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Grace at the Table, by David Beckmann and Art Simon

Spencer Bachus, "a diehard Republican from Alabama's most diehard Republican district," in the words of the Washington Post, has been spearheading an effort in the U.S. House of Representatives to offer debt relief to more than 40 impoverished nations. In Mozambique, for example, where a fourth of all children die before their fifth birthday, government expenditures for debt repayment are four times more than for public health.

The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, by Thomas L. Friedman

We now have a name for the dominant reality of the post-cold-war epoch: globalization. Thomas Friedman rightly describes globalization as an all-embracing phenomenon shaped by global capitalism. He approaches the topic in a remarkably comprehensive fashion, offering an overview of six no longer separable dimensions: politics, culture, technology, finance, national security and ecology.