The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

I like this book because it is funny, interesting, informative, and furthermore informative in a way which I find extremely helpful in my every day life. Really, any book that mentions "Read Aristotle" right next to "Have More Fun" was likely to get me. Gretchen Rubin spent an entire year trying out something like sixty new-year's-resolutions to see which, if any, had an effect on her happiness. The very thought of someone doing this makes me feel exhausted, and yet as I read her account of her adventures, I felt encouraged and uplifted and perhaps even a little challenged: if she could have a happiness project, surely I could. So I have-- I am-- and while I haven't taken as many of her ideas for myself as you might think, this was still a very good read, and also a very good conversation starter.

Stalling for Time by Gary Noesner

Gary Noesner was not only the FBI's chief hostage negotiator for many years, but he was also a major player in developing their hostage negotiation progarm, period. Thus, he not only gives a lucid description of what makes for a good negotiation (stall for time, tell the truth, have firepower backing you up but not going in first)-- he also tells where this stuff comes from, mostly in the form of stories. (He doesn't never lie, by the way. It's just that he does so very, very rarely.) He also gives a believeable description of what happened-- what went wrong-- both at Ruby Ridge and at Waco. I've been waiting for that explanation for a while, mostly because these sorts of domestic problems (Waco, Columbine, OK City bombing) have happened  happen right around my birthday, in April. The writing is not always what I'd pick-- it sometimes feels a bit hodge-podgey to me-- but for the information it offers (not to mention the excellent storytelling) I found it well worth the read.