Quotes&More

Jonah Lehrer arms us with the tools we need to figure out how we decide, drawing on cutting-edge research by Daniel Kahneman, Colin Camerer, and others, as well as the real-world experiences of a wide range of "deciders" - from airplane pilots and hedge fund investors to serial killers and poker players. Lehrer shows how people are taking advantage of the new science to make better television shows, win more football games, and improve military intelligence.

Our country is in a profound crisis: a crisis of decency, of civility, of character. And families today are experiencing a new set of realities. Our best instincts are undermined at every turn, and our families, to which we turn in crisis, are feeling the strain. Working parents are harried, tired, and overextended. Mary Pipher understands this. She's a good listener, perhaps the best listener in America. And what she has to say goes straight to the heart.Confronted with today's challenges, parents feel helpless to protect their children from the enemy within their homes: the innapropriate television their kids watch for hours, the computer and virtual reality games that keep them from playing outside, when they should be learning from and about the real world. Compounding this is the fact that our psychological theories don't work anymore. These theories were developed decades ago, when families were tightly knit, relatively monolithic institutions, and they're dated. Pipher argues that such theories are of little help in our violent, sexualized contemporary culture. And while diagnosing the problem is the first step in curing it, Pipher offers ideas for simple actions we can all take to help rebuild our families and strengthen our communities.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a titanic among the world's great authors, and The Brothers Karamazov is often hailed as his finest novel. A masterpiece on many levels, it transcends the boundaries of a gripping murder mystery to become a moving account of the battle between love and hate, faith and despair, compassion and cruelty, good and evil.

At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.

All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman empire’s richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried.

This is a book about 10 "Great Ideas". Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world's civilizations - to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives.

A shot rang out. The Arabs surged forward under a savage fusillade of heavy fire. Nearer and nearer they came, shouting with hate and blood-lust. Geste rushed up and down his side of the roof, pausing only long enough to load his rifle and fire into the shrieking mob below, hoping to trick the Arabs into believing the fort was heavily manned.

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of 14, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots. The king's interest begins to wane, and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Mary realizes that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace, and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster.

Different minds learn differently. We must pay attention to individual learning patterns, to individual minds so that we can maximize children's performance in school and in life. In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows us how.