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Book Picks

The Lifestyle Puzzle: Who We Are in the 21st Century

Posted on September 15, 2010

by Henrik Vejlgaard. 2010. 235 pages. Prometheus. Paperback. $19.

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Posted on February 18, 2011
Image of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books)
Author(s): Tim Wu
Publisher: Knopf (2010)
Binding: Hardcover, 384 pages
List Price: $28.95

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu. Knopf. 2010. 366 pages. $27.95.

Since the invention of the telephone, every information technology has evolved along a similar trajectory, says Tim Wu, chairman of the media reform organization Free Press, in The Master Switch. He calls this trajectory “The Cycle.”

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Posted on February 18, 2011
Image of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books)
Author(s): Tim Wu
Publisher: Knopf (2010)
Binding: Hardcover, 384 pages
List Price: $28.95

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu. Knopf. 2010. 366 pages. $27.95.

Since the invention of the telephone, every information technology has evolved along a similar trajectory, says Tim Wu, chairman of the media reform organization Free Press, in The Master Switch. He calls this trajectory “The Cycle.”

The Money Myth: School Resources, Outcomes, and Equity

Posted on September 16, 2010
Image of The Money Myth: School Resources, Outcomes, and Equity
Author(s): W. Norton Grubb
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation (2009)
Binding: Hardcover, 400 pages
List Price: $35.00

by W. Norton Grubb. Russell Sage Foundation. 2009. 400 pages. $35.

Increased funding does not guarantee improved school performance, according to Berkeley education professor W. Norton Grubb. Despite lavish funding, he says, many U.S. school districts lag far behind others in the quality of education they offer their students. Those students will consequently be at a steep disadvantage throughout their adult lives.

The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World

Posted on September 15, 2010
Image of The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World
Author(s): Zack Lynch, Byron Laursen
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (2009)
Binding: Hardcover, 256 pages
List Price: $25.99

by Zack Lynch, with Byron Laursen. St. Martin’s Press. 2009. 245 pages. $25.99.

The Planetary Awakening

Posted on August 6, 2012
Birth 2012 and Beyond: Humanity's Great Shift to the Age of Conscious Evolution
Image of Birth 2012 and Beyond: Humanity's Great Shift to the Age of Conscious Evolution
Author(s): Barbara Marx Hubbard
Publisher: Shift Books (2012)
Binding: Paperback, 272 pages
List Price: $15.95

The human race is the first species to knowingly be confronted with either evolution or extinction, and the time is now for us to embrace evolution, asserts futurist and social architect Barbara Marx Hubbard, president of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution.

The Precarious Human Role in a Mechanistic Universe

Posted on October 12, 2011
Subject(s):
Image of The Precarious Human Role in a Mechanistic Universe
Author(s): John F Brinster
Publisher: Xlibris, Corp. (2011)
Binding: Paperback, 514 pages
List Price: $23.99

Religion’s influence upon society has waned in the past century, and it will continue to wane in the years to come, forecasts John F. Brinster, retired Princeton physicist and psychologist. He looks forward to secularism gaining progressively more ground over the next few generations.
More and more people will practice spirituality, but fewer and fewer will practice religion.

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

Posted on September 15, 2010
Image of The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
Author(s): Matt Ridley
Publisher: Harper (2010)
Binding: Hardcover, 448 pages
List Price: $26.99

by Matt Ridley. HarperCollins. 2010. 422 pages. Paperback. $26.99.

Throughout the last two centuries, experts have repeatedly warned that civilization was headed for an imminent collapse and that society would shortly descend into anarchy, epidemics, famines, or other such catastrophes—yet the future kept turning out better than they had expected, says conservationist Matt Ridley.

The Road to Hell Is Paved with Efficiency

Posted on April 3, 2013
The Efficiency Trap: Finding a Better Way to Achieve a Sustainable Energy Future
Image of The Efficiency Trap: Finding a Better Way to Achieve a Sustainable Energy Future
Author(s): Steve Hallett
Publisher: Prometheus Books (2013)
Binding: Paperback, 310 pages
List Price: $18.00

Cars boast far better mileage than they did decades ago, but gasoline consumption is at an all-time high and still rising. Cities everywhere have undertaken energy-efficient construction and planning, but domestic electricity consumption has kept on rising. And while world agriculture has steadily boosted crop output over the last 50 years, the number of malnourished people has stayed the same.

The underlying problem is a societal fixation on efficiency ₊

The Smart Growth Manual

Posted on September 17, 2010
Image of The Smart Growth Manual
Author(s): Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, Mike Lydon
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional (2009)
Binding: Paperback, 240 pages
List Price: $25.00

by Andres Duany and Jeff Speck with Mike Lydon. McGraw-Hill. 2009. 240 pages. $24.95.

Urban growth is inevitable, so let us plan ahead for it to make sure that it takes place in the most orderly ways possible, argue design consultants Andres Duany and Jeff Speck in The Smart Growth Manual.