In 2006, global praise and validation of institutionalized microcredit lending for the poor came in the form of the Nobel Peace Prize. And almost immediately thereafter, newspapers teemed with stories of Bangladeshi women who acquired... Read More

“The art of French cuisine is the art of accommodating food to whatever you have on hand and making it savory, healthy, and an experience of good taste…You can cook in the French spirit wherever you are,” declares Jean Mayer, chef,... Read More

Although most people believe that they’re too smart or too protected to be conned, anecdotal and statistical evidence says otherwise. The scams may be small, like someone stealing a prescription drug bottle and refilling it under a... Read More

In juvenile and children’s books, the image of the swashbuckling, adventurous pirate is rarely tempered by the more sobering history of piracy. William Gilkerson’s newest book, "A Thousand Years of Pirates", manages to preserve the... Read More

Huck Finn in Hawaii bread wagons “Rice Paddy Navy” cage girls high seas drama the KGB political moles cultural nuances: these comprise some of the more intriguing elements that the author has woven into his life’s story. One can... Read More

Contingency Plans: Like 9/11, Katrina, anthrax, and oil shortage; there’s nothing as certain as death and change. Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins,... Read More

Sandwiched between The Confessions of Saint Augustine (AD 398 and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (AD 2007) are thousands of memoirs. Both intimate and intriguing, these personal stories represent a form of... Read More

Lawyers are a profoundly miserable lot. They are overworked, depressed, and unfulfilled, and most say that, in retrospect, they wish they had chosen another profession. The downward spiral begins in law school, where the “Socratic... Read More