Tag Archives: Books

New Neuroscience Books: “Physical Intelligence” By Scott Grafton (Jan 2020)

New Fiction Books In 2020: “The New Life Of Hugo Gardner” By Louis Begley

With an ominous oncologist’s report hanging over his head, Hugo decides to get away for a bit, to a conference in Paris. There, a new romance blooms and HugThe New Life of Hugo Gardner by Louis Begley March 2020 releaseo finds himself wondering if growing old in Paris might be the perfect antidote to the drama he left behind in New York. Unflinching, witty, and urbane as ever, Louis Begley delivers a spot-on satire of the world of New York’s aging elite, and uncovers the unexpected delights a late-in-life change can offer.

After four decades of what he believes to be a happy, healthy partnership, Hugo Gardner’s world is overturned when he learns that his wife, Valerie, is not only requesting a divorce but has left him for a younger, more vital man. Hugo, an octogenarian political writer and retired journalist for Time, must rethink the way he’s lived, and reassess how he’d like to spend his remaining years.

Reconsidering past relationships in his mind, with years of distance, Hugo begins to see things in a new light: Valerie, whose youth and ambition eventually came between them; his children, whose support might be more financially than emotionally motivated; and his friends, who, like him are rapidly aging before his very eyes.

Publisher

Classic Car Books: “Healey – The Men & The Machines”

Healey The Men & The Machines John Nikas January 2020“Nikas combines extensive research into a previously unavailable and highly detailed archive of Donald Healey’s personal records with the author’s masterful ability to weave together an amazing level of detail while making it an eminently readable story. The result is a book that both seasoned automotive historians and anyone with an interest in the story of a life well lived will enjoy. Until you’ve read this book, you don’t know the true story of Donald Healey and his cars”
(Reid Trummel, Editor in Chief, Healey Marque)

Written in collaboration with Gerry Coker, the designer responsible for the iconic Austin-Healey 100 and Sprite, this volume represents the most complete account ever of the sports cars built at Warwick, Longbridge, Abingdon and West Bromwich. With unprecedented access to Donald and Geoffrey Healey’s private papers, diaries, scrapbooks and photo albums, corporate and financial records from BMC, Donald Healey Motor Company and Healey Automobile Consultants, the files of Jensen Motors and Nash-Kelvinator, dozens of personal interviews and exhaustive research into previously unavailable primary source material, this book provides a thorough account of the true story behind these automobiles and the individuals who created them.

To read more and/or purchase

New Brain Health Books: “Successful Aging” By Daniel J. Levitin (Jan 7, 2020)

Successful Aging Daniel J. Levitin A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives January 2020 Cover‘Successful Aging’ uses research from developmental neuroscience and the psychology of individual differences to show that sixty-plus years is a unique developmental stage that, like infancy or adolescence, has its own demands and distinct advantages. Levitin looks at the science behind what we all can learn from those who age joyously, as well as how to adapt our culture to take full advantage of older people’s wisdom and experience. Throughout his exploration of what aging really means, Levitin reveals resilience strategies and practical, cognitive enhancing tricks everyone should do as they age.

Author of the iconic bestsellers This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind, Daniel Levitin turns his keen insights to what happens in our brains as we age, why we should think about health span, not life span, and, based on a rigorous analysis of neuroscientific evidence, what you can do to make the most of your seventies, eighties, and nineties today no matter how old you are now.

To read more and/or purchase

Top New Travel Books: “Places I Remember: Tales, Truths, Delights from 100 Countries” By Lea Lane

Joyful and informative Places I Remember: Tales, Truths, Delights from 100 Countries presents writings and illustrated photos in a memoir covering over 50 years of travel throughout the world. You’ll find a range of unforgettable people and places through vivid personal experiences—good, bad and often, laugh-out-loud funny.  

Lea Lane is an award-winning author of eight books, and has contributed to a dozen guidebooks. She has written for magazines, websites, and newspapers, including The New York Times and The Miami Herald. She is currently a regular contributor to forbes.com.

Greg Correll, former illustrator for The New Yorker and CLIO winner, has created stunning fine-art illustrations, based on her photos.

To purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Places-Remember-Truths-Delights-Countries/dp/0578593319

Travel & Photography: “Villas And Gardens Of The Renaissance” (Rizzoli)

Rizzoli New York Publishers logoAn historical text introduces each property, giving an overview of its origins. The villas have been specially photographed for this book by Dario Fusaro, with views of both the palace interiors and their grounds, as well as the gardens, glimpses of the halls, details of the furnishings, and a focus on the frescoes, where still preserved. Explanatory text offers insights on the most Villas and Gardens of the Renaissance Photographed by Dario Fusaro, Text by Lucia Impelluso Rizzoli 2019interesting frescoes, such as those of Veronese at Villa Barbaro. For the first time, Fusaro also employs a drone with the purpose of capturing the architectural structure and elements of each Italian Renaissance garden, from above and as a whole.

A stunning collection of photographs celebrating the excellence of the Italian Renaissance period through palaces and gardens built between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The book illustrates nine locations of extraordinary artistic and architectural interest, conceived by prominent Italian families and dynasties as urban villas or country houses centered around the pursuit of entertainment and leisure. These lavishly decorated and frescoed palaces are adorned with handcrafted furniture and works of art and surrounded by gardens that retain their original layout to this day–a very rare feature.

To read more and/or purchase: https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9788891821324

New Photography Books: “Stones From The Inside – Rare And Unseen Images”

Stones From The Inside Rare and Unseen Images Bill Wyman December 2019Along with the images of the band at work and play, Wyman includes remarkable images of those along for the ride, from John Lennon, Eric Clapton, David Bowie and Iggy Pop to John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. To accompany his photographs, Wyman offers up wonderful insights, anecdotes and behind-the-photo stories, giving all us a front-row seat and backstage pass to what it was like to be there, as music history was made as a member of The Rolling Stones.

Known, unknown, rare and unseen images from former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, capturing life on-stage, backstage and on the road

In addition to this trade edition, there will also be a limited edition of 300 copies, which comes in a slipcase, with an open-edition A4 print

Stones From The Inside Rare and Unseen Images Bill Wyman December 2019

As soon as Bill Wyman was given a camera as a young boy, he quickly developed a passion for photography. After joining what would become the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band, Wyman continued his hobby. When he didn’t have his bass, he had his camera. The result is an arresting, insightful and often poignant collection of photographs, showing his exclusive inside view of the band. From travelling to relaxing, backstage and on, Stones From the Inside is a unique view captured by a man who was there, every step of the way.

To read more or purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Stones-Inside-Rare-Unseen-Images/dp/1788840682/ref=sr_1_7?Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=26&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=12&field-datemod=12&field-dateop=During&field-dateyear=2019&qid=1576956262&rnid=1000&s=books&sr=1-7&unfiltered=1

Top Nonfiction Books: “97,196 Words: Essays” By Emmanuel Carrère (NYT)

From a New York Times online review:

97,196 Words Essays by Emmanuel Carrère 2019At the trial, experts analyzed and propounded, and he himself spoke lucidly and in apparent control. Yet Carrère, on hand to cover the proceedings for Le Nouvel Observateur, remarks that those in the courtroom “have had ample time to wonder, from the height of our clinical ignorance and flying in the face of four psychiatric experts, if he really belonged in a criminal court, and if what you felt on your nape wasn’t the cold wind of psychosis.” He ends his two-part article this way: “Behind his glass enclosure, Romand listens expressionless. No one knows what he’s thinking, not even him.”

“At dawn on Monday, Jan. 11, 1993, the fire brigade came to put out a fire in a house in Prévessin-Moëns, a small village in France’s Ain department, near the Swiss border. They found the partially charred bodies of a woman and two children, and a badly burned man, who was taken to the hospital in a critical state.”

So begins the first account by Emmanuel Carrère (now reprinted in “97,196 Words,” his new collection of essays) of the horrifying case of Dr. Jean-Claude Romand that galvanized France: No one had heard of anything like it; no one could understand it. Yet the facts were incontestable, the verdict and sentence assured: guilty, and life imprisonment, the death penalty being a thing of the past in France. (In fact, he was released from prison just this past spring, after serving 26 years.)

To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/books/review/97196-words-emmanuel-carrere.html?te=1&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20191220?campaign_id=69&instance_id=14730&segment_id=19794&user_id=415092ec82728104b9ca7bbb44eeb7d3&regi_id=7441254120191220

Reading Lists: “The Best Neuroscience Books Of 2019” (TheScientist)

TheScientist Logo

Bury your nose in tales of neurosyphilis, gender identity, the medical mysteries of sleep disorders, and more. JAMES DOLBOW

The Nocturnal Brain by Guy Leschziner

The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience and the Secret World of Sleep 

Inspired by the legendary book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by the late Oliver Sacks, neurologist and sleep scientist Guy Leschziner tells the curious true stories of his patients, their fascinating sleep disorders, and the neuroscience behind each. Also like the works of Sacks, The Nocturnal Brain is written with considerable introspection and wonder about each patient’s case, taking you on a journey from the first patient encounter, to diagnosis, and through treatment. The unusual and often bizarre cases will keep you intrigued and immersed, and make this unique book one you will find yourself looking forward to making time to read.

How The Brain Lost Its Mind Allan H. Ropper MD and Brian David BurrellHow The Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Health

In this mindful reflection on American and European pasts, authors Allan H. Ropper and Brian Burrell, also the writers of Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole, address our modern concept of mental illness by reviewing the interesting true story of the syphilis epidemic of the 19th century. This little known and fascinating history of neurosyphilis—how it was handled by society and medicine and how it shaped today’s understanding of mental illness—helps address not only why many stigmas exist, but why so many have persisted. This book will take you on an incredible journey through the puzzling diagnosis, eclectic treatments, and lasting social effects of the neurosyphilis epidemic of the 1800s, as well as offer important insight into the difference between diseases of the brain and the mind. This book is perfect for any scientist, psychologist, or historian with even the smallest interest in medical history or mental health theory.

Compassionomics The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes A Difference Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony MazzarelliCompassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference

It is no secret that today’s medical atmosphere scarsely resembles anything similar to that of 50 years ago. Many have argued that this is in large part due to a lack of compassion in the modern medical system. If this is the case, where have we gone wrong, and is there scientific evidence to support that compassion is even beneficial to healthcare, personal relationships, and professional lives? These questions are raised and explored by authors Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli through the telling of true stories of medical providers and patients that help demonstrate the incredible effect of the human connection. Coupled perfectly with these gripping stories are easily readable summaries of decades of research studying the effects of compassion as well as its implications in our lives. Addressing topics from healthcare cost to provider burnout, from caring for others to caring for ourselves, this evidence-based analysis of the importance of compassion is a must-read for anyone interested in the social science and psychology of the care we give in all settings of our lives.

To read more: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/opinion–the-best-neuroscience-books-of-2019-66863

New Books: “Small But Smart – Design Solutions For Mini Homes”

Small but Smart Design Solutions for Mini Homes by Chris van Uffelen December 31 2019This volume presents a large variety of sophisticated solutions for mini houses in terms of architectural style, construction method and interior design. Whether portable or prefabricated, newly built or reused, rural or urban, they all meet the highest technological and sustainable standards to literally reduce their owners’ ecological footprint.

By living in a large ceramic tub, Ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes was one of the first people to promote a simple lifestyle as a protest against a corrupt society – one could call him an unwitting pioneer of the current tiny-house movement.

Small but Smart Design Solutions for Mini Homes by Chris van Uffelen December 31 2019

However, today small living is not necessarily connected to an alternative or even anarchic lifestyle – it simply makes things easier, more economic and eco-friendly to focus on what is really needed in life without compromising quality.

To read more and/or purchase: https://www.braun-publishing.ch/en/interior-design/small-but-smart.html