Featured Categories : Society, Politics & Philosophy : Social Sciences : General AAS

• Home
• US Store
• Electronics
• Computers
• Sitemap

Featured Categories : Society, Politics & Philosophy : Social Sciences : General AAS

• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  
  
   

• Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes

  Albert Jack

  
  
   

• The Game

  Neil Strauss

  
  Is it for real? Is The Game by Neill Strauss an assiduously detailed, highly entertaining exposé of a fascinating secret society -- the international community of pickup artists who have refined their talents for getting women into bed to the nth degree? Or is it an extremely funny hoax? Early drafts of the book had people wondering, and men in particular speculated if the book would deliver some valuable `how to' tips as an aid to entering a sexual wonderland. In fact, it doesn't really matter whether you take the basic premise seriously or not: Strauss' wonderfully diverting book delivers great entertainment whatever your point of view.

  According to Strauss, the clandestine society of men he describes here take wagers in clubs and bars throughout the Western world over just who can chalk up the most Casanova-like quantities of pickups and seductions. But this isn't merely for the thrill of an army of sexual conquests -- all of this is coded and organised according to an almost military-style ritual, with an elaborate series of rules and regulations that the participants rigorously follow. Strauss went undercover in this glamorous world, and learned the secrets of these top-drawer seducers. But, for him, there was a useful corollary affect: Strauss found himself transformed from a nerdish, unconfident journalist into a silver-tongued Lothario, quite the equal of many of the ladykilling males he had been enjoying the company of. For him, the ultimate accolade was being noted The World's Number One Pickup Artist -- and then he made the mistake of setting his sights on a woman who could give every bit as good as she got.

  The world of excess presented here is not one most of us move in, but (if the truth were told) it has its irresistible attractions. Strauss wheels in such celebrities as Tom Cruise and Courtney Love, and this unblushing peek into a secret world where sex and seduction are treated with cool scientific detachment is mesmerisingly readable. --Barry Forshaw

  
   

• The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations: An Introduction to International Relations

  
  
   

• Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science (4th Edition)

  Judith Bell

  
  
   

• Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

  Barack Obama

  
  
   

• Social Research Methods

  Alan Bryman

  
  
   

• Criminology

  Tim Newburn

  
  
   

• The Oxford Handbook of Criminology

  
  
   

• The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

  Naomi Klein

  
  
   

• Research Methods for Business Students

  Mark Saunders, Adrian Thornhill, Philip Lewis

  
  
   

• Understanding Children's Development (4th Edition) (Basic Psychology S.) (Basic Psychology)

  Peter Smith, Helen Cowie, Mark Blades

  
  
   

• Social Psychology

  Michael Hogg, Graham Vaughan

  
  
   

• Sociology

  Anthony Giddens

  
  
   

• Child Development: An Illustrated Guide 2nd edition: An Illustrated Guide

  Carolyn Meggitt

  
  
   

• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

  Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

  
  
   

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

  Malcolm Gladwell

  
  "The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of mimetics will recognise this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.

  For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanise the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston", he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.

  Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point", like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan

  
   

• Introducing NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming

  "Joseph O'Connor", u'John Seymour

  
  
   

• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Picador)

  Oliver Sacks

  
  
   

• Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Counselling in Action series) (Counselling in Action series)

  Dave Mearns, Brian Thorne