Thomas Friedman is the New York Times' three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign affairs columnist, known for his sustained cheerleading of the Iraq war and his faithful service on behalf of the corporate elite.

In this excerpt from The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, Belén Fernández discusses various aspects of Friedmanomics, such as his detection in 2010 of the need for a "Root Canal Politics" to compensate for the global financial recession and the profligacy of the baby boomer generation-defined simultaneously as the offspring of "The Greatest Generation" and the offspring of "the Tooth Fairy."

An announcement of spring, dancing around a pole, crowning a queen, fertility rituals, assorted festivities -- joyful community celebrations of the month of May can be traced back through the ages.

Zuccotti Park is located in my least favourite neighbourhood in New York City, halfway between Ground Zero and the Stock Exchange. It's usually a grey and lifeless part of the city inhabited by gawking tourists and rushing traders. The moment I stepped off the subway, however, I noticed a difference. Lively discussions were going on everywhere, one on one and in groups. Even before I stepped into the encampment, something felt different. It took me a while to understand what it was.

Kathleen is about to be 'deported' after spending the six-month allotted time for foreigners in the United Kingdom. But she doesn't want to leave, and worse, doesn't know where to go or what to do. She certainly can't go back to the unsatisfactory existence she left behind in Canada.

In this excerpt from Lost and Found in London Kathleen's chance encounter with a stranger brings about unexpected change and self-reflection at a time of crisis.

It was one of those life-changing encounters that could so easily have been missed. All it took was the lift doors not doing what they were supposed to do -- stay closed.

In spite of his failures in electoral politics and disastrous judgments on foreign policy, Michael Ignatieff was a featured contributor to the Globe and Mail's special coverage marking the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Ignatieff's long essay conveniently elided his own contribution to the wars of aggression and encroachments on civil liberties that have marked the past decade.

Hope Is Better Than Fear is a newly released eBook about Jack Layton's legacy. Contributors to the book volunteered their time and effort and Random House of Canada Limited is donating the net proceeds from the sale of the eBook to two charities, as designated by Jack Layton's widow, MP Olivia Chow: the university and college bursaries and scholarships program of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and Shannen's Dream, named in honour of Shannen Koostachin and dedicated to continuing her fight for equal school rights for First Nations children.

While imprisoned for Contempt of Court in the spring of 2003, Betty Krawczyk searched for understanding into her own actions, especially her stubbornness and intransigence before the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In this inner search Krawczyk is struck by some of the similarities between herself and her father. In This Dangerous Place Krawczyk takes us back to her childhood home where her father struggled with a ghost he didn't know, refused to acknowledge, and didn't believe existed. Until it was too late.

In this excerpt from her book, writer and activist Helen Forsey remembers her father, senator, constitutional expert and rabble rouser, Eugene.

One of my favourite pictures of my father appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on a September day in 1974. It showed him picketing in front of the Chilean Embassy on the first anniversary of the bloody military coup that overthrew that country's democratically elected socialist government and launched the brutal Pinochet regime. He was carrying a sign that read: "RESTORE CIVIL LIBERTIES IN CHILE."

The notion that it should be possible to become a billionaire is rooted in the idea that there are some uniquely talented individuals whose contribution is so great that they deserve to be hugely, fabulously rewarded.