Sunday, January 3, 2016

Day 14 Book List of 2015

My Book List of 2015

Directory of Reading Wish List
     This is my directory of books that I wish to read before I die.  I know I will not get to most/all of these books.  The books that make my list are books I see at the library.  I read the back cover and if they sound like something I wish to read when I have time; then those books make my list.
     If you are reading this post and you have read some of these books, please post your comments.  You may just save me valuable time on some of these books.

The star rating on the book I got from Amazon.com

A

  • Ackerman, Karen
  • Ada, Alma Flor
  • Addy, Sharon Hart
  • Agee, Jon
  • Agrawal, Miki
    • Dol Cool Shit (4 Stars 8/2015)
  • Alexander, Michelle and West, Cornel
    • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action."
  • Arden, John
    • Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Not long ago, it was thought that the brain you were born with was the brain you would die with, and that the brain cells you had at birth were the most you would ever possess. Your brain was thought to be “hardwired” to function in predetermined ways. It turns out that's not true. Your brain is not hardwired, it's "softwired" by experience. This book shows you how you can rewire parts of the brain to feel more positive about your life, remain calm during stressful times, and improve your social relationships. Written by a leader in the field of Brain-Based Therapy, it teaches you how to activate the parts of your brain that have been underactivated and calm down those areas that have been hyperactivated so that you feel positive about your life and remain calm during stressful times. You will also learn to improve your memory, boost your mood, have better relationships, and get a good night sleep.

B

  • Begley, Sharon
    • Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: In this fascinating and far-reaching book, Newsweek science writer Sharon Begley reports on how cutting-edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to reveal that, contrary to popular belief, we have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds. Recent pioneering experiments in neuroplasticity–the ability of the brain to change in response to experience–reveal that the brain is capable of altering its structure and function, and even of generating new neurons, a power we retain well into old age. The brain can adapt, heal, renew itself after trauma, compensate for disabilities, rewire itself to overcome dyslexia, and break cycles of depression and OCD. And as scientists are learning from studies performed on Buddhist monks, it is not only the outside world that can change the brain, so can the mind and, in particular, focused attention through the classic Buddhist practice of mindfulness.
  • Bernstein, Joshua
    • The Complete Beer Course: Boot Camp for Beer Geeks: From Novice to Expert in Twelve Tasting Classes (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: It's a great time to be a beer drinker, but also the most confusing, thanks to the dizzying array of available draft beers. Expert Joshua M. Bernstein comes to the rescue with The Complete Beer Course, demystifying brews and breaking down the elements that make beer's flavor spin into distinctively different and delicious directions. Structured around a series of easy-to-follow classes, his course hops from lagers and pilsners to hazy wheat beers, Belgian-style abbey and Trappist ales, aromatic pale ales and bitter IPAs, roasty stouts, barrel-aged brews, belly-warming barley wines, and mouth-puckering sour ales. There is even a class on international beer styles and another on pairing beer with food and starting your own beer cellar. Through suggested, targeted tastings, you'll learn when to drink down-and when to dump those beers down a drain.
  • Bostwick, William
    • The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According to Beer (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: The Brewer’s Tale is a beer-filled journey into the past: the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer’s quest to bring them―and their ancient, forgotten beers―back to life, one taste at a time. This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place―in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.
  • Braun, Adam
  • Brockman, John
    • What Is Your Dangerous Idea? (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: The world's leading scientific thinkers explore bold, remarkable, perilous ideas that could change our lives—for better . . . or for worse . . .From Copernicus to Darwin, to current-day thinkers, scientists have always promoted theories and unveiled discoveries that challenge everything society holds dear; ideas with both positive and dire consequences. Many thoughts that resonate today are dangerous not because they are assumed to be false, but because they might turn out to be true.

C

  • Cramer, Kathryn D. and Wasiak, Hank
    • Change the Way You See Everything through Asset-Based Thinking (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: This brilliantly simple book on the philosophy known as Asset-Based Thinking, instills success-oriented habits in even the most die-hard cynic. Its transformational lessons--conveyed through unique photographic metaphors and inspiring stories from real people--reveal how the slightest shift in perception can lead to monumental results in both business and in life. ABT is not just positive thinking, but rather a systematic observation of "what works." Kathryn Cramer, an acclaimed corporate consultant, and Hank Wasiak, a creative icon of the advertising industry, have produced a work that looks and works like no other business or self-help book-because it IS like no other book. Change the Way You See Everything is a revolutionary approach to every aspect of life that bears not just reading, but re-reading, and sharing with people in your circle. You'll never look at the world the same way again.

D

  • Darling-Hammond, Linda
    • The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: The Flat World and Education offers an eye-opening wake-up call concerning America's future and vividly illustrates what the United States needs to do to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn. 
  • Davidson, Richard
    • The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live-and How You Can Change Them (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Why are some people so quick to recover from setbacks? Why are some so attuned to others that they seem psychic? Why are some people always up and others always down? In his thirty-year quest to answer these questions, pioneering neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson discovered that each of us has an Emotional Style, composed of Resilience, Outlook, Social Intuition, Self-Awareness, Sensitivity to Context, and Attention. Where we fall on these six continuums determines our own “emotional fingerprint.” 

F

  • Frankl, Viktor E.
    • Man's Search for Meaning (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

G

  • Ghosh, Amitay
    • Sea of Poppies (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: The first in an epic trilogy, Sea of Poppies is "a remarkably rich saga . . . which has plenty of action and adventure à la Dumas, but moments also of Tolstoyan penetration--and a drop or two of Dickensian sentiment" (The Observer [London]).  At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners on board, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of Canton. With a panorama of characters whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, Sea of Poppies is "a storm-tossed adventure worthy of Sir Walter Scott" (Vogue).

H

  • Hensbergen, Gijs van
    • Gaudi: A Biography (3.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: At the time of his death in 1926, Antoni Gaudí was arguably the most famous architect in the world. He had created some of the greatest and most controversial masterpieces of modern architecture, which were as exotic as they were outrageous. But little is known about the shadowy figure behind the swirling, vivid buildings that inspired the Surrealists.
  • Hitchens, Christopher
    • God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.
    • The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages--with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices--past and present--that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you’ll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they’re all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens--“political and literary journalist extraordinaire” (Los Angeles Times)--can. Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.
  • Hollie, Sharroky
    • Culturally and Linguistically (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Implement these strategies and suggestions to support culturally and linguistically diverse students. The five pedagogical areas addressed in this resource are Classroom Management, Use of Text, Academic Vocabulary, Situational Appropriateness, and Learning Environment.
  • Hopkins, David
  • Hunter, Lisa
    • The Intrepid Art Collector (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: In The Intrepid Art Collector, Lisa Hunter shows you how to start a fine art collection without spending a fortune. This accessible, jargon-free resource contains up-to-date information on the most popular original art—everything from photography and posters to African art and animation—including where to find it and how to buy it at a fair price. Easy-to-use checklists help you evaluate original art and steer clear of clever fakes. In addition, Hunter has interviewed top dealers, curators, arts lawyers, and appraisers to bring you the best advice on:
        • Advantages to buying real art instead of reproductions
        • Determining if a piece of art is fairly priced
        • Predicting if an artist’s work will go up in value
        • Techniques for negotiating a price with a dealer
        • Developing your artistic taste, so you’ll know if you’ll still love your purchase ten years down the road
        • How to preserve art in your home
        • Resources, websites, and magazines that will help you learn more about the market and where to find different types of art

K

  • Kates, Andrea
    • Find Your Next: Using the Business Genome Approach to Find Your Company's Next Competitive Edge (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: If you’re a manager, an executive, or an entrepreneur, you understand that your business is unique, with its own challenges and rewards. But thanks to the new science of the Business Genome® process, you’ll be surprised to see how many businesses share a similar “genetic” structure. And by understanding what works and what doesn’t for your business’s genomic type, you can play to your strengths, adapt to your weaknesses, and change the course of your company’s future.
  • Knight, Molly
    • The Best Team Money Can Buy (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Now Molly Knight tells the story of the Dodgers’ 2013 and 2014 seasons with detailed, previously unreported revelations. She shares a behind-the-scenes account of the astonishing sale of the Dodgers, and why the team was not overpriced, as well as what the Dodgers actually knew in advance about rookie phenom and Cuban defector Yasiel Puig and how they and teammates handled him during his first two roller-coaster seasons. We learn how close manager Don Mattingly was to losing his job during the 2013 season—and how the team turned around the season in the most remarkable fifty-game stretch (42-8) of any team since World War II, before losing in the NLCS. Knight also provides a rare glimpse into the infighting and mistrust that derailed the team in 2014, and resulted in ridding the roster of difficult personalities and the hiring of a new front office.
  • Konnikova, Maria
    • Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (0 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and in Mastermind she shows us how. Beginning with the “brain attic”—Holmes’s metaphor for how we store information and organize knowledge—Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology, Mastermind explores Holmes’s unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it shows how each of us, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers. For Holmes aficionados and casual readers alike, Konnikova reveals how the world’s most keen-eyed detective can serve as an unparalleled guide to upgrading the mind.
  • Kozol, Jonathan
    • Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: For two years, beginning in 1988, Jonathan Kozol visited schools in neighborhoods across the country, from Illinois to Washington D.C., and from New York to San Antonio. He spoke with teachers, principals, superintendents, and, most important, children. What he found was devastating. Not only were schools for rich and poor blatantly unequal, the gulf between the two extremes was widening—and it has widened since.  The urban schools he visited were overcrowded and understaffed, and lacked the basic elements of learning—including books and, all too often, classrooms for the students. 
    • On Being a Teacher (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Jonathan Kozol, National Book Award-winning author and one of America’s foremost writers on social issues, offers a passionate and provocative critique on the role of the teacher in America’s public school system. Writing as a teacher, Kozol advocates an approach to education that is infused with ethical values: fairness, truth, and integrity, and a driving compassion for the world beyond the classroom. Kozol not only sheds light on what it means to be a teacher, but gives constructive suggestions on how teachers can work conscientiously within the system to foster these values in concert with parents, students and fellow teachers.

L

  • LeDoux, Joseph
    • Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: In 1996 Joseph LeDoux's The Emotional Brain presented a revelatory examination of the biological bases of our emotions and memories. Now, the world-renowned expert on the brain has produced with a groundbreaking work that tells a more profound story: how the little spaces between the neurons—the brain's synapses—are the channels through which we think, act, imagine, feel, and remember. Synapses encode the essence of personality, enabling each of us to function as a distinctive, integrated individual from moment to moment. Exploring the functioning of memory, the synaptic basis of mental illness and drug addiction, and the mechanism of self-awareness, Synaptic Self is a provocative and mind-expanding work that is destined to become a classic.
  • Liebowitz, Jay
    • Social Networking, The Essence of Innovation (3.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Social network analysis (S.N.A.) is a technique that is used to determine knowledge flows and gaps in mapping social networks for various knowledge types. Social Networking: The Essence of Innovation discusses how social networking and S.N.A. can influence innovation in an organization through the presentation of a broad range of concepts, examples, and case studies. The book's initial chapters deal with developing personal knowledge networks, linking social networking to innovation and strategic intelligence, and exploring synergies among knowledge management, business intelligence, and competitive intelligence. The introduction, an overview of social network analysis, is followed by case studies and an exploration of applications, including knowledge mapping and the analysis of organizations. Software systems devoted to these areas are described, citing results achieved, and a final chapter takes a look at future prospects, making this an essential tool for managers, executives, business analysts, educators, and strategic planners.
  • Littman, Sarah Darer
    • Confessions of a Closet Catholic (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Justine Silver's best friend, Mary Catherine McAllister, has given up chocolate for Lent, but Justine doesn't think God wants her to make that kind of sacrifice. So she's decided to give up being Jewish instead.  Eleven-year-old Justine pours her heart out to her teddy bear, "Father Ted," in a homemade closet confessional. But when Justine's beloved Bubbe suffers a stroke, Justine worries that her religious exploration is responsible. Worse, she must suddenly contemplate life without Bubbe. Ultimately, it's Bubbe's quiet understanding of Justine's search for identity that helps Justine to find faith in the most important place of all-within herself.

M

  • Mahajan, Vijay and Banga, Kamini
    • The 86% Solution (5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Most global businesses focus nearly all their efforts on selling to the wealthiest 14% of the world's population. It's getting harder and harder to make a profit that way: these markets are oversaturated, overcompetitive, and declining. The Invisible Market shows how to unleash new growth and profitability by serving the other 86%. Vihajan Mahajan offers detailed strategies and implementation techniques for product design, pricing, packaging, distribution, advertising, and more. Discover radically different 'rules of engagement' that make emerging markets tick, and how European and Asian companies are already driving billions of dollars in sales there. Mahajan shows how to understand and manage lack of infrastructure and media, low literacy levels, and 'unconventional' consumer behavior. Learn how to redefine the 'real' competition; tap into the informal economy and unconventional channels; leverage expatriate word-of-mouth; pool demand to reach critical mass; piggyback innovations on local tradition; and price and package to reflect local realities. As traditional markets become increasingly unprofitable, emerging markets become the #1 opportunity for growth.
  • Martin, Roger L.
    • The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game—changing innovation like Apple's iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative—they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results.  Why? In The Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.
  • Meyer, Richard
    • What Was Contemporary Art? (5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Contemporary art in the early twenty-first century is often discussed as if the very idea of art that is contemporary is new. Yet all works of art were once contemporary. In What Was Contemporary Art? Richard Meyer reclaims the contemporary from historical amnesia, and gives the contemporary its own art history. By exploring episodes in the study, exhibition, and reception of early twentieth-century art and visual culture, Meyer retrieves moments in the history of once-current art and redefines "the contemporary" as a condition of being alive to and alongside other moments, artists, and objects.
  • Misner, Ivan Macedonio, Mike and Garrison, Mike
    • Truth or Delusion?
      • Amazon Comment: Many books teach the "who / what / where / why / how" of professional networking. Truth or Delusion separates the reality from the fantasy by presenting truths and delusions about networking and then shows why they are either real or fakes. For example: Delusion: The best way to ensure referral success is to treat your referral sources by the "Golden Rule." Treat them the way you would want to be treated. Truth: The best way is to treat your referral sources the way THEY want to be treated. The referral process is more about emotion than facts. Find out how your referral sources want to be treated and how they would like you to treat their referrals.
  • Moskowitz, Tobias and Werthem, L. Jon
    • Scorecasting (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: In Scorecasting, University of Chicago behavioral economist Tobias Moskowitz teams up with veteran Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim to overturn some of the most cherished truisms of sports, and reveal the hidden forces that shape how basketball, baseball, football, and hockey games are played, won and lost.  Drawing from Moskowitz's original research, as well as studies from fellow economists such as bestselling author Richard Thaler, the authors look at: the influence home-field advantage has on the outcomes of games in all sports and why it exists; the surprising truth about the universally accepted axiom that defense wins championships;  the subtle biases that umpires exhibit in calling balls and strikes in key situations; the unintended consequences of referees' tendencies in every sport to "swallow the whistle," and more.

N

  • Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds
    • Shiloh (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: When Marty Preston comes across a young beagle in the hills behind his home, it's love at first sight—and also big trouble. It turns out the dog, which Marty names Shiloh, belongs to Judd Travers, who drinks too much and has a gun—and abuses his dogs. So when Shiloh runs away from Judd to Marty, Marty just has to hide him and protect him from Judd. But Marty's secret becomes too big for him to keep to himself, and it exposes his entire family to Judd's anger. How far will Marty have to go to make Shiloh his?
  • Newell, Frederick
    • Loyalty.com (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Online retailers like Amazon.com and e-Bay are changing the face of shopping­­much as malls did in the 1970s­­and companies must master new rules to keep customers coming back. Loyalty.com shows companies how to shift their focus from impersonal database marketing to true customer relationship management (CRM), blending CRM and Web strategies to outline a program for lasting customer relationships.
  • Northrop, Michael
    • Tombquest (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: From the team that brought you The 39 Clues and Spirit Animals comes a brand new epic Egyptian adventure!  Nothing can save Alex Sennefer's life. That's what all the doctors say, but his mother knows it's not true. She knows that the Lost Spells of the Egyptian Book of the Dead can crack open a door to the afterlife and pull her son back from the brink. But when she uses the spells, five evil ancients--the Death Walkers--are also brought back to life.  An ancient evil has been unleashed. Mummies are awakening. New York is overrun with scorpions. And worst of all for Alex, his mom and the Lost Spells have both disappeared. He and his best friend, Ren, will do anything to find his mom and save the world . . . even if that means going head-to-head with a Death Walker who has been plotting his revenge for 3,000 years.

O

  • Osterwalder, Alexander and Pigneur, Yves
    • Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation.  Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.

P

  • Pope, Loren
    • Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges
      • Amazon Comment: The groundbreaking guide to the 40 best colleges you've never heard of—colleges that will change your life Choosing the right college has never been more important—or more difficult. For the latest edition of this classic college guide, Hilary Masell Oswald conducted her own tours of top schools and in-depth interviews, building on Loren Pope's original to create a totally updated, more expansive work. Organized by geographic region, every profile includes a wealth of vital information, including admissions standards, distinguishing facts about the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and what faculty say about their jobs. Masell Oswald also offers a new chapter on how students with learning disabilities can find schools that fit their needs. For every prospective college student searching for more than football and frat parties, Colleges That Change Lives will prove indispensable.
    • Looking Beyond the Ivy League: Finding the College That's Right for You
      • Amazon Comment: The celebrated book that revolutionized the way Americans choose colleges-now fully revised and updated An invaluable guide with virtually no competition, this book helped to establish Loren Pope as one of the nation's most respected experts on the college application process. Now fully revised and updated, Looking Beyond the Ivy League offers a step-by-step guide to selecting the right institution, a checklist of specific questions to ask when visiting a college, the secrets to creating good applications and good applicants, and much more. With as few as one-third of college students remaining at the institution they entered as freshmen, finding the right college is harder than ever before. This book makes it easier for students and their parents.
  • Poundstone, William
    • Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: People are predictable even when they try not to be. William Poundstone demonstrates how to turn this fact to personal advantage in scores of everyday situations, from playing the lottery to buying a home. ROCK BREAKS SCISSORS is mind-reading for real life.  Will the next tennis serve go right or left? Will the market go up or down? Most people are poor at that kind of predicting. We are hard-wired to make bum bets on "trends" and "winning streaks" that are illusions. Yet ultimately we're all in the business of anticipating the actions of others. Poundstone reveals how to overcome the errors and improve the accuracy of your own outguessing. ROCK BREAKS SCISSORS is a hands-on guide to turning life's odds in your favor.

R

  • Rodriguez, Rachel Victoria
    • Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi (5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: His home is in Catalonia, a place of jagged mountain peaks and silvery olive trees, splashed by the sparkling sea. The wild beauty of this landscape makes a deep impression. He thinks of it as the Great Book of Nature, and he will read from it all of his life.  Gaudí becomes an architect, learning the rules of form and structure that buildings are supposed to follow. But the shapes and colors of the natural world still inspire him, and he works them into his buildings. Leaves climb up walls. Pillars are giant animal feet. A long bench snakes around a playground.  Antoni Gaudí turned nature into art, and in the process he revolutionized the world of architecture.
  • Roger, John and McWilliams, Peter
  • Rooney, Martin
    • Warrior Cardio (4.5 Stars 8/2015)

S

  • Schwartz, Jeffrey M. and Begley, Sharon
    • The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: A groundbreaking work of science that confirms, for the first time, the independent existence of the mind–and demonstrates the possibilities for human control over the workings of the brain.  Conventional science has long held the position that 'the mind' is merely an illusion, a side effect of electrochemical activity in the physical brain. Now in paperback, Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley's groundbreaking work, The Mind and the Brain, argues exactly the opposite: that the mind has a life of its own.Dr Schwartz, a leading researcher in brain dysfunctions, and Wall Street Journal science columnist Sharon Begley demonstrate that the human mind is an independent entity that can shape and control the functioning of the physical brain. Their work has its basis in our emerging understanding of adult neuroplasticity–the brain's ability to be rewired not just in childhood, but throughout life, a trait only recently established by neuroscientists.
  • Smith, Shawn T.
    • The User's Guide to the Human Mind: Why Our Brains Make Us Unhappy, Anxious, and Neurotic and What We Can Do About It (5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Your mind is not built to make you happy; it’s built to help you survive. So far, it’s done a great job! But in the process, it may have developed some bad habits, like avoiding new experiences or scrounging around for problems where none exist. Is it any wonder that worry, bad moods, and self-critical thoughts so often get in the way of enjoying life?  Based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), The User’s Guide to the Human Mind is a road map to the puzzling inner workings of the human mind, replete with exercises for overriding the mind’s natural impulses toward worry, self-criticism, and fear, and helpful tips for acting in the service of your values and emotional well-being—even when your mind has other plans.
  • Somerson, Rosanne  Hermano, Mara and Maeda, John
    • The Art of Critical Making: Rhode Island School of Design on Creative Practice
      • Amazon Comment: At Rhode Island School of Design students are immersed in a culture where making questions, ideas, and objects, using and inventing materials, and activating experience all serve to define a form of critical thinking—albeit with one's hands—i.e. "critical making." The Art of Critical Making, by RISD faculty and staff, describes fundamental aspects of RISD's approach to "critical making" and how this can lead to innovation. The process of making taught at RISD is deeply introspective, passionate, and often provocative.
  • Spielvogel, Jackson J.

T

  • Thoren, Kirsta
    • Start Your Own Staffing Service (4 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: At Rhode Island School of Design students are immersed in a culture where making questions, ideas, and objects, using and inventing materials, and activating experience all serve to define a form of critical thinking—albeit with one's hands—i.e. "critical making." The Art of Critical Making, by RISD faculty and staff, describes fundamental aspects of RISD's approach to "critical making" and how this can lead to innovation. The process of making taught at RISD is deeply introspective, passionate, and often provocative.

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  • Webb, Tim and Beaumont, Stephen
    • The World Atlas of Beer: The Essential Guide to the Beers of the World (5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment: Got beer? This comprehensive, fully illustrated volume on beer by two of the world's leading authorities is more than just an in-depth history of this delightful beverage--its origins, brewing methods and technologies, trends, and more--from ancient times until the present day. It is also a detailed overview of more than 500 of the greatest beers from around the world, with sections devoted to major beer-producing countries and regions, including information on craft brewing, emerging markets, extreme beers, future-trend forecasts, and more.
  • Wilson, Melissa and Mohl, Larry
    • Networking Is Dead (4.5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment:  Are you...hoping your next networking event will be “the one”?...collecting mountains of business cards?..having countless breakfasts and lunches?...thinking about what you give and get?  Then your way of networking is...dead.  With social networks, teleconferencing, and webinars, you are able to meet more people in more ways than ever before. But that doesn’t mean you’re creating new possibilities through valuable connections.

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  • Yang, Andrew
    • Smart People Should Build Things (5 Stars 8/2015)
      • Amazon Comment:  Andrew Yang, the founder of Venture for America, offers a unique solution to our country’s economic and social problems—our smart people should be building things. Smart People Should Build Things offers a stark picture of the current culture and a revolutionary model that will redirect a generation of ambitious young people to the critical job of innovating and building new businesses.


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