"Traditionally, the goal of psychology has been to relieve human suffering, but the goal of the Positive Psychology movement, which Dr. Seligman has led for fifteen years, is different&—it's about actually raising the bar for the human condition. Flourish builds on Dr. Seligman's game-changing work on optimism, motivation, and character to show how to get the most out of life, unveiling an electrifying new theory of what makes a good life&—for individuals, for communities, and for nations. In a fascinating evolution of thought and practice, Flourish refines what Positive Psychology is all about. While certainly a part of well-being, happiness alone doesn't give life meaning. Seligman now asks, What is it that enables you to cultivate your talents, to build deep, lasting relationships with others, to feel pleasure, and to contribute meaningfully to the world? In a word, what is it that allows you to flourish? “Well-being” takes the stage front and center, and Happiness (or Positive Emotion) becomes one of the five pillars of Positive Psychology, along with Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment&—or PERMA, the permanent building blocks for a life of profound fulfillment. Thought-provoking in its implications for education, economics, therapy, medicine, and public policy&—the very fabric of society&—Flourish tells inspiring stories of Positive Psychology in action, including how the entire U.S. Army is now trained in emotional resilience; how innovative schools can educate for fulfillment in life and not just for workplace success; and how corporations can improve performance at the same time as they raise employee well-being. With interactive exercises to help readers explore their own attitudes and aims, Flourish is a watershed in the understanding of happiness as well as a tool for getting the most out of life. "--Publisher.

In Tyranny of the Status Quo, Milton and Rose Friedman describe a remarkable political phenomenon: the uniform tendency in government to reverse the declared policies of leaders whether left or right. In the first six to nine months following their election, Reagan, Thatcher, and Mitterand, too, initiated big changes. Soon, each was frustrated by the "Iron Triangle" which preserves the status quo. In the triangle's corners are the direct beneficiaries of laws, the bureaucrats who thrive on them, the politicians who seek votes. Book jacket.

In 1907 novelist James Joyce was engaged as Svevo's English tutor in Trieste, and in the process they developed a friendship. When Joyce read Svevo's novel La coscienza di Zeno (Confessions of Zeno), he was so impressed with it that he encouraged the writer to publish it, and later helped to promote it. While Joyce became enthralled with the latest novelistic techniques -particularly the stream of consciousness and indirect free style- to get inside the mind of his characters, Svevo accomplished the same thing without the new tools. Zeno's consciousness is not the flowing of a stream, but the cascading, torrential avalanche of details that is the essence of humanness in all aspects: from low double entry bookkeeping, business, and economics, to manipulations of the Stock Market, to moral dilemmas, and raw passions. Italo Svevo's Confessions of Zeno belongs to the comic tradition of Don Quixote and Tristram Shandy, though not in the realist manner, but rather in a psychological vein. After reading a few pages the reader will have no doubt that he is confronting a paradoxical juxtaposition between things of the mind and things themselves. Zeno -the narrator and eponymous hero- on the surface is a hypochondriac, neurotic, quirky, solipsistic, self-examining and self-serving bourgeois; deep down, however, he is love and goodness incarnate, not by design but by the whims of life. Although Svevo wrote many other works, his opus magnum will remain his Confessions of Zeno. While Proust and others wrote lengthy psychological novels, by their sheer length and density, they become soporific. Not so with Zeno, which is intriguing, suspenseful, engaging-never boring, a magnificent tour de force.

In the middle of the twentieth century, in a home economics program at a prominent university, orphaned babies are used to teach mothering skills to young women. These "practice babies," are handed off from one mother-in-training to the next, usually staying in a "practice house" for a few years before being sent to adoptive families. For Henry House, the first practice baby to stay on at the university, finding love and learning to trust prove to be the work of a lifetime.

In a Disney-dominated future, a transhuman teenager engages in high velocity adventures until he meets the meat girl of his dreams and is forced to choose between immortality and sex in one of Cory Doctorow's most daring novellas. Also included in this collection is Creativity vs. Copyright, a transcript of Doctorow's historic address to the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention, dramatically presenting his controversial case for open-source models not only in information but art as well, and Outspoken Interview, in which Doctorow reveals the surprising inspirations for his writing.Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licenses for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics. Doctorow began selling fiction when he was 17 years old and sold several stories followed by the publication of his story Craphound in 1998.

"Will delight and inform anyone who enjoys rigorous thinking and the unexpected conclusions it delivers." -- Jamie Whyte, author of Crimes Against Logic "This ingenious gallop through the mind of Steven Landsburg enables you to think like an economist without incurring a Keynesian headache or a huge student loan. You may even end up 'smarter than Google.' But you will not readily put down this exhilarating adventure in ideas." -- George Gilder, author of Knowledge and Power and Life After Google Can you outsmart an economist? Steven Landsburg, acclaimed author and professor of economics, dares you to try. In this whip-smart, entertaining, and entirely unconventional economics primer, he brings together over one hundred puzzles and brain teasers that illustrate the subject's key concepts and pitfalls. From warm-up exercises to get your brain working, to logic and probability problems, to puzzles covering more complex topics like inferences, strategy, and irrationality, Can You Outsmart an Economist? will show you how to do just that by expanding the way you think about decision making and problem solving. Let the games begin "Entertaining as well as edifying. Read it, expand your mind, and have fun "-- N. Gregory Mankiw, Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Fascinating, occasionally startling predictions by experts in a variety of fields consider what amazing advances and setbacks--in science, technology, politics, and economics--await us in the coming decades

"From the author of Blame, a new novel about the unexpected damage inflicted by romantic entanglements. It's the early 1980s: Reagan is in the White House and his trickle-down theory is gaining traction in the national psyche. Cressida Hartley, twenty-eight, a PhD candidate in economics, has moved to her parents' shabby A-frame in the Sierras, hoping to finish her dissertation about art in the marketplace. Though she came seeking solitude, she finds herself increasingly drawn into the life of the small mountain community, and she's seduced by a local lodge owner, Jakey Yates, a big, burly, immensely attractive man in his late forties. Rick Garsh, the local contractor, gives Cress a part time job. Through Rick she meets the Morrow brothers, two talented fine-finish carpenters. They are handsome, amusing, intriguing, and married. As Cress tells her best friend back home in Pasadena, being a single woman on the mountain amounts to a form of public service. Increasingly uninspired by her dissertation, Cress allows love, adultery, and obsession to commandeer her life, and soon she becomes the victim of her own perilous reasoning. Michelle Huneven is one of our most searching, elegant novelists--Richard Russo has called her "a writer of extraordinary and thrilling talent." In Off Course, she tells the cautionary tale of an intelligent young woman seeking her place in life only to discover that love is the great distraction, and impossible love the greatest distraction of all"--

Meyer Levin was a Chicago-born Jewish author. His best-known book is "Compulsion", which is a novelization of the notorious Loeb and Leopold murder case of 1924. Levin was in a special position to tell the story, because he was personally acquainted with the perpetrators. Levin is also famous for bringing Anne Frank's diary to light. But "The Old Bunch" may be his greatest work. "The Old Bunch" was written in the mid-1930's, and it tells the tales of the kids of a Chicago Jewish ghetto coming of age and stepping out into the world. It's presumably something of a fantasy autobiography, echoing Levin's own adventures -- Levin was born in 1905, and the events in this book take place beginning in the year 1921 (when the "bunch" is graduating from school), and running through to 1934. The book is compelling for its individual stories and for its living window into times past. Because it was written prior to the horrors of WWII, it's a very pure view of the pre-war era. (Anything written later will necessarily be done with hindsight, and will likely de-emphasize "unimportant" details in favor of those that connect to major war events.) But the history is merely a fascinating byproduct of the vivid human stories that fill the pages. "The Old Bunch" is surprisingly unknown today, which is a shame. This really is one of the great novels, in a class with Tolstoy and Steinbeck. It conveys the entirety of the era: The people, the culture, the economics, Chicago politics (very dirty!), with a global perspective as well (some characters travel to Europe and Palestine). It covers the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. To read the book is to live and breathe in these bygone days. Most importantly, Meyer Levin depicts events without agenda or judgment. Characters may be Democrats or Republicans or workers or bosses or religionists or atheists or many other things, but all are portrayed with depth, and none are simple heroes or villains or symbols. These are, in the end, tales about the very personal and individual transitions to adulthood, and the elusive quest for wisdom. It is the same challenge that every generation must face. "The Old Bunch" was critically acclaimed and went through numerous print editions, but it eventually passed into the public domain and was temporarily forgotten. A Wall Street Journal article in 2012 ("Destiny's Children", by Joseph Epstein) sparked a revival of interest, and Rancho Lazarus Publications is proud to present a new edition, accurately rendered and true to the original text, and with the addition of occasional footnotes to clarify details of historical accuracy that the modern reader may not have on tap. With almost 700 pages of text (the original hardback book ran to almost 1000 pages), this is an epic novel. But far from being overlong, it's the sort of reading that leaves you wishing there was more. "Written in good hard-driving colloquial prose, full of sharp characterizations. . . A very fine novel." -- New Republic "A landmark -- vivid and exciting reading. It brilliantly succeeds in taking the reader on a memorable tour of the world in which the old bunch lived." -- The New York Times

Time: The Present collects the best short stories of one of the finest American writers of the 1930s, Tess Slesinger. An Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Tess Slesinger was one of the most innovative and original short story writers of her generation. She dealt with issues of sexuality, economics, race, and the complex relationships between men and women in and out of marriage that remain highly relevant today. Slesinger's stories can be satirical, comic, bittersweet, or tragic--but most of all, always immediate. As Vivian Gornick puts it in her eloquent introduction, Slesinger's 'feeling for life's unavoidable sorrow remains haunting.' Taking great stylistic risks, Slesinger freed her stories of the constraints of period and place and created works that are timeless in their impact and approach. Time: The Present restores Slesinger's rightful place as one of the greats of the 20th century short story form. It includes numerous stories from The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other magazines collected here for the first time. Time: The Present continues Recovered Books' mission to bring long forgotten books of exceptional merit and resounding relevance to today's readers.

Bob Woolf, named one of the 100 most powerful and influential attorneys in America by the National Law Review, has negotiated more than 2,000 big-money sports, entertainment, and business contracts. Now he shares his business expertise with more than 100 tactics, techniques and strategies for winning.

What if Americans were the terrorists, and a more civilized superpower found it necessary to put us down? What if contemporary Christian ministers preached salvation through murder of non-believing foreigners, and the US government recruited child suicide-assassins for this purpose? If you were an American living in such a crazed society, what would you do? If you were a civilized outsider, how would you deal with these insane savages? The Holy Land poses such predicaments, and more. In an attempt to save the Minervans from oppression in the central galaxy, the liberal Western Galactic Empire has relocated the sect to their ancient homeland of Kennewick, Washington. The fundamentalist fanatics ruling the USA find the presence of pagans in the holy city intolerable, however, and they launch an interstellar campaign of mass destruction in protest. Now, cast in a universe gone mad, the primitive Earthling POW Sergeant Hamilton and his case officer, the sophisticated Minervan priestess (3rd class) Aurora, must find the way out, or neither side will survive. In this madcap role-reversed science-fiction satire on the Mideast crisis and the War on Terrorism, the gloves come off. Written with wit and verve by Heinlein Award winner Robert Zubrin, the author of The Case for Mars, Entering Space, and First Landing, The Holy Land takes science fiction back to its Swiftian roots. Rarely since Czech humanist Karel Capek aimed his 1936 War with the Newts at fascism and appeasement has the medium been mobilized to such pointed effect. "A satiric tour de force" - School Library Journal "The duplicity, mendacity, and hypocrisy that characterize the present predicament in the Middle East are laid bare in Zubrin's engaing romp, with verve and biting wit." - National Review Online "Nothing is spared from Zubrin's satiric pen: religion, politics, economics, sex, war, psychology, philosophy - all are the objects of his barbs....The Holy Land is a surprisingly fine follow-up to Zubrin's other fictional and non-fiction works." - The Rocky Mountain News "It's a hoot." - The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Cantor, Eddie

In London, before the First World War, where in society love and money predominate, Bertha and Nigel had been inseparable. But then Nigel felt he had to focus on the economics of life, and after all Bertha's family were quite modestly off. Whereas the heiress Mary, also interested in him but not anywhere near so charming, was very well set up. His decision was made. Though initially heartbroken, Bertha realises quickly that she has escaped from a delusion. Equanimity returns, and she finds in Percy Kellynch a devoted lover, though one a little more sober and less racy. They marry, as do Nigel and Mary, and over time the two become friends again, though now with wise awareness on Bertha's side. Nigel begins to see his error, as Mary's jealousy and her wish to supervise his life take their toll. He finds comfort in simply seeing Bertha initially, but inevitably begins to wish for more. Bertha is not interested, having moved on, but, if noticed, Nigel's attentions could be misconstrued... In the meantime, Bertha is also looking out for the future of a young friend, Madeline Irwin, who is smitten with Rupert Denison, a young man with rather too much of a penchant for patronising and "educating" young women. Madeline is impulsive, a little inexperienced and quite needy. Her headlong qualities precipitate problems very readily. As Bertha negotiates several crises arising from Nigel's reviving attachment, she also tries to assist Madeline in avoiding her own self-created disasters. Much depends on Bertha's talent for good management and wise counsel in the perils of both their lives. She is determined to win over adversity, but it will be a strong test of her skills.... Bird of Paradise, Leverson's fifth novel, as radiant with wit and wisdom as those which preceded it, was first published in 1914.