Night Train to Lisbon by Mercier, Pascal Night Train to Lisbon, a European bestseller written by a Swiss philosophy professor Pascal Mercier, centers on a man named Gregorius, a professor of classical languages in a Berne lycee. One foggy evening he hears the word “Português” spoken by a mysterious woman on a bridge. Shortly afterwards, he chances upon a book of meditations by a Portuguese writer named Amadeu de Prado; he responds to the book with his whole being. Propelled by these two incidents, he does the unprecedented: he leaves his comfortable routine, the job he has held for decades and the modest capital of esteem he has earned , and without a plan, gets on a train for Lisbon . There he becomes more and more fascinated by Prado as he tracks down a number of people who were close to him, and learns that he was both a doctor and a member of the resistance against Salazar. Deeply intelligent, full of atmosphere and irony and a profound love of language, Night Train to Lisbon is an extended meditation on how our identity lives through others and how much we can change ourselves without cost.

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by Stiglitz, Joseph E., Bilmes, Linda J. Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms. This sobering study casts a spotlight on expenses that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer and measures what this money would have produced if it had been invested in the economy.

The Age of Shiva by Suri, Manil Meera is a modern woman who is determined to take her life into her own hands, even if it means mean making one mistake after another. Manil Suri's places the young woman's life against the background of modern India -- with its combustible mixture of religion and politics. With this second novel, he displays an enormous versatility in style as well as subject.--Carla Cohen, Politics &Prose Books &Coffee (Washington, DC)