The Hottest Reads of August/September: Neuroscience, Bruce Lee, and What We Assume Everyone Knows

A photo of Steven Pinker, a light-skinned man with curly hair, and his book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...Do You Know What I Know?

Steven Pinker is one of the world’s greatest public intellectuals. In When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows… (out Sep. 23), he explores the question of what we assume everyone knows, and how it can help us understand the greatest enigmas of our time: from financial bubbles to social media mobs. Bill Gates calls it “one of the most insightful books I’ve read about what makes us human and how we understand each other.”

A photo of Jeff Chang, a light-skinned East Asian man with dark hair, and his book, Water Mirror EchoA “Definitive” New Look at a Legend

Celebrated social historian Jeff Chang has spent his storied career building solidarity. In his forthcoming biography Water Mirror Echo (out Sep. 23), he’s turning his eye to the story of martial arts icon Bruce Lee and how he shaped Asian America, helping us all better understand America as a whole. Publishers Weekly says that “This definitive account cements Chang’s reputation as a preeminent chronicler of Asian American history.”

A photo of Rachel Barr, a light-skinned woman with brown hair, and her book, How to Make Your Brain Your Best FriendMake Your Brain Your Best Friend

Does the modern world make you feel like your brain is working against you? You’re not alone. But it can be your closest ally—if you learn to work with it. Neuroscientist Rachel Barr is a playful and honest science communicator who has gained over 2 million followers through her accessible videos. In How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend (out Aug. 26), she reveals the tips anyone can use to regain focus, identity, and delight.

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Emotions are information. Learn to use them. Psychologist Ethan Kross’s new book Shift

“We are living through a cultural shift in the recognition of the role that emotions play in our professional lives,” says Ethan. “We now know definitively that the better able you are to regulate your emotions, the better able you are to think and perform. If a company cares about performance, they have to care about emotions.”

An award-winning psychologist in the University of Michigan’s psychology department and an executive education faculty member in its Ross School of Business, Ethan is the bestselling author of Chatter and one of the world’s leading experts on the conscious mind.

Now, in his forthcoming and hotly anticipated book Shift, Ethan turns his attention to the question of emotions: what they are, and (more importantly) how we can use them to think, perform, and lead better. He dispels unhelpful myths (like the idea that avoidance is always toxic, or that we need to live in the moment all the time) and offers riveting stories and science-backed tools that anyone can use to leverage their emotions in any context.

Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit) says that Ethan “presents a revolutionary guide to mastering your emotional life,” while Dan Pink (Drive) says that “his actionable insights can turn emotions from adversaries to allies—and transform how you navigate high-pressure work environments and the unpredictability of daily life.” Lisa Damour (The Emotional Lives of Teenagers) says, “This must-read book will—without question—change your life for the better!”

Nations in Crisis, a Biotech Revolution, and America’s Global Status: 3 Books—Out Today—Changing the Way We Navigate the World

Three eagerly-anticipated books drop today from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jared Diamond, MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield, and National Book Award-winner George Packer. Here’s what’s being said about these brilliant new releases, and the speakers who wrote them.

Jared Diamond | Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis 

 

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In his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in Upheaval, the final book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes—a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises. “A riveting and illuminating tour of how nations deal with crises—which might hopefully help humanity as a whole deal with our present global crisis” says Sapiens author Yuval Noah Harari. “Diamond wears the mantle of a modern day prophet, writes The Guardian

 

Susan Hockfield | The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution

 

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A neuroscientist by training, Susan Hockfield is the first woman to lead MIT. Her first book, The Age of Living Machines presents a highly-readable magnum opus on the technological-biological revolution known as “convergence.” Living Machines describes some of the most exciting new developments—and the scientists and engineers who helped create them—highlighting the promise of the technology revolution of the 21st century to overcome some of the greatest humanitarian, medical, and environmental challenges of our time. Science Magazine calls Hockfield’s book “entertaining and prescient.” 

 

George Packer |  Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

 

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Discussing George Packer’s new release Our Man in the The New York Times Book Review, Walter Isaacson says “I doubt that any novel, not even one co-written by Graham Greene and F. Scott Fitzgerald, could have captured Holbrooke fully, and I certainly thought that no biography ever would. But now one has. Packer’s Our Man portrays Holbrooke in all his endearing and self-willed glory … both a sweeping diplomatic history and a Shakespearean tragicomedy.” The Guardian calls Our Man “one of the most fascinating dissections of US power—its strengths and serious weaknesses—I’ve read.”

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