Amazon.com
Ever wonder why women can brush their teeth while walking and talking on various subjects while men generally find this very difficult to do? Why 99 percent of all patents are registered by men? Why stressed women talk? Why so many husbands hate shopping? According to Barbara and Allan Pease, science now confirms that "the way our brains are wired and the hormones pulsing through our bodies are the two factors that largely dictate, long before we are born, how we will think and behave. Our instincts are simply our genes determining how our bodies will behave in given sets of circumstances." That's right: socialization, politics, or upbringing aside, men and women have profound brain differences and are intrinsically inclined to act in distinct--and consequently frustrating--ways.
The premises behind Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps is that all too often, these differences get in the way of fulfilling relationships and that understanding our basic urges can lead to greater self-awareness and improved relations between the sexes. The Peases spent three years researching their book--traveling the globe, talking to experts, and studying the cutting-edge research of ethnologists, psychologists, biologists, and neuroscientists--yet their work does not read a bit like "hard science." In fact, the authors go to considerable lengths to point out that their book is intended to be funny, interesting, and easy to read; in short, this is a book whose primary purpose is to talk about "average men and women, that is, how most men and women behave most of the time, in most situations, and for most of the past."
Why Men Don't Listen, therefore, deals largely in generalizations, and this is bound to alienate some readers. "We don't beat around the bush with suppositions or politically correct clichés," the Peases claim. Those up for an irreverent and unapologetic take on why men and women just can't help themselves sometimes may just decide to read on. --Svenja Soldovieri
Book Description
Have you ever wished your partner came with an instruction booklet? This international bestseller is the answer to all the things you've ever wondered about the opposite sex.
For their controversial new book on the differences between the way men and women think and communicate, Barbara and Allan Pease spent three years traveling around the world, collecting the dramatic findings of new research on the brain, investigating evolutionary biology, analyzing psychologists, studying social changes, and annoying the locals.
The result is a sometimes shocking, always illuminating, and frequently hilarious look at where the battle line is drawn between the sexes, why it was drawn, and how to cross it. Read this book and understand--at last!--why men never listen, why women can't read maps, and why learning each other's secrets means you'll never have to say sorry again.
Customer Reviews:
Isightful.......2007-06-27
While the title is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I found the authors' approach both balanced and well thought out. The fact it is written by a couple helps credibility, but it also prompts thought towards further investigation through additional resources.
There are multiple points of humor that added to the book's charm and entertainment value.
Same Old Stereotypes, the author thinks we're idiots!.......2007-05-24
The differences between men and women is a sexy topic and I was definitely interested in reading about it, but I felt like I'd been duped after reading this book. It stinks of gender bias and old stereotypes. The book describes certain behavior- such as making decisions based on facts and reading maps- as being "masculine" and other behavior- such as nuturing the group and listening- as being "feminine". There wouldn't be anything wrong with that proclamation in itself... but as a basis for an entire book? Come on!
The first chapter goes into detail about how if a man behaves differently from what they define as "masculine" traits and vice versa, we should overlook these little differences because the book deals with overall trends. Please. Even I could write a book based on my general observations and claim that any discrepancies should be disregarded. I could even call myself an "expert" to sound credible. Well hey, what a coincidence! It turns out that the author isn't even a doctor or psychologist, just a self-proclaimed "expert".
The worst thing about the book is that it seems like the author/s are on a personal crusade to pound their personal OPINION into reader's heads by masquerading them as "facts". Most of these "facts" are based on primordial human behavior and evolution, which is obviously guesswork drawn from a lot of theorizing rather than from concrete evidence.
What a great book.......2007-05-18
One of the best books, explaining typical differences between male and female. Helps avoid totally unnecessary problems in communications and expectations. It gives great insights into why people behave the way they do (and not how we expect them to).
This Book is Amazing!.......2007-04-19
I learned so much from this book! It has amazing facts about how men and women are born different with pre-hardwired patterns regardless of how you are raised. Read this book! Also check out my new site on my upcoming book. DanArdebili . com
Dan Ardebili
Katie's Opinion.......2007-01-12
I think this is such a good book everybody should read it. It is not just about boy girl relationships in the traditional sense that you think of. As a mother of a 25 year old son, I wish I had read this book 25 years ago. I would have been far more understanding on some issues and more patient. Remembering my teenage years I could certainly see why I acted the way I did as well. I apologized to my son for some things, said a prayer to my Mom and bought a copy for my son and his girlfriend and for my sister and her daugher. I think it is a must read for all adults.
Book Description
To the list of writers connecting mainstream readers and cutting-edge science—Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, James Surowiecki—add Read Montague, with this exploration of what exactly determines the choices we make.
With a new perspective on the science of decision-making from the researcher at the center of the computational neuroscience revolution, Why Choose This Book? shows what the latest brain science reveals about the crucial events of everyday experience—the choices we make. From how we decide what we consume to what kind of art we like, and even the romantic, ethical, and financial choices we make, Read Montague guides the reader through a new approach to the mind with an accessible style that is both entertaining and illuminating.
In taking apart the mind's decision-making machinery, Montague first illustrates how our brains are like computers that are slow, small, fuzzy, and cheap—and began with goals like food, water, and sex. Second, he reveals how simple goals like these then turn into ideas like beauty, love, and terror with a life of their own. Finally, he explains how a value system in our heads controls those ideas so we can make good decisions—and how that physical system can break down leading to bad decisions, addictions, mental illness, and even large economic disasters.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, yet vague.......2007-08-07
I found the book to be interesting, presenting many ideas about cognitive function that seem novel and even new. However, they were presented in a vague way with too many details glossed over. I understand the need to "dumb things down" for a wider audience, but it seems as if this went too far. The author is obviously very knowledgeable in this field and he is going out of his way to make the material accessible. This is where the problem lies, the feeling I got when reading this was that I was being treated like a little kid. I still would recommend this book to anyone who asks because it was a quick read and does give a nice overview of what is currently known and what is being worked on.
An Interesting Book.......2007-06-30
I really enjoyed this book, because I am interested in the brain and why we make decisions. Overall it used language I could understand, and made great connections between the anatomy of the brain and the structure of the mind. I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in why we choose what we do and what the brain has to do with it.
Deep information on the working of the brain.......2007-06-27
This indepth study of how the brain works is written so that the average person can understand it. Dr. Montague is an amazing author to be so knowledgeable and able to bring the information down to easily understood language. Everyone should read this.
Thought provoking - but very poorly written.......2007-06-10
Read Montague is probably a very intelligent man, but he is not a very good writer. In an attempt to popularize a very challenging area, he adops a rather breathless style. With testimonials from the likes of Steven Pinker, Antonio Damasio and V.S. Ramachandran, far be it for me to argue with his qualifications in his field - computational neuroscience. My compaint is that he lacks the communication skills of those three noted authors. Montague gets lost in jargon and trying to be cute.
On a more substantive note, I was disappointed with his lack of discussion of the role that emotions play in decision making, and his sketchy descriptions of neural processes.
On the whole, I was disappointed with the book. For anyone interested this area, Marvin Minsky's now book "The Emotion Machine" is better, although both works have very misleading titles.
Mind-blowing.......2007-03-31
I am only part way through this book but I am so excited by it that I've already had to get googling to find out more about the worlds it is beginning to uncover. As someone just starting to study science seriously, it has helped me find what I think might be my field - a convergence of biochemistry, computation, and economics that could lead us to create truly intelligent machines.
Amazon.com
Harold Bloom's urgency in How to Read and Why may have much to do with his age. He brackets his combative, inspiring manual with the news that he is nearing 70 and hasn't time for the mediocre. (One doubts that he ever did.) Nor will he countenance such fashionable notions as the death of the author or abide "the vagaries of our current counter-Puritanism" let alone "ideological cheerleading." Successively exploring the short story, poetry, the novel, and drama, Bloom illuminates both the how and why of his title and points us in all the right directions: toward the Romantics because they "startle us out of our sleep-of-death into a more capacious sense of life"; toward Austen, James, Proust; toward Thomas Mann, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy; toward Cervantes and Shakespeare (but of course!), Ibsen and Oscar Wilde.
How should we read? Slowly, with love, openness, and with our inner ear cocked. Then we should reread, reread, reread, and do so aloud as often as possible. "As a boy of eight," he tells us, "I would walk about chanting Housman's and William Blake's lyrics to myself, and I still do, less frequently yet with undiminished fervor." And why should we engage in this apparently solitary activity? To increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy--in short, our entire consciousness--and also to heal our pain. "Until you become yourself," Bloom avers, "what benefit can you be to others." So much for reading as an escape from the self!
Still, many of this volume's pleasures may indeed be selfish. The author is at his best when he is thinking aloud and anew, and his material offers him--and therefore us--endless opportunities for discovery. Bloom cherishes poetry because it is "a prophetic mode" and fiction for its wisdom. Intriguingly, he fears more for the fate of the latter: "Novels require more readers than poems do, a statement so odd that it puzzles me, even as I agree with it." We must, he adjures, crusade against its possible extinction and read novels "in the coming years of the third millennium, as they were read in the eighteenth and nineteenth century: for aesthetic pleasure and for spiritual insight."
Bloom is never heavy, since his vision quest contains a healthy love of irony--Jedediah Purdy, take note: "Strip irony away from reading, and it loses at once all discipline and all surprise." And this supreme critic makes us want to equal his reading prowess because he writes as well as he reads; his epigrams are equal to his opinions. He is also a master allusionist and quoter. His section on Hedda Gabler is preceded by three extraordinary statements, two from Ibsen, who insists, "There must be a troll in what I write." Who would not want to proceed? Of course, Bloom can also accomplish his goal by sheer obstinacy. As far as he is concerned, Don Quixote may have been the first novel but it remains to this day the best one. Is he perhaps tweaking us into reading this gigantic masterwork by such bald overstatement? Bloom knows full well that a prophet should stop at nothing to get his belief and love across, and throughout How to Read and Why he is as unstinting as the visionary company he adores. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.
Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.
Customer Reviews:
Close, but not quite right........2007-03-05
... we all know children in today's grade schools are moving farther away from books and a whole lot closer to My Space for their reading pleasures. Bloom wrote this book to address this and one other concern, that being that universities aren't any healthier for us than My Space when it comes to reading, and reading the right way. Bloom says to read deeply, often, and for yourself without studying the how's and why's using this or that theory of criticism that we're taught in university. I can't agree more after having done a masters degree in English literature. I hated reading after graduating and it took me years to get back into reading for my own true pleasure. For that reason, I like this book. That being said, I think Bloom misses the mark somewhat on what we should read. I've read a lot of the books on his list (Western Canon my bum) and I have to say, many of them are about as interesting, engaging, and exciting as reading as those same My Space pages I mentioned earlier. There is a lot of good literature out there that isn't Shakespeare, Milton, Melville, Emerson, etc. All the good writers aren't dead, Mr Bloom. He's right about the problem but fixing it isn't going to happen by prescribing my fourteen year old a healthy dose of Ibsen, Milton and Emily Dickinson, though everyone could use a taste of Calvino once in a while.
I read somewhere that Bloom said something 'mean' about Stephen King's writing. I don't read King, but at least if my kid is reading that, she's not on the computer all day long. I wonder what Bloom thinks of JK Rowling.
Difficult Book with Some excellent Literary Summaries.......2006-10-11
After reading Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, I was interested in what this author had to say about the how and why of reading the major western literary classics. The author makes the following points; "WHY" to read, 1) to strengthen the self. Reading is a selfish act, to improve oneself as opposed to improving your neighbor or neighborhood "HOW" to read, 2) clear the mind of all the factional, and political ideas of the current time period when the reader is seeking the universality of the spirit. 3) the recovery of the ironic .
The author judges the works by looking for the unique way that certain universal human traits are treated in great works of western literature. The author explains the concept of reading by practicing "overhearing". The concept was lost upon this reader. This reader felt like he
missed some of the foundation terms and principals of the book. From the text one can tell the author has dedicated hours to reading and re-reading the classics. Harold Bloom is a Yale professor with many awards to his credit. I appreciated the quick synopsis of the text or selected poem to bring out themes and thoughts I would have otherwise missed., All in all, the author's concepts are difficult to fully absorb, but his summary of literary works has to spark some interest in some area of the literary classics.
So-So.......2006-09-16
Literary critic should have titled this little guide `What to Read and Why,' seeing as he devotes only a few paragraphs to why reading might be valuable. That said, Bloom is a terrifyingly accomplished reader, but he isn't much of a thinker or a critic in the way Benjamin or Derrida were. Bloom's incessant propensity to judge all literature from the `how is this compared to Shakespeare' lens is foolish and lacking in any insight. At times his criticism seems almost amateurish and rushed. He doesn't seem to be a very good reader of Hemingway, for instance. At the outset of a review of `Hills Like White Elephants,' Bloom writes that "Hemingway's personal mystique-his bravura poses as warrior, big-game hunter, bullfighter, and boxer-is irrelevant to `Hills Like White Elephants' as its male protagonist's insistence that `You know that I love you'" (47). Yet later in Bloom's review, he writes [on `The Snows of Kilimanjaro']: The irony is at Hemingway's expense, insofar as Harry prophesies the Hemingway who, nineteen days shor of his sixty-second birthday, turned a double-barreled shotgun on himself" (49). Bloom seems to have reversed tactics here. Never the less, Bloom is an undeniably great reader of poetry; in this volume he tells you all about his personal favorites: Stevens, Whitman, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, etc. Kind of fun, but far from great criticism.
Bloom: To Know How Is To Know Why.......2006-02-12
For those who purchase Harold Bloom's HOW TO READ AND WHY, they probably expect a companion piece to HOW TO READ A BOOK by Mortimer Adler. With Adler, there is truth in advertising; his focus is indeed on the how. He emphasizes the more traditional skills of main idea, inference, conclusion, and details, all of which must be used to come to terms with the author. Bloom, however, starts where Adler leaves off. Bloom assumes that the reader knows how to meld his mind with that of the author. His focus on the how is really quite simple: the reader should read slowly, reread often and aloud, and allow his own ears to hear and overhear what words of wisdom fall from the lips of literature's most immortal characters. When Hamlet laments the common fate of man in any of his seven soliloquies, Bloom urges the reader to do more than just read; the reader should become Hamlet and speak as the troubled Dane does. It is only when the reader intones along with Hamlet, as opposed to passively listening to Olivier or Brannagh, that this reader becomes Hamlet and insinuates himself into a world of irony that Bloom relentlessly insists forms the philosophical underpinning of Shakespeare's moral vision. The great poems deserve no less. Bloom claims that poetry, like drama, is best appreciated in solitude and when spoken aloud by the reader.
The why of reading is also uncomplicated. The purpose of reading immortal literature, to Bloom, has little to do with ideology or any other attempt to view that work through a critical lens of one 'ism' or another. The why of reading is more personal, more selfish than that. The reader reads to improve himself, to become a better person. The wisdom that infuses any classical piece of writing is useful only insofar as it contributes to the moral growth of the reader. Since most of Bloom's book resembles a digressive tour through a sampling of his favorite works and authors, the novice reader might walk away with the idea that HOW TO READ AND WHY is little more than a folksy rehash of Intro to Lit 101. The truth is more illusive. In his discourses, Bloom does more than simply analyze what makes one character act the way that he does. Bloom humanizes that character by taking that character's words, thoughts, and deeds and making them his own. To become that character, then, in Bloom's vision quest, is, in Adler's terms, to come to terms with that author. The metamorphosis of self is a process of slow accretion, possibly granting that each tick on the clock of rereading brings the reader ever closer to union with the author. The end, of course, to Bloom, to Adler, to anyone who wishes to know and grow is to witness the birth of a new reader, one who is infinitely wiser and happier than his predecessor.
Literacy Guide.......2005-08-19
Bloom's title could not help but appeal to a typical Language Arts teacher in a typical high school. I am facing a school with a history of poor literacy skills in a district with a similiar history. Most literacy programs use a 5th and 6th grade approach with high school students who have scored at that level, and wonder why they are not very successful. Bloom writes for adults, and his approach could well undergird an introduction to remedial readers in high school.
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- Why I Sneeze, Shiver...
- Pleased
- Young, inquisitive minds
- Educational
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Why I Sneeze, Shiver, Hiccup, & Yawn (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
Melvin Berger
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
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ASIN: 0064451933
Release Date: 2000-01-05 |
Book Description
Ka-choo! Brrr. Yawnnnn.
Have you ever wondered what makes you sneeze when you're in a dusty room? Or shiver when you get out of the bathtub? Or yawn when you're tired? All of these actions are reflexes. Your body makes them happen even though you don't tell it to.
Budding young scientists will be amazed as Melvin Berger and Paul Meisel reveal the mysteries behind the reflexes that happen in our bodies every day and offer fun-filled experiments to try on family and friends. Let's Read and Find Out Science, Stage 2.
Customer Reviews:
Why I Sneeze, Shiver..........2007-09-30
Although it was a bit long to hold attention (mostly the other adults in the room) the kids seemed to get a lot out of it, asking questions and remembering when they had been in a similar situation as the person in the throws of the problem. Kids and adults learned from it in our house.
Pleased.......2007-02-17
I ordered this book for my sons 6th birthday. He is very interested in science and this looked like a fun book. We have read it through once and he enjoyed it, don't know how well it will be at repeat performances.
Young, inquisitive minds.......2007-01-16
Even if your youngster hasn't asked, this book helps the "thinking" process of asking "why". When this question is asked about things that they can understand, it begins the process of asking why about lots of other things.
Great for those who also ask why on their own.
Educational.......2000-06-11
This book explains about how the human body deals with reflexes. It gets a little technical, but a four or five year old can definately understand the content. I enjoyed reading this book to my children because even I learned a little that I either had not learned or had forgotten.
Amazon.com
Nowhere has the flight from quality plaguing American life these days been more obvious than in our primary and secondary schools -- on the whole, the graduates seem less well-read and less well-spoken, less knowledgeable and less able to compute. In this book, Charles Sykes asks why, and lays most of the blame at the feet of the trainers of teachers, the writers of textbooks and the educational policy wonks who influence them. He convincingly shows that in many different school systems, and in many different academic fields, with the help of goofy text-books, watered-down requirements and "recentered" test grade scales, American students have come to value feeling good about a subject over being good in it. Sykes's recommended reforms include abolishing the federal Department of Education and its state counterparts, abolishing undergraduate schools of education, establishing more alternative routes to teacher certification and merit raises for good teachers. Good ideas all -- now if we can only get politicians to put them into action!
Book Description
Dumbing Down Our Kids is a searing indictment of America's secondary schools-one that every parent and teacher should read.Dumbing Down Our Kids offers a full-scale investigation of the new educational fad, sometimes called "Outcome Based Education" -the latest in a long series of "reforms" that has eroded our schools.-Why our kids rank to, or at the bottom of international tests in math and science-Why "self-esteem" has supplanted grades and genuine achievements-How the educational establishment lowers standards and quality in our schools-while continuing to raise their budgets and our school taxes-The dumbing down of the curriculum so everyone can pass-but no one excel-How parents, students, and teachers can evaluate schools and restore quality learning
Customer Reviews:
Explained: Educators Gone Wild.......2007-09-10
A must-read investigation. Although now 12 years old, this book doesn't seem dated. Educators are still recycling the same old gimmick, which is basically to devise hifalutin excuses for teaching less.
The big shift is that Whole Word hit its peak just after this book was published, and has been in decline ever since. One feels hope at that. Still, the overwhelming impression is one of sadness. It's as if we put hippies and illegal aliens in charge of our banks and water works. You wouldn't expect faucets and ATM's to operate smoothly.
"A Nation at Risk," the report issued by a huge government panel in 1983, stated that our public schools seem to be managed by a foreign power intent on harming us. (I've always loved that deadpan bombshell.) If you would like to get to know that foreign power and hear them discuss their plans for your children, this is the book to read. Sykes did a huge amount of research. It's a serious and sober investigation.
Finally, it comes down to goals. If you think schools should be engaged in social engineering, that their job is to induce dumbing down and collectivism, you will cheer on the educators quoted throughout this book, and you will hate Sykes.
If, however, you think schools should be hugely concerned with reading, writing, arithmetic, etc., you'll thank Sykes for preparing this trenchant expose.
In the most recent government report, "Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century," experts are now saying that time is running out, and that public schools are killing our ability to maintain a high standard of living. How did our educators achieve such glorious failure? This book will show you all their techniques.
Didn't you get the email? Then why buy the book?.......2007-08-24
There's nothing new in this book. It's all the same clueless right-wing blather that was in Sykes' other book. This book is also a re-hash of the "chain letter" email, erroneously attributed to Bill Gates, that is still making its way around the Internets. (No doubt Charlie is trying to profit off of his association with that email.) Seriously, though, Charlie, we get it--you don't like public schools, you don't like government, you don't like infrastructure. Then why don't you DO something about it, rather than throwing stones from the outside vis-a-vis books like this one?
Dumb kids....smart teachers.......2007-07-26
Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There
Unbelievable revelation as to how our kids are dumbed down....and it is getting worse each year....while it is all covered up....we need to know this if we have children in school because we are NOT getting our money's worth and our kids are getting a dumb education by dumb teachers (of course not all teachers)...but the massive unions push the lowest common denominator on our kids in order to increase their memberships....while the whole time "Johnny can't read".
Dumb on Purpose.......2007-07-12
Sykes is just one of scores of people who've been warning Americans that public schools are no longer failing; PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE A FAILURE, period. Why aren't parents listening?! Feeling good has replaced facts in government schools. Knowledge and learning itself is secondary to having fun in its classrooms. SAT scores dropped way back in 1963 and haven't risen. No, today's average SAT score of about 1020 reflects the College Board's 1995 decision to re-center SAT scores, which in layman's terms means they added about 100 points to the scores. Kids aren't doing any better, but their scores look better and that makes them and their parents feel better. But it gets worse. The SAT no longer includes antonyms or verbal analogies and students can use calculators on the math section. What's more, students with those James Bond-style IEPs (Individual Education Program) that allow them "extra time" can take as long as they like to do the test. Still, their scores stay low. But the SAT is just one hundreds of standardized tests that reflect what kids are not learning in public schools today. Parents who pretend their local school isn't "as bad" as those schools they hear about on the news are only deceiving themselves. One day, they'll regret, but it'll be too late. Being dumb on purpose is just plain stupid.
We Should Worry About Our Dumbed Down Journalists.......2006-07-28
Charles J. Sykes reinforces every paranoid conservative American fantasy about American education in Dumbing Down Our Kids. By confirming the fears of parents and the great mass of middle America what about the educational system, he tries to create hysteria about "educationists" (his awkward, politically-shaded word for teachers and administrators). His book is something like the Pancake Feed Breakfast of educational critique: with some fake maple syrup, it tastes yummy going down but sits in your stomach as a kind of revenge by Aunt Jemima. If the book sounds reasonable to you, then you should worry that your own thought processes are not particularly complex.
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- The Best, Most Practical Self Help Book on Relationships
- excellent title!!
- Changed my life
- This Book Saved My Marriage!
- Best relationship book I've read
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Why Can't You Read My Mind? Overcoming the 9 Toxic Thought Patterns that Get in the Way of a Loving Relationship
Jeffrey Bernstein
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
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Most people think that poor communication is the reason why so many relationships end, but it's actually the way we learn to think about our partners and our problems that kills trust, erodes intimacy, and cripples communication. In Why Can't You Read My Mind?, psychologist Jeffrey Bernstein reveals-for the first time-the nine toxic thought patterns at work in virtually every relationship, and shows couples how these distorted, negative, exaggerated thoughts can poison their love and end their union. With warmth and wisdom, Bernstein offers a simple yet powerful approach for breaking the toxic thinking cycle and helps readers establish new and more positive thinking habits for solving their problems and dealing with the stresses of everyday life. Packed with practical advice and valuable insights, Why Can't You Read My Mind? makes it possible for couples to remain in or return to loving relationships permanently, and points the way toward finding a truer kind of love with one another for the first time. Perfect for couples wanting to maintain their loving relationship as well as for those working to restore their love, this book provides the missing link, enabling couples to beat the relationship odds and sustain a long-term relationship.
Customer Reviews:
The Best, Most Practical Self Help Book on Relationships.......2007-10-13
This excellent book, written by family therapist Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, is practical, easy-to-follow, and a quick read. Although it is not an instant panacea for relationship ills it did make me recognize my own (negative) contributions to my relationship with my husband and, later, with other, less integral people in my life. Be open-minded, willing to learn, and spend the time and thought to do the exercises honestly. I read this book prior to choosing Dr. Jeff as a therapist and cannot speak highly enough about him. (Yes, we are fortunate enough to live in the same area as his practice!)
excellent title!!.......2007-08-10
This book is really helpful and right on target. It seems so many people try to have magical mind reading abilities and this book helps to sort that fantasy out!! Particularly useful to give to others to read as a gift!!
Changed my life .......2006-08-26
This is the most amazing book I have ever stumbled across. It not only gave me a new perspective on love and relationships but I was able to incorporate the logic of it into all areas of my life. I've recommended it to friends left and right. This is definitely a must read.
This Book Saved My Marriage! .......2006-04-20
Before we found this book, my husband and I were highly discourgaged and didn't think there were any solutions to repair our miserable relationship. All I can say is that this book finally stopped us from resenting and blaming each other for the crumbling of our marriage. I had seen Dr. Bernstein on the Today Show a while ago when they had a segment on toxic relationships and I remembered the title, Why Can't You Read My Mind? This book helped us to understand and appreciate each other in ways we never have before. I only wish that I had bought it before our relationship got so bad. My advice is don't wait till the 11th hour to read this outstanding book.
Best relationship book I've read.......2005-06-05
I buy far too many self help books but this one was the most practical and eye opening regarding how one can develop destructive patterns of relating to your partner (or anyone, for that matter) and how perception plays a key role in all of negative and irrational behavior. He give practical methods for countering these irrational thoughts and thus have a better relationship with both your partner and yourself. I really needed this book and feel it may lead me to finally have a successful relationship leading to a happy marriage. My irrational thoughts and behavior have so often sabotaged me in my relationships up to this point. I highly recommend this book!
Book Description
Frogs
Frogs can jump thirty times their own body length, catch insects on the wing, and breathe underwater or on land. But they must always keep their skins wet. Read and find out why!
Customer Reviews:
Colorful illustrations.......2006-10-16
this is a nice series of non-fiction books for preschoolers to improve their vocabulary. All the pages are full of bright colorful illustrations and their is lots of reading and information. This would be a nice series for a 3rd grader to read, maybe fourth grade. One or two paragraphs per page. I often read these to my preschoolers or just look at the pages with the 1 and 2 year olds. Books have held up well.
Book Description
Why We Read Fiction offers a lucid overview of the most exciting area of research in contemporary cognitive psychology known as "Theory of Mind" and discusses its implications for literary studies. It covers a broad range of fictional narratives, from Richardson's Clarissa, Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment, and Austen's Pride and Prejudice to Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Nabokov's Lolita, and Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Zunshine's surprising new interpretations of well-known literary texts and popular cultural representations constantly prod her readers to rethink their own interest in fictional narrative. Written for a general audience, this study provides a jargon-free introduction to the rapidly growing interdisciplinary field known as cognitive approaches to literature and culture.
Customer Reviews:
Why do YOU read fiction? I know why I do . . ........2006-09-28
Of the reviews/comments posted so far, I believe mine might be the only one grounded in having had the opportunity to hear Ms. Zunshine present the core of her arguments which are so wonderfully filled out in this book; or, at least, none have admitted to that fact so far. And, that is really the reason I purchased and read her book. Having recently heard her speak on "source monitoring" and "metarepresentation," which are key and crucial elements of her argument, while at a conference in Ottawa, Ontario, I decided I NEEDED to read this book. There is much she has to say that is relevant to my own readings of Joseph Conrad and the presentation of characters' minds within his texts. While I am not well steeped in current cognitive theories, I never once felt "in over my head" reading her book. Ms. Zunshine has carefully written a highly theoretical text in so tightly focused a way that her arguments concerning Theory of Mind--our innate, though sometimes inadequately developed, ability to sense and grasp the thoughts of others through observation and interaction--and its relation to our reasons for reading fiction are accessible and pleasing to readers of a wide range of experience and education. Having gone through the book but once I am not wholly in agreement with some of her points, but I am sufficiently in agreement that I intend to read it again--particularly after I finish reading Lolita, one of the texts to which she applies her theories. I just hope there is room in the margins for more notes. Other notions I felt were relevant to the ideas presented in this book can be found in Aldous Huxley's concept of "mind at large" as presented in his essay "The Doors of Perception," and a variation of Theory of Mind in the psychological works of R. D. Laing, particulary Politics of Experience. Ms Zunshine's work shares another connection to that of Laing: schizophrenia, and its affect on our ability to accurately track the sources of our own notions.
A new approach but not the single answer .......2006-06-14
Anyone who has studied Literary Criticism knows how rich it is in theories which claim to explain it all, and in the end become one more milestone in a vast intricate network of interpretations. The problem of course is that in the discourse of the Humanities there are no ways of simply excising out all the over- interpretations.
This means that a new exciting way of 'reading Literature' is not for experienced readers the 'answer' but rather another creative contribution, hopefully more insightful, cogent, and aesthetically pleasing than most.
Lisa Zunshine presents such a new way of reading. Drawing from evolutionary psychology, and the new cognitive sciences she makes an effort to read Literature in relation to these new ways of understanding ourselves.
And in fact the center of her effort is on the 'theory of the mind' and the way we as readers read novels, put together clues about people in a way similar to the way we do in our everyday lives- and of course in a way similar to our ancestors have done in their historical struggles for survival. We read according to Zunshine in order to figure out what others are thinking and feeling, and in order to develop an understanding of them which will enable us to better live.
She reads a variety of texts in an effort to illustrate these points, and does so with a certain insightfulness and perceptiveness that make the enterprise richly worthwhile.
This book provides a 'new way of seeing' which helps us ' see more' than we would otherwise, and thus is a valuable contribution to readers, and especially to those who love to read about reading.
A Remarkable, Exciting Approach to Literature.......2006-06-12
I purchased WHY WE READ FICTION after reading a number of strong books on evolutionary psychology written for non experts, including Dennett's CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED, Wright's THE MORAL ANIMAL, and Pinker's THE BLANK SLATE. After reading these works and finding myself fascinated by their insights and their explanatory powers, I was curious to see how evolutionary psychology might be applied to my own discipline of literary criticism. I was not disappointed. WHY WE READ FICTION is readable, well conceived, and patiently executed, and it shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the cognitive perspective can be brought to bear on literature in extremely satisfying ways.
Zunshine's major focus in the book is on the phenomenon that that psychologists (and many others) refer to as "Theory of Mind," the cognitive process by which we collect facts about another person, assign various labels and levels of reliability to those facts, and construct a narrative about that person's thoughts, feelings, and motivations. It is our theory of mind that allows us to make reasonable guesses about another person's intentions and future actions while, at the same time, understanding that the other person's perspective is different than our own. Most people exercise their theory of mind automatically without realizing that it is an extremely complicated process built into the human mind through hundreds of thousands of years of natural selection in environments where understanding other people's perspectives was vital to survival. It is not until we encounter people with difficulties forming a theory of mind--such as individuals with autism or Asperger's Syndrome--that we realize what a complicated cognitive process it really is.
After introducing this concept, Zunshine theorizes that fiction of all kinds acts as a kind of exercise program for our Theory of Mind. Much as bodybuilders train their bodies by lifting heavy weights, readers can train their theory of mind by deciphering complicated texts. And to prove it, she uses her critical vocabulary to read and explicate dozens of literary texts, including sustained readings of Richardson's CLARISSA and Nabokov's LOLITA that must be considered interpretive masterpieces.
As a practicing professor of English literature and an occasional author of literary criticism, I have been, for the last ten years or so, increasingly dissatisfied with the dominant critical paradigms available in my field. WHY WE READ FICTION has changed that and introduced me to an exciting new critical vocabulary that is rooted in contemporary scientific discovery and offers the potential for meaningful, sustained interaction between the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.
Book Description
Do you love horses? If you do, you're not alone. There's so much to know about these amazing animals. Why do horses neigh? What are baby and adult horses called? How do horses communicate? Beginning readers can find out the answers to these questions-and many more-in this lively, fact-filled introduction to these popular animals. Filled with colorful illustrations and dynamic color photos of real horses, this is a perfect selection for any young horse lover.
Illustrated by Anna DiVito.
Amazon.com
Why read Italo Calvino's book on the classics? Because it passes his own test for what a classic is, and its brisk prose can blast your concept of the word clean of the dusty associations that cling to it. Calvino gives 14 offbeat definitions of classic, my favorite being "a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off." His sharp essays on Conrad, Dickens, Diderot, Flaubert, Ovid, and others constitute an act of self-criticism too, a novelist's imaginative autobiography. In 1955, when rave-reviewing Robinson Crusoe, he called Daniel Defoe the "inventor of modern journalism." In 1954, he overcame his disgust with Hemingway's life "of violent tourism," coolly assessed his dry heights and sodden depths, and called himself Papa's apprentice. And the 1984 piece on Borges shows who influenced Calvino most once he'd become a master himself.
From both the American and the Argentinian, Calvino learned to be concise, and his quick sketches of books like the "unqualified masterpiece" Our Mutual Friend provide a contact high--one wants to drop everything and head straight to a library, so infectious is his enthusiasm. "How many young people will be smitten" by Stendhal's recently, brilliantly retranslated Waterloo-era adventure The Charterhouse of Parma, he writes, "recognizing it as the novel they had always wanted to read... the benchmark for all the other novels they will read in later life." Like a great teacher, Italo Calvino distills a writer's essence in a vivid phrase: money, for instance, serves as "the motive force of Balzac's narrative, the true test of feeling in Dickens; but in Mark Twain money is a game of mirrors, causing vertigo over a void." --Tim Appelo
Book Description
From the internationally-acclaimed author of some of this century's most breathtakingly original novels comes this posthumous collection of thirty-six literary essays that will make any fortunate reader view the old classics in a dazzling new light.
Learn why Lara, not Zhivago, is the center of Pasternak's masterpiece,
Dr. Zhivago, and why Cyrano de Bergerac is the forerunner of modern-day science-fiction writers. Learn how many odysseys
The Odyssey contains, and why Hemingway's Nick Adams stories are a pinnacle of twentieth-century literature. From Ovid to Pavese, Xenophon to Dickens, Galileo to Gadda, Calvino covers the classics he has loved most with essays that are fresh, accessible, and wise.
Why Read the Classics? firmly establishes Calvino among the rare likes of Nabokov, Borges, and Lawrence--writers whose criticism is as vibrant and unique as their groundbreaking fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Exceptional Anthology.......2002-09-22
An inspirational collection from an excellent essayist. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in literature.
A personal antology.......2001-02-28
The answer to the question sophisticatedly raised by this little anthology, is given in the essay which opens the collection.The basic reason lies in forming a personal scale of values that help you individualize the real artistic elements in new works. The second one is that reading increases the quality of living in usual and unusual situations, as well. But the quality of school anthologies and their presentations is still an open problem.
Calvino get you inloved with literature!!.......1999-10-05
What makes a book a clasic? Borges once said in a conference, that the fact that a whole generation lives with the idea of a book makes it a classic, Calvino involve you in that idea..
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