When Grief Comes: Finding Strength for Today and Hope for Tomorrow

By Kirk H. Neely

Full of compassion and wisdom, When Grief Comes helps readers understand how to come to terms with death, whether expected or sudden. Call Number BV 4905.S .N44 2007

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Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness

By Roger Penrose

A New York Times bestseller when it appeared in 1989, Roger Penrose’s The Emperor’s New Mind was universally hailed as a marvelous survey of modern physics as well as a brilliant reflection on the human mind, offering a new perspective on the scientific landscape and a visionary glimpse of the possible future of science. Now, in Shadows of the Mind, Penrose offers another exhilarating look at modern science as he mounts an even more powerful attack on artificial intelligence. But perhaps more important, in this volume he points the way to a new science, one that may eventually explain the physical basis of the human mind. Call Number Q335 .P416 1996

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Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family

By Nancy Folbre

Nancy Folbre challenges the conventional economist’s assumption that parents have children for the same reason that they acquire pets—primarily for the pleasure of their company. Children become the workers and taxpayers of the next generation, and “investments” in them offer a significant payback to other participants in the economy.

Yet parents, especially mothers, pay most of the costs. The high price of childrearing pushes many families into poverty, often with adverse consequences for children themselves.

Parents spend time as well as money on children. Yet most estimates of the “cost” of children ignore the value of this time. Folbre provides a startlingly high but entirely credible estimate of the value of parental time per child by asking what it would cost to purchase a comparable substitute for it.

She also emphasizes the need for better accounting of public expenditure on children over the life cycle and describes the need to rethink the very structure and logic of the welfare state. A new institutional structure could promote more cooperative, sustainable, and efficient commitments to the next generation. Call Number HQ536 .F65 2008

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Love’s Executioner

by Irvin D. Yalom, Randall Weingarten

Call # RC489 . E93 Y345 1990

Synopsis

The collection of ten absorbing tales by master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter. In recounting his patients’ dilemmas, Yalom not only gives us a rare and enthralling glimpse into their personal desires and motivations but also tells us his own story as he struggles to reconcile his all-too human responses with his sensibility as a psychiatrist. Not since Freud has an author done so much to clarify what goes on between a psychotherapist and a patient.

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Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence

by Keli Goff

Call Number: E185 .G55 2008

For the last forty years the label “black voter” has been virtually synonymous with “Democrat” but a new generation of voters is changing that. In her provocative new book Party Crashing, political commentator Keli Goff introduces America’s newest swing voter. Like soccer moms and Nascar dads before them, young, black voters born after the Civil Rights Movement are becoming increasingly up for grabs, politically speaking.

While the politics of their parents and grandparents were shaped by the Civil Rights Movement, Goff notes that the politics of her peers, members of the post-Civil Rights generation, have been shaped by a number of cultural influencers that transcend race; from “The Cosby Show,” to icons such as Oprah Winfrey, and the tragedy of 9/11. Civil rights has long been the defining political issue for black Americans but for this emerging generation of black voters, civil rights is now one issue among many that define their politics. As a result, they are challenging the idea that one’s skin color should color one’s political identity, and they are also challenging the idea that they should be Democrats.

Since the support of black Americans has been crucial to the success of democratic candidates—from Presidents Kennedy to Clinton—this shift could be one of the most important developments in modern politics, arguably as important as the Civil Rights movement itself. Along with the political shift occurring, Goff also examines the cultural shift that is taking place on a wide range of issues including: gay marriage, hip-hop, and the emergence of what Goff calls “Generation Obama.”

Through in-depth interviews with young, black voters, groundbreaking survey research, and conversations with a range of high profile Americans—from Colin Powell to Russell Simmons—Party Crashing explores the issues and people who have helped shape the politics of the post-Civil Rights Generation, and how this generation is reshaping America. (Description by BarnesandNobles.com)

My Gender Workbook

by Kate Bornstein

Call Number: HQ1075 .B69 1998

Kate Bornstein’s 1994 book of autobiographical theory, Gender Outlaw, drew a line in the sand about the whole boy/girl thing. “Who needs it?” America’s most active transgender activist questioned. Now, in My Gender Workbook, Bornstein has assembled a collage of simple exercises, quizzes, puzzles, and essay questions that systematically break down our ingrained ideas about how women and men–and whoever is in between–should act. Bornstein’s breezy, “hey, let’s all discover who we might really be” style works to make this potentially threatening material accessible and even intriguing to almost all readers. Just glance down, check out who–or what–you thought you were, and get ready to answer a few questions. (Description by Amazon.com)

Insurgents, Terrorists, and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat

by Richard H. Shultz and Andrew Dew

Call Number: U240 .S34 2006

Some academics can see clearly what military generals and Pentagon civilian planners apparently cannotthat the nature of warfare has changed drastically in the past few decades. Shultz and Dew, of the Tufts University International Security Studies Program, grasp that combat involving nongovernment forces calls for innovative tactics by the U.S. military. Failing to understand the changed nature of warfare can lead to deadly consequences, the authors write, as the Iraq insurgency shows. This scholarly book is grounded in warfare theory, but is easily accessible for generalist readers. Looking at post-1990 conflicts in Somalia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, “in which the armies of modern nation-states fought armed groups, often with great difficulty, in traditional societal settings,” Shultz and Dew propose new taxonomies, describe the reasons nongovernment combatants wage war, and the nontraditional approaches those combatants use. Government strategists hoping to defeat these nonstate warriors must learn about the cultures and traditions of those groups rather than relying solely on how much firepower they possess, the authors argue. Helpfully moving beyond theory, they suggest ways that Pentagon policy makers and field commanders can mine historical, anthropological and cultural studies to understand shadowy enemies. (Description by Publishers Weekly)

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

Call Number BF441 .B725 2008

A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.

Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).

Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.

Every once in awhile, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull. (Description by BarnesandNobles.com)

When Mothers Kill: Interviews from Prison

By Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer

Call Number: HV9471 .O34 2008

Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer don’t write for news magazines or prime-time investigative television shows, but the stories they tell hold the same fascination. When Mothers Kill is compelling. In a clear, direct fashion the authors recount what they have learned from interviewing women imprisoned for killing their children. Readers will be shocked and outraged—as much by the violence the women have endured in their own lives as by the violence they engaged in—but they will also be informed and even enlightened.

Oberman and Meyer are leading authorities on their subject. Their 2001 book, Mothers Who Kill Their Children, drew from hundreds of newspaper articles as well as from medical and social science journals to propose a comprehensive typology of “maternal filicide.” In that same year, driven by a desire to test their typology—and to better understand child-killing women not just as types but as individuals—Oberman and Meyer began interviewing women who had been incarcerated for the crime. After conducting lengthy, face-to-face interviews with forty prison inmates, they returned and selected eight women to speak with at even greater length. This new book begins with these stories, recounted in the matter-of-fact words of the inmates themselves.

There are collective themes that emerge from these individual accounts, including histories of relentless interpersonal violence, troubled relationships with parents (particularly with mothers), twisted notions of romantic love, and deep conflicts about motherhood. These themes structure the book’s overall narrative, which also includes an insightful examination of the social and institutional systems that have failed these women. Neither the mothers nor the authors offer these stories as excuses for these crimes.

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Practical Wisdom for Parents: Demystifying the Preschool Years

By Nancy Schulman and Ellen Birnbaum

Call Number: HQ769 .S3355 2007

This reassuring guide to navigating nursery school life-both at home and in the classroom-is the most comprehensive book on the subject. Nancy Schulman and Ellen Birnbaum draw on their decades of experience at the 92nd Street Y Nursery School to respond to parents’ hunger for practical information on a wide range of topics, including:

• What to look for in a preschool
• Strategies for separation, discipline, toilet training, and bedtime
• The best toys, books, and activities at every stage
• How to stimulate your children without over scheduling them
• Ways to talk about difficult topics like divorce, illness, or death
• How to support your child’s social and intellectual development

Schulman and Birnbaum have devoted their lives to listening to and understanding young children, and the advice they offer is as warm and humorous as it is comforting and wise.

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