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2011 Best of Nonfiction: Current Affairs

Cover art for WE MEANT WELL
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Star WE MEANT WELL: HOW I HELPED LOSE THE BATTLE FOR THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE
by Peter Van Buren
"One of the rare, completely satisfying results of the expensive debacle in Iraq."
Laugh-out-loud stories about how the United States failed to rebuild Iraq. Read full book review >
Cover art for INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY
NONFICTION
Released: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Star INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY: THE STORY OF AMERICA'S MOST SECRETIVE RELIGION
by Janet Reitman
"A bizarre and complicated history told with masterful control."
Thoroughly engrossing page-turner on the shape-shifting Church of Scientology and its despotic, possibly criminal hierarchy. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE HONORED DEAD
NONFICTION
Released: June 14, 2011
Kirkus Star THE HONORED DEAD: A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP, MURDER, AND THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN THE ARAB WORLD
by Joseph Braude
"Despite the murky title, this is a beautifully composed, deeply felt journey inside Morocco."
An improbable pursuit of a strange murder in Casablanca segues into a moving study of cross-cultural friendship. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE INFLUENCING MACHINE
NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2011
Kirkus Star THE INFLUENCING MACHINE: BROOKE GLADSTONE ON THE MEDIA
by Brooke Gladstone, illustrated by Josh Neufeld
"While some may see a sign of bias in the author's own media affiliation, this historical analysis of how and why media and society shape each other should prove illuminating for general readers and media practitioners alike."
Though the graphic format employed here is often playful and always reader friendly, this analysis of contemporary journalism is as incisive as it is entertaining, while offering a lesson on good citizenship through savvy media consumption. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE ORIGINS OF POLITICAL ORDER
NONFICTION
Released: April 19, 2011
Kirkus Star THE ORIGINS OF POLITICAL ORDER: FROM PREHUMAN TIMES TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
by Francis Fukuyama
"Endlessly interesting--reminiscent at turns of Oswald Spengler, Stanislaw Andreski and Samuel Huntington, though less pessimistic and much better written."
Sweeping, provocative big-picture study of humankind's political impulses. Read full book review >
Cover art for GREEN IS THE NEW RED
NONFICTION
Released: April 15, 2011
Kirkus Star GREEN IS THE NEW RED: AN INSIDER'S ACCOUNT OF A SOCIAL MOVEMENT UNDER SIEGE
by Will Potter
"A shocking exposé of judicial overreach."
In this hard-hitting debut, journalist Potter likens the Justice Department targeting of environmentalists today to McCarthyism in the 1950s. Read full book review >