Staff Picks

For those that are fans of Macolm Gladwell or listeners to his podcast, "Revisionist History," this sequel to The Tipping Point delivers big time. Gladwell is a master of revisiting historical moments and encourages his readers to approach critical moments from new perspectives. His work is a reminder that headlines often do not tell the full story; it is crucial that we allow time to pass to be able to really look at and absorb the full picture.

 

Publisher’s description
Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami… Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.

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I have always found that when I name my fears, when I tell someone how I feel, the fear, the feeling gets more manageable. Atlas of the Heart helps us identify 85 emotions and "shows us that naming an experience doesn't give the experience more power, it gives us the power of understanding, meaning, and choice."

Publisher description:

Brené Brown takes us on a journey through 85 of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and lays out an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances - a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection. Over the past two decades, Brown's extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as Brown's singular skills as a researcher/storyteller, to lay out an invaluable, research-based framework that shows us that naming an experience doesn't give the experience more power, it gives us the power of understanding, meaning, and choice. Brown shares, "I want this to be an atlas for all of us, because I believe that, with an adventurous heart and the right maps, we can travel anywhere and never fear losing ourselves. Even when we have no idea where we are.

 

"I wanted this to be a place where our anger could live, a place for us to take up space after generations of being told to shrink, to rage after a lifetime of being told to behave. I wanted these pages to sizzle and smoke with women's awesome rage, no longer tucked away or extinguished, but right here on the surface- so get ready or get out of the way," Dancyger writes in the introduction of Burn it Down, and I feel like now is the time for the world to see the flames. Read these 22 essays and allow your own anger to come to the surface.

 

Publisher description:

A rich, nuanced exploration of women's anger from a diverse group of writers. Women are furious, and we're not keeping it to ourselves any longer. We're expected to be composed and compliant, but in a world that would strip us of our rights, disparage our contributions, and deny us a seat at the table of authority, we're no longer willing to quietly seethe behind tight smiles. We're ready to burn it all down. In this ferocious collection of essays, twenty-two writers explore how anger has shaped their lives: author of the New York Times bestseller The Empathy Exams Leslie Jamison confesses that she used to insist she wasn't angry -- until she learned that she was; Melissa Febos, author of the Lambda Literary Award--winning memoir Abandon Me, writes about how she discovered that anger can be an instrument of power; editor-in-chief of Bitch Media Evette Dionne dismantles the "angry Black woman" stereotype; and more. Broad-ranging and cathartic, Burn It Down is essential reading for any woman who has scorched with rage -- and is ready to claim her right to express it.
 

 

Am I really in control of my thoughts, or are they shaped by the internet, media, and AI? Is there a remedy for an oversaturated mind? This book made me reflect on our world while feeling like I was chatting with a friend. I highly recommend it for anyone struggling with information overload.

Publisher’s description:

'Magical thinking' can be broadly defined as the belief that one's internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain's coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven. Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the 'Halo effect' cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the 'Sunk cost fallacy' can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we've realized they're not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell's prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.

Find The age of magical overthinking in our catalog

Everyone should read this book as it is so insightful and timely. This explores many of the issues that technology has brought to life, specifically how it has affected younger generations, how we can overcome these challenges, and how we can interact with generations raised in a technology boom.

 

Publisher description:

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the "play-based childhood" began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the "phone-based childhood" in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this "great rewiring of childhood" has interfered with children's social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies. Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the "collective action problems" that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood. Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes-communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children-and ourselves-from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.

 

With decades of professional experience and research to source from, Van der Kolk digs intensely into the sources and impacts of trauma. He reveals a landscape of the human mind and body that will leave you with a deeper understanding and greater empathy for people living with the effects of trauma.

 

Publisher's description:

An expert on traumatic stress outlines an approach to healing, explaining how traumatic stress affects brain processes and how to use innovative treatments to reactivate the mind's abilities to trust, engage others, and experience pleasure.

 

Find The Body Keeps the Score in our online catalog

This is a very practical book about how to find small moments of joy or 'microjoys' in the midst of life's sorrows. Cyndie Spiegel experienced a couple of extremely challenging losses and setbacks and was able to find hopeful moments in the midst of it all; and she shares how we can too.

 

Publisher's description: 

Bighearted and hopeful. Unflinchingly honest and healing. A profound compendium of intimate, inspiring essays and thoughtful prompts that will keep you afloat in difficult times and sustain you in the everyday. Microjoys are a practice of discerning hope and joy in each and every moment of our lives. They are accessible to all of us, at all times, if we can hone the ability to look for them. They are the hidden wisdom, subtle treasures, and ordinary delights that surround us: A polka-dot glass on a thrift store shelf. A cat that you didn't know you needed to adopt. A dear friend's kind message at just the right time. The neighborhood spice shop. A beloved family tradition. The simple quietude of being in love. A chai tea recipe. Cyndie Spiegel first began taking note of microjoys during the most difficult year of her life-when she experienced back-to-back unprecedented and devastating losses-and she found that these small moments of hope helped her move through each day with a semblance of comfort and a bit more joy. Through beautifully written narrative essays and prompts, Cyndie shares the microjoys that have kept her going through tough times and shows us how we can learn to see the microjoys in our own lives. Microjoys don't change the truth of loss or make grief any more convenient, but they allow us to momentarily touch joy, keeping us buoyed and moving forward, one step at a time.

 

This book is both fun to read and important in what it tells us at the same time. We are told the story of a day in the life of Winnie the Pooh as he experiences nature and friendship to their fullest on an aimless amble through the Hundred Acre Wood, living only in the moment.

 

Publisher's description: 

In our frantic world, who better to guide readers through this transformative practice than a long-beloved bear who has perfected the art of simply being? "Just two things to do to truly be Pooh--just be present and kind," he says. And, not coincidentally, he lives in the woods. There is a growing acknowledgment of the benefits of deeply experiencing nature. The calming quality of sounds like running water and rustling leaves, the soothing properties of smells like lavender and chamomile, and the emotional comfort of beautiful natural vistas are well known. A Walk in the Wood is both inspiring and instructive. Simple stories with clearly stated goals and easy-to-follow exercises provide all the tools you'll need to take the first step, or continue on your journey, toward a quieter and calmer way of living. Discover along with Pooh that mindfully exploring and experiencing the simple joys of nature is an ideal path for working on your own habits, attitudes, and emotions, while cultivating more meaningful relationships with others.
 

Crossing racial and personal divides, Kate Johnson discusses the Mitta Sutta discourse of Buddhism as a potential path toward social and personal justice, based on compassion for others and ourselves. She discusses that compassion as being a healing force in human relationships and for our world.

 

Publisher's description: 

A guide to developing and maintaining lasting friendships that transcend difference. At the core of every real friendship is a bond bound by trust and understanding. At the core of discrimination is othering informed by distrust and misunderstanding. Kate Johnson believes that we can reconcile these two truths and create a path toward true equality by building friendships across divides. Radical Friendship draws on Johnson's experience as a biracial woman and her work in anti-bias education to guide us through forming relationships that bridge differences in race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, physical ability, and more. Grounded in the Buddhist teachings of awareness, acceptance, and mindfulness, this book provides us with seven actionable strategies to make friends with ourselves and others. Johnson leads us on our journey to becoming a true friend by providing advice and guidance through every stage of a relationship, including meeting someone new, growing a friendship, or repairing existing tensions. Creating inclusive communities goes beyond a simple list of do's and don'ts, and Radical Friendship shows us the importance of working toward equality one relationship at a time.

Find Radical Friendship in our online catalog.