full text, available for free: http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/1984/1984_c1.htm
recommended by: Mark, eric, Cary, Mike...

title: Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
author: William Blum
date: May 2000
publisher: Common Courage
price: $13.27 at www.amazon.com
notes: Click here to go to Jerre's review.
recommended by: Jerre

title: To have or to be?
author: Erich Fromm
date: 1976
publisher: New York: Harper & Row
price: Approx. $17 at www.borders.com
notes: I strongly recommend this book for people who want changes to the better, for people who think and worry of the future of the world, even if it is not easy to read and sometimes there are a lot of foreign words from philosophical and psychological subjects.
Erich Fromm compares the way of having with the way of being, shows how the "modern" society forces the way of having with all its striving for profits, supporting overconsumption, massmedia in a brainwashing style,.. I liked too his description of the difference between joy and pleasure, showing critical that one aim of people nowadays for instance is to strive for maximum pleasure.
And most interesting for me were his conclusions for a new society with new human beings and how it has to go on, that mankind has a chance to survive. People's character and the character of the society have to change!
The book is really worth to read and think of it and I have the feeling that you might like it.
recommended by: Sigi

title: Penguin Soup for the Soul
author: Tom Tomorrow
genre: political cartoons
date: 1998
publisher: St. Martin's Press, Inc.
price: $9.95 at www.bn.com
notes: Political cartoons for the left leaning reader. I actually learned a lot about politics and corporate doings from this book.
You can read one page at a time - short attention span theater/bathroom book, or you can read the whole thing in one sitting (like I did on a sick day). I haven't read his other cartoon compilations (When Penguins Attack!, 2000; The Wrath of Sparky: More Gentle Wit and Good-Natured Humor from America's Most Heartwarming Cartoonist, 1996; Tune in Tomorrow, 1994...) yet but I plan to.
recommended by: Cary

title: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
author: Jon Kabat-Zinn
genre: health/psychology
date: 1994
publisher: New York: Hyperion
price: $12.95
notes: How to explain this book?… It is so uplifting without being trite. The writing is very personal and Kabat-Zinn gives exercises and real examples to help you be mindful and in the moment. You don’t have to be someone who does traditional meditation to appreciate the book or get something out of it. I wasn’t when I first read it.
This is the one book that I keep next to the bed so I can read it over and over – in parts usually.
I highly recommend it!
recommended by: Cary

title: Upside down: A primer for the looking-glass world
author: Eduardo Galeano
genre: non-fiction
date: 2000
publisher: New York : Metropolitan Books
price: Approximately $11
notes: Book Description from Borders online:
"...provides an eloquent, passionate, funny, and shocking exposé of our first world privileges and assumptions....he guides us through a world unevenly divided between abundance and deprivation, power and helplessness."
recommended by: eric

title: Ishmael
author: Daniel Quinn
genre: novel
date: 1992
publisher: New York : Bantam/Turner Book
price: Approximately $12
notes: Book Description from Borders online
”The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him-- one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?”
recommended by: eric

title: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
author: Dave Eggers
publisher: New York: Simon & Schuster
price: $11.20 - Borders online
notes: This book is available in paperback and is a bestseller of some sort published in 2000 or 2001. It is the 20-something author's first time writing a book and it is written in a very unusual style. It is semi-autobiographical (I suspect 98% autobiographical, and deals with the difficult specter of losing one's parents early in life and through the book the author expresses feelings of pain, sadness and rage via super-satirical melancholy that is unbelievably at times crack-up-on-the-train funny whilst you are able to identify with the guy's feelings. It won't bum you out but it will reach out and grab you that's for sure. Give it a read and let me know what you think!
recommended by: Kate

title: The Holographic Universe
author: Michael Talbot
genre: non-fiction
publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991 (Hard Cover Edition), First HarperPerennial edition, 1992 (Soft Cover Edition)
price: $14.00 (USA)
notes: "A remarkable new theory of reality that explains the paranormal abilities of the mind, the latest frontiers of Physics, and the unsolved riddles of brain and body. "If you need to maintain your idea that science has proved that 'It's all mechanical', that there is no room in the universe for consciousness, soul, and spirit, DON'T READ THIS BOOK."
Mark says of this book: "'The Holographic Universe' is intellectually challenging, spiritually illuminating and mentally mind-blowing in its description of the cosmological unity of time, space, dimension, matter, and energy. It is one of the few books I've read that successfully integrates the 'hard sciences' with the mythologigal, the magical, the mystical and the spiritual. And backs this information up with research and documentation (the references alone would make for a lifetime of reading). Not for the faint of heart or those with short attention spans!
recommended by: Mark

title: Zami : a new spelling of my name
author: Audre Lorde
genre: fiction
date: 1982
publisher: Crossing Press
price: Available at public libraries; $13.56 at Borders online
notes: "...a powerful book about a young woman, her struggle with her racial and sexual identity, and the powerful influences of her mother which haunt her throughout her life. Although Lorde deems the book a 'biomythography' there is a strong sense of family and connection running through the entire piece. As Lorde grows and shows us her life growing up in Harlem, how she was ostrasized from her Black brothers and sisters, as well as being an outsider in school and even in her own family. The pain of being alone rushes through the novel and allows the reader to get a glimpse of what a strong person Lorde really was. She allows us to view her journey from a lonely little girl, to a trouble adolescant, to a mature and intelligent independant young woman working to overthrow the patriarchal and sexual oppression she finds in everyday life." - from B&N.com
recommended by: meli

title: Waiting
author: Anything by Ha Jin (he does short stories, novels and poetry)
genre: fiction
date: 1999
publisher: Pantheon Books
price: Can be found at your local library; $10.40 at Borders online
notes: "Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." This is the "plot" but Ha Jin's books are much more about the telling. So much happens and yet ultimately not much has happened. In that way, I think his books are very realistic. Food and traditions of Communist China are practically characters in Ha Jin's writing. (Not your standard meet the characters, problem is presented, problem is overcome.)
I have read Ha Jin's "In The Pond", "Oceans of Words" and "The Bridegroom: Stories" and can recommend them all.
recommended by: Cary