my mind on books

$4.99 kindle ebook – Consciousness: Bridging the Gap btw Conventional Science & … Quantum Mechanics' http://t.co/AYXVHEDANY via @amazon

— Debbie A Foster (@mymindonbooks) August 19, 2013

Mortal Rituals: What the Story of the Andes Survivors Tells Us About Human Evolution by Matt J. Rossano (Columbia University Press, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

On December 21, 1972, sixteen young survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 were rescued after spending ten weeks stranded at the crash site of their plane, high in the remote Andes Mountains. The incident made international headlines and spawned several best-selling books, fueled partly by the fact that the young men had resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Matt Rossano examines this story from an evolutionary perspective, weaving together findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, religion, and cognitive science. During their ordeal, these young men broke “civilized” taboos to fend off starvation and abandoned “civilized” modes of thinking to maintain social unity and individual sanity. Through the power of ritual, the survivors were able to endure severe emotional and physical hardship. Rossano ties their story to our story, seeing in the mortal rituals of this struggle for survival a reflection of what it means to be human.

Google Books preview:

See also: Author’s Mortal Rituals blog at Psychology Today

The Why of Things: Causality in Science, Medicine, and Life by Peter Rabins (Columbia University Press, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Why was there a meltdown at the Fukushima power plant? Why do some people get cancer and not others? Why is global warming happening? Why does one person get depressed in the face of life’s vicissitudes while another finds resilience?

Questions like these — questions of causality — form the basis of modern scientific inquiry, posing profound intellectual and methodological challenges for researchers in the physical, natural, biomedical, and social sciences. In this groundbreaking book, noted psychiatrist and author Peter Rabins offers a conceptual framework for analyzing daunting questions of causality. Navigating a lively intellectual voyage between the shoals of strict reductionism and relativism, Rabins maps a three-facet model of causality and applies it to a variety of questions in science, medicine, economics, and more.

Throughout this book, Rabins situates his argument within relevant scientific contexts, such as quantum mechanics, cybernetics, chaos theory, and epigenetics. A renowned communicator of complex concepts and scientific ideas, Rabins helps readers stretch their minds beyond the realm of popular literary tipping points, blinks, and freakonomic explanations of the world.

Google Books preview:

See also: Author’s website

When: The Art of Perfect Timing by Stuart Albert (Jossey-Bass, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

An elegant and counterintuitive guide to achieving perfect timing
Timing is everything. Whether we are making strategic business decisions or the smallest personal choice, we must decide not only what to do, but when to do it. Act too early—or too late—and the results can be disastrous. Based on a 20-year investigation into more than 2,000 timing issues and errors, When presents a single and practical approach for dealing with timing in life and business. Good timing, Albert argues, is not just a matter of luck, intuition, or past experience—all of which may be unreliable—but a skill. He describes that skill and details the tools and methods needed to conduct a successful timing analysis.

• The book is the first to offer an efficient and comprehensive way to think through any timing issue
• Filled with dozens of lively stories illustrating good and bad timing in all walks of life—business, warfare, medicine, sports, entertainment and the arts
• Written by Stuart Albert, one of the foremost timing experts in the world and developer of the first practical, research-based method for turning the skill of timing into a competitive advantage

Engaging and counterintuitive, When will show everyone, regardless of the work they do, or the life they live, that “it’s all in the timing.”

See also:
When – excerpt (pdf of Chapter 1) from publisher’s website

$2.99 kindle ebook – 'Creative Mindshaping' by Dan Best http://t.co/ssmCpMVwLU via @amazon

— Debbie A Foster (@mymindonbooks) August 9, 2013

[Prime members can borrow for free from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.]

See also: Book website