On Tuesday this week, a new book titled Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn't by Washington Post associate editor Robert G. Kaiser will be published. Based on access that Kaiser had at the time to the bill's main sponsors, the book tells the story of the Dodd-Frank Act and how it was ultimately passed by Congress in 2010.

Today, in an article titled "How Barney Frank foiled the banking lobby to form a new financial watchdog", the Washington Post ran an excerpt from the book discussing the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the formation of which was a centerpiece of Dodd-Frank.

Glenbrook's "Payments Systems in the U.S." is now available in the iTunes Store for iPad readers. Originally published as a paperback, this is our first ebook edition of this foundational book!

Written by Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness, this book has been very highly reviewed (4.9 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com).

Reviewers commented:

• Without question, the best overview of the payments industry. Essential for payments professionals.
• Excellent book for payment professionals!
• An Excellent Primer on Payment Systems in U.S.!
• This book is great for newcomers to the industry and a great resource for long-time industry professionals. Highly recommended...

If you're trying to get your head around how payments work in the US, this is the book for you! It's easy reading on your iPad. We hope you enjoy it!

Every once in a while we come across a new book that we think will be of interest to the payments professionals among our readership. (Note: you can find a selection of all of our prior book recommendations in our PaymentsNews Bookstore on Amazon.com).

Today, we've got a new recommendation for you to consider - and it's ideally suited to summer vacation reading. The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter by Jason Kersten extends an article that he wrote in 2005 for Rolling Stone about master counterfeiter Art Williams.

The book "details how Williams painstakingly defeated the anti-forging features of the New Note, how Williams and his partner-in-crime wife converted fake bills into legitimate tender at shopping malls all over America, and how they stayed one step ahead of the Secret Service until trusting the wrong person brought them all down. A compulsively readable story of how having it all is never enough, The Art of Making Money is a stirring portrait of the rise and inevitable fall of a modern-day criminal mastermind."

It's a great read! Also available in a Kindle edition from Amazon.com. If you're interested in learning more about the book, you should listen to this excellent interview of the author by KQED's MIchael Kransny last week and this article on Time.com.

With all of the news this week surrounding the payment card data breach at Heartland Payments Systems, we've added a new section to the Payments News Bookstore with several new books covering the topic of PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard) compliance. If you're aware of any we've missed, please send us Feedback and we'll add them to the bookstore.

In addition to these books about the subject, the PCI Security Standards Council website is a great starting point for learning more about PCI-DSS.