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What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist Gregory Berns and his team began with a radical step: they taught dogs to go into an MRI scanner - completely awake. They discovered what makes dogs individuals with varying capacities for self-control, different value systems, and a complex understanding of human speech. And dogs were just the beginning. In What It's Like to Be a Dog, Berns explores the fascinating inner lives of wild animals from dolphins and sea lions to the extinct Tasmanian tiger.
This book is duct tape for the mouth of every artist's inner critic. Silencing that stifling voice once and for all, this salve for creatives introduces 10 truths they must face in order to defeat self-doubt. Each encouraging chapter deconstructs a pivotal moment on the path to success - fear of the blank page, the dangers of jealousy, sharing work with others - and explains how to navigate roadblock.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her.
People start dropping dead around Charlie, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death.
Matrona lives in an isolated village, where her life is centered on pleasing her parents. She's diligent in her chores and has agreed to marry a man of their choosing. But a visit to Slava, the local tradesman, threatens to upend her entire life. Entering his empty house, Matrona discovers a strange collection of painted nesting dolls - one for every villager.
Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world.
What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist Gregory Berns and his team began with a radical step: they taught dogs to go into an MRI scanner - completely awake. They discovered what makes dogs individuals with varying capacities for self-control, different value systems, and a complex understanding of human speech. And dogs were just the beginning. In What It's Like to Be a Dog, Berns explores the fascinating inner lives of wild animals from dolphins and sea lions to the extinct Tasmanian tiger.
This book is duct tape for the mouth of every artist's inner critic. Silencing that stifling voice once and for all, this salve for creatives introduces 10 truths they must face in order to defeat self-doubt. Each encouraging chapter deconstructs a pivotal moment on the path to success - fear of the blank page, the dangers of jealousy, sharing work with others - and explains how to navigate roadblock.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her.
People start dropping dead around Charlie, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death.
Matrona lives in an isolated village, where her life is centered on pleasing her parents. She's diligent in her chores and has agreed to marry a man of their choosing. But a visit to Slava, the local tradesman, threatens to upend her entire life. Entering his empty house, Matrona discovers a strange collection of painted nesting dolls - one for every villager.
Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world.
Entrepreneur Jesse Itzler will try almost anything. He brazenly pretended to be an established hip-hop artist to secure a meeting with a studio head - and it led to a record deal. He convinced a bunch successful business executives to invest in an unprecedented business plan - and it turned into Marquis Jet. He sincerely offered to run a 100-mile race in Spanx to get the attention of the beautiful founder of the company - and ended up marrying her.
A brutal crime. The ultimate cover-up. How do you solve a murder with no useable evidence? Private detective Nils Shapiro is focused on forgetting his ex-wife and keeping warm during another Minneapolis winter when a former colleague, neighboring Edina Police Detective Anders Ellegaard, calls with the impossible.
Kelsey has lived most of her life in a shadow of suspicion, raised to see danger everywhere. Her mother hasn't set foot outside their front door in 17 years, since she escaped from her kidnappers with nothing but her attacker's baby growing inside her - Kelsey. Kelsey knows she's supposed to keep a low profile and stay off the grid for their protection, but that plan is shattered when her dramatic car accident and rescue by volunteer firefighter and classmate Ryan Baker sparks media coverage.
What is autism: a lifelong disability or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is both of these things and more - and the future of our society depends on our understanding it. Wired reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years.
It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night. Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.
Homicide Detective Max Rupert never fully accepted his wife's death, even when he believed that a reckless hit and run driver was the cause. But when he learns that in fact she was murdered, he devotes himself to hunting down her killers. Most of his life he had thought of himself as a decent man. But now he's so consumed with thoughts of retribution that he questions whether he will take that last step and enact the vengeance he longs for.
With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.
This is the only money guide you'll ever need. That's a bold claim, given there are already thousands of finance books on the shelves. So what makes this one different? You'll get a step-by-step formula: open this account, then do this; call this person, and say this; invest money here and not there. All with a glass of wine in your hand.
In the midst of what should be an effulgent time of life, with its days bright with music, family, and rowing on the Seine, Jules is confronted headlong and all at once by a series of challenges to his principles, livelihood, and home, forcing him to grapple with his complex past and find a way forward. He risks fraud to save his terminally ill infant grandson, matches wits with a renegade insurance investigator, is drawn into an act of savage violence, and falls deeply, excitingly in love with a young cellist who is a third his age.
OCD-afflicted Griffin has just lost his first love, Theo, in a drowning accident. In an attempt to hold on to every piece of the past, he forges a friendship with Theo's last boyfriend, Jackson. When Jackson begins to exhibit signs of guilt, Griffin suspects he's hiding something and will stop at nothing to get to the truth about Theo's death. But as the grieving pair grows closer, listeners will question Griffin's own version of the truth - in terms of both what he's willing to hide and what true love means.
When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules - a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the Lone Star State, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders - a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman - have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment.
Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans - predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth - and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world.
Hailed by Lena Dunham as an "essential (and hilarious) voice for women", Lindy West is ferociously witty and outspoken, tackling topics as varied as pop culture, social justice, and body image. Her empowering work has garnered a coast-to-coast audience that eagerly awaits Shrill, her highly anticipated literary debut.
West has rocked the public in work published everywhere from The Guardian to GQ and heard on This American Life. She is a catalyst for a national conversation in a world where not all stories are created equal and not everybody is treated with equal respect. Shrill is comprised of a series of essays that bravely share her life, including her transition from quiet to feminist-out-loud, coming of age in a popular culture that is hostile to women (especially fat, funny women), and how keeping quiet is not an option for any of us.
I didn't know this author before this book (not well enough to be excited, at the least), and I am VERY GLAD to have heard it. There are chapters I would like to use in my syllabi in the fall and winter. I would recommend this book as an eye opening approach to life in modern womanhood. She is careful to transact in intersectionality (doesn't pretend white women are the only people on earth). I deeply appreciate that. And she doesn't let any false burdens of "correctness" detract from her story, her life, her experiences. I greatly appreciate that. Worth the listen, for sure.
35 of 37 people found this review helpful
So, It's my pick for bookclub and I was looking around the Internet for a "beach read". That was the same night Hillary clinched the nomination and when I saw the title "Shrill" I thought how appropriate. I emailed my bookclub ladies and started the book the next day. After about 30 minutes of listening I emailed them back and said, "oops, probably not the book for us" and picked another book. The first 30 minutes were so incredibly personal to me that the thought of having to discuss the book with my bookclub ladies was more then I thought I could bare. The funny thing is I have been in bookclub, every month, with these 5 women for 15 years! They know everything about me. They love me, warts and all, but this book was taking me to a place that I wasn't sure I could tolerate exposing to them.
I can't remember the last time a book has made me challenge my own thoughts, stereotypes, bias, and judgements as this did. I feel simultaneously embarrassed and righteous.
What a gift Lindy has given to all of us women. I only wish I had a fraction of her strength, wisdom, humor, beauty and grit.
Job well done. Must read.
34 of 38 people found this review helpful
Unapologetically. With humor and sass, she tells us she, and we, are OK.
She narrates which makes it feel like you're out having coffee rather than listening to an audiobook.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful
For me, this book felt like listening to someone go on and on about their "issues". Maybe I'm too old. Maybe her issues aren't issues I can relate to. Maybe I'm decades past getting caught up in these problems. I don't know, but I couldn't finish the book. I didn't feel like it was adding to my knowledge or understanding, and I didn't find it entertaining either.
31 of 35 people found this review helpful
She put into words so eloquently the dehumanization of women who are overweight or obese. It was fun, funny, strong, and not once did feel sorry for herself or try to change herself in hopes people might be nice to her. I tend to despise people more when my appearance is more acceptance, all of a sudden they can turn-on a decency switch & treat you how'd they'd expect to be treated. Funny thing most of the 180 degree personality change is by people who could loose a couple pounds themselves, the nerve! Anyway, she's a brilliant writer and thinker. I admire her for this book.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
I am a long time audiobook fan (I like to read with my ears) but I have never binged listened to any book before this. May Lindy West continue to lead platoons of strong, smart, out spoken women whose armor and weapons are their wit and hilarity.
23 of 26 people found this review helpful
Lindy West's is a voice we need and I'm so happy her book is in the world. If you're a fan, some of these essays will be familiar, but they're enriched a great deal by being presented all together. She's funny and trenchant on the topics she's best known for, but a lot of my favorite moments were the more personal ones. Her account of her father's death and the work she and her now-husband did to build their love and make a family both brought tears to my eyes. Also great to have this on audiobook because her delivery is so great. Put her in a Pixar movie! Wonderful vocal performance. Lindy, we love you.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful
This book was phenomenal. Smart, very well written, incisive, funny. West brings her capacious wit, empathy and intelligence to tackle tricky topics like fat-phobia, feminism and rape culture. She's also a great reader (which makes sense given her performance background). This was an accessible, fun, and fast read.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful
I learned how to look at things a little differently and I am a part of the changes in this world not a bystander any more. I am a smart fat chick who has decided not to fear...just live well and be kind.
12 of 14 people found this review helpful
Loved this book. I laughed, I cried, I thought really hard. Lindy West is a hero.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful