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Published to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the nation's founding, "Golda" is an absorbing biography that brings into focus the life of one of the original founders of the State of Israel and its only female prime minister. 8-page b&w photo insert.

At a time when Americans are so riveted by questions about their place in a newly hostile world that they are swearing off air travel, Elinor Burkett does not just take a trip; she takes a headlong dive into enemy territories, crisscrossing back and forth between Ronald Reagan's old Evil Empire and George Bush's new Axis of Evil. Her adventure begins with her assignment as a Fulbright Professor teaching journalism in Kyrgyzstan, a faded fragment of Soviet might in the heart of Central Asia -- a place of dilapidated apartments, bizarre food and demoralized citizens clinging to the safety of Brother Russia. But when she refuses to join the other expatriates evacuated from the "-stans," it turns into much more. She flies into Afghanistan just as the Taliban are departing, mingles with tense Iraquis watching the gathering storm clouds of an American-led invasion and becomes the target of the resentments of the old comrades of the former Soviet Union. Journeying between Iran and Mongolia, Uzbekistan, China and Vietnam, she confronts old enemies in an era of terrifying new ones. When she left home, Burkett, a seasoned journalist, wasn't gathering material for a book; she thought she was "taking a vacation from reality." But she emerges with a dazzling political travelogue that will make even the most enlightened reader question what he or she has considered as truth. Whether she's writing about being served goat's head in a Kyrgyz yurt, checking out bowling alleys in Baghdad, avoiding mullahs zooming along on motorbikes in Tehran or simply trying to cook a chicken in her own crumbling apartment, Burkett offers an eclectic series of adventures that are alternately comical, whimsical, poignant and discomfiting.

Who stays late at the office when Mom leaves for a soccer match? Whose dollars pay for the tax credits, childcare benefits, and school vouchers that only parents can utilize? Who is forced to take those undesirable weekend business trips that Dad refuses? The answer: Adults without children--most of them women--have shouldered more than their share of the cost of family-friendly America. Until now.

The relentless crescendo of revelations of sexual abuse in the nation's Catholic churches has rocked the nation. Just how widespread is child sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy? And why hasn't the Catholic church done more to stop it?In A Gospel of Shame, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalists Elinor Burkett and Frank Bruni provide the answers to these questions and more. The answers, however, turn out to be infuriating and heartbreaking, difficult to accept but impossible to dismiss. The authors thoroughly document dozens of cases across the country and reveal how this heinous abuse of trust has been tacitly sanctioned by the Church's silence.

From a fearless and forthright journalist comes this lively, often surprising, always even-handed exploration of the growing "anti-feminism" movement--based on more than 100 interviews with conservative women.

With a novelist's eye, Elinor Burkett takes readers behind the school system's closed doors, revealing a world of mixed messages, manufactured myths, and political hype. In the wake of school shootings across the country, one question haunted America: What is going wrong inside our nation's schools? To find out, award-winning journalist Elinor Burkett spent nine months -- from the opening pep rally to graduation day -- in a suburban Minneapolis high school. She attended classes, hung out with students, listened to parents, and joined teachers on the front lines. She soon discovered that, post-Columbine, fears about loners and misfits, "Smoker's New Year" (a pot holiday), "Zero Tolerance" policies, and school lockdowns have become as much a part of a teen's high school experience as dating and Clearasil. But Burkett goes even deeper and makes some startling conclusions in this poignant exposé of the real problems facing educators, parents, and the children they try to teach.

"Never be ripped-off again!" That's the rallying cry sounded by authors Elinor Burkett and Frank Bruni in their war against shoddy products and bad service. Unlike other books that offer only buying advice, Consumer Terrorism is for those consumers who've already been burned. So when a vacation is ruined by a hotel's negligence, or that expensive suit comes apart at the seams, or the new car spends more time in the repair shop than on the road, it's time to take the offensive and get results. Intelligent, aggressive and realistic, yet humorously written, Consumer Terrorism leads readers through the most effective ways to present their cases. It explains who to contact, the right, and wrong way to complain and what to expect in return. The no-holds-barred approach is unique, cleverly blending the use of formal avenues of consumer complaint resolution with guerrilla tactics sure to get results. So get mad -- then get action!

Mining unpublished archival treasures, this is the authoritative biography of the first woman in the West to become an elected leader: Golda Meir.