Archives de catégorie : Nonfiction

ATTENTION SPAN de Gloria Mark

A book on the crisis of focus, by Dr. Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research, and a leading expert in the fields of attention, multitasking, and human-computer interaction.

ATTENTION SPAN:
The Surprising Science of How We Focus, Why That’s Changing, and How Rhythm Became the New Flow
by Gloria Mark
Hanover Square Press, early 2023
(via Park & Fine)

Psychologist Gloria Mark began researching how technology affects human attention when the first personal computers were beginning to arrive in offices. Over the last 30 years, she has tracked changes in our attention spans, stress levels, and the fundamental way our brains process information.
Now in ATTENTION SPAN, Dr Mark shows how much of what we think we know about attention is wrong. She explores the current crisis of focus and productivity that is so deeply entwined with rising rates of anxiety and depression, and investigates what we might be able to do about it. Delving into the newly celebrated concept of ‘kinetic attention’, she introduces a more balanced understanding of the rhythm between deep focus and less focused states, which may actually serve to make us happier and more productive in the long term.

« Gloria Mark is the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking in our increasingly digital world. Her book is a must-read for anyone concerned about our diminishing attention span. » —Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of A World Without Email and Deep Work

Dr. Gloria Mark is Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research, and a leading expert in the fields of attention, multitasking, and human-computer interaction. Dr. Mark has spoken on stages that include SXSW, Talks at Google, Microsoft Faculty Summit, and the Aspen Ideas Festival, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, NPR, Quartz, Slate, and more.

CHANGING CHILDREN’S LIVES WITH HYPNOSIS de Ran D. Anbar

CHANGING CHILDREN’S LIVES WITH HYPNOSIS offers examples of using hypnosis with children to address physical and mental challenges. A timely collection of patients’ healing experiences, the story of how these events changed one physician’s approach to medicine, and the takeaway information parents and practitioners should consider as they deal with medical and psychological challenges in their children’s and patients’ lives.

CHANGING CHILDREN’S LIVES WITH HYPNOSIS:
A Journey to the Center
by Ran D. Anbar
Rowman & Littlefield, November 2021
(via The Martell Agency)

Every year millions of pediatric patients could benefit from hypnosis therapy to deal with and alleviate physical and psychological symptoms big and small. The benefits of hypnosis-facilitated therapy range from complete cures to small improvements. They extend beyond the physical and into the psychological and spiritual, building confidence, positivity and resilience. They include the empowerment of children with chronic health issues to feel more in control of their own minds, bodies and circumstances. They sometimes lead to the reduction or even elimination of medications. Hypnosis is painless, non-invasive, and cost-effective. It doesn’t preclude any other treatment, and drawbacks are virtually nonexistent.
In a world where the doctor’s primary role has become more and more one of a technician—pinpoint a problem, prescribe a solution, and move to the next patient—hypnosis brings connection and art back into the process. It relies on a relationship between practitioner and patient, encourages creativity and expression, and allows patients to take ownership of their experience with the support and encouragement of their doctors. Children deserve the opportunity to receive gentle, thoughtful, empowering, and effective treatment in whatever form it’s available. Hypnosis therapy offers all of those things, and it’s time for patients, parents, and medical practitioners to embrace it—even to demand it.
Through meaningful stories and expert explanation, this book takes readers through the process of hypnosis for children and its myriad benefits for overall wellness.

Ran D. Anbar, MD, FAAP, is board certified in both pediatric pulmonology and general pediatrics and offers hypnosis and counseling services at Center Point Medicine in La Jolla, California, and Syracuse, New York. Dr. Anbar is a fellow, approved consultant, and past president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. Dr. Anbar is a leader in the field of clinical hypnosis, and his over twenty years of experience have allowed him to successfully treat over 7,000 children. He also served as a professor of pediatrics and medicine and the director of pediatric pulmonology at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, for 21 years. Dr. Anbar has been a guest editor and advisory editor for the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. His experience has offered him the opportunity to direct and co-direct more than 20 clinical workshops on the subject of pediatric hypnosis. He has trained more than a thousand healthcare providers in the use of hypnosis and lectured all over the world. In addition to his teaching and lecturing experiences, Dr. Anbar has been the principal investigator in 10 published case studies of pediatric hypnosis and has been involved in research trials of children with cystic fibrosis and other pulmonary disorders. He is a published author of more than 50 articles, abstracts, and book chapters on pediatric functional disorders and pediatric hypnosis.

THIRTEEN WAYS TO SMELL A TREE de David George Haskell

THIRTEEN WAYS TO SMELL A TREE takes you on a journey to connect with trees through the sense most aligned to our emotions and memories.

THIRTEEN WAYS TO SMELL A TREE
by David George Haskell
‎ Octopus UK/Viking US, October 2021
(via The Martell Agency)

Thirteen essays are included that explore the evocative scents of trees, from the smell of a book just printed as you first open its pages, to the calming scent of Linden blossom, to the ingredients of a particularly good gin & tonic. In your hand: a highball glass, beaded with cool moisture. In your nose: the aromatic embodiment of globalized trade. The spikey, herbal odour of European juniper berries. A tang of lime juice from a tree descended from wild progenitors in the foothills of the Himalayas. Bitter quinine, from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, spritzed into your nostrils by the pop of sparkling tonic water. Take a sip, feel the aroma and taste of three continents converge.
Each essay also contains a practice the reader is invited to experience. For example, taking a tree inventory of our own home, appreciating just how many things around us came from trees. And if you’ve ever hugged a tree when no one was looking, try breathing in the scents of different trees that live near you, the smell of pine after the rain, the refreshing, mind-clearing scent of a eucalyptus leaf crushed in your hand.

British-born biologist, award-winning author and celebrated academic David George Haskell’s work integrates scientific, literary and contemplative studies of the natural world. Haskell holds degrees from the University of Oxford (BA) and from Cornell University (PhD). He is Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of the South, where he served as Chair of Biology. His scientific research on animal ecology, evolution and conservation has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the World Wildlife Fund among others. He serves on the boards and advisory committees of local and national land conservation groups. His previous books include The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors and The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature.

FOOLED de Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simmons

From Wall Street Ponzi schemes to Nigerian email scams, from chess cheaters with hidden computers to Bridge cheaters with covert signals, from psychic mediums preying on credulous audiences to scientific fraudsters making up results their colleagues want to hear, from art forgers to deceptive marketers, our world is filled with people who want to fool us..

FOOLED:
How Cheating Works and What You Can Do About It
by Christopher F. Chabris and Daniel J. Simmons
‎ Basic Books, June 2023
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

FOOLED is a book about why we fall for the schemes of liars, deceivers, marketers, con artists, and anyone else who tries to trick us into believing or doing something in their interest rather than our own. It identifies ten specific reasons why we are easily deceived, drawing upon classic and current research in cognitive psychology and the social sciences to explain exactly how deception works, why all of us are fooled at least some of the time, and how we can avoid being scammed—or even scam the scammers in return. FOOLED is not a book about why people cheat, but about how they manage to get away with it.
Chris and Dan’s first book, The Invisible Gorilla, was about how the brain’s limited capacities for attention, memory, and understanding make us miss so much in everyday life. It was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and bestseller published in over twenty languages.

Daniel Simons is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the University of Illinois. Previously he was an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He received his B.A. from Carleton College and a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Cornell University. He is one of the leading researchers in the world studying visual cognition and visual awareness, and he has made pioneering discoveries about the limitations of human perception, memory, and awareness.
Christopher Chabris is a Professor at Geisinger, an integrated healthcare system in Pennsylvania, where he is also co-director of the Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program and faculty co-director of the Behavioral Insights Team. Chris received his A.B. in computer science and his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University, where he was also a Lecturer and Research Associate for many years. His research, published in leading journals, focuses on several areas: attention, intelligence, behavior genetics, and decision-making.

GETTING OUT OF SAIGON de Ralph White

The gripping and remarkable true story of author Ralph White’s desperate effort to save the entire staff of the Saigon branch of Chase Manhattan bank and their families before the city fell to the North Vietnamese Army.

GETTING OUT OF SAIGON:
How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians
by Ralph White
‎ Simon & Schuster, June 2022
(via Defiore & Company)

In April 1975, Ralph White was asked by his boss to transfer from the Bangkok branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank to the Saigon Branch. He was tasked with closing the branch if and when it appeared that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese army and ensure the safety of the senior Vietnamese employees.
But when he arrived, he realized the situation in Saigon was far more perilous than he had imagined. The senior staff members there urged him to evacuate the entire staff of the branch and their families, which was far more than he was authorized to do. Quickly he realized that no one would be safe when the city fell, and it was no longer a question of whether to evacuate but how.
GETTING OUT OF SAIGON is the remarkable story of a city on the eve of destruction and the colorful characters who respond differently to impending doom. It’s about one man’s quest to save innocent lives not because it was ordered but because it was the right thing to do.

In 1973, Ralph White joined the Chase Manhattan Bank and worked as a business development officer in Thailand and Hong Kong; during his tenure in Thailand, he was temporarily assigned to Vietnam to close the bank’s Saigon branch as the city fell. Upon return to Chase’s New York headquarters in 1981, he worked in the International Strategic Planning Division and was a Vice President when he left. Over the next twenty years, White worked as a business development officer with three foreign banks and earned an MBA at Columbia University. In 2009, he founded the Columbia Fiction Foundry, a writing workshop for alumni of Columbia University, as a shared interest group under the Office of Alumni and Development. Having served as the organization’s president for its first decade, White now serves as its Chairman. He lives in New York City and Litchfield, Connecticut.