Bestsellers from The Basic Books Group to read this National Book Lovers Day
Celebrate National Book Lovers Day with some of our bestselling nonfiction. From history and politics to psychology, parenting, and more, discover the books readers can’t stop talking about.
“One of the greatest adventure stories of our time.” –New York Times Book Review
In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance and set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day’s sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men.
In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton’s fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.
Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it’s hard to know where to start.
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life.
“An engrossing and relentless intellectual history of prejudice in America.” –Washington Post
Some Americans insist that we’re living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America—it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history.
In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking and, in the process, gives us reason to hope.
“Even more relevant today than it was when first published.”—Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO
Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door.
The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints. The goal: guide the user effortlessly to the right action on the right control at the right time.
The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how—and why—some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.
The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation shows how a deeper understanding of the world’s philosophical wisdom can enrich and transform our lives.
“Wonderfully smart and readable.” —Washington Post
In The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt skillfully combines philosophical wisdom and scientific research to explore ten “Great Ideas” that have been discovered by several of the world’s civilizations. In each chapter, Haidt questions a Great Idea in light of what we now know, and extracts from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives, thereby illuminating the causes of human flourishing.
In this classic work of developmental psychology, renowned psychiatrist and the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Happened to You? reveals how trauma affects children—and outlines the path to recovery
How does trauma affect a child’s mind—and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Dr. Bruce D. Perry has helped children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, murder witnesses, kidnapped teenagers, and victims of family violence.
The classic, New York Times-bestselling book on the psychology of racism that shows us how to talk about race in America.
“An unusually sensitive work about the racial barriers that still divide us in so many areas of life.” ―Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing GraceWalk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? How can we get past our reluctance to discuss racial issues?
Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides and pursuing antiracism. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand dynamics of race and racial inequality in America.
Robert’s Rules of Order is as indispensable now as the original edition was more than a century ago. This book is the acknowledged “gold standard” for meeting rules.
Coinciding with publication of the 12th edition, the authors of this manual have once again published an updated (3rd) edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief, a simple and concise introductory guide cross-referenced to it.
A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll
“Every few decades an unknown author brings out a book of such depth, clarity, range, wit, beauty, and originality that it is recognized at once as a major literary event. This is such a work.” —Scientific AmericanGEB is a unique insight into the nature of “I,” self, soul, and consciousness, centered on a notion that its youthful author dubbed “strange loop,” inspired by the twisty self-referential construction invented by logician Kurt Gödel, whereby a sentence asserts its own unprovability. The book, filled with analogies, wordplay, humor, and mind-twisting prints by M. C. Escher, has inspired generations of bright students to study cognitive science and the philosophy of mind.
“Thomas Sowell is the nation’s greatest living economist.” —American Spectator
Basic Economics is a citizen’s guide to economics, written for those who want to understand how the economy works but have no interest in jargon or equations. Bestselling economist Thomas Sowell explains the general principles underlying different economic systems: capitalist, socialist, feudal, and so on. In readable language, he shows how to critique economic policies in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the goals they proclaim.
Drawing on lively examples from around the world and from centuries of history, Sowell explains basic economic principles for the general public in plain English.
“Rare and compelling in its compassion and its unassuming eloquence.” —New York
Why are many of the most successful people plagued by feelings of emptiness and alienation? This wise and profound book has provided millions of readers with an answer—and has helped them to apply it to their own lives.
Far too many of us had to learn as children to hide our own feelings, needs, and memories skillfully in order to meet our parents’ expectations and win their “love.” Alice Miller writes, “When I used the word ‘gifted’ in the title, I had in mind neither children who receive high grades in school nor children talented in a special way. I simply meant all of us who have survived an abusive childhood thanks to an ability to adapt even to unspeakable cruelty by becoming numb…Without this ‘gift’ offered us by nature, we would not have survived.” But merely surviving is not enough. The Drama of the Gifted Child helps us to reclaim our life by discovering our own crucial needs and our own truth.
The New York Times bestselling account of one of history’s most brutal—and forgotten—massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China’s capital city on the eve of World War II.”A powerful, landmark book, riveting in its horror.” —Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered—a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.Historian Iris Chang tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, in The Rape of Nanking Chang analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. It also tells of the concerted effort during the Cold War on the part of the West and even China to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Drawing on extensive interviews with survivors and documents brought to light for the first time, Iris Chang’s classic is the definitive history of this horrifying episode.
The definitive translation of Sun Tzu’s timeless classic of military strategy, The Art of War.
A quintessential guide to strategy, The Art of War has influenced leaders for over a thousand years. Beyond the battlefield, people have long turned to its wisdom for advice on succeeding in competitive situations, and companies worldwide now make this book required reading for their executives.Ralph Sawyer’s compelling translation and expert annotations bring to life for modern readers Sun Tzu’s masterful insights on conflict, competition, and human dynamics. An invaluable resource for anyone seeking to refine their decision-making and leadership skills, this elegant hardcover edition invites repeated engagement, enhancing any collection with its timeless principles and captivating design.
There comes a time in every new mother’s life when she realizes that all the pregnancy well-wishes and baby shower gifts left her profoundly unqualified for the realities of life with a newborn. Who knew there would be so much crying—and how much of that crying would be coming from the mom?
Bestselling author Dawn Dais believes that a vast conspiracy exists to hide the truth about parenting from expectant mothers for fear that if the truth got out, women would (1) stop having babies or (2) stop bringing them home.Revised and updated with new chapters offering advice for single moms and tips for partners, The Sh!t No One Tells You is a must-have companion for every new mother’s sleepless nights and poop-filled days.
When it comes to communication styles, Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It’s no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out.
In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together.