Where is your nonfiction section please.
The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova (Viking, 2016) Psychologist Konnikova takes a pop psych look at a subject so many of us find magnetically fascinating - con artists and why their manipulations work. She breaks down some of the psychology behind cons and the beliefs and tendencies in the average person that these play to,... Continue Reading →
Book review: The State of Affairs, by Esther Perel (Amazon / Book Depository) Almost everywhere people marry, monogamy is the official norm and infidelity the clandestine one. So what are we to make of this time-honored taboo—universally forbidden yet universally practiced? Reading the overhyped and even troubling Three Women, I found myself most interested in... Continue Reading →
Book review: Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell (Amazon / Book Depository) We think we can easily see into the hearts of others based on the flimsiest of clues. We jump at the chance to judge strangers. We would never do that to ourselves, of course. We are nuanced and complex and enigmatic. But the... Continue Reading →
Book review: No One Man Should Have All That Power, by Amos Barshad (Amazon / Book Depository) Wherever there is a puppet master, an eminence grise, a Svengali, a manipulator, a secret controller - that is a Rasputin. Author Amos Barshad, fascinated by the shadowy and powerful, started noticing manipulative figures everywhere, from pop culture... Continue Reading →
Book review: Duped, by Abby Ellin (Amazon / Book Depository) Journalist Abby Ellin, an observer of human nature for her work, couldn't believe she'd been so deceived. She'd been in a long-term relationship with a man dubbed "the Commander," a military doctor prone to spinning impossibly tall (and borderline silly) tales and who was secretly... Continue Reading →
