Limits to Medicine: Medical Nemesis, the Expropriation of Health by Ivan Illich (1976)

Ivan Illich, a social critic ahead of its own time, spells out the major issues with the health care system. Treatment offered (except when using a limited list of some basic medicines) might not even prolong life, and if it does, the quality of life is mostly absent. In addition, with the institutionalization of medicine, the fabric of society is also being destroyed. Words ring even more true today with all discussion on the problems of health case in the US in particular. The author stick to his principles, treating a cancerous growth on his face only with traditional methods.

A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya by Anna Politkovskaya (2004)

This first book of the late author is a list of interviews with all sides in the Chechen conflict, including mothers, who are not allowed to claim their sons' remains, some terrorist, who were interviewed near a military post where they were allowed to freely pass, showing the absurdity of the situation, struggling young soldiers and civil populations. Mostly absent from the list of interviewees are the local "businessman", the owners of the oil-wells, whom in addition to high placed Russian politicians and military leaders, Politkovskaya blames for creating or at least not resolving this situation. This is indeed a small corner of hell.

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Make Yourself Unforgettable: The Dale Carnegie Class-Act System by The Dale Carnegie Organization (2006)

This excellent audio recording offer pointers in (simple, but not too simple) Dale Carnegie style on self and organizational improvements. Becoming a class act involves both simple and more difficult changes to your perspective and behaviour, but the results will speak for themselves.

Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America by Dan Savage (2002)

Don Savage, a known sex columnist, cruises America to engage in an of the seven sins, or to observe large groups of citizens (many of them upstanding middle class taxpayers) engaging in them (as consenting adults). And doing so, poking at the nose of social conservatives and pointing out, that "pursuit of Happiness" (with capital "H") is a right afforded in the Declaration of Independence. Based on this, everybody has the right to judge (or not to judge if so chosen), and this is about all the rights you get unless it is proven how those actions cause harms to others.

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