Checkers

The New York Times best-selling true story of an all-American girl and a boy from Zimbabwe and the letter that changed both of their lives forever. It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. Martin was lucky to even receive a pen-pal letter. There were only 10 letters, and 50 kids in his class. But he was the top student, so he got the first one. That letter was the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives.

The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct and the half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. Survivors still remember the past greatness of humankind, but the last remains of civilisation have already become a distant memory. Man has handed over stewardship of the earth to new life-forms. A few score thousand survivors live on, not knowing whether they are the only ones left on Earth....

Psychology in Plain English is an accessible, somewhat folksy book describing principles of psychology and how they relate to real life. Dr. Richards uses anecdotes, personal examples, wicked humor, and explanations honed through more than 30 years and more than 700 psychology classes to covers some of his most popular classroom topics. How do we learn fears and phobias, and how can they be removed? Why is punishment not the best learning technique, or even second best? How does psychology differ from common sense?