Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2024 Adult Nonfiction

SUPER NINTENDO de Keza MacDonald

The first major cultural history of the biggest form of entertainment on the planet– video games – by the world’s pre-eminent video games journalist, with unique never-before-granted access to Nintendo HQ.

SUPER NINTENDO:
How One Innovative Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun
by Keza MacDonald
Faber, summer 2025
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

Whether it’s Mario or Animal Crossing; Tetris on the Game Boy or The Legend of Zelda on the Switch; almost everybody who’s ever held a controller has been touched by a Nintendo game.

For most of its 130-year history, Nintendo, the Kyoto-based entertainment giant, made playing cards. But in 1981, after a few years experimenting in the burgeoning world of electronic toys, it created an arcade game called Donkey Kong. Since then, Nintendo has delighted hundreds of millions of people all over the world with their fizzily creative, brilliantly weird, and enormously fun video games, that issue forth from its secretive Japanese headquarters.

Nintendo is now as ubiquitous and culturally relevant as Marvel, Apple or Disney. Like Disney, it has become a cross-generational treasure, as the kids who were captivated by Super Mario Bros on the SNES now play Nintendo classics with their own children, and proud parents who once doodled pictures of Pikachu on their class notebooks chaperone their offspring to the Pokémon World Championships.

A lot has changed since 1981, but kids still know who Mario is.

Using Nintendo’s most iconic and recognisable games (alongside a smattering of fascinating but less-well-known ones) as a way in, SUPER NINTENDO will tell both a cultural history of video games and posit a narrative about how fun is our primary desire when we consume media.

Taking readers through Nintendo’s history – as so through the history of the medium itself – it will tell the stories of some of the millions of people whose lives have been touched not only by Nintendo games, but gaming more generally: from real-life Pokémon masters to video game developers, parents of autistic children to ordinary players on the sofa, the bus, or the school playground.

Using the story of Nintendo, and its games, to examine how and why the world has moved toward video games as its pre-eminent form of fun, SUPER NINTENDO is the first book to truly examine the dominant cultural medium of the 21st century.

Keza MacDonald played her first Nintendo game at the age of 6; when she was 11, her dream was to go to the Pokémon World Championships. (She finally achieved this aged 25. It was magical.) She is the Video Games Editor at The Guardian, and was previously UK Editor of IGN and Kotaku, two of the biggest specialist games websites in the world, read by over 100 million unique users. She lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with her husband and two sons.

THE BRIGHT SIDE de Sumit Paul-Choudhury

In the bestselling tradition of Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now and Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus, an engaging and interdisciplinary look at the history, philosophy, and psychology of optimism, and why being optimistic is a moral obligation—even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.

THE BRIGHT SIDE:
Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World
by Sumit Paul-Choudhury
Canongate, January 2025
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

Scrolling through our daily newsfeeds we see war, political unrest, the swift rise of artificial intelligence, and a looming climate crisis – just a few of the tragedies fostering pessimism. So, in the face of such glum events, how do we stay optimistic? And, more important, why should we?

In THE BRIGHT SIDE, Sumit Paul-Choudhury tackles these pressing questions, arguing that optimism is not only essential for overcoming the obstacles ahead but also fundamental to human resilience and progress. Drawing on a wide array of evidence across diverse fields, Paul-Choudhury delves into the underappreciated philosophical roots of optimism, examines its impact on mental health and professional success, and discusses how an optimistic outlook supports a scientific and rational world view.

Beyond theoretical discussions, THE BRIGHT SIDE shows how we can apply the principles of optimism to address complex challenges, particularly the environmental crisis. Through visits to innovative projects like the futuristic LINE city in Saudi Arabia, the Faslane Peace Camp in Scotland, initiatives related to the New Green Deal, and anecdotes covering everything from Ernest Shackleton to Bitcoin mania, the book illustrates optimism in action.

A salve for dark times, THE BRIGHT SIDE is a lens through which we can identify and solve the problems we face and create a better future for ourselves and generations to come.

Sumit Paul-Choudhury writes, thinks, and dreams about science, technology, and the future. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of New Scientist, a trained astrophysicist, and a former business journalist covering financial engineering and technology. Currently, he devotes most of his time to his creative studio Alternity, developing speculative histories and social experiments. A Sloan Fellow at London Business School and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he lives, works, and problem solves in London with his wife and young twins.

HIGH FUNCTIONING de Judith Joseph

The first book to unmask the hidden face of depression. If you look fine on the outside but don’t feel fine on the inside, learn five tools to break the cycle of High Functioning Depression and experience more joy in your life.

HIGH FUNCTIONING:
Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy
by Dr. Judith Joseph
Little, Brown Spark, April 2025
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Many of us experience periods in our lives when something feels “off”: when we struggle to find joy in happy moments, and take little pleasure in things we used to enjoy. We might be motivated and productive at work, pulling our weight at home, and conducting a normal social life—but behind that façade we are barely surviving, and certainly not thriving.

We’re all familiar with what depression can look like, but there’s another, lesser known face to this illness. High functioning depression (HFD) doesn’t conform to the image of depression that typically comes to mind. As a result, people with HFD often have no idea why they are suffering, or what to do about it.

In High Functioning, Dr. Judith Joseph reveals that what we’re feeling is not simply “negativity” or stress. Drawing on original research, client cases, and her personal experience with HFD, Dr. Judith radically shifts the way those of us with HFD see ourselves, and empowers us with five simple tools to reclaim our lives from this widespread yet poorly understood condition.

By following her 5 V’s – validation, venting, values, vision, and vitals – we can wake up happier, find more satisfaction in our relationships, and feel better in the present while also looking forward to the future.

Judith Joseph MD, MBA, is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and researcher who specializes in mental health and trauma. She is the founder of and chief investigator at Manhattan Behavioral Medicine, New York City’s premier clinical research site, a clinical assistant professor in child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, and chairwoman of the Women in Medicine Board at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. As one of social media’s favorite psychiatrists, Dr. Judith gets over 15 million views a month. Her Instagram, full of funny, role-playing videos and revealing insights, got more than 10 million impressions and her TikToks were viewed more than 5 million times just last month alone. She holds an undergraduate degree from Duke as well as a medical doctorate and master’s in business administration from Columbia.

CRY WHEN THE BABY CRIES de Becky Barnicoat

Born out of a viral “Shouts & Murmurs” piece in The New Yorker, this darkly humorous, charming, and brilliant graphic memoir, in the tradition of Allie Brosh and Roz Chast, brings the first few years of parenthood to life

CRY WHEN THE BABY CRIES
by Becky Barnicoat
Gallery, March2025
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary)

With the wit of a comedian and the observational skills of a sociologist surveying a new subculture, Becky Barnicoat writes about her first few years of parenthood with warmth, sharp insight, and uproarious humor in her debut graphic memoir. Barnicoat’s prose is always relatable, smart, and so funny while discussing everything from how ignoring women’s pain is baked into the practice of obstetrics to the impossibility of putting a child down drowsy but awake while you are permanently drowsy but awake, to the tyranny of gentle parenting, and more. Barnicoat gives us permission to cry when the baby cries, and also laugh, snort, lie on the floor naked, drool, and revel in a deeply strange new world ruled by a tyrannical tiny leader, growing bigger and more cherished by the day.

Becky Barnicoat has drawn for The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, The Guardian, Netflix, and much more. Along with her debut book, CRY WHEN THE BABY CRIES, she has also illustrated Holding the Baby by Nell Frizzell and 101 Tiny Changes to Brighten Your World by Ailbhe Malone. She lives in England. 

ARISTOTLE’S GUIDE TO SELF-PERSUASION de Jay Heinrichs

Show yourself who’s in charge using the original art of persuasion, backed by contemporary pop culture examples that make transforming your habits and achieving goals easy, even fun—from the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing

ARISTOTLE’S GUIDE TO SELF-PERSUASION:
How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life
by Jay Heinrichs
Crown, April 2025
(via DeFiore and Company)

Rhetoric once sat at the center of elite education. Alexander the Great, Shakespeare, and Martin Luther King, Jr., used it to build empires, write deathless literature, and inspire democracies. Now it will help you to take leadership over yourself; not through pop psychology or empty inspiration, but with persuasive tools that have been tested for more than three thousand years. In Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion, Heinrichs helps readers persuade their most difficult audiences—themselves—by using techniques invented by the likes of Aristotle and Cicero and deployed by our culture’s most persuasive characters. With their help, rhetoric can convert the most negative situations into positive ones.

Heinrichs brings in examples from history and pop culture—Winston Churchill, Iron Man, Dolly Parton, and the woman who serendipitously invented the chocolate chip cookie—to illustrate the concepts. But the core of the book tests the tools of self-persuasion and asks: Can the same techniques that seduce lovers, sell diet books, and overturn governments help us achieve our most desired goals?

Filled with entertaining and scientific studies that showcase the power of what language can do for you, Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion will teach you how to be the most successful person you can be, just by talking to yourself.

Jay Heinrichs is the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing. He spent twenty-six years as a writer, editor, and magazine publishing executive before becoming a full-time advocate for the lost art of rhetoric. He now lectures widely on the subject, to audiences ranging from Ivy League students and NASA scientists to Southwest Airlines executives, and runs the language blog figarospeech. He lives with his wife in New Hampshire.