Perception Books - Page 2

A Natural History of the Senses

Diane Ackerman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Such a good writer 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

After reading "The Zookeepers Wife" I wanted to read more Diane Ackerman. She's such a great combination of scientist and poet - presenting fascinating facts in an engaging manner. Her writing informs and entertains and inspires me to write. Go Diane!

Fascinating book 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. It is full of interesting information about the five senses. I gave it only 4 out of 5 stars though because I thought the chapters on hearing and vision got a little off the topic at times.

An All Time Top Favorite! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

One of my very top all time favorites. Ackerman's writing is fantastic, and the subject is incredible. Cannot recommend highly enough-- I even own multiple loaner-copies! Before reading this, a book review would be about the story, characters, content. After reading..all that along with the texture of the print on the paper, the color of the cover, the smell of the ink, the quality of light while you were reading.. it opens your eyes and appreciation to a much richer world where all your senses are in play, all the time! A MUST READ.

Editorial Review:

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. "Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in."--The New York Times. (Literature--Classics & Contemporary)

The EMOTIONAL BRAIN: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life

Joseph Ledoux

List Price: $25.00 By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $8.45

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An engrossing read into Emotional Brain 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What makes this book a good read? Primarily, the answer has to be that the subject is important and interesting for anybody who has for once wondered 'why was I not my real self when faced with fear/anxiety?' or 'Just if I could have held my emotions under control there?' Secondly, the area of work seems to be in its primitive stage. And accordingly, there are not many alternate books to be devoured if somebody is interested in this subject.

As far as the author - Joseph LeDoux -is concerned, I like his way of approaching the whole problem of making progress in understanding emotional brain. Not using the mental tools he has been handed by academics he had the intelligence to go where his research took him. Having said that, I would like to add, that the whole account could have been presented in a better way. Some could argue, he has done decent job at explaining complexities in simple terms for any layman to understand. I agree. Just that Daniel Gilbert's excellent work at that - in Stumbling on Happiness - has created an anchor in my mind.

Overall, I would not hesitate in recommending this book to anybody who wants to understand the emotional aspect of our mind.

Editorial Review:

Examines emotions and psychological disorders from a biological perspective, analyzing what emotions are, how they operate in the brain, and how they influence everyday lives. 20,000 first printing.

A Technique for Producing Ideas (Advertising Age Classics Library)

James Young

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

straight to the point, somewhat perceivable 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Although a bit too short, James Webb Young succeeds in clarifying the creative process with common wisdom. It will be helpful for almost anyone, but especially to those in the creative field.

Personally I have been using the same thought process for a couple of years now, but without paying the appropriate attention to detail in every single step of it.

Overall an easy to digest recommended reading.

Savvas S.

Short and to the Point 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you want to cut to the chase about how to be more creative, this is the book for you. Young breaks the creative act into its basic points in as straighforward a fashion as possible. It is a very short book, which can be digested in probably 20 minutes or less, but leaves you with all you need to know to get started. The book has no creativity activities or exercises like other books of its kind, but focuses instead on the main principles and basic methods for producing creative ideas. This is the book to begin with if you aspire to more creative production in your life.

Editorial Review:

A McGraw-Hill Advertising Classic

A Technique for Producing Ideas reveals a simple, sensible idea-generation methodology that has stood the test of time.

First presented to students in 1939, published in 1965, and now reissued for a new generation of advertising professionals and others looking to jump-start their creative juices, this powerful guide details a five-step process for gathering information, stimulating imagination, and recombining old elements into dramatic new ideas.

Beyond Anger: A Guide for Men: How to Free Yourself from the Grip of Anger and Get More Out of Life

Thomas J. Harbin

Amazon Price: $10.92 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $2.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The first 78 pages are useless. 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The first section of the book, an entire 78 pages are worthless. The author keeps repeating himself with one message: "You have an anger problem, you have an anger problem." Thanks Dr. Harbin, I wouldn't have picked up a book called "Beyond Anger" if I were not aware of this already! I have to wonder, is the author trying to annoy the reader into becoming an angry person? The second section finally gets to the point and tells the reader what to do about their anger issues. However, he brings up various helpful points of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, yet he glosses over them, and does not give them the time they are due. Realizing your own "self talk" is very important, but the reader needs more than to be told, "Listen to what you say to yourself." Yeah, ok... so now what? The author also assumes many things about "Angry Men" which are untrue. This was really annoying to read so many generalizations. For example, the author says, "Angry men refuse to ask for help." Um, no they don't! I am a college student and I am constantly in my instructor's office hours asking for clarification and help. Please don't assume that one reader is identical to everyone else. The writing style of the author is not as good as Dr. Less Carter, and the book needs some attitude adjustment: The "voice" of the book is accusatory and unpleasant. Also, the book fails to talk about people who suffer from general "frustration" or who might have a low-level anger problem. Dr. Harbin lumps everyone into one category, that of wife-beating, out-of-control ex-convicts on the verge of self-destruction. It is really great to know that Dr. Harbin has experience with those kinds of people, but if you are a mostly-normal person who wants to understand why you have feelings of frustration and anger, this book is not for you. The folks at Publishers West Group need to work on heavily editing this book. They could throw out a good 1/3 of the text, and replace it with a new 1/3 entirely: Focus more about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques, and actually tell the reader how to help themselves. After all, isn't this a self-help book?

Editorial Review:

Men tend to express their anger differently than women do. Research shows men are often more violent and less willing to confront and deal with their emotions than women. Written by a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of male rage, Beyond Anger shows the angry - and miserable - man how to change his life and relationships for the better. This book helps men understand their anger by explaining what the specific symptoms of chronic anger are and by showing angry men how their actions negatively affect family, friends, and coworkers. It helps men control violent feelings by using simple exercises - developed especially for men - to identify when and why anger occurs and by helping them form new habits to prevent anger before it starts. Women, too, will learn essential strategies for understanding and helping the angry men in their lives. Beyond Anger is honest, tough, and real.

Unmasking the Face: A Guide to Recognizing Emotions from Facial Clues. (A Spectrum book)

Paul Ekman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Must-Have Primer for Learning to Recognize Facial Expressions 5 out of 5 stars.
94 of 94 people found this review helpful.

Ekman is a leading authority on the study of the facial expressions and their relation to emotion, and this book is a methodical and thorough (for the layperson, at least) introduction to the field, with special focus on recognizing what he calls the six basic universally expressed emotions: happiness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust/contempt, and sadness.

Ekman provides clear, well-detailed instructions for recognizing each of these emotions, and the book includes plenty of photos to illustrate the different facial contortions of each emotion. The only complaint I would have is that I had to do a lot of page flipping back and forth to read Ekman's remarks and subsequently refer to the relevant picture. Perhaps a future edition could be better formatted to make it easier for the reader to view the expression alongside Ekman's comments.

In addition to writing about specific emotions, Ekman also covers some fascinating related topics such as recognizing facial deceit and discovering the patterns of one's own facial expressions, i.e., what you're telling the world with your own face.

Ekman is an academic and his writing shows it; he's precise, methodical, thorough, and careful in the extent of his claims. Readers who are new to the subject of reading facial expressions but are seriously committed to learning about it will find this an invaluable book.

(Ekman's later work, "Emotions Revealed," is also a great read and contains much of the same information as "Unmasking the Face," although I found the former to be lighter on technical information and practice faces, and more focused on the larger reflections Ekman has made looking back on his work over the last few decades. In other words, both books are great, but "Unmasking the Face" is a bit more technical and thorough, and therefore a better book to pick up for learning how to recognize facial expressions.)

When Love Meets Fear: How to Become Defense-Less and Resource-Full

David Richo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

If you live in fear order this today! 5 out of 5 stars.
50 of 50 people found this review helpful.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I have tried a lot of self-help techniques but the ones contained in this book are unlike any I've encountered.

The biggest lesson I got out of this book is that so many of our problems nowadays occur because we had painful experiences earlier in life but instead of facing them and accepting the ramifications - we chose to lie to ourselves instead. Richo explains the most common lies: life is just, suffering is avoidable, things don't change, etc.

I understand from this book that it is much better to just experience those original painful feelings instead of spending your life overanalyzing every minute of every day trying to make the world something it is not.

The key to life. 5 out of 5 stars.
40 of 41 people found this review helpful.

This book simply explains the key to happiness. It is to let go of our fears, which is at the root of unhappiness, hate, aggression, apathy, and everything negative in the world. Once we are able to do that, we can open our hearts and embrace each other with love, respect, empathy, hope and forgiveness. It is a simple idea but something very difficult to do because our fears run very very deep within us all. Once we are able to do this to some extent, we try to help others do the same. It is simply the mission of all of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. When you think about it, nothing else really matters as much. This is what this book tries to help us understand. It is a wonderful message! In another excellent book called "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato, the author explains how this works in relation to human development and evolution. It shows us how we consciously begin living this life when we are naturally ready for it. These books are absolutely exquisite!

Editorial Review:

Examines the deepest roots of fear and how it limits our ability to act and fulfill our greatest potential.

A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives

Cordelia Fine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A delightfully unsparing look into what your brain is doing behind your back.

In recent years, we've heard a lot about the extraordinary workings of our hundred-billion-celled brain: its amazing capacities to regulate all sensation, perception, thinking, and feeling; the power to shape all experience and define our identity. Indeed, the brain's power is being confirmed every day in new studies and research. But there is a brain we don't generally hear about, a brain we might not want to hear about…the "prima donna within."

Exposing the mind's deceptions and exploring how the mind defends and glorifies the ego, Dr. Cordelia Fine illustrates the brain's tendency to self-delusion. Whether it be hindsight bias, wishful thinking, unrealistic optimism, or moral excuse-making, each of us has a slew of inborn mind-bugs and ordinary prejudices that prevent us from seeing the truth about the world and ourselves. With fascinating studies to support her arguments, Dr. Fine takes us on an insightful, rip-roaringly funny tour through the brain you never knew you had.

The Book of Qualities

J. Ruth Gendler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

If I were stranded on an island... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I absolutely love this book, and everyone I show it to falls in love with it too. Gendler had the idea to take qualities such as anger, complacency, joy, and contentment and write about them as if they were people. In so doing, she has captured their essence in a poetic and powerful way. Once in awhile you encounter a writer who reveals things that were right in front of you but went unnoticed for years, and in so doing enriches your vision and your world. Gendler is one of those writers. Every time I read it I experience the same sense of wonder and discovery. If I were stranded on a desert island, I'd want this book with me. I don't usually seek autographs but I am honored to have an autographed copy. Gendler is also a visual artist and has illustrated her own work.

Editorial Review:

From Beauty to Compassion, from Pleasure to Terror, from Resignation to Joy -- here is an insightful exploration of the rich diversity of human qualities. J. Ruth Gendler's evocative book has as its cast of familiar characters our own emotions, brought to life with a poet's wisdom and an artist's perceptive eye. In The Book of Qualities' magical community, Excitement wears orange socks, Faith lives in the same apartment building as Doubt, and Worry makes lists of everything that could go wrong while she is waiting for the train. In portraying the complexities of the psyche, Gendler uses the Qualities to bridge the distinctions between literature and psychology, and has created an original work that challenges us to look at our emotions in new and inspiring ways.

BK: Behavioral Kinesiology--How to Activate Your Thymus and Increase Your Life Energy

John Diamond

List Price: $8.95 By: HarperCollins Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $0.07

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A great help for your health.... 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is a very well illustrated book and very helpful in finding health issues as well as environmental issues that may be affecting one's health. The chiropractor I go to uses some of these techniques and he has been more helpful to me than most of the MD's. I would recommend this to newbies as well as to experienced users.

Good intro to the principals of muscle testing 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

After having read some of the works by David Hawkins MD & seeing J. Diamonds name several times mentioned, I wanted to see what Diamonds work was about. The information in the book was interesting & also brings up questions about muscle testing (at least for me) in terms of how the results can be different, depending on era or age group. In particular, if you read about music categories i.e.: rock and roll as tested in Diamond's book as opposed to what Hawkins work states there are inconsistencies. I don't know if those are based upon generational consciousness levels or if opinion plays a role in the results. Overall I would recommend it for people who want background knowledge on this subject matter. If you want more detail then Hawkins, D. is an interesting read. Again, if you read some of the results in Hawkin's book you would really question the validity of this process.

The main reason I purchased this book was for a science project that my daughter did on muscle testing. It was a pretty good resource for that.

Editorial Review:

Presents a simple muscle test that can determine what factors in your environment may affect your body energy and suggests energy-promoting activities to counterbalance energy-depleting ones.

Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain

Antonio Damasio

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Completing the trilogy that began with Descartes' Error and continued with The Feeling of What Happens, noted neuroscientist Antonio Damasio now focuses the full force of his research and wisdom on emotions. He shows how joy and sorrow are cornerstones of our survival. As he investigates the cerebral mechanisms behind emotions and feelings, Damasio argues that the internal regulatory processes not only preserve life within ourselves, but they create, motivate, and even shape our greatest cultural accomplishments.
If Descartes declared a split between mind and body, Spinoza not only unified the two but intuitively understood the role of emotions in human survival and culture. So it is Spinoza who accompanies Damasio as he journeys back to the seventeenth century in search of a philosopher who, in Damasio's view, prefigured modern neuroscience.
In Looking for Spinoza Damasio brings us closer to understanding the delicate interaction between affect, consciousness, and memory--the processes that both keep us alive and make life worth living.