The Secret Lives of Men

In this counterintuitive book, psychologist Catherine Salmon and journalist Katrin Schumann combine science, history, and real-life stories to reveal for the first time that our perception of middle children is dead wrong. Using unpublished and little-known research from evolutionary psychology, sociology, and communications, The Secret Power of Middle Children illustrates how adaptive strategies middleborns develop during childhood translate into stronger friendships, lasting marriages, successful careers, and effective parenting. Over seventy million adult Americans are middle children, and forty percent of young American families have middle children. With constructive advice on how to maximize the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of being a middle child, Salmon and Schumann help middle children at any age (and their parents) use birth order as a strategy for success.   Show More Show Less

Collins serves up some little-known holiday history in this interesting book that teems with Christmas facts and legends, arranged alphabetically by topic. Readers will be fascinated to learn, for example, that the holiday shopping season used to be only a couple of weeks long, but was extended during WWII so families could get care packages off to soldiers in a timely fashion. Or that St. Francis of Assisi was one of the first people to use a live nativity scene to teach others about Christ's birth. Collins tackles customs such as Christmas gifts and cards, and the popularity of cultural events like the Nutcracker and the Messiah (which, intriguingly, fell entirely out of fashion in the decades after Handel's death). There are chapters on the history of holly, mistletoe, Christmas trees, candy canes, poinsettias, yule logs, stockings and-of course - Santa Claus.  

The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Understanding Lisbeth Salander and Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Robin S. Rosenberg   Show More Show Less Lisbeth Salander, heroine of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels, is one of the most compelling, complex characters of our time. Is she an avenging angel? A dangerous outlaw? What makes Salander tick, and why is our response to her—and to Larsson’s Millennium trilogy—so strong? In The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 19 psychologists and psychiatrists attempt to do what even expert investigator Mikael Blomkvist could not: understand Lisbeth Salander.  

The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series. J. K. Rowling's wildly popular Harry Potter books may appear to be simple children's tales on the surface, but like Hogwarts, they conceal many hidden chambers, trapdoors, and perplexing secrets. Drawing on all seven books in the Harry Potter series, The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy offers a powerful brew of insights about good and evil, love, death, power, sacrifice, and hope.

Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D. In this definitive book on the scientifically proven health and stress-relieving benefits of Transcendental Meditation, a renowned psychiatrist and researcher explores why TM works, what it can do for you, and how to use it for maximum effect. Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D., a twenty-year researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and the celebrated psychiatrist who pioneered the study and treatment of Season Affective Disorder (SAD), brings us the most important work on Transcendental Meditation helping achieve a greater physical and mental health and wellness. Transcendence demystifies the practice and benefits of Transcendental Meditation for a general audience who may have heard about the method but do not necessarily know what it is, how it is learned, or what they stand to gain, physically and emotionally, from achieving transcendence. Dr. Rosenthal clearly and practically explains the basic ideas behind Transcendental Meditation: It is a nonreligious practice that involves sitting comfortably for twenty minutes twice a day while using a silent mantra, or nonverbal sound, to attain a profound state of aware relaxation.  

Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living. The urban homesteading movement is spreading rapidly across the nation. Urban Homesteading is the perfect “back-to-the- land” guide for urbanites who want to reduce their impact on the environment. Full of practical information, as well as inspiring stories from people already living the urban homesteading life, this colorful guide gives a clear understanding of the lifestyle to any reader. It embraces the core concepts of localization (providing our basic needs close to where we live), self-reliance (re-learning that food comes from the ground, not the grocery store), and sustainability (giving back at least as much as we take). Full of beautiful full-color photographs and illustrations and plenty of step-by-step instructions, this is a must-have handbook for city folk with a passion for the simple life. Visit http://urban-homesteading.org/ for more information.

The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain. Tali Sharot. From one of the most innovative neuroscientists at work today, an investigation into the bias toward optimism that exists on a neural level in our brains and plays a major part in determining how we live our lives. Psychologists have long been aware that most people maintain an often irrationally positive outlook on life. In fact, optimism may be crucial to our existence. Tali Sharot’s experiments, research, and findings in cognitive science have contributed to an increased understanding of the biological basis of optimism. In this fascinating exploration, she takes an in-depth, clarifying look at how the brain generates hope and what happens when it fails; how the brains of optimists and pessimists differ; why we are terrible at predicting what will make us happy; how emotions strengthen our ability to recollect; how anticipation and dread affect us; and how our optimistic illusions affect our financial, professional, and emotional decisions. With its cutting-edge science and its wide-ranging and accessible narrative, The Optimism Bias provides us with startling new insight into the workings of the brain.

An excellent introduction to yoga for men. Sports writer Capouya presents a fun and useful guide to yoga that combines clear instructions with humor and that uses a normal-looking American man as its primary model. Beginning versions of classic yoga poses are explained along with "super charged" versions for those wanting more of a challenge. To appeal to the "inner athlete," there are numerous testimonials from well-known professional athletes.

In this episode, Paul Ekman  discusses among other things, his unparalleled series of conversations  with the Dalai Lama pushing toward answers to the central questions of emotional experience. What are the sources of hate and compassion? What does science reveal about Buddhist meditation, and what can Buddhism gain from the scientific method? Here, they invite us to join them in an unfiltered view of two great traditions and two great minds. Accompanied by commentaries on emotion research and Buddhist teachings, their interplay—amusing, challenging, eye-opening, and moving—guides us on a transformative journey in the understanding of emotions.

According to Potter (coauthor of Nation of Rebels), the cost of modernity's dismantling of traditional frameworks of truth and meaning has forced meaning and authenticity to become individual searches that are private and consumercentric. Potter's lively cultural analysis combines an astute analysis of foundational antimodernist thought (in particular Rousseau) with savvy surveys of mass culture to flag the pitfalls and ironies of the modern obsession with authenticity in its every incarnation (authentically punk, spiritual, environmentally conscious) from our jeans to our celebrities. Potter champions a mitigation of modernity's negative, alienating effects rather than a rejection of modernity, and his characterizations of antimodernists can be dismissive to the point of oversimplifying a large and varied spectrum of dissent from the status quo. But in redeeming modernity from primitivists, apocalyptic doom-mongers, and more subtle critics, the author offers a shrewd and lively discussion peppered with pop culture references and a stimulating reappraisal of the romantic strain in modern life.   .

 Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality. Drawing on extensive research, renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Samuel Barondes gives you powerful, easy-to-use tools for understanding what people are really like and how they got to be the way they are. These tools will provide you with a system for assessing the person’s traits, character, and sense of identity, and then putting these elements together into a unified picture.

Unhitched: Love, Marriage, and Family Values from West Hollywood to Western China. Stacey (In the Name of the Family), a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, spent over a decade interviewing and observing families in California, South Africa, and China for this scrupulously researched and moving portrait of family diversity across three continents and cultures. The first section is devoted to gay men living, loving, and parenting in tony West Hollywood. Stacey uses the experiences of her 50 subjects to examine both sides of the gay-marriage debate. The theory that legalizing gay marriage will lead to the legalization of polygamy takes Stacey to South Africa, where both same-sex and plural marriages are legal. She examines the history and modern interpretation of polygamy and asks if the practice might not offer some potential benefits to women and their children. Finally, Stacey turns her keen analysis on the Mosuo people of southwest China, who have rejected marriage for multigenerational households in which children are raised by their mothers and maternal family. Throughout her travels and exhaustive research, Stacey pokes and prods, and eagerly calls into question everything we think we know about love, marriage, and the baby in the baby carriage.

The Modern Gentleman: A Guide to Essential Manners, Savvy and Vice. Ladies and Gentlemen, How to LiveYou're a pretty slick guy who always says "please" and "thank you." But do you possess gentlemanly knowledge, such as the correct way to drink Armagnac, or how to make interesting conversation in elevators? And what about holding doors open for women? Phineas Mollod and Jason Tesauro have written The Modern Gentleman: A Guide to Essential Manners, Savvy & Vice to educate men on the finer points of life, from the barber shop to the opera. This thorough guide covers skinny-dipping, flirting, wine, card playing, sleeper trains, apologizing to lovers, e-mail, gift-giving and more, making it a must-have for every etiquette-conscious guy.

The Science of Trust: Emotional Attunement for Couples For the past thirty-five years, John Gottman’s research has been internationally recognized for its unprecedented ability to precisely measure interactive processes in couples and to predict the long-term success or failure of relationships. In this groundbreaking book, he presents a new approach to understanding and changing couples: a fundamental social skill called “emotional attunement,” which describes a couple’s ability to fully process and move on from negative emotional events, ultimately creating a stronger relationship. Gottman draws from this longitudinal research and theory to show how emotional attunement can downregulate negative affect, help couples focus on positive traits and memories, and even help prevent domestic violence. He offers a detailed intervention devised to cultivate attunement, thereby helping couples connect, respect, and show affection. Emotional attunement is extended to tackle the subjects of flooding, the story we tell ourselves about our relationship, conflict, personality, changing relationships, and gender. Gottman also explains how to create emotional attunement when it is missing, to lay a foundation that will carry the relationship through difficult times. Gottman encourages couples to cultivate attunement through awareness, tolerance, understanding, non-defensive listening, and empathy. These qualities, he argues, inspire confidence in couples, and the sense that despite the inevitable struggles, the relationship is enduring and resilient.      

Siegel (Parenting from the Inside Out) combines Western neuroscience with Eastern meditation in an exciting exploration of how a troubled mind can right itself. Drawing on current science and case studies, Siegel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine, reinforces the idea that the power of reflection allows us to approach, rather than withdraw, from whatever life brings us. And learning to stay with a feeling, even a threatening one, is the beginning of discovering that this emotion is just a set of neural firings in our brain. But there is also enormous hope—that therapy, sometimes even without medication, can guide a patient through life. Siegel's method isn't a quick fix and doesn't sugarcoat reality: The mindful traits of serenity, courage and wisdom involve accepting our place in the order of things. He challenges his patients to a life of tough work and convincingly suggests it will be well worth the effort.