Human Life

A rich, sweeping, and compelling work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores dozens of plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Richard Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols of war and peace, life and death.

Few westerners will ever be able to understand Muslim or Afghan society unless they are part of a Muslim family. Twenty years old and in love, Phyllis Chesler, a Jewish-American girl from Brooklyn, embarked on an adventure that has lasted for more than a half-century. Drawing upon her personal diaries, Chesler recounts her ordeal, the nature of gender apartheid - and her longing to explore this beautiful, ancient, and exotic country and culture.

A dynamic and inspiring exploration of the new science that is redrawing the future for people in their forties, fifties, and sixties for the better—and for good. There’s no such thing as an inevitable midlife crisis, Barbara Bradley Hagerty writes in this provocative, hopeful book. It’s a...

What if great sex wasn't just great sex: What if great sex could actually change your life? Your Brain on Sex offers a groundbreaking and intriguing look at how each one of us can transform our lives by focusing our thoughts on our true sexual desires. This book lays out a bold yet simple path for uncovering your true self through sex. It's more than just great sex. It's smart sex - sex that can change your life. You will learn how to discover your true desires, understand what they mean, and use those secrets to create powerful change.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth global anxiety about linkages between the environment and society at a fundamental structural level. Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life provides an accessible exposition of the latest foundational knowledge on how natural and social systems science can inform planetary crises. Humanity has either tried to conquer or capitulate to natural order, whereas we should be seeking to understand latent structures and patterns that permeate all systems and develop an "earthly order," that is socially functional and sustainable.

Searing essays from International Booker Prize-winning Israeli author and long-time peace activist David Grossman carry us up to and through the cataclysm of Oct 7th and what followed We know David Grossman's voice of ringing moral clarity from way back: since the late 1980s and The Yellow Wind...

When Anke Evertz is suddenly engulfed in flames in front of her fireplace, she thinks she's going to die. She knows that the worst is about to happen and there's nothing she can do to stop it. But instead of panicking, a deep serenity washes over her. What happens next is astounding. Nine Days...

Becoming fully human is a lifelong journey. It can also be an incredible adventure. Here internationally respected depth psychologist, spiritual guide, and personal transformation coach David Benner explores the mysteries of human being and becoming. Drawing on insights from science, philosophy, and forty years of experience integrating psychology and spirituality, he presents concrete steps for living in ways that move us toward wholeness.

Perfect People is a compelling and thought-provoking thriller from bestselling Peter James. John and Naomi are grieving the death of their four-year-old son from a rare genetic disorder. They desperately want another child, but they realize the odds of their next child contracting the same...

This anthology of interdisciplinary writings looks at the integration of mind, body, and spirit as it plays out in the workplace—whether in birth coaching, teaching parents, assisting the terminally ill, or working in the military, the classroom, or the corporation. These essays reveal what gets in the way of our humanity in the work world and how to rediscover that humanity.

A playful deep dive into anthropomorphism (our peculiar tendency to humanize the nonhuman) that will resonate with anyone who has thrown a birthday party for their dog. Bestselling science writer Justin Gregg explores the science behind our instinct to see ourselves in the creatures and objects...

Even if we've never had direct contact with one, we will have seen one, or at the very least, heard one. For those of us who live in the Western world, it is more than likely that one sleeps in our house, possibly even on our bed. I'm talking, of course, of the dog. Yet, this animal, which lives alongside 500 million of us all over the world - as an invaluable partner and a trusted confidant - presents us with one great unsolved mystery: how did this relationship - the most complex and enduring of any between human and animal - start in the first place?

Provides evidence that human consciousness can never be reproduced and exposes the perils of artificial intelligence Explains how consciousness transcends the brain and body through quantum theory and accounts of consciousness in the clinically dead Shares scientific evidence of how the...

In her newest book Love and Life, Dr. Laura covers the most popular topics and thorniest problems that face today’s parents and grandparents, husbands and wives, men and women, and everyone seeking love, fulfillment, success - or anyone who wants to be a decent and productive human being. With her provocative and firm - but always stimulating - advice, Dr. Laura provides guidance that will inspire fans to be the very best in terms of character, conscience, and courage - to make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of those they love.

In her old house by the fjord, Signe lies on a bench and sees a vision of herself as she was more than twenty years earlier: standing by the window waiting for her husband Asle, on that terrible late November day when he took his rowboat out onto the water and never returned. Her memories widen out to include their whole life together, and beyond: the bonds of family and the battles with implacable nature stretching back over five generations, to Asle's great-great-grandmother Aliss.

Decades of research demonstrate the transformative potential and the lasting legacies of a relationship-rich college experience. Critics suggest that to build connections with peers, faculty, staff, and other mentors is expensive and only an option at elite institutions where instructors have the luxury of time with students. But in this revelatory book brimming with the voices of students, faculty, and staff from across the country, Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert argue that relationship-rich environments can and should exist for all students at all types of institutions.

Professor David Wilson has spent his professional life working with violent men - especially men who have committed murder. Aged 29 he became, at that time, the UK's youngest ever prison governor in charge of a jail, and his career since then has seen him sat across a table with all sorts of killers: sometimes in a tense interview; sometimes sharing a cup of tea (or something a little stronger); sometimes looking them in the eye to tell them that they are psychopaths.

Princeton's McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Robert P. George and USC's Graduate Director of Philosophy Christopher Tollefsen are experts in the field of bioethics. In Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, these esteemed scholars combine the latest scientific breakthroughs with the soundest tenets of philosophy to shed new light on a vital yet controversial issue of our day.

A “beautiful and astonishing” (Walter Isaacson, # 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Code Breaker) narrative that examines the many ways to be fully human, told by the first young adult with autism to attend Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. As a child, Jory Fleming was wracked...

Thought-provoking, lyrical, and timeless, this collection lingers in the imagination long after the final word. Press play now and let Bliss and Other Stories transport you into a world where every glance, gesture, and thought brims with meaning, subtle revelation, and unforgettable beauty.