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Finding Perfect
by Elly SwartzTo twelve-year-old Molly Nathans, perfect is:—The number four—The tip of a newly sharpened No. 2 pencil—A crisp white pad of paper —Her neatly aligned glass animal figurinesWhat’s not perfect is Molly’s mother leaving the family to take a faraway job with the promise to return in one year. Molly knows that promises are sometimes broken, so she hatches a plan to bring her mother home: Win the Lakeville Middle School Poetry Slam Contest. The winner is honored at a fancy banquet with white tablecloths. Molly is sure her mother would never miss that. Right…? But as time passes, writing and reciting slam poetry become harder. Actually, everything becomes harder as new habits appear, and counting, cleaning, and organizing are not enough to keep Molly's world from spinning out of control. In this fresh-voiced debut novel, one girl learns there is no such thing as perfect.
That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back
by Thomas L. Friedman Michael MandelbaumAmerica is in trouble. We face four major challenges on which our future depends, and we are failing to meet them -- and if we delay any longer, soon it will be too late for us to pass along the American dream to future generations. In That Used to Be Us, Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, offer both a wake-up call and a call to collective action. They analyze the four challenges we face -- globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation's chronic deficits, and our pattern of excessive energy consumption -- and spell out what we need to do now to sustain the American dream and preserve American power in the world. They explain how the end of the Cold War blinded the nation to the need to address these issues seriously, and how China's educational successes, industrial might, and technological prowess remind us of the ways in which "that used to be us. " They explain how the paralysis of our political system and the erosion of key American values have made it impossible for us to carry out the policies the country urgently needs. And yet Friedman and Mandelbaum believe that the recovery of American greatness is within reach. They show how America's history, when properly understood, offers a five-part formula for prosperity that will enable us to cope successfully with the challenges we face. They offer vivid profiles of individuals who have not lost sight of the American habits of bold thought and dramatic action. They propose a clear way out of the trap into which the country has fallen, a way that includes the rediscovery of some of our most vital traditions and the creation of a new thirdparty movement to galvanize the country. That Used to Be Us is both a searching exploration of the American condition today and a rousing manifesto for American renewal.
Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy
by Eric G. WilsonIn Against Happiness, the scholar Eric G. Wilson argues that melancholia is necessary to any thriving culture, that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation and that it is the force underlying original insights and suggests it would be better to relish the blues that make humans people.
Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness
by Willard SpiegelmanSpiegelman takes a look at the possibilities for achieving ordinary happiness without recourse to either religion or drugs. In this erudite and frequently hilarious book of essays, he discusses seven activities that lead naturally and easily to a sense of well-being.
On Grief and Reason: Essays
by Joseph Brodsky21 essays: Spoils of War, The Condition We Call Exile, A Place as Good as Any, Uncommon Visage, Acceptance Speech, After a Journey, Altra Ego, How to Read a Book, In Praise of Boredom, Profile of Clio, Speech at the Stadium, Collector's Item, An Immodest Proposal, Letter to a President, On Grief and Reason, Homage to Marcus Aurelius, A Cat's Meow, Wooing the Inanimate, Ninety Years Later, Letter to Horace, and In Memory of Stephen Spender.
Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us
by Jesse Bering"As a sex writer, Jesse Bering is fearless—and peerless." —Dan Savage <P><P>"You are a sexual deviant. A pervert, through and through." We may not want to admit it, but as the award-winning columnist and psychologist Jesse Bering reveals in Perv, there is a spectrum of perversion along which we all sit. Whether it's voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we all possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as our fingerprints—and as secret as the rest of the skeletons we've hidden in our closets. <P><P>Combining cutting-edge studies and critiques of landmark research and conclusions drawn by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and the DSM-5, Bering pulls the curtain back on paraphilias, arguing that sexual deviance is commonplace. He explores the countless fetishists of the world, including people who wear a respectable suit during the day and handcuff a willing sexual partner at night. But he also takes us into the lives of "erotic outliers," such as a woman who falls madly in love with the Eiffel Tower; a pair of deeply affectionate identical twins; those with a particular penchant for statues; and others who are enamored of crevices not found on the human body. <P><P>Moving from science to politics, psychology, history, and his own reflections on growing up gay in America, Bering confronts hypocrisy, prejudice, and harm as they relate to sexuality on a global scale. Humanizing so-called deviants while at the same time asking serious questions about the differences between thought and action, he presents us with a challenge: to understand that our best hope of solving some of the most troubling problems of our age hinges entirely on the amoral study of sex. <P><P>As kinky as it is compassionate, illuminating, and engrossing, Perv is an irresistible and deeply personal book. "I can't promise you an orgasm at the end of our adventure," Bering writes, "but I can promise you a better understanding of why you get the ones you do."
The Paranoia Switch: How Terror Rewires Our Brains and Reshapes Our Behavior--and How We Can Reclaim Our Courage
by Martha StoutOn September 11, 2001, the "Fear Switch" in our brains got flicked. How do we turn it off and reclaim our lives? Five years after September 11, we're still scared. And why not? Terrorists could strike at any moment. Our country is at war. The polar caps are melting. Hurricanes loom. We struggle to control our fear so that we can go about our daily lives. Our national consciousness has been torqued by trauma, in the process transforming our behavior, our expectations, our legal system. In The Myth of Sanity, Martha Stout, who until recently taught at the Harvard Medical School, analyzed how we cope with personal trauma. In her national bestseller The Sociopath Next Door, she showed how to avoid suffering psychological damage at the hands of others. Now, in The Paranoia Switch,she offers a groundbreaking clinical, neuropsychological, and practical examination of what terror and fear politics have done to our minds, and to the very biology of our brains. In this timely and essential book, Stout assures us that we can interrupt the cycle of trauma and look forward to a future free of fear only by understanding our own paranoia--and what flips the paranoia switch.
The Gardener And The Carpenter: What The New Science Of Child Development Tells Us About The Relationship Between Parents And Children
by Alison GopnikOne of the world's leading child psychologists shatters the myth of "good parenting" Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call "parenting" is a surprisingly new invention. In the past thirty years, the concept of parenting and the multibillion dollar industry surrounding it have transformed child care into obsessive, controlling, and goal-oriented labor intended to create a particular kind of child and therefore a particular kind of adult. In The Gardener and the Carpenter, the pioneering developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar twenty-first-century picture of parents and children is profoundly wrong--it's not just based on bad science, it's bad for kids and parents, too. Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn, Gopnik shows that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way. Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and to be very different both from their parents and from each other. The variability and flexibility of childhood lets them innovate, create, and survive in an unpredictable world. “Parenting" won't make children learn—but caring parents let children learn by creating a secure, loving environment.
Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy
by Tricia Rose<p>The Sexual Lives of Black Women, In Their Own Words <p>In a culture driven by sexual and racial imagery, very few honest conversations about race, gender, and sexuality actually take place. In their absence, commonly held perceptions of black women as teenage mothers, welfare recipients, mammies, or exotic sexual playthings remain unchanged. For fear that telling their stories will fulfill society’s implicit expectations about their sexuality, most black women have retreated into silence. Tricia Rose seeks to break this silence and jump-start a dialogue by presenting, for the first time, the sexual testimonies of black women. Spanning a broad range of ages, levels of education, and socioeconomic backgrounds, twenty women, in their own words, talk with startling honesty about sex, love, family, relationships, and intimacy. Their stories dispel prevailing myths and provide revealing insights into how black women navigate the complex terrain of sexuality. Nuanced, rich, and powerful, Longing to Tell will be required reading for anyone interested in issues of race and gender.</p>
Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times
by Eyal PressOn the Swiss border with Austria in 1938, a police captain refuses to enforce a law barring Jewish refugees from entering his country. In the Balkans half a century later, a Serb from the war-blasted city of Vukovar defies his superiors in order to save the lives of Croats. At the height of the Second Intifada, a member of Israel's most elite military unit informs his commander he doesn't want to serve in the occupied territories. Fifty years after Hannah Arendt examined the dynamics of conformity in her seminal account of the Eichmann trial, Beautiful Souls explores the flipside of the banality of evil, mapping out what impels ordinary people to defy the sway of authority and convention. Through the dramatic stories of unlikely resisters who feel the flicker of conscience when thrust into morally compromising situations, Eyal Press shows that the boldest acts of dissent are often carried out not by radicals seeking to overthrow the system but by true believers who cling with unusual fierceness to their convictions. Drawing on groundbreaking research by moral psychologists and neuroscientists, Beautiful Souls culminates with the story of a financial industry whistleblower who loses her job after refusing to sell a toxic product she rightly suspects is being misleadingly advertised. At a time of economic calamity and political unrest, this deeply reported work of narrative journalism examines the choices and dilemmas we all face when our principles collide with the loyalties we harbor and the duties we are expected to fulfill.
This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression
by Daphne Merkin<p>“Despair is always described as dull,” writes Daphne Merkin, “when the truth is that despair has a light all its own, a lunar glow, the color of mottled silver.” This Close to Happy—Merkin’s rare, vividly personal account of what it feels like to suffer from clinical depression—captures this strange light. <p>Daphne Merkin has been hospitalized three times: first, in grade school, for childhood depression; years later, after her daughter was born, for severe postpartum depression; and later still, after her mother died, for obsessive suicidal thinking. Recounting this series of hospitalizations, as well as her visits to myriad therapists and psychopharmacologists, Merkin fearlessly offers what the child psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz calls “the inside view of navigating a chronic psychiatric illness to a realistic outcome.” The arc of Merkin’s affliction is lifelong, beginning in a childhood largely bereft of love and stretching into the present, where Merkin lives a high-functioning life and her depression is manageable, if not “cured.” “The opposite of depression,” she writes with characteristic insight, “is not a state of unimaginable happiness . . . but a state of relative all-right-ness.” <p>In this dark yet vital memoir, Merkin describes not only the harrowing sorrow that she has known all her life, but also her early, redemptive love of reading and gradual emergence as a writer. Written with an acute understanding of the ways in which her condition has evolved as well as affected those around her, This Close to Happy is an utterly candid coming-to-terms with an illness that many share but few talk about, one that remains shrouded in stigma. In the words of the distinguished psychologist Carol Gilligan, “It brings a stunningly perceptive voice into the forefront of the conversation about depression, one that is both reassuring and revelatory.”</p>
The Consciousness Instinct: Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind
by Michael S. Gazzaniga“The father of cognitive neuroscience” illuminates the past, present, and future of the mind-brain problemHow do neurons turn into minds? How does physical “stuff”—atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells—create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness.The idea of the brain as a machine, first proposed centuries ago, has led to assumptions about the relationship between mind and brain that dog scientists and philosophers to this day. Gazzaniga asserts that this model has it backward—brains make machines, but they cannot be reduced to one. New research suggests the brain is actually a confederation of independent modules working together. Understanding how consciousness could emanate from such an organization will help define the future of brain science and artificial intelligence, and close the gap between brain and mind.Captivating and accessible, with insights drawn from a lifetime at the forefront of the field, The Consciousness Instinct sets the course for the neuroscience of tomorrow.
America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War
by David MilneWalt Rostow's meteoric rise to power -- from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to the West Wing of the White House -- seemed to capture the promise of the American dream. Hailing from humble origins, Rostow became an intellectual powerhouse: a professor of economic history at MIT and an influential foreign policy adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Too influential, according to some. While Rostow inspired respect and affection, he also made some powerful enemies. Averell Harriman, one of America's most celebrated diplomats, described Rostow as "America's Rasputin" for the unsavory influence he exerted on presidential decision-making. Rostow was the first to advise Kennedy to send U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam and the first to recommend the bombing of North Vietnam. He framed a policy of military escalation, championed recklessly optimistic reporting, and then advised LBJ against pursuing a compromise peace with North Vietnam. David Milne examines one man's impact on the United States' worst-ever military defeat. It is a portrait of good intentions and fatal misjudgments. A true ideologue, Rostow believed that it is beholden upon the United States to democratize other nations and do "good," no matter what the cost. America's Rasputin explores the consequences of this idealistic but unyielding dogma.
Nav's Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love
by Jessica LewisNav knows how to flirt, but she also knows love is a messy losing proposition. As proof, her best friend, Hallie, is constantly getting her heart broken. And when Hallie goes to her boring academic camp this summer, Nav won&’t be there to protect her for the first time in their lives. So when shy new girl Gia asks Nav for help getting Hallie&’s attention, Nav finds a way to make it work for her. In exchange for lessons in romance, Gia, whose mom runs the camp, will help get Nav a spot there. And if her coaching works, maybe Hallie can date someone who will treat her right for a change. Except…Gia&’s not just bad at flirting, she&’s terrible. She&’s too anxious to even speak to Hallie, never mind date her. Training Gia quickly becomes a disaster. Worse, Gia&’s every awkward joke and catastrophic fake date makes Nav like Gia a little bit more…and not in a friend way. Which puts a really, really big wrench in Nav&’s plans. As Nav&’s feelings change, she&’ll have to decide what&’s more important: sticking to her plan for the perfect summer or taking a chance on learning more about love than she ever expected.
Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity
by Gloria Mark*A "Next Big Idea Club" Must-Read Book for January**AS HEARD ON ARMCHAIR EXPERT WITH DAX SHEPARD*Rediscover your ability to pay attention with this groundbreaking new approach from "the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking" (Cal Newport).We spend an average of just 47 seconds on any screen before shifting our attention. It takes 25 minutes to bring our attention back to a task after an interruption. And we interrupt ourselves more than we're interrupted by others.In Attention Span, psychologist Gloria Mark reveals these and more surprising results from her decades of research into how technology affects our attention. She shows how much of what we think we know is wrong, including insights such as: Why multitasking hurts rather than helps productivity How social media and modern entertainment amplify our short attention spans What drains our mental resources and how to refuel them The four types of attention that we experience every day and how to recognize themWhile the concept of &“flow&” has previously been considered the ideal state of focus, Dr. Mark offers a new framework to help explain how our brains function in the digital world: kinetic attention. This book reveals how we can take control, not only to find more success in our careers, but also to find health and wellness in our everyday lives.
Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise
by Jack Parlett*A Washington Post &“Book to Read This Summer&”**AN ADVOCATE BEST LGBTQ+ BOOK OF 2022*A groundbreaking account of New York's Fire Island, chronicling its influence on art, literature, culture and queer liberation over the past centuryFire Island, a thin strip of beach off the Long Island coast, has long been a vital space in the queer history of America. Both utopian and exclusionary, healing and destructive, the island is a locus of contradictions, all of which coalesce against a stunning ocean backdrop.Now, poet and scholar Jack Parlett tells the story of this iconic destination—its history, its meaning and its cultural significance—told through the lens of the artists and creators who sought refuge on its shores. Together, figures as divergent as Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Carson McCullers, Frank O'Hara, Patricia Highsmith and Jeremy O. Harris tell the story of a queer space in constant evolution.Transporting, impeccably researched and gorgeously written, Fire Island is the definitive book on an iconic American destination and an essential contribution to queer history.
Magic Season: A Son's Story
by Wade Rouse"Honest, authentic, heartbreaking and healing. I devoured it in one day."—Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times bestselling author Bestselling author Wade Rouse finds solace with his dying father through their shared love of baseball in this poignant, illuminating memoir of family and forgiveness.Before his success in public relations, his loving marriage and his storied writing career, Wade Rouse was simply Ted Rouse's son. A queer kid in a conservative Ozarks community, Wade struggled at a young age to garner his father's approval and find his voice. For his part, Ted was a hard-lined engineer, offering little emotional support or encouragement. But Wade and Ted had one thing in common: an undying love of the St. Louis Cardinals.For decades, baseball offered Wade and his father a shared vocabulary—a way to stay in touch, to connect and to express their emotions. But when his father's health takes a turn for the worst, Wade returns to southwest Missouri to share one final season with his father. As the Cards race towards a dramatic pennant race, Wade and his father begin to open up in way they never thought possible. Together, inning by inning during their own magic season, they'll move towards forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.Heartfelt, hilarious and lovingly rendered, Magic Season is an unforgettable story of love, family and forgiveness against the backdrop of America's favorite pastime.
A Show for Two
by Tashie Bhuiyan"Wholly heartwarming and enchanting." —Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and Our Violent EndsNew from the author of Counting Down with You comes a sparkling YA romance about an aspiring screenwriter who falls for the indie film star who goes undercover at her school. All Mina Rahman wants is to finally win the Golden Ivy student film competition, get into her dream school, and leave New York City behind for good. When indie film star Emmitt Ramos enrolls in her high school under a secret identity to research his next role, he agrees to star in her short film for the competition…if she acts as his NYC tour guide. As Mina ventures across the five boroughs with Emmitt, the city she grew up in starts to look more like home than it ever has before. Suddenly, Mina&’s dreams—which once seemed impenetrable—begin to crumble, and she&’s forced to ask herself: Is winning worth losing everything?Praise for Counting Down with You&“I. Love. This. Book.&” —Mark Oshiro, award-winning author of Anger Is a Gift&“Steals your heart from start to finish.&” —Emma Lord, New York Times bestselling author of You Have a Match&“Hand to fans of Netflix hit Never Have I Ever.&” —Booklist
Retrain Your Anxious Brain: Practical and Effective Tools to Conquer Anxiety
by Daylle Deanna Schwartz John TsilimparisFeeling overwhelmed? Worried about your day-to-day life? Find simple solutions for stress and learn to control anxiety before it begins.Trouble sleeping, panic attacks, knots in your stomach, excessive worry, doubts, phobias—anxiety comes in many shapes and sizes, and affects millions of people. But you don’t have to suffer anymore. In Retrain Your Anxious Brain, renowned therapist and anxiety expert John Tsilimparis, MFT, shares the groundbreaking program he’s created to help hundreds of people (himself included) free themselves from crippling anxiety and live healthier, happier lives.Rather than just treating or masking symptoms, Tsilimparis’s innovative approach helps you identify and short-circuit anxiety triggers, so that you can stop anxiety before it starts. This customizable plan teaches you how to:¥ Short-circuit negative thinking¥ Change your response to anxiety triggers¥ Alter fixed thoughts that can cause anxiety¥ Adjust your existing personal belief systems¥ Challenge the idea of consensus reality¥ Balance your dualistic mind¥ Consciously create your own reality¥ Customize a program that works for you!Previously published.
Counting Down with You
by Tashie BhuiyanIn this sparkling and romantic YA debut, a reserved Bangladeshi teenager has twenty-eight days to make the biggest decision of her life after agreeing to fake date her school’s resident bad boy. <p><p> How do you make one month last a lifetime? <p> Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything. <p> <i>Karina is my girlfriend.</i> <p> Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question. But Ace Clyde does everything right—he brings her coffee in the mornings, impresses her friends without trying, and even promises to buy her a dozen books (a week) if she goes along with his fake-dating facade. Though Karina agrees, she can’t help but start counting down the days until her parents come back. <p> T-minus twenty-eight days until everything returns to normal—but what if Karina no longer wants it to?
Trauma Informed Supervision: Core Components and Unique Dynamics in Varied Practice Contexts
by Carolyn Knight Di BordersSurvivors of trauma are disproportionately represented in agencies providing a broad range of behavioral, social, and mental health services. Practitioners in these settings must understand and be able to respond to survivors of trauma in ways that are empowering, normalize and validate their experiences and reactions, and minimize the risk of retraumatization. Practitioners also will be indirectly traumatized as a result of their work with trauma survivors. <p><p> Practitioners’ ability to help clients with histories of trauma depends upon clinical supervision that is trauma-informed. The trauma-informed supervisor has the dual responsibility of enhancing supervisees’ skills as trauma-informed practitioners and helping them manage the impact their work has on them. <p> Nevertheless, many clinical supervisors only have limited knowledge and training in trauma and may not recognize either the needs of those whom they supervise or the clients their supervisees serve. This book compiles important recommendations from trauma-informed practitioners, supervisors, and researchers who share their professional reflections and personal stories based on their hands-on experiences across mental health and medical contexts.
The Unexpected Gift of Trauma: The Path to Posttraumatic Growth
by Dr. Edith ShiroA groundbreaking approach to healing from trauma and experiencing posttraumatic growth from a leading psychologist, featuring a powerful, five-stage framework to help readers not just recover, but thrive and transform. Trauma has always been part of the human experience, and traumatic events—both physical and emotional—can shake our very foundation and leave us forever changed. While we know more about the lasting neurological and physical effects of trauma than we did a decade ago, few people realize that experiencing trauma doesn’t have to sentence you to a lifetime of suffering and grief.In this first book of its kind, renowned clinical psychologist Dr. Edith Shiro shares a powerful, five-stage framework for posttraumatic growth, a transformational process that helps you not just heal, but achieve growth and expand consciousness in the face of trauma. Inspired by her grandparents, who were refugees and Holocaust survivors, Dr. Shiro has dedicated her life to individuals, families, and communities facing trauma and its aftereffects. Developed over more than twenty-five years of research and practice, Dr. Shiro’s stages—Awareness, Awakening, Becoming, Being, and Transforming— provide a universal language and outline how trauma can be a catalyst for transformative growth.Grounded in science and psychology, and filled with practical tools and takeaways, The Unexpected Gift of Trauma offers a bold a new definition of trauma, touching on individual as well as collective and intergenerational trauma. Dr. Shiro brings the power of posttraumatic growth to the forefront and reveals a groundbreaking new way to think about and heal from traumatic experiences.
Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD
by Jason KanderFrom political wunderkind and former army intelligence officer Jason Kander comes a haunting, powerful memoir about impossible choices—and how sometimes walking away from the chance of a lifetime can be the greatest decision of all. <p><p>In 2017, President Obama, in his final Oval Office interview, was asked who gave him hope for the future of the country, and Jason Kander was the first name he mentioned. Suddenly, Jason was a national figure. As observers assumed he was preparing a run for the presidency, Jason announced a bid for mayor of Kansas City instead and was headed for a landslide victory. But after eleven years battling PTSD from his service in Afghanistan, Jason was seized by depression and suicidal thoughts. He dropped out of the mayor’s race and out of public life. And finally, he sought help. <p><p>In this brutally honest second memoir, following his New York Times best-selling debut Outside the Wire, Jason Kander has written the book he himself needed in the most painful moments of his PTSD. In candid, in-the-moment detail, we see him struggle with undiagnosed illness during a presidential bid; witness his family buoy him through challenging treatment; and, giving hope to so many of us, see him heal. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep
by Jennifer HeiszA noted neuroscientist reveals groundbreaking research on how fitness and exercise can combat mental health conditions such as anxiety, dementia, ADHD, and depression, and offers a plan for improving focus, creativity, and sleep.Jennifer Heisz shares paradigm-shifting research on how exercise affects the brain, finding that intervals of intense workouts, or even leisurely walks, help stop depression and dementia, lessen anxiety and ADHD, and encourage better sleep, creativity, and resilience. Physical inactivity is the greatest risk factor contributing to dementia and anxiety—it’s as much a factor as genetics. In addition, exercise’s anti-inflammatory properties make it the most effective treatment strategy for those who are depressed and don’t respond to anti-depressants. The book focuses on overcoming inertia; using exercise to help fight addictions; how we can improve our memory with fitness even as we age; and, importantly, how exercise can help us sleep better, improve focus, and be more creative. Included are easy to use plans for unique aerobic and resistance workouts designed to strengthen the brain.
The Perfect Other: A Memoir of My Sister
by Kyleigh LeddyAll Kait Leddy had ever wanted was a little sister. When Kyleigh was born, they were inseparable; Kait would protect her, include her, cuddle and comfort her, and, to Kyleigh, her big sister was her whole world.As they grew, however, and as Kait entered adolescence, her personality began to change. She was lashing out emotionally and physically, and losing touch with reality in certain ways. The family struggled to keep this side of Kait private—at school and in her social life, she was still the gorgeous, effervescent life of the party with a modeling career ahead of her and big dreams. But slowly, things began to shatter, and Kyleigh could only watch in horror as her perfect sibling&’s world collapsed around her. Kait was institutionalized with what would eventually be diagnosed as schizophrenia, leaving Kyleigh and their mother to handle the burden, shame, and guilt alone.Then, in January 2014, Kait disappeared. Though they never found her body, security footage showed her making her way onto a big bridge over a river, where it is presumed that she jumped. Kyleigh is left wondering: What could she have done differently? How could this shining light be gone? And how will she find peace without her sister to guide her way there?