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In Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer outlines his ideas about the Constitution and about the way the United States legal system works. Breyer explains how the justices debate each case on their docket, why he interprets the Constitution as a living document, and details what he thinks is the worst decision the high court has ever made.

David Lipsky says that his favorite comic, Runaways, is both a brilliant reading experience — and an embarrassment festival. The tiny digests by Brian K. Vaughan have been a fount of guilt, awkwardness and grave personal doubts, but he still pulls them out on the subway, because they are just that good.

In December 1997, a tiger prowled the outskirts of a small town in Russia's Far East. In his book The Tiger, John Vaillant re-creates the events of that terrifying winter in an environment where man and tiger live side-by-side.

The Border Patrol's indicators of success for Operation Streamline don't always add up and neither do the numbers: No one knows just how much the program costs. The Border Patrol makes arrests, but the Justice Department and federal courts provide the logistics of convicting those who cross illegally.

The Border Patrol points to three measures to prove Operation Streamline's success: It deters future illegal border-crossers, fewer people are apprehended for crossing illegally, and it allows the government to focus on more serious crime. But a closer look shows these arguments don't always hold up.

If the tax cut for wealthiest Americans is allowed to expire, those households making over $250,000 would see their income tax rate rise from 33 percent to 36 percent and those making upwards of $375,000 would go from a 35 percent rate to 39.6 percent. But does it make sense for the tax rate for someone making six figures to be the same as for multimillionaires?

Science writer Jennifer Ackerman explores "the uncommon life of your common cold" in her new book, Ah-Choo! She explains why colds follow that familiar throat-to-nose-to-chest path of misery — and details what science shows about various cold remedies. (Prepare to be disappointed.)

More than 6 million African-Americans moved from the South to cities in the Northeast and Midwest between 1915 and 1970. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson documents the resulting demographic and social changes in her history of the Great Migration, The Warmth of Other Suns.

Operation Streamline, first implemented in 2005, puts illegal border-crossers into the federal court system en masse and convicts them as federal criminals. Critics say the program takes resources from more violent cases and infringes on due process rights.

Huge waves have confounded sailors, scientists and surfers for years, but author Susan Casey dives deep into the story of ship-swallowing seas in The Wave with history, scientific research and intrepid surfer Laird Hamilton.