The romantic allure of Paris often obscures American perceptions of French film. French cinema can be as gritty and moody as that of any other country. In recent years, critical favorites, such as Marion Cotillard’s Oscar-winning performance in La Vie en Rose (140min, 2007) and the cult hit Amélie (122min, 2001), have allowed French movies to make the jump into American mainstream culture. Un Prophéte (155min, 2009), France’s submission to the 82nd Academy Awards, is one work that has the potential to join the ranks of the aforementioned films thanks to the many accolades it has received on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Voice of the Dolphins, by Leo Szilard, brings into question the many sociopolitical paradigms exposed at the height of the Cold War, since shuffled behind a red curtain stained with shapes of hammers and sickles. The hardheaded diplomacy of the 1960s clouds the vital questions which the ideological struggle was essentially based on: the nature of man and the consequential social structure that best be-seats him.

In What’s Really Wrong with the Middle East, author Brian Whittaker has taken an unconventional and ambitious look into authoritarianism what is not so much the Middle East but the Arab world. The book asks: why is political order in so many Arab countries dysfunctional; why does political and religious violence spring from the region so frequently; and why has it been slow to democratize compared to others?