Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live - Marlene Zuk

 We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football—or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Although it may seem as though we have barely had time to shed our hunter-gatherer legacy, biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that the story is not so simple. Popular theories about how our ancestors lived—and why we should emulate them—are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence.

Ask by Ryan Levesque

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

 

World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea–the power of our mindset.

Words Without Music: A Memoir by Philip Glass

The long-awaited memoir by “the most prolific and popular of all contemporary composers” (New York Times).

Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West by David Fisher & Bill O'Reilly

The must-have companion to Bill O'Reilly's historic series Legends and Lies: The Real West, a fascinating, eye-opening look at the truth behind the western legends we all think we know

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA - James D. Watson

 

The classic personal account of Watson and Crick’s groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA, now with an introduction by Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind.

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett

 

 "Barnett beautifully evokes universal themes of connecting cycles of water, air, wind, and earth to humankind across time and culture, leaving readers contemplating their deeper ties with the natural world."
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

 

Evolutionary Writings: Including the Autobiographies (Oxford World's Classics)

The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills

 

 

 

 "A classic...the first full-scale study of the structure and distribution of power in the Unites States by a sociologist using the full panoply of modern-day sociological theory and methods."--Contemporary Sociology

 

Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEEL TRULY ALIVE?

Aged 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again.

A moving, funny and joyous exploration of how to live better, love better and feel more alive, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a memoir. It is a book about making the most of your time on earth.

Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World by Donald Sull, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt

How simplicity trumps complexity in nature, business, and life.

We struggle to manage complexity every day. We follow intricate diets to lose weight, juggle multiple remotes to operate our home entertainment systems, face proliferating data at the office, and hack through thickets of regulation at tax time. But complexity isn't destiny. Sull and Eisenhardt argue there's a better way: By developing a few simple yet effective rules, you can tackle even the most complex problems.

Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People - Elizabeth A. Fenn

 “Historians thought this book could not be written—a history of a world far from document producing Europeans. Elizabeth A. Fenn has done it, and she has made it a page-turner. Her breathtaking accomplishment will make us see American history in an entirely new way.” —Kathleen DuVal, University of North Carolina; author of The Native Ground

Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen by Philip Ball

 "As a harvest of fascinating facts delivered with sharp wit and insight, it is hard to fault" (Robert Douglas-Fairhurst Daily Telegraph)

"A fascinating compendium… Another author might struggle to manage such an esoteric collection [of stories of invisibility] but Mr Ball’s writing is incisive enough to keep the different elements hanging and working together" (The Economist)

If you could be invisible, what would you do? The chances are that it would have something to do with power, wealth or sex. Perhaps all three.

But there's no need to feel guilty. Impulses like these have always been at the heart of our fascination with invisibility: it points to realms beyond our senses, serves as a receptacle for fears and dreams, and hints at worlds where other rules apply. Invisibility is a mighty power and a terrible curse, a sexual promise, a spiritual condition.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town - Jon Krakauer

“Jon Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer.” —American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature citation

Missoula, Montana, is a typical college town, with a highly regarded state university, bucolic surroundings, a lively social scene, and an excellent football team — the Grizzlies — with a rabid fan base.

Life Unfolding: How the Human Body Creates Itself - Jamie A. Davies

  "From egg to adult body, Life Unfolding by Jamie Davies is a demanding but wonder-filled account of the simple interactions that create complex structures." -- Claire Ainsworth,New Scientest

"Davies offers a detailed ride through the mind-boggling number of simultaneous self-organizing activities of growth." - Publishers Weekly

Climbing Mount Improbable - Richard Dawkins

A brilliant book celebrating improbability as the engine that drives life, by the acclaimed author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker.

The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design. How could such an intricate object have come about by chance? Tackling this subject—in writing that the New York Times called "a masterpiece"—Richard Dawkins builds a carefully reasoned and lovingly illustrated argument for evolutionary adaptation as the mechanism for life on earth.

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann

 Deeply researched, groundbreaking history. (Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker)

The first comprehensive history of the Nazi concentration camps

Natural Born Heroes - Christopher Mcdougall

The best-selling author of Born to Run now travels to the Mediterranean, where he discovers that the secrets of ancient Greek heroes are still alive and well on the island of Crete, and ready to be unleashed in the muscles and minds of casual athletes and aspiring heroes everywhere.

After running an ultramarathon through the Copper Canyons of Mexico, Christopher McDougall finds his next great adventure on the razor-sharp mountains of Crete, where a band of Resistance fighters in World War II plotted the daring abduction of a German general from the heart of the Nazi occupation. How did a penniless artist, a young shepherd, and a playboy poet believe they could carry out such a remarkable feat of strength and endurance, smuggling the general past thousands of Nazi pursuers, with little more than their own wits and courage to guide them?

Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire by Caroline Finkel

 

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and most influential empires in world history. Its reach extended to three continents and it survived for more than six centuries, but its history is too often colored by the memory of its bloody final throes on the battlefields of World War I. In this magisterial work-the first definitive account written for the general reader-renowned scholar and journalist Caroline Finkel lucidly recounts the epic story of the Ottoman Empire from its origins in the thirteenth century through its destruction in the twentieth.

Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos - Peter M. Hoffmann

The cells in our bodies consist of molecules, made up of the same carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms found in air and rocks. But molecules, such as water and sugar, are not alive. So how do our cells—assemblies of otherwise “dead” molecules—come to life, and together constitute a living being?

The Road to Character by David Brooks

“A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.”—The Guardian (U.K.)

“I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it.”—David Brooks
 

The Rise of Hitler: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives - Trevor Sailsbury

 

American Warlord: A True Story Hardcover – Deckle Edge

Chucky Taylor is the American son of the infamous African dictator Charles Taylor. Raised by his mother in the Florida suburbs, at the age of 17 he followed his father to Liberia, where he ended up leading a murderous militia. Chucky is now in a federal penitentiary, the only American ever convicted of torture.
This shocking and essential work of reportage tells his tragic and terrifying story for the first time.

In Defense of a Liberal Education - Fareed Zakaria

  “In Defense of a Liberal Education brilliantly and provocatively argues that the university is much more than a vocational school. The flight from the liberal arts is leaving us impoverished. Zakaria's book couldn't have come at a more valuable moment.” (Malcolm Gladwell)

J.K. Rowling: A Bibliography 1997-2013 - Philip W. Errington

  Rowling's books are covered in exquisite detail ... Many of the notes read like good stories in themselves and there are some fascinating snippets of information to be had. (The Bookbag)

Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World by Amir Alexander

Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower - Henry M. Paulson

 DEALING WITH CHINA takes the reader behind closed doors to witness the creation and evolution and future of China's state-controlled capitalism.

Hank Paulson has dealt with China unlike any other foreigner. As head of Goldman Sachs, Paulson had a pivotal role in opening up China to private enterprise. Then, as Treasury secretary, he created the Strategic Economic Dialogue with what is now the world's second-largest economy. He negotiated with China on needed economic reforms, while safeguarding the teetering U.S. financial system. Over his career, Paulson has worked with scores of top Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping, China's most powerful man in decades.

In DEALING WITH CHINA, Paulson draws on his unprecedented access to modern China's political and business elite, including its three most recent heads of state, to answer several key questions:

Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania by Frank Bruni

Over the last few decades, Americans have turned college admissions into a terrifying and occasionally devastating process, preceded by test prep, tutors, all sorts of stratagems, all kinds of rankings, and a conviction among too many young people that their futures will be determined and their worth established by which schools say yes and which say no.

That belief is wrong. It's cruel. And in WHERE YOU GO IS NOT WHO YOU'LL BE, Frank Bruni explains why, giving students and their parents a new perspective on this brutal, deeply flawed competition and a path out of the anxiety that it provokes.

Self-Help Messiah: Dale Carnegie and Success in Modern America - Steven Watts

An illuminating biography of the man who taught Americans “how to win friends and influence people”
 
Before Stephen Covey, Oprah Winfrey, and Malcolm Gladwell there was Dale Carnegie. His book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, became a best seller worldwide, and Life magazine named him one of “the most important Americans of the twentieth century.” This is the first full-scale biography of this influential figure.
 

The De-Textbook: The Stuff You Didn't Know About the Stuff You Thought You Knew - Cracked.com

 
You are an idiot.

Don't get defensive! It's not your fault. For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck!

AsapSCIENCE: Answers to the World's Weirdest Questions, Most Persistent Rumors, and Unexplained Phenomena

 From the creators of the wildly popular and seriously scientific YouTube channel, AsapSCIENCE, comes entertaining, irreverent, and totally accessible answers to the questions you never got to ask in science class.

“From hiccup cures to the 5 second rule, this book put a bemused smile on my face and answered the oddball questions of life. An irreverent stroll through the arcane and taboo, guided by the science behind it.” (Chris Hadfield, author of "An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth" and "You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes")

"Science is big fun. The ASAP guys get that, and they'll show you— they'll even draw you a diagram." (Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” CEO, The Planetary Society and author of "Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation")

"From concise examinations of tiny topics like the science of love and aging, to answers to questions you actually care about--should you use the snooze button?--this book has something for everyone who is curious about the world around them. (That is to say: everyone.) This is science at its most fun, accessible, and well-illustrated." (David Epstein, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance")

"Entertaining...valuable...particularly for the young and curious." (Publishers Weekly)

Download [PDF]:

https://userscloud.com/n0b0g0etpt72

Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead - Laszlo Bock

 

From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations--a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring the best and brightest succeed.

The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House - Kate Andersen Brower

A remarkable history with elements of both In the President’s Secret Service and The Butler, The Residence offers an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas.

America’s First Families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the President and First Family.

Download [EPUB]: https://userscloud.com/hgrzt2crr9a7

Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Continuing her journey from a deeply religious Islamic upbringing to a post at Harvard, the brilliant, charismatic and controversial New York Times and Globe and Mail #1 bestselling author of Infidel and Nomad makes a powerful plea for a Muslim Reformation as the only way to end the horrors of terrorism, sectarian warfare and the repression of women and minorities.

Interweaving her own experiences, historical analogies and powerful examples from contemporary Muslim societies and cultures, Heretic is not a call to arms, but a passionate plea for peaceful change and a new era of global toleration. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo murders, with jihadists killing thousands from Nigeria to Syria to Pakistan, this book offers an answer to what is fast becoming the world’s number one problem. Amazon

Download [EPUB]: https://userscloud.com/kts9i9sayeqr

Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle - Andreas Wagner

 

 

“Natural selection can preserve innovations, but it cannot create them. Nature’s many innovations—some uncannily perfect—call for natural principles that accelerate life’s ability to innovate.”

The Next Species: The Future of Evolution in the Aftermath of Man by Michael Tennesen

While examining the history of our planet and actively exploring our present environment, science journalist Michael Tennesen describes what life on earth could look like after the next mass extinction.

A growing number of scientists agree we are headed toward a mass extinction, perhaps in as little as 300 years. Already there have been five mass extinctions in the last 600 million years, including the Cretaceous Extinction, during which an asteroid knocked out the dinosaurs. Though these events were initially destructive, they were also prime movers of evolutionary change in nature. And we can see some of the warning signs of another extinction event coming, as our oceans lose both fish and oxygen. In The Next Species, Michael Tennesen questions what life might be like after it happens.

Our Lost Constitution by Mike Lee

The still-unfolding story of America’s Constitution is a history of heroes and villains—the flawed visionaries who inspired and crafted liberty’s safeguards, and the shortsighted opportunists who defied them. Those stories are known by few today.
In Our Lost Constitution, Senator Mike Lee tells the dramatic, little-known stories behind six of the Constitution’s most indispensible provisions. He shows their rise. He shows their fall. And he makes vividly clear how nearly every abuse of federal power today is rooted in neglect of this Lost Constitution. For example:

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity - Julia Cameron

 

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids - Meghan Daum

One of the main topics of cultural conversation during the last decade was the supposed "fertility crisis," and whether modern women could figure out a way to way to have it all-a successful, demanding career and the required 2.3 children-before their biological clock stopped ticking. Now, however, conversation has turned to whether it's necessary to have it all (see Anne-Marie Slaughter) or, perhaps more controversial, whether children are really a requirement for a fulfilling life. The idea that some women and men prefer not to have children is often met with sharp criticism and incredulity by the public and mainstream media.

How to Write a Thesis - Umberto Eco

 

The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew

The Singapore Story is the first volume of the memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, the man who planted the island state of Singapore firmly on the map of the world. It was first published in 1999.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Chip Heath and Dan Heath's Switch.

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others– struggle to make their ideas “stick.”

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh

People love secrets, and ever since the first word was written, humans have written coded messages to each other. In The Code Book, Simon Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, offers a peek into the world of cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer encryption. Singh's compelling history is woven through with stories of how codes and ciphers have played a vital role in warfare, politics, and royal intrigue. The major theme of The Code Book is what Singh calls "the ongoing evolutionary battle between codemakers and codebreakers," never more clear than in the chapters devoted to World War II. Cryptography came of age during that conflict, as secret communications became critical to either side's success.

 Confronted with the prospect of defeat, the Allied cryptanalysts had worked night and day to penetrate German ciphers. It would appear that fear was the main driving force, and that adversity is one of the foundations of successful codebreaking.

Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome by Nessa Carey

For decades after identifying the structure of DNA, scientists focused only on genes, the regions of the genome that contain codes for the production of proteins. Other regions that make up 98% of the human genome were dismissed as "junk," sequences that serve no purpose. Yet recently researchers have discovered variations and modulations in this junk DNA that underwrite a number of intractable diseases. This knowledge has led to innovative research and treatment approaches that may finally control these conditions.

William Faulkner: Essays, Speeches & Public Letters

An essential collection of William Faulkner’s mature nonfiction work, updated, with an abundance of new material.

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom - Don Miguel Ruiz

Rooted in traditional Toltec wisdom beliefs, four agreements in life are essential steps on the path to personal freedom. As beliefs are transformed through maintaining these agreements, shamanic teacher and healer don Miguel Ruiz asserts lives will "become filled with grace, peace, and unconditional love."

Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh

In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with the peace that is available in each moment. World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the very situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. For him a ringing telephone can be a signal to call us back to our true selves. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spiritual friends on the path to "mindfulness"—the process of keeping our consciousness alive to our present experience and reality. The most profound satisfactions, the deepest feelings of joy and completeness lie as close at hand as our next aware breath and the smile we can form right now.

Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Zen master and one of the world's most beloved teachers returns with a concise, practical guide to understanding and developing our most powerful inner resource—silence—to help us find happiness, purpose, and peace.

Many people embark on a seemingly futile search for happiness, running as if there is somewhere else to get to, when the world they live in is full of wonder. To be alive is a miracle. Beauty calls to us every day, yet we rarely are in the position to listen. To hear the call of beauty and respond to it, we need silence.

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way - Amanda Ripley

 How do other countries create “smarter” kids? What is it like to be a child in the world’s new education superpowers? The Smartest Kids in the World “gets well beneath the glossy surfaces of these foreign cultures and manages to make our own culture look newly strange....The question is whether the startling perspective provided by this masterly book can also generate the will to make changes” (The New York Times Book Review).

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character - Paul Tough

“Drop the flashcards—grit, character, and curiosity matter even more than cognitive skills. A persuasive wake-up call.”—People

Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter more have to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, optimism, and self-control.