Malcolm Gladwell was a reporter for the Washington Post for 10 years, first as a science writer and then as NY City bureau chief. Since 1996 he’s been a staff writer for The New Yorker. The Blink of this gift book is about conscious or unconscious pattern recognition. (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)  Read more

Bill McKibben, a former staff writer for The New Yorker, writes for Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Review of Books, and many other publications, plus over a dozen books by 2008. He is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College. This was a gift book. (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)  Read more

James Herriot is the pen name for James Alfred Wight, OBE (1916-1995), a British veterinary surgeon and writer best known for his semi-autobiographical stories, often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small, a title used in some editions and in film and TV attractions.  Read more

James W. Loewen, a sociologist, spent two years at the Smithsonian studying 12 textbooks widely used throughout the US, resulting in this, his best-known book. He concluded not one textbook does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. A new 2005 Preface updates the book but not his conclusion.  Read more

Muhammad Yunis had a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt. He devotes his life to provide financial and social services to the most poor of Bangladesh. He founded the Grameen Bank. He and Grameen won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.  Read more