General Books - Page 2

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yale University Press Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $15.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.

 

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take—from neither the left nor the right—on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years.

 

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The Daring Book for Girls CD

Andrea J. Buchanan, Miriam Peskowitz

Amazon Price: $17.90 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperAudio Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $0.44

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Social Science -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 145 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great for June Beaver 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 21 people found this review helpful.

Too boring. Promotes the 1950s stereotypes of girls' interests and does little to broaden their horizon or foster a want to escape those stereotypes. The only redeeming parts were the "occult" and "Satanic" sections. Don't know why others would be so critical of them, when the Bible is no less scary or gruesome...much more so in the macabre and graphic details, in fact. Just look at Christ nailed to the cross oozing with blood. Those who deny this charge have not read both Old and New Testaments.

Regardless, people still read the Bible to their children...Ever wonder why the children grow up to be paranoid, God-terrified adults?

Editorial Review:

For every girl with an independent spirit and a nose for trouble, here is the no-boys-allowed guide to everything from school yard games to great women in history!

The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to know—and that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes!

Audio includes:

Fourteen Games of Tag • Queens of the Ancient World • Every Girl's Toolbox • The Daring Girls Guide to Danger • Slumber Party Games • Climbing • First Aid • Boys • How to Change a Tire • Jacks

Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl's invitation to adventure.

Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples

Harville Hendrix

List Price: $14.00 By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 981 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 128 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth a Good Look 5 out of 5 stars.
122 of 123 people found this review helpful.

I looked at this book from a different perspective than most readers. I didn't read it as a person in need of relationship advice. Rather, I read it as a person who has been happily married for 22 years. My question was, how closely did the advice in this book match what I was doing successfully?

A bestseller since 1988, the book is separated into 3 sections:

-the first part talks about how unmet childhood needs can affect your future relationships.

-the second part talks about a marriage that can fulfil your unmet childhood needs in constructive ways.

-lastly, part three is the exercises. Here you'll be taken through a series of exercises that you can do at home that have been actually used in the author's practice. They're easy to do and involve writing.

Well, that's a rough synopsis that should give you a little bit of a feel as to how the book is set up- and what its about.

So how closely did the advice in this book match what I have been doing all this time to create a successful 22-year marriage? Perfectly- both the book and I promote the idea that you have to work at your marriage to make it work!

And perhaps that's the best piece of advice of all: find constructive ways to make you marriage better- and that's one thing this book most certainly succeeds at. Other self-help books I liked include Finding Happiness in a Frustrating World.

Editorial Review:

This national bestselling breakthrough guide (more than 400,000 copies sold in both editions) offers a realistic and accessible program to help couples heal one another and become whole together.

Rules of the Game

Neil Strauss

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $13.49

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Customer Reviews:
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.

Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Jared Diamond

List Price: $17.05 By: W W Norton & Co Inc (Np) Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $27.40

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1075 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A global account of the rise of civilization that is also a stunning refutation of ideas of human development based on race.

Until around 11,000 b.c., all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.

The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences.

He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers.

Jared Diamond, professor of physiology at the UCLA Medical School, is the author of The Third Chimpanzee, awarded the 1992 Los Angeles Times Science Book Award. He is a regular contributor to Natural History and Discover magazines and lives in Los Angeles.

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

Roberto Saviano, Virginia Jewiss

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Not yet published By: Picador

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Customer Reviews:
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

Amazon Price: $12.24 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 161 new & used starting at $8.00

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Customer Reviews:
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

List Price: $27.95 By: HarperCollins Amazon Marketplace: 706 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
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.

Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility

Foster W. Cline, Jim Fay

List Price: $24.95 By: Penton Overseas Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $28.38

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 176 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Stops the arguing and lecturing 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My aunt who is a retired teacher recommended this book to help us deal with our 5 year old daughter. My daughter is a very gifted child, but emotionally immature, and had constant tantrums. After reading some of the reviews, I was apprehensive about buying this book, but decided I had to try something different. This book has been wonderful. I don't understand if you use the book correctly how it is dangerous...people take things completely out of context. The book is about teaching your children to make good choices; obviously the choices have to be one's that your child is able to make. For my daughter when she had a tantrum I would say something like...oh ow...looks like someone is cranky, you can be cranky in your bedroom or you can be happy out here. If she continued her tantrum I say, would you like to walk to your room yourself, or would you like me to carry you. I always had to carry her kicking and screaming...anyway at first she would throw huge fits in her room opening and slamming the door, screaming at us. We just ignored it, after awhile the time she spent in her room got shorter and shorter, and much calmer. Now she almost never has tantrums, if she gets cranky I say oh ow, and sometimes she will just go sit in her room for a minute, collect herself and then come back out. The thing with this program is I never argue, I stay in a calm happy mood and she gets no reaction out of me, it is wonderful. Another example was wearing a jacket. My daughter would throw fits when she had to put on a coat, it was awful. One evening after dinner my husband was taking the kids for a walk, it was about 40 degrees she had on a dress with no tights, I began to tell her she needed a coat and socks to go, and she started her usual tantrum, and I decided to follow the book and let her not wear either. I told my husband to go around the block first, when they got to our house she ran in shivering, put on her coat, a hat, scarf and mittens by herself, and has worn them everyday since, without any problems. I know that some parents think this is outrageous letting my daughter be cold, I purposely did this before it is bitter cold, obviously you don't let your child go out in below 0 weather and let them get frost bite, the authors probably assume that people will use their brains. I did notice the newer versions do have a lot of disclaimers on what not to do...they must have read the reviews:).

Editorial Review:

This approach helps parents provide their children with the essential tools needed to cope with todays world. By using this method, parents can also find theyve established a rewarding relationship with their children which is built upon love and trust.

Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood

Edward M. Hallowell, John J. Ratey

List Price: $18.00 By: Simon & Schuster Audio Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $7.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 134 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the classics - but dated 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book for the person who has not heard of ADHD until recently, particularly for the adult who has been unknowingly suffering its effects. But I was an adolescent when ADHD first became widely recognized and diagnosed, and I grew up with friends and family members who were diagnosed and treated for their ADHD, at a time when "You mean I'm not crazy, stupid or lazy?" was sort of a joke catchphrase in the high school hallways. This book presumes that, by the time you read it, your ADHD or that of your child has already gone unrecognized for a number of years and caused personal and academic problems. As such, it doesn't really speak to the reality of modern day parents who have known about ADHD from the time our children were born and are now struggling to diagnose and treat the disorder BEFORE it disrupts our children's lives. In addition, the information on medication is very out of date, as many advances have occurred in the 15 years since the book was written.

Editorial Review:

Procrastination. Disorganization. Distractibility. Millions of adults have long considered these the hallmarks of a lack of self-discipline. But for many, these and other problems in school, at work and in social relationships are actually symptoms of an inborn neurological problem: ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder.

Through vivid stories of their patients' experiences, Drs. Hallowell and Ratey now offer a comprehensive overview of one of the most controversial psychiatric diagnoses of our day. They show the varied forms ADD takes -- and the transforming impact of precise diagnosis and treatment. And, as successful professionals who are both living with ADD, they extend a message of hope and compassion to all listeners struggling with ADD in their own lives or in the lives of loved ones.

An enlightening exploration of a condition only recently identified, Driven To Distraction is a must for everyone intrigued by the workings of the human mind.