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An excellent collection of short stories.

The Rat King versus the Pied Piper in mondern-day London. Sort of. Anyway, it is *good*. Miéville was recommended to me by my friend Amy. Thanks Amy!

I had some trepidation about reading Tolstoy – the Russian authors have a reputation for hard reading. But I was very pleasantly surprised. This translation is excellent. The prose is accessible and modern, but not too modern to miss the flavor. The story is fantastic and the characters are real and memorable.

An annotated edition of *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland* and *Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There*. Gardner supplies copious notes and references that explain many of the period- and in-jokes that most modern readers wouldn’t get. He also supplies a lot of biographical information about Carroll and the real people that appear as characters in Carroll’s books.

What does it mean to have free will? Is free will incompatible with determinism? With indeterminism? What does it mean to control oneself? What does it mean to make a choice? Why do we want free will at all and what do we want when we want it?

Dennett examines these perennial philosophical problems and disposes of many of the “bugbears” which plague the often fear-riddled investigations into these topics. Dennett also develops answers, or at least the start of some answers, that embrace the possibility of determinism and evolution. Good as usual.

Hawking’s latest introduction to modern physics for non-physicists. Lots of good pictures to help you through the concepts.

A broad overview of the processes and techniques used in the dispute resolution field known as Mediation.

Karabell casts a critical eye on higher education in the US. He looks at the divide between faculty and students, the problems of tenure and temporary faculty, the shrinking market for new Ph.D’s, and the value of a higher education versus its costs. Well written and stimulating.

Woohoo! *Read this book*.

An illustrated version of Borges’s wonderful little book about a giant library with all possible 410-page books.