Books Read in 2009 Part I
Explore the eclectic reading list from 2009, featuring standout titles like Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, and The Andromeda Strain.
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The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch
Reflections of a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who lectured on "Really achieving your childhood dreams," shortly after having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. His advice concerned seizing the moment while living, rather than dying.
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Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain ― A Provocative Neuroscience Study on Written Language and Evolution
by Wolf, Maryanne
No summary available.
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Hurry Down Sunshine
by Michael Greenberg
In an unsentimental and provocative account, the author details his young daughter's sudden onset of mental illness and her long and difficult journey back to life.
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Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition
by Dan Ariely
How do we think about money? What caused bankers to lose sight of the economy? What caused individuals to take on mortgages that were not within their means? What irrational forces guided our decisions? And how can we recover from an economic crisis? In this revised and expanded edition of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Predictably Irrational, Duke University's behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores the hidden forces that shape our decisions, including some of the causes responsible for the current economic crisis. Bringing a much-needed dose of sophisticated psychological study to the realm of public policy, Ariely offers his own insights into the irrationalities of everyday life, the decisions that led us to the financial meltdown of 2008, and the general ways we get ourselves into trouble. Blending common experiences and clever experiments with groundbreaking analysis, Ariely demonstrates how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities. As he explains, our reliance on standard economic theory to design personal, national, and global policies may, in fact, be dangerous. The mistakes that we make as individuals and institutions are not random, and they can aggregate in the market—with devastating results. In light of our current economic crisis, the consequences of these systematic and predictable mistakes have never been clearer. Packed with new studies and thought-provoking responses to readers' questions and comments, this revised and expanded edition of Predictably Irrational will change the way we interact with the world—from the small decisions we make in our own lives to the individual and collective choices that shape our economy.
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Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World
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No summary available.
