Some have called Hatsumi Masaaki Soke the last living ninja grandmaster. He is the head of the Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu organization and if this book is at all accurate, the above claim is probably true. In-and-of-itself, this is a good reason to take this book home, but let's admit it: not all of us plan on becoming ninjas. However, this beautifully designed book is full of gorgeous illustrations and dynamic photos that will please any martial arts aficionado, and the history and philosophy will rivet those interested in the history of samurai ethics and Japanese warfare. Beyond the many reproductions of scrolls and art (some dating back hundred of years), Unarmed Fighting Techniques of the Samurai's ideas and thoughts are contemporary, wise, and illuminating. -- Trevor

If you have ever wanted to truly understand the stranglehold that corporate money has on the American public, you must read No Logo. Exhaustively researched and mercifully accessible, Naomi Klein's scathing review of advertising, and the slippery slope of what we have complacently allowed to be seen as acceptable, is scintillating. Like Pacman, Klein explains, advertisements consume space regardless of tackiness or taste, such as advertisements behind home plate (a joke in the in the early 90s movie Major League, now a reality). The point is for the brand to be seen, which is why companies like Nike and Coke spend the vast majority of their money on the ad, and the least amount making the actual product. This is easily one of my favorite works of nonfiction, and even though it was published in 2000, the material is not at all dated. Just Do It! -- Jon

This is absolutely the best book that Neal Stephenson has written yet, and had me completely engaged from cover to cover. Quite frankly, I am terrified of how smart this man is. Anathem assaults you with complicated philosophical, mathematical, and scientific concepts at every twist and turn, but it never feels out of place or too difficult to follow. I wish that my textbooks could have been so engaging. If you're not afraid to flex your brain and learn some new stuff while being in the middle of a top-notch adventure story, you owe it to yourself to read this one. Anathem takes place far in the future of an Earth-like planet and is the first person account of Fraa Erasmas, or Raz to his friends, who is a young monk living within a monastery completely dedicated to the pursuit of higher thought. Tragedies far in the past require that the monks stay completely sequestered from the rest of the outside world. However, the world's leaders find themselves in a crisis that only the brilliant minds of Erasmas and his colleagues can solve, and one by one, Raz and his friends are summoned forth from the monastery and into service to save the world. -- Joey

Louis Charles Lynch makes the mistake on the first day of school of answering present when the teacher reads his name as Lou C. To describe him as shy and picked upon is mild. One day when his only friend Bobby Marconi is not there to walk him safely passed the rough crowd of neighborhood bullies, things get out of hand and Lucy life is changed forever. Janet Maslin wrote in the NYT review of the hardcover, "much of Bridge of Sighs concerns itself with oddball details, from petty rivalries between the Lynch and Marconi families to the Lynch in-house dispute about how to run a convenience store. But in the midst of these small matters, the big contours of Bridge of Sighs emerge. They are richly evocative and beautifully wrought, delivered with deceptive ease. Another of Mr. Russo's hallmarks is that wonderfully unfashionable gift for effortless storytelling on a sweeping, multigenerational scale." A great melancholy masterpiece. -- Anita