Snap Judgement

Countless drive-by chroniclers have taken potshots at Paraguay, a quirky land with a penchant for pompous and bloody leaders. Now comes Gimlette, a British lawyer and travel writer, whose giddy romp renders this landlocked South American nation part Dachau, part Disney World. Gimlette writes well, but this is a pretty pen in service to a dark mind: cannibals, tin-horn tyrants, whisky priests and errant gringos, served up with heaps of British public-school flippancy. This isn't Paraguay, warts and all. It's all warts.

Protestant Boy

by Geoffrey Beattie

In this honest, insightful memoir, Beattie revisits the North Belfast area in which he grew up, the notorious "murder triangle" where more than 600 people were killed during the Troubles. A psychology professor now living in Manchester, the author draws upon his training to explore his Ulster Protestant past, weaving together vivid stories of his family's history--his grandfather's experiences in the trenches of the Somme, his mother's stubborn quirks--with the violence that unfolded outside his childhood home. Beattie's enlightening memoir becomes our own window into the hearts and minds of a community drenched in blood.

Globalization: A Very Short Introduction

by Manfred B. Steger

It's hard to think of a bigger topic than globalization--or a smaller format than the Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions series. I was skeptical that something compact enough to slip into my pocket could do justice to this complex subject. But in his smart survey, Steger sheds light on many aspects of the flow across borders of people, products, capital and ideas. And since one distinctive feature of globalization is that the pace of life is accelerating and the mobility of populations increasing, it is fitting that his book is such quick--and portable--read.