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The Storytelling Animal
How Stories Make Us Human
Explores the latest beliefs about why people tell stories and what stories reveal about human nature, offering insights into such related topics as universal themes and what it means to have a storytelling brain.
News and Reviews
What a Plant Knows
A Field Guide to the Senses
Paralleling the human senses, the author explores the secret lives of various plants, from the colors they see to whether or not they really like classical music to their ability to sense nearby danger.
News and Reviews
The Violinist's Thumb
And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, As Written by Our Genetic Code
The best-selling author of The Disappearing Spoon discusses DNA, the building block of life, describing how genes can explain why JFK's skill was bronze, Einstein was a genius and why people with exceptional thumb flexibility can become world-class violinists.
News and Reviews
The First 20 Minutes
Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer
The New York Times "Phys Ed" columnist counsels casual and serious exercisers on the latest understandings about the mental and physical aspects of a fitness program, sharing recommendations for current "best practices for a range of goals."
News and Reviews
Birdseye
The Adventures Of A Curious Man
A profile of eccentric genius inventor Clarence Birdseye chronicles how his innovative fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture.
News and Reviews
Breasts
A Natural and Unnatural History
Draws from the fields of anthropology, biology, and medicine to describe the life cycle of the human female breast, from puberty to pregnancy to menopause, and discusses the organ's modern susceptibility to toxins and disease.
News and Reviews
Mr. Hornaday's War
How a Peculiar Victorian Zookeeper Waged a Lonely Crusade for Wildlife That Changed the World
Recounts the life of the conservationist, who spent his life protecting wildlife as a taxidermist and museum collector; as the founder and first director of the National Zoo; as director of the Bronx Zoo; and as an author.
News and Reviews
Learning From The Octopus
How Secrets From Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters, And Disease
An ecologist applies his knowledge to the study of security and disaster prevention, arguing that the natural world can provide better strategies for averting catastrophe than the ones found in our bureaucratic system of agencies and experts.
News and Reviews
A Rich Spot of Earth
Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello
Peter Hatch traces the history of Thomas Jefferson's vegetable garden, which has been painstakingly restored by the author, from the artichokes and asparagus first planted in 1770 through the horticultural experiments of Jefferson's retirement years.
News and Reviews
Engines of Change
A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars
Chronicles the history reflected by fifteen iconic car models to discuss how automobiles reflect key cultural shifts as well as developments in such areas as manufacturing, women's rights, and environmental awareness.
News and Reviews
Memoir of a Debulked Woman
Enduring Ovarian Cancer
A woman living with ovarian cancer describes her experience going through debulking surgery, during which parts or whole organs in the lower abdomen are removed, and searches for understanding and offers hope and support to other people in need.
News and Reviews
The Defining Decade
Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now
A clinical psychologist describes why she believes the years between ages 20-29 can be the most defining decade of adulthood and offers tips on making the most of work and relationships during this still-formative time in a person's life.
News and Reviews
Drop Dead Healthy
One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection
In Drop Dead Healthy, author A.J. Jacobs attempts to become the healthiest man in the world. Structuring his life around a deluge of diets and fitness regimens that often contradict each other, he experiences the logical conclusion of our culture's health obsessions.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Best Care Possible
A Physician's Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life
A palliative care doctor on the front lines of hospital care illuminates one of the most important and controversial ethical issues of our time on his quest to transform care through the end of life. It is harder to die in this country than ever before. Statistics show that the vast majority of Americans would prefer to die at home, yet many of us spend our last days fearful and in pain in a healthcare system ruled by high-tech procedures and a philosophy to "fight disease and illness at all cost." Dr. Ira Byock, one of the foremost palliative-care physicians in the country, argues that end-of-life care is among the biggest national crises facing us today. In addressing the crisis, politics has trumped reason. Dr. Byock explains that to ensure the best possible care for those we love — and eventually ourselves — we must not only remake our healthcare system, we must also move past our cultural aversion to talking about death and acknowledge the fact of mortality once and for all. Dr. Byock describes what palliative care really is, and — with a doctor's compassion and insight — puts a human face on the issues by telling richly moving, heart-wrenching, and uplifting stories of real people during the most difficult moments in their lives. Byock takes us inside his busy, cutting-edge academic medical center to show what the best care at the end of life can look like and how doctors and nurses can profoundly shape the way families experience loss. Like books by Atul Gawande and Jerome Groopman, The Best Care Possible is a compelling meditation on medicine and ethics told through page-turning, life or death medical drama. It is passionate and timely, and it has the power to lead a new kind of national conversation.
News and Reviews
Mating in Captivity
Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
A guide for loving couples who are looking to renew sexual passion in their lives explains how societal taboos and ideals about domestic equality have compromised the healthy expression of eroticism in today's relationships, in a resource that explains how to overcome personal constraints for greater intimacy. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.
News and Reviews
Imagine
How Creativity Works
An examination of the new science of creativity explains how it involves distinct thought processes that can be tapped by anyone, revealing the practices of successful companies and creative individuals while considering how to use scientific principles to increase creativity.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Undead
Organ Harvesting, the Ice-Water Test, Beating-Heart Cadavers-How Medicine Is Blurring the Line Between Life and Death
A timely and provocative examination of why the process of death declaration has become blurred in a world where advanced technology and organ harvesting play roles in health care draws on the expertise of medical experts, hospice workers and others while evaluating how death has been determined throughout history.
