Society Daily: 12.08.2010

Reading — Time to relax and recharge those brain cells with fresh ideas. Photograph: Chemistry/Getty Images/Digital Vision

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Today's top SocietyGuardian stories

David Cameron backs cheap alcohol ban by councils

Report by Institute for Public Care says voluntary groups can offer 'gain without pain' savings

Community playground plans shelved under government spending cuts

Youth unemployment hits record high

UK breast cancer death rates fall sharply

New figures show the impact cuts in housing benefit will have by region

All today's SocietyGuardian stories

Other news

John Lewis is going to be advising public sector bodies, such as mental health services and children's services who are looking to become mutuals under the government's first pathfinder projects, on how to improve by involving staff in their management reports Public Service.co.uk

Private healthcare group, Bupa, remains optimistic about local authority funding for its 304 UK care homes despite a profit warning this week by biggest care home group, Southern Cross saying councils were cutting back on funding for residents, reports the Financial Times

Children and young people are being locked up in secure accommodation more than 200 miles away from their families which prevents family visits and support and does not prevent reoffending according to a damning Ofsted inspectors report on the care of young offenders reports the Independent

A schoolboy won his appeal at the High Court to reverse the decision that he must live with the father he claimed to hate reports the Independent

Summer reading

Thanks to Karl Wilding at the NCVO for his suggested holiday reading list

Some books that caught my eye include: Twenty for Twenty, a new collection of essays from a variety of thinkers, commentators and sector practitioners (Geoff Mulgan, Jon Holden, Julian Baggini, Caroline Slocock, Adrienne Burgess etc) looking at what the future might hold for public services and non-profits over the next 10 years.

Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed... and Hackney: That Rose Red Empire by Iain Sinclair

Toby Blume has added a few more recommendations: Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky – looking at the impact of new technology (particularly the web) on innovation, collaboration and organisations and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein – currently much loved by policy makers of all hues - it explores how people can be gently encouraged to make better decisions.

Personally, I'd suggest Charles Dickens' Hard Times.

Please share your summer reading suggestions by posting a comment below.