Psychology
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The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
$4.99 Add to cartThe New York Times bestseller!
A New York Times Notable Book
“The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself.” —The Washington Post
It’s true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn’t even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee and winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, and convinced him to be her mentor. But she knew her man: a famously thoughtful and broad-minded player, he was intrigued by her pitch that she wasn’t interested in making money so much as learning about life. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance had led her to a giant of game theory, who pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can’t. And she certainly brought something to the table, including a Ph.D. in psychology and an acclaimed and growing body of work on human behavior and how to hack it. So Seidel was in, and soon she was down the rabbit hole with him, into the wild, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly masculine world of high-stakes Texas Hold’em, their initial end point the following year’s World Series of Poker.
But then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel’s guidance, Konnikova did have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read, not just her opponents but far more importantly herself; how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of good decisions; and how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, and what it wasn’t. But she also began to win. And win. In a little over a year, she began making earnest money from tournaments, ultimately totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She won a major title, got a sponsor, and got used to being on television, and to headlines like “How one writer’s book deal turned her into a professional poker player.” She even learned to like Las Vegas.
But in the end, Maria Konnikova is a writer and student of human behavior, and ultimately the point was to render her incredible journey into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned, is that skill is enough. Bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them and not on the outcome will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until the luck once again breaks our way.
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The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are
$19.99 Add to cartA pioneering neuroscientist argues that we are more than our brains
To many, the brain is the seat of personal identity and autonomy. But the way we talk about the brain is often rooted more in mystical conceptions of the soul than in scientific fact. This blinds us to the physical realities of mental function. We ignore bodily influences on our psychology, from chemicals in the blood to bacteria in the gut, and overlook the ways that the environment affects our behavior, via factors varying from subconscious sights and sounds to the weather. As a result, we alternately overestimate our capacity for free will or equate brains to inorganic machines like computers. But a brain is neither a soul nor an electrical network: it is a bodily organ, and it cannot be separated from its surroundings. Our selves aren’t just inside our heads — they’re spread throughout our bodies and beyond. Only once we come to terms with this can we grasp the true nature of our humanity.
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Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication
$10.99 Add to cartStrengthen your relationship with your children with this revised edition of the book by renowned psychologist Dr. Haim Ginott that has helped millions of parents around the world. In this revised edition, Dr. Alice Ginott, clinical psychologist and wife of the late Haim Ginott, and family relationship specialist Dr. H. Wallace Goddard usher this bestselling classic into the new century while retaining the book’s positive message and Haim Ginott’s warm, accessible voice. Based on the theory that parenting is a skill that can be learned, this indispensable handbook will show you how to: • Discipline without threats, bribes, sarcasm, and punishment • Criticize without demeaning, praise without judging, and express anger without hurting • Acknowledge rather than argue with children’s feelings, perceptions, and opinions • Respond so that children will learn to trust and develop self-confidenceThis revolutionary book offered a straightforward prescription for empathetic yet disciplined child rearing and introduced new communication techniques that would change the way parents spoke with, and listened to, their children. Dr. Ginott’s innovative approach to parenting has influenced an entire generation of experts in the field, and now his methods can work for you, too.
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The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
$16.99 Add to cartThe author of The New York Times bestseller The Stuff of Thought offers a controversial history of violence. Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species’s existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, pogroms, gruesome punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are widely condemned. How has this happened? This groundbreaking book continues Pinker’s exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly nonviolent world. The key, he explains, is to understand our intrinsic motives- the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer us away-and how changing circumstances have allowed our better angels to prevail. Exploding fatalist myths about humankind’s inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be hotly debated in living rooms and the Pentagon alike, and will challenge and change the way we think about our society.
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Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love
$4.99 Add to cartMore than 65 delightful games and activities to jump-start your baby’s amazing brainpower
Can simply singing a song or blowing a dandelion under a toddler’s nose help her mind to blossom? Can your baby count, remember events, and solve problems even before he can talk? The exciting answer to both questions is yes!
Breakthrough research is revealing the extraordinary inborn abilities of infants.
It is also showing how experiences during the first years of life profoundly
influence intelligence, creativity, language development-and even later
reading and math skills.Now two psychologists and child development experts-authors of the bestselling Baby Signs-have created a delightful guide for parents based on the most up-to-date knowledge of how babies discover the world. You’ll learn how to:
_ Create a homemade mobile to stimulate your three-month-old’s delight in solving problems
_ Play a patty-cake game to help your two-year-old
make logical connections
_ Initiate bedtime conversations that build your child’s memory and sense of personal history
_ Develop “Baby Signs” to help your toddler communicate before he or she can talk
_ Stimulate your child’s natural number skills with puppets and counting games
_ Use nursery rhymes and special read-aloud techniques to foster reading readiness
_ Nurture budding creativity with humor and fantasy play
_ And much more!Baby Minds is not another program for creating “super babies.” Instead it
builds on activities that babies instinctively love to develop their unique abilities and make your daily interactions full of the joy of discovery-for both of you.NOTE: This edition does not include photographs.
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Becoming a Life Coach: A Complete Workbook for Therapists
$16.49 Add to cartMore than just fixing what ails them, many therapists today seek to help clients achieve personal and professional goals and navigate life changes successfully-a variety of practice called life coaching. This book offers a complete strategy professionals can use to incorporate life coaching into their practices.
Becoming a Life Coach compares the role of the therapist to that of the life coach; the role of the patient to that of the client; the service of the mentally ill to that of the mentally healthy; treatment to collaboration; and finally the differences in professional standing between these two endeavors. Using real coaching exercises, the book teaches therapists everything they need to know to start and maintain a successful coaching practice. It includes information about necessary skills, tips on integrating coaching and therapy, business models, marketing advice, and more.
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Beyond Prejudice: Extending the Social Psychology of Conflict, Inequality and Social Change
$31.49 Add to cartThe concept of prejudice has profoundly influenced how we have investigated, explained and tried to change intergroup relations of discrimination and inequality. But what has this concept contributed to our knowledge of relations between groups and what has it obscured or misrepresented? How has it expanded or narrowed the horizons of psychological inquiry? How effective or ineffective has it been in guiding our attempts to transform social relations and institutions? In this book, a team of internationally renowned psychologists re-evaluate the concept of prejudice, in an attempt to move beyond conventional approaches to the subject and to help the reader gain a clearer understanding of relations within and between groups. This fresh look at prejudice will appeal to scholars and students of social psychology, sociology, political science and peace studies.
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A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology
$14.99 Add to cartOne of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir.
Mike Rinder’s parents began taking him to their local Scientology center when he was five years old. After high school, he signed a billion-year contract and was admitted into Scientology’s elite inner circle, the Sea Organization. Brought to founder L. Ron Hubbard’s yacht and promised training in Hubbard’s most advanced techniques, Mike was instead put to work swabbing the decks.
Still, Rinder bought into the doctrine that his personal comfort was secondary to the higher purpose of Hubbard’s world-saving mission, swiftly rising through the ranks. In the 1980s, Rinder became Scientology’s international spokesperson and the head of its powerful Office of Special Affairs. He helped negotiate Scientology’s pivotal tax exemption from the IRS and engaged with the organization’s prominent celebrity members, including Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, and John Travolta.
Yet Rinder couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that something was amiss—Hubbard’s promises remained unfulfilled at his death, and his successor, David Miscavige, was a ruthless and vindictive man who did not hesitate to confine many top Scientologists, Mike among them, to a makeshift prison known as the Hole.
In 2007, at the age of fifty-two, Rinder finally escaped Scientology. Overnight, he became one of the organization’s biggest public enemies. He was followed, hacked, spied on, and tracked. But he refused to be intimidated and today helps people break free of Scientology.
In A Billion Years, the dark, dystopian truth about Scientology is revealed as never before. Rinder offers insights into the religion that only someone of his former high rank could provide and tells a harrowing but fulfilling story of personal resilience.
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Bedlam: An Intimate Journey Into America’s Mental Health Crisis
$12.99 Add to cartA psychiatrist and award-winning documentarian sheds light on the mental-health-care crisis in the United States.
When Dr. Kenneth Rosenberg trained as a psychiatrist in the late 1980s, the state mental hospitals, which had reached peak occupancy in the 1950s, were being closed at an alarming rate, with many patients having nowhere to go. There has never been a more important time for this conversation, as one in five adults—40 million Americans—experiences mental illness each year. Today, the largest mental institution in the United States is the Los Angeles County Jail, and the last refuge for many of the 20,000 mentally ill people living on the streets of Los Angeles is L.A. County Hospital. There, Dr. Rosenberg begins his chronicle of what it means to be mentally ill in America today, integrating his own moving story of how the system failed his sister, Merle, who had schizophrenia. As he says, “I have come to see that my family’s tragedy, my family’s shame, is America’s great secret.”
Dr. Rosenberg gives readers an inside look at the historical, political, and economic forces that have resulted in the greatest social crisis of the twenty-first century. The culmination of a seven-year inquiry, Bedlam is not only a rallying cry for change, but also a guidebook for how we move forward with care and compassion, with resources that have never before been compiled, including legal advice, practical solutions for parents and loved ones, help finding community support, and information on therapeutic options.
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Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
$13.99 Add to cartThe instant #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
“A must read for anyone hoping to live a creative life… I dare you not to be inspired to be brave, to be free, and to be curious.” —PopSugar
From the worldwide bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls: the path to the vibrant, fulfilling life you’ve dreamed of.
Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy. -
The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life
$12.99 Add to cartTop 25 Books of 2011 by the American Library Association, Choice Reviews
Named one of the 11 Best Psychology Books of 2011 by The Atlantic“A balanced and considered approach to this often inflammatory topic.” —Nature
Lively and brilliantly argued, The Belief Instinct explains the psychology behind belief. Drawing on surprising new studies as well as on literature, philosophy, and even pop culture, The Belief Instinct will reward readers with an enlightened understanding of belief—as well as the tools to break free of it.
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The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level
$12.49 Add to cart“Gay Hendricks is a great role model for true success. He enjoys abundance and a deep connection with his own spiritual essence, and at the same time has lived for three decades in a thriving marriage. Now, he shows us how to do it for ourselves.”
— Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of Cracking the Millionaire CodeIn The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks, the New York Times bestselling author of Five Wishes, demonstrates how to eliminate the barriers to success by overcoming false fears and beliefs. Fans of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Secret will find useful, effective tips for breaking down the walls to a better life in The Big Leap.
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Badass Habits: Cultivate the Awareness, Boundaries, and Daily Upgrades You Need to Make Them Stick
$13.99 Add to cartNew York Times bestselling author Jen Sincero gets to the core of transformation: habits—breaking, making, understanding, and sticking with them like you’ve never stuck before.
Badass Habits is a eureka-sparking, easy-to-digest look at how our habits make us who we are, from the measly moments that happen in private to the resolutions we loudly broadcast (and, erm, often don’t keep) on social media. Habit busting and building goes way beyond becoming a dedicated flosser or never showing up late again—our habits reveal our unmet desires, the gaps in our boundaries, our level of self-awareness, and our unconscious beliefs and fears. Badass Habits features Jen’s trademark hilarious voice and offers a much-needed fresh take on the conventional wisdom and science that shape the optimism (or pessimism?) around the age-old topic of habits. The book includes enlightening interviews with people who’ve successfully strengthened their discipline backbones, new perspective on how to train our brains to become our best selves, and offers a simple, 21 day, step-by-step guide for ditching habits that don’t serve us and developing the habits we deem most important. Habits shouldn’t be impossible to reset—and with healthy boundaries, knowledge of—and permission to go after—our desires, and an easy to implement plan of action, we can make any new goal a joyful habit.
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A Beginner’s Guide to the Universe: Uncommon Ideas for Living an Unusually Happy Life
$9.99 Add to cartMike Dooley, the beloved creator of Notes from the Universe, distills a career’s worth of inspiration into elegant, brief lessons for making our way through the world—conceived as a guidebook for his young daughter to read when she grows up, yet relevant to everyone who’s living a life on earth.
Mike returns with his most impactful book yet: a volume of almost 500 insights drawn from his 20+ years as a New Thought leader, organized between endearing letters that recall poignant moments of fatherhood.
Through books, courses, and live events, Mike has engaged students with his trademark humor, wisdom, and sheer joy in living. He speaks of understanding our innate spirituality and personal responsibility as the means to unlocking our power over the illusions of time and space. A Beginner’s Guide to the Universe is filled with gem-like bits of wisdom imparting his most essential, heartfelt advice about living deliberately and creating consciously—comparable to such treasures as Life’s Little Instruction Book, The Prophet, and The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down.
Cleverly guiding the reader through a range of topics—including family and relationships, power and responsibility, adversity and rebounding, even the nature of heaven, angels, and God—Mike succeeds in making a happy life in this universe seem easily within our reach. The short passages of text placed artfully on each page, in a book that’s a pleasure to hold in the hand, make this an ideal gift for a parent, a parent-to-be, a child, a new grad, a dear friend, or anyone who needs a dose of Dooley, whether they know it or not.
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Bisexual Men Exist: A Handbook for Bisexual, Pansexual and M-Spec Men
$14.99 Add to cart“You’re just being greedy.”
“Are you sure you’re not gay?”
“Pick a side.”Being a bisexual man isn’t easy – something Vaneet Mehta knows all too well. After spending more than a decade figuring out his identity, Vaneet’s coming out was met with questioning, ridicule and erasure. This experience inspired Vaneet to create the viral #BisexualMenExist campaign, combatting the hate and scepticism m-spec (multi-gender attracted spectrum) men encounter, and helping others who felt similarly alone and trapped.
This powerful book is an extension of that fight. Navigating a range of topics, including coming out, dating, relationships and health, Vaneet shares his own lived experience as well as personal stories from others in the community to help validate and uplift other bisexual men. Discussing the treatment of m-spec men in LGBTQ+ places, breaking down stereotypes and highlighting the importance of representation and education, this empowering book is a rallying call for m-spec men everywhere.
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Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay
$14.99 Add to cartFrom the duo behind the bestselling book No Hard Feelings and the wildly popular @LizandMollie Instagram, an insightful and approachable illustrated guide to handling our most difficult emotions.
We all experience unwieldy feelings. But between our emotion-phobic society and the debilitating uncertainty of modern times, we usually don’t know how to talk about what we’re going through, much less handle it. Over the past year, Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy’s online community has laughed and cried about productivity guilt, pandemic anxiety, and Zoom fatigue. Now, Big Feelings addresses anyone intimidated by oversized feelings they can’t predict or control, offering the tools to understand what’s really going on, find comfort, and face the future with a sense of newfound agency.
Weaving surprising science with personal stories and original illustrations, each chapter examines one uncomfortable feeling—like envy, burnout, and anxiety—and lays out strategies for turning big emotions into manageable ones. You’ll learn:
• How to end the cycle of intrusive thoughts brought on by regret, and instead use this feeling as a compass for making decisions
• How to identify what’s behind your anger and communicate it productively, without putting people on the defensive
• Why we might be suffering from perfectionism even if we feel far from perfect, and how to detach your self-worth from what you do
Big Feelings helps us understand that difficult emotions are not abnormal, and that we can emerge from them with a deeper sense of meaning. We can’t stop emotions from bubbling up, but we can learn how to make peace with them. -
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