**A New York Times Editors' ChoiceA Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of 2021A New York Times Notable BookA bold new book reveals how we can tap the intelligence that exists beyond our brains—in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships**Use your head.That’s what we tell ourselves when facing a tricky problem or a difficult project. But a growing body of research indicates that we’ve got it exactly backw...

What makes us the w***ay*** w***e are?*** Some say it’s the genes we inherit at conception. Others are sure it’s the environment we experience in childhood. But could it be that many of our individual characteristics—our health, our intelligence, our temperaments—are influenced by the conditions we encountered before birth?That’s the claim of an exciting and provocative field known as fetal origins. Over the past twenty years, scientists have been developi...

For centuries, crowds gathered beneath painted banners, inside travelling tents, outside fairground booths, and along the noisy midways of circuses and dime museums to stare at human beings advertised as wonders, marvels, monsters, curiosities, living miracles, and strange mistakes of nature. Behind the bright posters and theatrical promises stood a darker and far more complicated history: one shaped by poverty, showmanship, exploitation, survival, medicine, disability, racism, public curi...

Award-winning psychology writer Annie Paul delivers a scathing exposé on the history and effects of personality tests.Millions of people worldwide take personality tests each year to direct their education, to decide on a career, to determine if they'll be hired, to join the armed forces, and to settle legal disputes. Yet, according to award-winning psychology writer Annie Murphy Paul, the sheer number of tests administered obscures a simple fact: they don't work. ...

Three daggers with wolf-head pommels, forged in the Roman Era.Initially awarded to three women for heroic service to the Empire, the daggers are separated for over two thousand years.They cross intriguing paths with Richard the Lionheart in Medieval France, Leonardo DaVinci leaving Renaissance Italy, spies in Rococo Austria, Misters Darcy & Bingley in Georgian England, and courageous farmers in Dust Bowl Kansas, until the daggers are serendipitously reunite...

This book investigates the origins of the Catholic hierarchy’s decision to mandate celibacy and the effects this has had on Catholic culture and wider society. In part 1, Debra Maria Flint examines the history and theology of mandatory celibacy and demonstrates that this practice has no roots in Judaism or the teachings of Jesus. Flint then discusses the effects of enforced celibacy and illustrates how it cemented the creation of a patriarchal church. She argues that the consequences of th...

St. John's Newfoundland is a colorful,  beautiful city. It is full of colorful characters and humorous stories abound about them. This story is about one such character, who grew up in the city in the early part of this century. Although based on true events, it is nonetheless a fictional account meant for entertainment.

Most democrats are fine people, people just like you, who are genuinely committed to American values like free speech and equal justice for all, but refuse to see voting fraud, secretly think that Charlie Kirk deserved it, quietly support those who want climate deniers jailed or executed, and absolutely insist on the right to abort children, castrate boys, and submit teenage girls to "top surgery" on demand.The behavior is clinically insane: an indulged compulsion to act directly a...

Frames is a simple sci-fi story with fictional physics, silly math, donnish puns, and characters who march along to their fates with the inevitability of a Bach fugue.Frames is not fantasy; it's not space opera; there's no magic, no superheros, no politics - just geeks who love their work, love each other, do what's next, and save the world - twice.There are some complications: a fully deterministic 4d+t universe with an allowable form of time travel; alie...

From Glasgow to the Highlands, Aussies have left their mark in Scotland.Socceroos in Scotland is the untold story of how Australian footballers have gone from fringe curiosities to key players in Scottish football. With roots tracing back to the early influence of Scottish immigrants on the Australian game, the dynamic flipped in the 1980s as a wave of adventurous Aussies crossed the globe in search of opportunity.From Dave Mitchell blazing a trail...

Born into a traditional Welsh valley community, Paul Murphy has been a member of the Labour Party for more than 55 years. In this book, he describes how the socialist beliefs of that community, and of his parents especially, helped to develop his own very early political consciousness. After three years studying at Oxford, and alongside work as a lecturer in History and Government, he went on to serve on his local council before succeeding another mentor, Leo Abse, as MP for his home const...

"This is a book I wish I'd written. It's brilliantly researched, full of detail and illuminating…" —Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo ViceUncover the shocking world of the Japanese courtroom.In a country where nearly all defendants plead guilty, the interesting part is what happens between the plea and the sentencing. In True Crime Japan, journalist and longtime resident of Japan Paul Murphy delves into a year's worth of criminal co...