Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? Thats the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, The Tipping Point. Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Gladwell reveals that what we think of as decisions made in the blink of an eye are much more complicated... (more)

The Tipping Point

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

This celebrated New York Times bestsellernow poised to reach an even wider audience in paperbackis a book that is changing the way North Americans think about selling products and disseminating ideas. Gladwells new afterword to this edition describes how readers can constructively apply the tipping point principle in their own lives and work. Widely hailed as an important work that offers not only a road map to... (more)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and... (more)

Outliers

The Story of Success

by Malcolm Gladwell

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their... (more)

Man's Search for Meaning

by Viktor Emil Frankl, VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot... (more)

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding

14.5 Million copies sold to date The classic, startling, and perennially bestselling portrait of human nature-now available as a Premium Edition with a stunning new cover and re-set, easy-to-read text.

A Child Called "It"

One Child's Courage to Survive

by David J. Pelzer, Dave J. Pelzer

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him... (more)

The Bell Jar

A Novel of a Woman's Progression Into Insanity

by Sylvia Plath

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing... (more)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

by Ken Kesey

An inmate of a mental institution tries to find the freedom and independence denied him in the outside world.

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is the penetrating study of a man who commits murder, convinced of the murder's justice, but suffering mentally nonetheless. It was first published in 1866 in twelve monthly installments of The Russian Messenger, a prestigous publication and an outlet for Tolstoy and Turgenev.

Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes

With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that... (more)

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

by Oliver Sacks

In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their... (more)

Speak

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to... (more)

Girl, Interrupted (Vintage)

by Susanna Kaysen, Anna Hamilton Phelan, James Mangold, Lisa Loomer

In the late 1960s, the author spent nearly two years on the ward for teenage girls at McLean Hospital, a renowned psychiatric facility. Her memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perceptions, while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. "Searing . . . captures an exquisite range of self-awareness between madness and insight."--Boston Globe.

Sybil

The classic true story of a woman posessed by sixteen personalities

by Flora Rhea Schreiber

The incredible true story of Sybil Dorsett, a survivor of child abuse who was diagnosed with the first multiple personality disorder, reveals that she played host to sixteen separate and distinct personalities before making the long journey to recovery. Reissue.

Who Moved My Cheese?

An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

by Spencer Johnson M.D.

From one of the world's most recognized experts on management comes a charming parable filled with insights designed to help readers manage change quickly and prevail in changing times.

Freakonomics

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt

Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and... (more)

Cut

by Patricia McCormick

This debut novel deals boldly with mental illness and is by turns riveting, thrilling, and heartbreaking. Teens will relate to the adolescent drama and all-important friends as the main character tries to ³cut² it. The bittersweet tale will resonate in the turbulent world of young adults and its readers will find hope in the uplifting end.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex

by John Gray

Once upon a time Martians and Venusians met, fell in love, and had happy relationships together because they respected and accepted their differences. Then they came to Earth and amnesia set in: they forgot they were from different planets. Based on years of successful counseling of couples and individuals, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus has helped millions of couples transform their relationships. Now... (more)

Stumbling on Happiness

by Daniel Todd Gilbert

• Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink? • Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? • Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? • Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can’t we remember one song while... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: psychology

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

by Mark Haddon

The Story of Success

by Malcolm Gladwell

by Viktor Emil Frankl, VIKTOR E. FRANKL

by William Golding

One Child's Courage to Survive

by David J. Pelzer, Dave J. Pelzer

A Novel of a Woman's Progression Into Insanity

by Sylvia Plath

by Ken Kesey

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

by Daniel Keyes

by Oliver Sacks

by Laurie Halse Anderson

by Susanna Kaysen, Anna Hamilton Phelan, James Mangold, Lisa Loomer

The classic true story of a woman posessed by sixteen personalities

by Flora Rhea Schreiber

An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

by Spencer Johnson M.D.

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt

by Patricia McCormick

The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex

by John Gray

by Daniel Todd Gilbert