A New York Times Notable Book: A psychologist's "gripping and thought-provoking" look at how and why our brains sometimes fail us (Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works).In this intriguing study, Harvard psychologist Daniel L. Schacter explores the memory miscues that occur in everyday life, placing them into seven categories: absent-mindedness, transience, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence. Illustrating these concepts w...

Memory. There may be nothing more important to human beings than our ability to enshrine experience and recall it. While philosophers and poets have elevated memory to an almost mystical level, psychologists have struggled to demystify it. Now, according to Daniel Schacter, one of the most distinguished memory researchers, the mysteries of memory are finally yielding to dramatic, even revolutionary, scientific breakthroughs. Schacter explains how and why it may change our understanding of ...

Richard Semon was a German evolutionary biologist who wrote, during the first decade of the twentieth century, two fascinating analyses of the workings of human memory which were ahead of their time. Although these have been virtually unknown to modern researchers, Semon's work has been rediscovered during the past two decades and has begun to have an influence on the field. This book not only examines Semon's contribution to memory research, but also tells the story of an extraordinary li...

Daniel L. Schacter, chairman of Harvard University’s Psychology Department and a leading expert on memory, has developed the Trst framework that describes the basic memory miscues we all encounter. Just like the seven deadly sins, the seven memory sins appear routinely in everyday life. Although we may hate these difTculties, as Schacter notes, they’re surprisingly vital to a keen mind.Schacter, whose previous trade book, SEARCHING FOR MEMORY, was called “splendidly lucid” (The New ...

Remember things better by understanding how your memory works. If memory is a simple thing, why does it so often go awry? Why is forgetting so common? How can you be certain about something you remember--and be wrong about it? Why is it so difficult to remember people's names? How can you study hard for an exam but not be able to recall the material on the test? In Why We Forget, Dr. Andrew Budson and Dr. Elizabeth Kensinger address these questions and more, using...

Remember things better by understanding how your memory works.If memory is a simple thing, why does it so often go awry? Why is forgetting so common? How can you be certain about something you remember—and be wrong about it? Why is it so difficult to remember people's names? How can you study hard for an exam but not be able to recall the material on the test? In Why We Forget, Dr. Andrew Budson and Dr. Elizabeth Kensinger address these questions and more,...

National Book Award Finalist: A biologist's "thoroughly enjoyable" account of the expeditions that unearthed the history of life on our planet (Publishers Weekly).Not so long ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vague and vastly off the mark, and much of the knowledge of our own species' history was a set of fantastic myths and fairy tales. But scientists were about to embark on an amazing new era of understanding.

The Control of Nature is John McPhee's bestselling account of places where people are locked in combat with nature. Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strategies and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking is his depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those attempting to wrest control from her—stubborn, sometimes foolhardy, more often ingenious, and always arresting characters.

The European “discovery” and conquest of America was one of the most cataclysmic events in history, leading to the wholesale destruction of millions of people and hundreds of flourishing societies. As far as history books are concerned, Native Americans have been secondary to an essentially Euro-American story. Now, James Wilson presents a rigorously authoritative, beautifully written, comprehensive history that—as Richard Gott wrote in the London Literary Review—“places the ‘Nati...

“The father of cognitive neuroscience” illuminates the past, present, and future of the mind-brain problemHow do neurons turn into minds? How does physical “stuff”―atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells―create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks...

What if there was a way to instantly see your reality with the clarity of a coach – unencumbered by the baggage of you being you?In Distancing, bestselling author and former submarine captain David Marquet (Turn the Ship Around!) and psychology professor Michael Gillespie introduce a powerful solution: distancing. This simple but underused superpower lets us step outside ourselves to see with clarity and decide with wisdom.Through three pr...

Now an esoteric of legal and criminal history, A Hangman's Diary gives a year-by-year breakdown on all of Master Franz Schmidt's executions, which included hangings, beheadings, and other methods, as well as details of each capital crime and the reason for the punishment.From 1573 to 1617, Master Franz Schmidt was the executioner for the towns of Bamberg and Nuremberg. During that span, he personally executed more than 350 people while keeping a journal th...