Sociology Books - Page 3

Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples, 20th Anniversary Edition

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Total reviews: 128 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

REVISED AND WITH A NEW FOREWORD

ARE YOU GETTING THE LOVE YOU WANT?

Originally published in 1988, Getting the Love You Want has helped millions of couples attain more loving, supportive, and deeply satisfying relationships. The 20th anniversary edition contains extensive revisions to this groundbreaking book, with a new chapter, new exercises, and a foreword detailing Dr. Hendrix’s updated philosophy for eliminating all negativity from couples’ daily interactions, allowing readers of the 2008 edition to benefit from his ongoing discoveries during his last two decades of work.

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., in partnership with his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD., originated Imago Relationship Therapy, a unique healing process for couples, prospective couples, and parents. Together they have more than thirty years’ experience as educators and therapists and their work has been translated into more than 50 languages, with Imago practiced by two thousand therapists worldwide. Harville and Helen have six children and live in New York and New Mexico.

Rules of the Game

Neil Strauss

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Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

If you want to play the Game, you've got to know the Rules.

In his international bestseller The Game, Neil Strauss delved into the secret world of pick-up artists--men who have created a science out of the art of seduction. Not only did he reveal the techniques that they had developed, but he became a master of The Game, and the world's No. 1 PUA, as Style.

Now, in his first follow-up to The Game, comes an extraordinary package: A lavishly produced, two-volume pocket-size set that every pickup artist--accomplished or aspiring--will need to have. The first book, The Stylelife Challenge, is the manual Strauss thought he'd never write: the ultimate guide to landing the woman of your dreams. Bound in white leatherette, it offers an in-depth 30-day program, Strauss challenges readers to confront their insecurities and overcome them through a process of rigorous self-examination, briefings and field missions.

In the second book, Strauss takes readers into the dark side of The Game. Bound in black leatherette, The Style Diaries offers a series of tales of seduction and sexual (mis)adventure. From accidentally getting married during a drunken night in Reykjavik, to luring a famous musician's granddaughter into a threesome; from conducting a keenly felt and tender relationship over email, to the stress and frustration of the torturous and highly unorthodox "30 Day Sex Experiment," The Style Diaries takes you further into the seduction underworld than ever before, and delves where The Game never dared to tread: into the even more complicated rules of relationships.

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

John Eldredge

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> Faith

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 613 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Finally! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Finally a book that's about guys being real men!!!
I absolutely recommend this to all Christian boys looking toward manhood, and for the men looking to discover the depths of their soul.

I thought this was another touchy-feely book when i saw the title. Just the words "discovering the secret of a man's soul" made me almost want to put this down.
Trust me, once you start it up you'll see it's more "get out there and be alive" or my favorite "be dangerous."

Overall this really has brought me closer to my Lord and Savior. I really have alot to work on!!

Editorial Review:

Helping men rediscover their masculine heart, this guide to understanding Christian manhood and Christian men offers a refreshing break from the chorus of voices urging men to be more responsible, reliable, dutiful… and dead. God designed men to be dangerous, says John Eldredge. Simply look at the dreams and desires written in the heart of every boy: To be a hero, to be a warrior, to live a life of adventure and risk. Sadly, most men abandon those dreams and desires-aided by a Christianity that feels like nothing more than pressure to be a "nice guy." It is no wonder that many men avoid church, and those who go are often passive and bored to death. In this provocative book, now available in trade paper, Eldredge gives women a look inside the true heart of a man and gives men permission to be what God designed them to be-dangerous, passionate, alive, and free.

Hurry Down Sunshine

Michael Greenberg

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Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE TELLS THE STORY OF THE extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg’s daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally’s visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city’s most sweltering months. “I feel like I’m traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to,” Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her–her brother and grandmother, her mother and stepmother, and, not least of all, the author himself. Among Greenberg’s unforgettable gallery of characters are an unconventional psychiatrist, an Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary dreams. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent.

“The psychotic break of his fifteen-year-old daughter is the grit around which Michael Greenberg forms the pearl that is Hurry Down Sunshine. It is a brilliant, taut, entirely original study of a suffering child and a family and marriage under siege. I know of no other book about madness whose claim to scientific knowledge is so modest and whose artistic achievement is so great.” – Janet Malcolm, author of The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes and The Journalist and the Murderer

“One of the most gripping and disturbingly honest books I have ever read.  The courage Michael Greenberg shows in narrating the story of his adolescent daughter’s descent into psychosis is matched by his acute understanding of how alone each of us, sane or manic, is in our processing of reality and our attempts to get others to appreciate what seems important to us. This is a remarkable memoir.” – Phillip Lopate, author of Two Marriages and Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan

Rules for Radicals

Saul Alinsky

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Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Alinsky's rules for destroying capitalism have succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. 3 out of 5 stars.
34 of 54 people found this review helpful.

So successful have radical front groups such as ACORN been, that it may not be long before the very same tactics can be used against the radicals themselves. Saul's tactics of intimidation, civil disobedience, threats, veiled threats, strikes, boycotts, lying, bluffing, more lying, fixing elections, infiltrating all layers of government, media manipulation, fear, smears, ridicule, hit & run tactics, humor and "dirty pool tricks" of all kinds were always intended for the "have nots" to use against the "haves." Now that the radicals have actually gained so much power, they are no longer the "outside have-nots" and the very same strategies they used to gain power can be turned on them. While the radicals will have succeeded in forcing most multi-national corporations to move their businesses and jobs off shore, their socialist policies will no longer be able to raise enough taxes to produce the Socialist, Communistic Utopia that was promised.
It will be interesting to observe taxpayer revolts where suddenly almost everyone is showing no taxable income. It will be fascinating to see millions of formerly middle class citizens suddenly and all at once decide not to pay their real estate taxes. It will be enlightening to see government offices swamped with citizens applying for every possible entitlement all at the same time and over and over again. The unemployed will simply refuse to work full-time. Tax payer lawsuits will overwhelm the court system and the IRS. While the majority of citizens have willingly paid their income taxes in the past believing they owed it to their nation for it's freedoms, the critical mass of real fairness will quickly be reached and the majority of the formerly law biding citizens will start to cheat on a massive scale. The American way of life isn't going to go down the drain peaceably and the voters, once they figure out how they have been tricked, will be ready for another revolution to restore the freedoms that they so easily surrendered to smooth talking snake oil salesmen.
When both sides start applying these rules for radicals the resulting polarization will be more pronounced than anything the United States has ever experienced other than the Civil War. This is an excellent primer for Americans to read to better understand how they have been tricked, and how to go about returning the favor to those who did the tricking. The black markets and underground economy may smother the legal economy and unreported cash and bartering will once again become king.
I found insightful some of the author's opinions of how shallow liberals are and how they must be treated with kid gloves and only included in quick, easy, symbolic actions because of their short attention spans and because of their low tolerance for even modest sacrifice. He considered them mostly radicals in theory and talk only. His sage advice not to try these tactics in Russia, China or Havana unless the radicals and all their friends wanted to be tortured and killed was enlightening as well.
Old Saul was obviously depending on the fact that freedom of speech would not be entirely eliminated in America because if the radicals managed to destroy free speech, they might find themselves on the wrong side of a Cuban-like dictatorship. He obviously didn't plan on causing so much damage to American Corporations that they went bankrupt. He didn't want to kill the golden goose, he just wanted to own and control it.
This is a fascinating read for political junkies. It's amazing how the same tactics may so easily be used to turn the tables on the folks originally employing them. One of the most interesting parts of the book to this reviewer was how to use humor to defeat your enemies. The idea is to make them a laughing stock. Humor can be utilized to make points much more effectively than straight, serious discussion. One only has to watch the late night talk shows and SNL to see how powerful humor can be in influencing elections, especially in this era when many people no longer read the print media and get much of their news from the jokes of their favorite late night talk show hosts.

Editorial Review:

This primers tells the "have-nots" how they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of true democracy.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Jared M. Diamond

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Total reviews: 1075 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great subject and treatment - shakey science 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I know everyone says this - just adding my voice.

The author needs to define his terms - what does he mean by 'smart' when talking about the New Guineans. What does he mean by calling Australia 'backwards'? I wish he developed these vague/biased terms.

Editorial Review:

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.

Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System

Roberto Saviano, Virginia Jewiss

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Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Stilted Trip Through Unfamiliar Italy 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

A full-throttle look at Cammora crime from the nitty gritty ground level, "Gomorrah" is a look behind the curtain that suffers from an author with too intimate an approach to his subject. For a Neopolitan perhaps the geography, family and clan names, capos and underbosses, murders, victims and characters are a uniting thread; but, to the average American reader I think this translation of Saviano's originial Italian work lacks some critical elements that would help to make this story more than the timeline of crime it ends up being.

There is no real protagonist to unite the series of seemingly only loosely-related vignettes, unless one counts Saviano himself, but his role is more that of tour guide, standard-bearer and narrator.

Mixed in are some really interesting details about Cammora business, the purpose and organization of the system, and the lifestyle both for the connected and unconnected. But, these are sprinkled in among dizzying references to different criminal systems, families, clans and characters. Further complicating matters, the translation (I can't speak for whether it reflects the original work) is stark and breathless. In spite of the occasional turn of phrase, metaphor or analogy, the writing is spare and unadorned.

All in all, a staccato and stilted trip through what remains -- even after reading -- an unfamiliar vantage point on Italy.

Editorial Review:

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year



A groundbreaking, unprecedented bestseller in Italy, Roberto Saviano's insider account traces the decline of the city of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network more powerful and violent than the Mafia. The Camorra is an elaborate, international system dealing in drugs, high fashion, construction, and toxic waste, and its influence has entirely transformed life in Campania, the province surrounding Naples. 

Since seeing his first murder victim, at thirteen, Roberto Saviano has watched the changes in his home city. For Gomorrah, he disappeared into the Camorra and witnessed at close range its audacious, sophisticated, and far-reaching corruption that has paralyzed his home city and introduced the world to a new breed of organized crime.

The 48 Laws of Power

Robert Greene

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Total reviews: 510 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

My Former Bible 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Only two types of people have been and will be attracted to reading this book: those who hope it's about one thing and those who know it's about the other. The former belong to the timid, powerless, low-self esteem majority looking for the ultimate guide to gaining respect and admiration from their peers. The latter belong to the unscrupulous, dare I say sociopathic ever-growing minority whose end goal is to win at everything against everyone by any means. Once the book has been read and fully digested, one of two conclusions will be reached. The first is a sudden awareness of what a perfectly outstanding tool they hold in their hands and the limitless rewards it can afford them. The second is an absolute disgust and horror at what a dangerous volume this is and the malicious behavior it outright encourages. Interestingly, the timid are not always the ones repulsed and the ruthless are not always the ones aroused. The wave can break either way.

Shortly after this book was published, I happened upon it in a bookstore and knew I had to have it. A blaze of energy electrified my body and pounded through the deepest recesses of my mind. I was on fire, I couldn't put it down and yet I knew I could never share it with anyone, the way a child might hide away their favorite toy. In truth I became obsessed. I had to learn and then master every element of every law and take supreme authority over every aspect of my life. Indeed, this book, The 48 Laws of Power, became my bible, the most passionate conquest I had ever sought to undertake.

Within its pages I met with the reflection of every gruesome bully and every merry manipulator I had ever known. Their power was uncanny and yet so mysterious, mostly because I could never fathom how such apparently absent minds could lay so cool yet strike with such venom. It was awe-inspiring, and I had to come to terms with their secrets. The secrets that earned them respect from their enemies and fear from their admirers. The secrets that won them the most buxom women, who always appeared so entranced by even their rudest and most audacious displays. "How could they get away with everything so smoothly?!" I had wondered. "How could they be so desirable?!" I had thought. "HOW?!"

Well...here is how. It is simple.

Some people are given to a heredity and/or an upbringing that nourishes what is commonly considered 'bad' behavior. Certain genes as well as certain parenting styles perpetuate an attitude of unruliness which leads in its purest variety to utter contempt for anyone else's thoughts, feelings, or needs. Their minds develop without a balanced set of experiences, leading them to deduce that the information they received must indeed be correct. This is also applicable to those who suffer violence in their youth, even if that violence is not carried out physically. The fact remains that whatever world with which one is presented is accepted as unmitigated truth. 'Bad' behavior is usually viewed by such a person as normal. Thus selfishness, cruelty, and manipulation are seen as strengths, while compassion, kindness and humility are seen as weaknesses.

Surely there are a bevy of other factors that cannot go without mention. High intelligence, a pleasing appearance, a particular talent, et cetra can all act as lauchpads for immorality if similar virtues in others go unrecognized as being equal. This sense of equality is what it all comes down to, in fact. The very idea of power assumes that another cannot or should not be in a position to where the perspectives of both can be viewed as equally valid. On the one end is the person who is possessed by their own image, on the other is the person who believes that they have no intrinsic worth at all. The two feed off of each other in a sadistic/masochistic symbiotic relationship. The point then comes to bear that a person who believes himself powerful only remains so long as the other believes the same thing. Put two people who both see power as the ultimate attainment and you have the setting for nearly every meeting in the business world. From here, only two things can happen. One party will cave, allowing the other to dominate, or neither party will cave, effectively precipitating resentment and rage in both. The former leads to a continuation of the cycle while the latter leads to war.

This book is extremely well-researched and exquisitely written, which is why I still give it three stars. But I warn you now to be aware of your true intentions. Buy this book if you don't care about anyone but yourself, and it pleases you to see another man crumble. Do not buy this book if you have even the slightest interest in saving yourself from years of unnecessary struggle. Remember that the wave does break both ways, and you do not know who you may become if you toss your ethics in the wastebasket. Needless to say, I was the timid one who was sick of being overlooked, but in the end, it was this book that I tossed into the wastebasket. Your call.

Editorial Review:

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills three thousand years of the history of power in to forty-eight well explicated laws. As attention--grabbing in its design as it is in its content, this bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun-tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other great thinkers. Some laws teach the need for prudence ("Law 1: Never Outshine the Master"), the virtue of stealth ("Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions"), and many demand the total absence of mercy ("Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally"), but like it or not, all have applications in real life. Illustrated through the tactics of Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, P. T. Barnum, and other famous figures who have wielded--or been victimized by--power, these laws will fascinate any reader interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.

State of Fear

Michael Crichton

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Total reviews: 1274 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Coco the clowns guide to climate change 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 23 people found this review helpful.

Hmm, I feel like an interrogator pulling on my thin leather gloves wondering which part of a particularly corpulent and repulsive individual to punch first.

Ok, as a scientific effort into repudiating climate change, this book makes the dinosaur cloning in Jurassic Park look believable.
This book provides a charter for all of those out there who want a "get out of jail free card" to wave so they can continue to lead lifestyles that feature conspicuous consumption and a lack of personal and moral accountability, with respect to our poor planet and the less fortunate individuals that inhabit the "poor bits", the "hot bits", the "not very nice bits" and the "prone to war and famine bits".

The science is selective and poor, and flies in the face of actual experts in the field (myself being one of them). The worrying thing is that people actually believe this stuff, and when I read he was asked to address Congressional Committees I was flabbergasted. I can only presume they were committees that were looking into cloning a mega-army of semi-intelligent dinosaurs, who ironically would probably be too intelligent to read this book.

Phew, thats better, and if this review gets published, I'll be a monkeys uncle (possibly one of the monkeys in "Next", his tirade into the world of genetic engineering, and considering where his dinosaurs come from, I mean, talking about biting the hand that feeds you!!!)

Edit - Ok Mr Amazon, send me some bananas!

Editorial Review:

The undisputed master of the techno-thriller has written his most riveting -- and entertaining -- book yet.

Once again Michael Crichton gives us his trademark combination of page-turning suspense, cutting-edge technology, and extraordinary research. State of Fear is a superb blend of edge-of-your-seat suspense and thought provoking commentary on how information is manipulated in the modern world. From the streets of Paris, to the glaciers of Antarctica to the exotic and dangerous Solomon Islands, State of Fear takes the reader on a rollercoaster thrill ride, all the while keeping the brain in high gear.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Daniel Goleman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 245 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

One of the most insightful "leadership" books out there... 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I had read Daniel Goleman's book years ago... and his premise is more relevant now, and continues to be one of the most insightful "leadership" books on the market. How is this so? There are a lot of "management" books but true leadership books are few and far between. Those that truly know the difference between "leadership" and "management" know what I mean. A true leader uses all of his/her skills, experience, insight, empathy, "emotion" to create and lead their teams... and yes showing emotion is what makes a leader human... which is vastly important in today's business climate, as the old stoic, manage from the top floor corner office is now obsolete. "We" all of us are emotional beings... our emotions drive what we do everyday. Daniel Goleman does a great job at illustrating this in his book/s as well as providing a guide to using our emotions to enhance our leadership style and create effective and productive teams. My recommendation is to read this book and decide for yourself.

Dr. Faron Boreham

Editorial Review:

Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman's brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our "two minds"--the rational and the emotional--and how they together shape our destiny.

Through vivid examples, Goleman delineates the five crucial skills of emotional intelligence, and shows how they determine our success in relationships, work, and even our physical well-being. What emerges is an entirely new way to talk about being smart.

The best news is that "emotional literacy" is not fixed early in life. Every parent, every teacher, every business leader, and everyone interested in a more civil society, has a stake in this compelling vision of human possibility.