Just catching up somewhat on the new releases (although some of these are from May, so they aren't so much "new" as "recent").

• Reinventing the Sacred by Stuart Kauffman, published by Basic Books, May 4, 2008
• Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat by John R. Lukacs, published by Basic Books, May 11, 2008
• Defending Identity by Natan Sharansky, published by PublicAffairs, June 1, 2008
• The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't) by Alvin S. Felzenberg, published by Basic Books, June 8, 2008
• Sex Variant Woman by Joanne Passet, published by Da Capo Press, June 8, 2008

I keep meaning to post something about the English TV program (ahem, British, programme) Countdown, which I love. It's a bit like Scrabble in terms of trying to sort jumbles of letters into words, but each player has the same group of nine letters, and the letters are rechosen after every round. There are also "number" rounds in which the contestants use math (British, maths) to combine a random group of numbers to reach a larger number. It's brilliant, in a quiet sort of way, especially if you enjoy Scrabble or words generally.

My description isn't quite as good as it should be--it's my own particular Countdown Conundrum, I guess :)

You can find it on the Web (and experience the show) at www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/C/countdown/index.html