All Non-Fiction
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Imagine: How Creativity Works
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Jonah Lehrer
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012, Mar 13th).
Pages: 304
Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output?From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Decide comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider’s perspective (travel helps). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. more
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The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Eric Kandel
Format: Deckle Edge]
Publisher: Random House (2012, Mar 27th).
Pages: 672
A brilliant book by Nobel Prize winner Eric R. Kandel, The Age of Insight takes us to Vienna 1900, where leaders in science, medicine, and art began a revolution that changed forever how we think about the human mind—our conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions—and how mind and brain relate to art. At the turn of the century, Vienna was the cultural capital of Europe. Artists and scientists met in glittering salons, where they freely exchanged ideas that led to revolutionary breakthroughs in psychology, brain science, literature, and art. Kandel takes us into the world of Vienna to trace, in rich and rewarding detail, the ideas and advances made then, and their enduring influence today. The Vienna School of Medicine led the way with its realization that truth lies hidden beneath the surface. more
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The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Jonathan Haidt
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Pantheon (2012, Mar 13th).
Pages: 448
Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding. His starting point is moral intuition—the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong. Haidt shows us how these intuitions differ across cultures, including the cultures of the political left and right. He blends his own research findings with those of anthropologists, historians, and other psychologists to draw a map of the moral domain, and he explains why conservatives can navigate that map more skillfully than can liberals. more
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Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Elaine Pagels
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult (2012, Mar 6th).
Pages: 256
A startling exploration of the history of the most controversial book of the Bible, by the bestselling author of Beyond Belief. Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it?In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. more
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When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Marilynne Robinson
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2012, Mar 13th).
Pages: 224
Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In When I Was a Child I Read Books she returns to and expands upon the themes which have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor.In “Austerity as Ideology,” she tackles the global debt crisis, and the charged political and social political climate in this country that makes finding a solution to our financial troubles so challenging. In “Open Thy Hand Wide” she searches out the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith. And in “When I Was a Child,” one of her most personal essays to date, an account of her childhood in Idaho becomes an exploration of individualism and the myth of the American West. more
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Blackhorse Riders: A Desperate Last Stand, an Extraordinary Rescue Mission, and the Vietnam Battle America Forgot
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Philip Keith
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (2012, Feb 14th).
Pages: 352
This is the incredible true story of a brave military unit in Vietnam that risked everything to rescue an outnumbered troop under heavy fire—and the thirty-nine-year odyssey to recognize their bravery.Deep in the jungles of Vietnam, Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry, the famed Blackhorse Regiment, was a specialized cavalry outfit equipped with tanks and armored assault vehicles. On the morning of March 26, 1970, they began hearing radio calls from an infantry unit four kilometers away that had stumbled into a hidden North Vietnamese Army stronghold. Outnumbered at least six to one, the ninety-man American company was quickly surrounded, pinned down, and fighting for its existence. Helicopters could not penetrate the dense jungle, and artillery and air support could not be targeted effectively. more
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Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Kristen Johnston
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Gallery Books (2012, Mar 13th).
Pages: 288
The two-time Emmy Award winner presents a harrowing, hysterical, and beautifully written memoir as frank and revealing as Augusten Burroughs—with the humor and wit of David Sedaris.A celebrated and award-winning actress who is perhaps best known for the long-running TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun, for which she won two Emmys, Kristen Johnston has entertained audiences with her impeccable delivery and natural charm. Kristen has also appeared on stage in more than fifty plays, and on screen in Sex and the City, Austin Powers, ER, Ugly Betty, Strangers with Candy, Music and Lyrics, Bride Wars, and will appear in the upcoming Amy Heckerling film Vamps as well as The Ex-Men, a pilot for TV Land. Kristen rose to instant fame with 3rd Rock, but she soon fell back down to Earth…hard. more
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Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (2012, Feb 27th).
Pages: 240
A thought-provoking and humorous collection on NASA and the future of space travel.Neil deGrasse Tyson is a rare breed of astrophysicist, one who can speak as easily and brilliantly with popular audiences as with professional scientists. Now that NASA has put human space flight effectively on hold—with a five- or possibly ten-year delay until the next launch of astronauts from U.S. soil—Tyson’s views on the future of space travel and America’s role in that future are especially timely and urgent. This book represents the best of Tyson’s commentary, including a candid new introductory essay on NASA and partisan politics, giving us an eye-opening manifesto on the importance of space exploration for America’s economy, security, and morale. more
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Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Eric Klinenberg
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (2012, Feb 2nd).
Pages: 288
A revelatory examination of the most significant demographic shift since the Baby Boom—the sharp increase in the number of people who live alone—that offers surprising insights on the benefits of this epochal changeIn 1950, only 22 percent of American adults were single. Today, more than 50 percent of American adults are single, and 31 million—roughly one out of every seven adults—live alone. People who live alone make up 28 percent of all U.S. households, which makes them more common than any other domestic unit, including the nuclear family. In GOING SOLO, renowned sociologist and author Eric Klinenberg proves that these numbers are more than just a passing trend. They are, in fact, evidence of the biggest demographic shift since the Baby Boom: we are learning to go solo, and crafting new ways of living in the process. more
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The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: David George Haskell
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult (2012, Mar 15th).
Pages: 288
Finalist for 2013 Pulitzer Prize in General NonfictionWinner of the 2013 Reed Environmental Writing Award Winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature.A biologist reveals the secret world hidden in a single square meter of forestIn this wholly original book, biologist David Haskell uses a one- square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.Each of this book's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers. From these, Haskell spins a brilliant web of biology and ecology, explaining the science that binds together the tiniest microbes and the largest mammals and describing the ecosystems that have cycled for thousands- sometimes millions-of years. more
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