NONFICTION:

My Life as a Traitor by Zarah Ghahramani, Robert Hillman

My Life as a Traitor promises to be an evocative and rich memoir that not only reminds us of "how easy it is to reduce a human being to the level of animal," but, in ultimately chronicling and commemorating the triumph of the individual over the state, is a moving addition to the literature of struggle and dissent. In 2001 a 20-year old Iranian student Zarah Ghahramani was seized from the streets of Tehran and taken to the infamous Evin prison, where criminals and political dissidents were held side by side in conditions of legendary cruelty. Her crime, she contends, was in wanting to slide back her headscarf to feel the sun on a few inches of her hair. That modest desire led her to a political activism fueled by fearless and youthful idealism. She underwent physical and psychological torture, maintaining sanity by passing along messages to fellow prisoners, and resisting despair in reminiscences of an idyllic childhood in a devoted and tolerant family. After a sham of a trial, Ghahramani was driven deep into the desert outside Tehran, uncertain if she was to be executed or freed. There she was abandoned to begin the long walk back. And to reflect and have seared into her memory the experience and details of a lived-to-tell-the-tale story of brutality, bravery, defiance — and deeply-scarred fear in the face of violence.

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Truth and Consequences: Special Comments on the Bush Administration's War on American Values by Keith Olbermann

The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era by Daniel Singal, Singal, Daniel J. Singal (Editor)

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Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism: A Call to Action by George Weigel

Trials of Reason: Plato and the Crafting of Philosophy by David Wolfsdorf