Little Brown Spark

The little-known true story of George Dinning, a freed slave, and Colonel Bennett H. Young, a Confederate war hero, who in 1899 joined forces to take on a Kentucky mob in court after Dinning was beate

A pioneering anthropologist takes readers on a journey through the rich tapestry of human ritual―showing how and why our most irrational behaviors are a key driver of our success. “Important . . . and a true delight to read.” (Paul Bloom, author of Against Empathy) Ritual is one of the oldest, and certainly most enigmatic, threads in the history of human culture. It presents a profound paradox: people ascribe the utmost importance to their rituals, but few can explain why they are so important. Apparently pointless ceremonies pervade every documented society, from handshakes to hexes, hazings to parades. Before we ever learned to farm, we were gathering in giant stone temples to perform elaborate rites and ceremonies. And yet, though rituals exist in every culture and can persist nearly unchanged for centuries, their logic has remained a mystery―until now. In Ritual, pathfinding scientist Dimitris Xygalatas leads us on an enlightening tour through this shadowy realm of human behavior.

Learn how to succeed at interview mind games and win job offers at A‑list companies, with more than eighty difficult and devious questions, puzzles, and brain teasersEach year about 28 million Americans begin a search for a new job. Many more live in the age of the permanent job search, their online profiles eternally awaiting a better offer. Job seekers are more mobile and better informed than ever, aspiring to work for employers offering an appealing culture, a robust menu of perks, and opportunities for personal fulfillment and advancement. The result is that millions of applications stream to the handful of companies that regularly top listings of the best companies to work for: Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Alphabet, Disney, SpaceX, Oracle, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, and others. Tesla has received as many as 200 applications for each open position. How do selective employers choose which people to hire? It’s through interviews asking uniquely demanding questions testing imagination, persi

Deepen your connection to the natural world with this inspiring meditation, "a path to the place where science and spirit meet" (Robin Wall Kimmerer).In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth?Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways―from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness―and wildness―that sustains humans and all of life.In the tradition

While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place. Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically-grounded explanation for our love of alcohol. Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Slingerland shows that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers. Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits p

A fascinating and gripping account of the billion-dollar timber black market -- and how it intersects with environmentalism, class, and culture.In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber theft cases, she introduces us to law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels, and indigenous communities along the way.The morality of tree poaching and of conservation are not as simple as they initially seem: yes, old growth trees are a treasure that should be enjoyed by all (human and wildlife alike), but the preservation and protection of land must be undertaken thoughtfully, so whole communities are not uprooted or marginalized while new boundaries are drawn. As Bourgon discovers, failing to do so can have catastrophic results.Featuring excellent investigative reporting, fascinating characters, political analy

A deeply researched and beautifully written account of how the human brain evolved, from the earliest primates through the modern age.The human brain is an astonishing thing. No other life form on the planet has a brain like ours. How did such a unique brain emerge? How did a bundle of cells weighing just 1.2 kg give rise to conscious, selfaware beings capable of understanding time, language, mathematics, and music, of exploring outer space and sequencing their own DNA? From what curious blend of nature and nurture did such astonishing intelligence arise? The answer to these questions and more is a 7-million-year-long saga. It is the story of how the human brain evolved.A Brain Like No Other is the definitive book on the evolution of the human mind. A sweeping natural history, it describes the remarkable origin of our species most mysterious organ and how it has developed into its miraculous modern form. A Brain Like No Other also sets out to answer existential questions about what the

A revelatory new framework for setting and achieving your goals, from a psychologist on the cutting edge of motivational science―“compelling” (Carol Dweck, author of Mindset) A great deal of ink has b

Increase your spending power, enhance your standard of living, and make your own Money Magic.Laurence Kotlikoff, one of our nation’s premier personal finance experts and co-author of the New York Time

Take control of your life with this essential handbook of everyday spells for the modern witch, filled with beautiful illustrations and helpful tips.Every witch needs a book of spells...The worlds mos

A revolutionary new understanding of identity, showing how our groups have a powerful influence on our feelings, beliefs, and behaviorand how these shared identities can inspire both personal change a

What if you could upgrade your brain in 15 minutes a day? Let Elizabeth Ricker, an MIT and Harvard-trained brain researcher turned Silicon Valley technologist, show you how.Join Ricker on a wild and e

Want to upgrade your brain? Learn how in 15 minutes a day. One catch: you'll need to become a human guinea pig first... A decade ago, MIT and Harvard-trained researcher Elizabeth Ricker set out to ans

How to succeed at interview mind games and win job offers at A‑list companies, with 70 difficult and devious questions, puzzles, and brain teasers ― from the author of Are You Smart Enough to Work at

A deep dive into the alcohol-soaked origins of civilization and the evolutionary roots of humanity's appetite for intoxication.While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history o

From the bestselling author ofThinking, Fast and Slow,the co-author ofNudge,and the author ofYou Are About to Make a Terrible Mistake!comesNoise, a groundbreaking exploration of why people make bad ju

From digital-age parenting expert Jordan Shapiro, a thoughtful and long-overdue exploration of fatherhood and masculinity in the 21st century.There are hundreds of books on parenting, and with good re

A beautifully written manifesto for our complex time, Rooted inspires readers to deepen their connection with nature in unexpected way, and to act powerfully on the earth's behalf. In Rooted, cutting-

If you're like most people, odds are you aren't getting enough sleep. Thanks to shifts in our culture America is in the midst of an epidemic of sleeplessness, and unfortunately, sleep deprivation has