Newsletter, Sep 9th 2022
According to some, September is read a new book month, or national literacy month or maybe it's just September :). There are so many of these designated days and months, its hard to keep track. Any month you get some reading in, is a good month in my book!
New feature Alert - Book Registry
I've mentioned Bookshop.org before - the social benefit corp that distributes its profits back to independent bookstores like The Thinking Spot. If there is a book that we don't carry, including any non-science book, you can order it through the bookshop link on our site and we will get credit for that sale.
All that lead up to say Bookshop has just introduced a “Registries” feature. This allows you to setup book registries, just like any other gift registry that you can then share with your friends and family. Another great use for the registries feature is school classroom wishlists. I hear a lot of classrooms put up their wishlists on Amazon currently, so now you have an alternative that benefits your favorite local bookstore. Creating one is very straightforward, you can get started here.
This would be a good time to mention that if you'd like to setup a physical registry, for any event, by coming in-store and picking out the books/toys/games, I can hold that for you too. Just call/message or stop on over.
Upcoming Events
Sunday Sep 11th 4p - Smartreads Book club meetup for Ages 8-12
Thursday Sep 15th 4p - Ribbon cutting with Wayzata chamber of commerce. Please consider this a personal invitation and stop by if you can! There will be refreshments and book raffles! Also the last day to turn in your Bingo cards.
Saturday Sep 17th 3p - Our favorite scientist is back in store. Liz Heinecke will be back with some fun and fabulous science experiments for ages 5-10.
Sunday Sep 18th 2p - Yoga for the mind, science book club first meeting for “An Immense World” by Ed Yong. Join us.
Oct is shaping up to be busy event month. Below couple I'm super excited about. Tickets are live for both events now. Space is limited, so reserve early if you're interested and can make it:
Saturday Oct 1st 3p - Meet and hear from “Not the science type” star, Dr. Jayshree Seth - Chief Science Advocate at 3M. Science communication is the heart of The Thinking Spot and Jayshree Seth is a master at it. Her first book was one of my inspirations for this place so this event is special to me!
Saturday Oct 15th 7p - Our favorite STEM Theatre professionals - Matheatre are back with a world premier of their Musical on Math. Their first show on Marie Curie, back in March, was a hit and I can't wait to see what they've cooked up now.
As always our event calendar is available in google calendar form making it easy to integrate with your other calendars.
Science News of the Week
I'm fascinated by any advances in memory research, partly cause of my failing memory :). This group from University of southern California has developed a new form of brain stimulation that appears to boost people’s ability to remember new information—by mimicking the way our brains create memories. Do you think it'll be ready for prime time in our lifetime ? Would you opt for it if it was ?
Reading Recommendations
This week, instead of all new releases, I thought I'd pick one new release and highlight other similar books from the past. Each of them may treat a similar subject or a slightly adjacent topic, mimicking, hopefully, the serendipitous discovery effect of in-store browsing.
This week's new release is “Status and Culture” - a social science book on culture which lead me to “Quiet” (Psychology/Behavior), to “Originals” (Motivational/Econ), to "Nudge" (Behavioral Econ), and finally to “How not to be wrong” (Applied Math). All, sort of, explaining human behavior. Hope that makes sense. Enjoy!
Keep reading and see you at The Spot soon,
Rima.
Reading Recommendations
Status and Culture
By W. David Marx
New Release this week.
"Subtly altered how I see the world." —Michelle Goldberg, New York Times “[Status and Culture] consistently posits theories I'd never previously considered that instantly feel obvious.” —Chuck Klosterman, author of The Nineties “Why are you the way that you are? Status and Culture explains nearly everything about the things you choose to be—and how the society we live in takes shape in the process.” —B.J. Novak, writer and actor Solving the long-standing mysteries of culture—from the origin of our tastes and identities, to the perpetual cycles of fashions and fads—through a careful exploration of the fundamental human desire for status All humans share a need to secure their social standing, and this universal motivation structures our behavior, forms our tastes, determines how we live, and ultimately shapes who we are. We can use status, then, to explain why some things become “cool,” how stylistic innovations arise, and why there are constant changes in clothing, music, food, sports, slang, travel, hairstyles, and even dog breeds. In Status and Culture, W. David Marx weaves together the wisdom from history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, cultural theory, literary theory, art history, media studies, and neuroscience to demonstrate exactly how individual status seeking creates our cultural ecosystem. Marx examines three fundamental questions: Why do individuals cluster around arbitrary behaviors and take deep meaning from them? How do distinct styles, conventions, and sensibilities emerge? Why do we change behaviors over time and why do some behaviors stick around? The answers then provide new perspectives for understanding the seeming “weightlessness” of internet culture. Status and Culture is a book that will appeal to business people, students, creators, and anyone who has ever wondered why things become popular, why their own preferences change over time, and how identity plays out in contemporary society. Readers of this book will walk away with deep and lasting knowledge of the often secret rules of how culture really works.
W. David Marx is a longtime writer on culture based in Tokyo and the author of Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Lapham’s Quarterly, Popeye, The New Republic, and Vox.
Quiet
By Susan Cain
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Experience the book that started the Quiet Movement and revolutionized how the world sees introverts—and how introverts see themselves—by offering validation, inclusion, and inspiration
“Superbly researched, deeply insightful, and a fascinating read, Quiet is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to understand the gifts of the introverted half of the population.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYPeople • O: The Oprah Magazine • Christian Science Monitor • Inc. • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.
In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, impeccably researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.
Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content
Susan Cain started the Quiet Movement, which revolutionized how the world sees introverts—and how introverts see themselves. She is also the author of Bittersweet: How Longing and Sorrow Make Us Whole. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere, and her TED Talk has been viewed more than 40 million times. She was named one of the world’s top 50 Leadership and Management Experts by Inc., and one of LinkedIn’s top ten influencers.
Originals
By Adam Grant
The #1 New York Times bestseller that examines how people can champion new ideas in their careers and everyday life—and how leaders can fight groupthink, from the author of Think Again and co-author of Option B “Filled with fresh insights on a broad array of topics that are important to our personal and professional lives.”—The New York Times DealBook “Originals is one of the most important and captivating books I have ever read, full of surprising and powerful ideas. It will not only change the way you see the world; it might just change the way you live your life. And it could very well inspire you to change your world.” —Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but also established himself as one of his generation’s most compelling and provocative thought leaders. In Originals he again addresses the challenge of improving the world, but now from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all? Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent. Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor. The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo.
Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist at Wharton, where he has been the top-rated professor for seven straight years. He is an expert in how we can find motivation and meaning, and lead more generous and creative lives. He is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of five books that have sold over 2 million copies and been translated into 35 languages: Give and Take, Originals, Option B, Power Moves, and with his wife, Allison Sweet Grant, The Gift Inside the Box. His books have been recognized as among the year’s best by Amazon, the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal and been praised by J.J. Abrams, Richard Branson, Bill and Melinda Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, and Malala Yousafzai.
Nudge
By Richard H. Thaler
*Once again a New York Times bestseller! First the original edition, and now the new Final Edition*
An essential new edition―revised and updated from cover to cover―of one of the most important books of the last two decades, by Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
More than 2 million copies sold
Since the original publication of Nudge more than a decade ago, the title has entered the vocabulary of businesspeople, policy makers, engaged citizens, and consumers everywhere. The book has given rise to more than 400 “nudge units” in governments around the world and countless groups of behavioral scientists in every part of the economy. It has taught us how to use thoughtful “choice architecture”—a concept the authors invented—to help us make better decisions for ourselves, our families, and our society.
Now, the authors have rewritten the book from cover to cover, making use of their experiences in and out of government over the past dozen years as well as an explosion of new research in numerous academic disciplines. To commit themselves to never undertaking this daunting task again, they are calling this the “final edition.” It offers a wealth of new insights, for both its avowed fans and newcomers to the field, about a wide variety of issues that we face in our daily lives—COVID-19, health, personal finance, retirement savings, credit card debt, home mortgages, medical care, organ donation, climate change, and “sludge” (paperwork and other nuisances we don’t want, and that keep us from getting what we do want)—all while honoring one of the cardinal rules of nudging: make it fun!
Richard H. Thaler was awarded the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to the field of behavioral economics. He is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2015 he was the president of the American Economic Association. He has been published in numerous prominent journals and is the author of Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics. Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, where he is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. From 2009 to 2012 he served in the Obama administration as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, from 2020 to 2021 he served as chair of the Technical Advisory Group for Behavioral Insights and Health at the World Health Organization, and in 2021 he joined the Biden administration as senior counselor and regulatory policy officer in the Department of Homeland Security. His many books include Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide, Too Much Information, and, with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony, Noise. He is the recipient of the 2018 Holberg Prize, awarded annually to a scholar who has made outstanding contributions to research in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, or theology.
How Not to Be Wrong
By Jordan Ellenberg
“Witty, compelling, and just plain fun to read . . ." —Evelyn Lamb, Scientific American The Freakonomics of math—a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it. Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion” really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer? How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God. Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.
Jordan Ellenberg is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a 2015 Guggenheim fellow. He has lectured around the world on his research in number theory and delivered one of the invited addresses at the 2015 Joint Mathematics Meetings, the largest math conference in the world. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Wired, and The Believer, and he has been featured on the Today show and NPR’s All Things Considered. He writes a popular column called “Do the Math” for Slate.