The book that we slaved over. Highly recommended by the authors.
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Contains a chapter by EJW Whittaker and RM Whittaker (on Penrose patterns). I was surprised to find that this was still available. Expensive.
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Probably the best book available about 9/11. With well over 600 pages, this is the result of very serious research. Ruppert works from published sources and does not build his case upon speculation and rumour. His conclusions are none the less damning, however, and I believe he builds an almost unanswerable case for the proposition that the US Administration were complicit in the events of September 11th 2001.
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Another well researched and serious book about 9/11. David Ray Griffin is a Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Claremont School of Theology. At the beginning of the book he describes how (like most people) he assumed the truth of the "received account" of 9/11 until he started looking at the evidence. When he did look at the evidence in detail, he became so concerned that he wrote this book. He distinguishes very clearly at the beginning between eight different possible understandings of "official complicity", ranging from a cover-up of failure to prevent the attacks to direct involvement in their planning, and he carefully distinguishes the strength of different pieces of evidence and which of the eight views they support.
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In this follow-up to his earlier book about 9/11, David Ray Griffin examines the official report of the "9/11 commission" and shows that rather than trying to establish the truth about the events of 11th September 2001, it is an attempt to exonerate the administration from any blame. In painstaking detail, Griffin examines the report and shows that it is full of distortions and omissions designed to support the "received account" of 9/11.
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Published in 1999, this is both a history of the Internet and an insightful analysis of its importance. It includes a chapter on Free and Open Source Software, in which he writes "if I had to bet my life on an operating system tomorrow, I would choose Linux".

What I like about the book is the way that he connects "getting it" about the internet with "getting it" about Linux and much else. I also particularly liked the first chapter "Radio Days" in which he describes his childhood fascination with short wave radio.
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The history of the Waugh family written by Alexander Waugh (Auberon Waugh's son and Evelyn Waugh's grandson). The book explains a lot about both their characters and in particular how Evelyn Waugh felt excluded and rejected by his father's intense identification with his older son at the expense of Evelyn.
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Diamond describes in detail what is known about how various ancient societies collapsed, including Easter Island and the Norse settlements in Greenland. He also looks at modern examples of environmental damage, and claims that the Rwandan genocide was at least partly the result of population pressure.

The first part of the book is brilliant, but I felt that where he tries to draw general conclusions for the world's future he fails to convince, largely because he does not address the issue of Peak Oil.
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Subtitled: "Options and actions for a post-carbon world", this is a frightening description of the coming collapse of our civilisation as a result of the end of cheap energy. Heinberg's analysis of the situation is grim: he believes it is already too late to do much: the oil is running out and there is nothing to replace it. Economic collapse, famine and widespread war are the likely result. The best option he believes is "Powerdown": an attempt at an internationally managed "soft landing" through a managed policy of drastic reduction in energy usage. Any such policy seems a remote possibility at a time when the most powerful countries in the world are persuing the policy which he calls "Last One Standing": the attempt to grab as much as possible of the remaining resources while denying them to others.

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First published in 1997, Shadia Drury's book is an examination of the influence of Leo Strauss (1899-1973) on American politics and in particular on the "neo-conservative" group who (since the book was published) have become the "new rulers of the world".

She outlines Strauss's belief in the rule of an elite who would make use of "noble lies" to maintain their position and power. An atheist himself, Strauss believed in the necessity of religion and nationalism as instruments of social control.

The relevance to recent events is clear: in articles and interviews since, Drury makes explicit her view that the willingness of the present US administration to engage in such clear and blatant deceit in the pursuit of its ends is related to the strong influence of Straussian ideas on some of its leading members.

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The first book of Su Doku puzzles from The Times.
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The extraordinary story of the author's search for the huge hedge which was used by the British rulers of India as a customs border, mainly to prevent the smuggling of salt.
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The second book of Su Doku puzzles from The Times.
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This book details the author's investigations into the lives of Mohammad Atta and his associates in Florida prior to the attacks. He demonstrates that Atta was certainly not the kind of person he was portrayed as after the attacks, and also that the flying school with which he was associated was also associated both with the CIA and with drug smuggling.
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A description of the author's investigation into the lives of Daniel Pearl, a man who knew far too much, and Omar Sheikh who was involved in his murder.
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The book that we slaved over (new edition). Highly recommended by the authors.
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This is Robert Fisk's enormous story of his life reporting on the Middle East. It is difficut to read at times because he does not spare his readers any of the horror of the terrible things that he has seen. He goes back to the First World War (the title comes from his father's First World War medal), the Armenian massacres and the Balfour declaration and traces current conlicts back through history.
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A book of essays, subtitled "Bush Chronicles", mostly written since 2001. Entertaining but deeply angry about the events of the Bush years.
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