Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Average Citizen, By Arianna Huffington

Huff's a magic dragon when she's championing the poor

Whatever your views on Arianna Huffington or her blogging behemoth The Huffington Post, what's undeniable is that she has clout. It's to be welcomed, then, that in her recent work she has taken up the cause of America's disenfranchised.

This book looks at the US government's (mis)handling of the financial crisis, and the inequality that resulted. Huffington's tone can be a little patronising, and her attempts to put a spin on well worn metaphors can fall flat ("It's not just the bathwater; the baby itself is rotten"). But her empathetic interviews with struggling families bring home the human problems all too often obscured by economic statistics.