Archives de catégorie : Nonfiction

MODERN MOTHERHOOD de Riley Sheehey

A beautiful illustrated collection of art and musings that highlights the simple joys of caregiving from artist and social media star Riley Sheehey.

MODERN MOTHERHOOD:
Celebrating Quiet Moments of Love and Care
by Riley Sheehey
Abrams Image, March 2025

Multimedia artist Riley Sheehey brings together a charming collection of 100 illustrations of the sweet and often unobserved moments between children and their caregivers.

These aren’t the typical milestones we tend to capture in photos but rather the subtle moments of everyday life that make lasting memories like dancing in the kitchen, playing peek-a-boo, or a taking a sunny nap at the beach.

Originally inspired by Delft tiles, the 400+-year-old blue and white pottery from the Netherlands, Riley started sharing her illustrations on her Instagram account, resonating with thousands of mothers, nannies, teachers, and anyone who has experienced the joys of caring for little ones.

Simple, spare captions allow space for the reader to reflect on their own memories or anticipate experiences to come with their loved ones, and ultimately, pause and appreciate more of these moments as they’re happening.

Riley Sheehey is a watercolor and multimedia artist and textile designer. Before becoming an artist full-time in 2017, she taught elementary school art and developed a love for whimsical styles and playful details. Her artwork, which has been featured in Southern Living, Veranda, Victoria, and the Cottage Journal, reflects this childlike view of the world with fun color palettes and an attention to detail that evokes a viewer’s curiosity. While her work and new ventures are constantly evolving, she continues to prioritize incorporating personal elements in her art that connect the viewer with her practice. She lives in Falls Church, Virginia, with her husband, daughter, and dog.

MICRODOSING de James Fadiman & Jordan Gruber

James Fadiman, an early psychedelic researcher, and co-author Jordan Gruber’s MICRODOSING FOR HEALTH, HEALING AND ENHANCED PERFORMANCE is the first comprehensive book on microdosing, using new research and extensive reports from individuals to describe the possibilities of the practice.

MICRODOSING FOR HEALTH, HEALING, AND ENHANCED PERFORMANCE
by James Fadiman & Jordan Gruber
St. Martin’s Press, February 2025
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency)

Microdosing is proving to be a safe and powerful approach to a wide range of health conditions and enhanced performance. Partly responsible for modern microdosing’s development and current popularity, the authors answer hundreds of questions, blending extensive research with detailed personal accounts from contributors worldwide. The book also contains wide-ranging microdosing history, research, and science.

People have microdosed successfully:

· to alleviate symptoms of depression, ADHD, chronic pain, and long COVID
· for enhanced focus, mental acuity, and physical abilities (including sports)
· to help taper off pharmaceuticals, especially antidepressants and stimulants
· to improve food habits, sleep, and relationships
· to become more aware of personal habit patterns, others’ feelings, and natural surroundings
· to reduce stress and anxiety
· to help over 30 specific health concerns

This book does not provide medical or legal advice. Readers should speak to their doctor before engaging in any course of microdosing.

James Fadiman was introduced to psychedelics by Ram Dass six decades ago. Fifteen years ago, he began compiling thousands of stories from microdosers who used his protocol and now has the largest qualitative database on microdosing in the world. He’s been the godfather to anyone interested in the field, from Michael Pollan to novelist Ayelet Waldman.

Jordan Gruber has authored, coauthored, or edited many nonfiction books, from forensics and finances to health and psychology, including, with Fadiman, Your Symphony of Selves.

REJUVENATE de David Cox

We are living unhealthier lives, and unleashing planetary devastation in our wake. These two crises are marching inexorably onward, hand-in-hand. But can science help us fight back? And can we live not just better lives, bot longer ones too – just through the power of food?

REJUVENATE:
The New Science of Eating Well, and Living Longer
by David Cox
Fourth Estate, late summer 2025
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

Over the course of a lifetime, the average human will chomp their way through around 36 tons of food. Roughly speaking, this is the equivalent of about six whole elephants, each digested, converted into fuel, and working their way through our bodies over the course of the eight decades we can expect to spend on Earth.

The problem, however, is both the source of this food, and its content. Food production is the thin end of the wedge when it comes to the climate crisis – what we eat, and when we eat it, is going to be the most obvious short-term day-to-day change to many living in the global North, protected from the worst of the climate crisis by economic inequities. And the food we eat, in an increasingly globalised manner, is by far the largest driver of another crisis: one of health, which is impacting us all.

The same human ingenuity which has enabled our species to design vaccines and medicines to eliminate disease, and sanitation systems to vastly improve our hygiene, has also created both a land of ubiquitous processed food and an ecosystem of industrial meat production on a colossal, world-changing scale.

In REJUVENATE, science journalist David Cox takes us to the cutting edge of the technological and scientific fightback against these combined crises, and how food can make us live better, longer lives. He argues that we have reached a tipping point in the intersection between food, and our world – both our personal world, and the world we all live in – where the same creative drive, scientific advancements and rampant capitalism which has instigated many of the problems, may now be able to save us.

Through unprecedented access to the movers and shakers at the cutting edge of the food world – from the CEOs of tech start-ups, to the leaders of vast hedge funds, from Middle Eastern princes to policymakers and academics – Cox takes the reader on a journey of discovery, leading her down the rabbit hole in order to explore how the way we eat is changing, how it can make us healthier, live longer, and how perhaps it can save the planet in the process.

Dr. David Cox is a freelance health journalist and broadcaster, and has a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Cambridge. He is a regular contributor to the likes of the BBC, the Guardian, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Times and Sunday Times, The Telegraph, New Scientist and many, many more. He lives in Brighton, England with his partner.

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.

“An expansive tour de force that … helps readers understand what drives us to imbue ourselves with optimism and how to use it to create a better future. Paul-Choudhury’s own voice shines through – he is witty, empathetic and a beautiful writer… We’re born optimists, Paul-Choudhury argues; if you’re no longer one, this title will give you a way back – and a lot more besides.” — The Observer

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.