Bookey App 30 mins Book Summaries Knowledge Notes and More

Liar’s Poker is a classic masterpiece describing the business culture of Wall Street in the 1980s. Based on his own personal experience, the author vividly depicts a series of typical scenes in Wall Street financial circles, such as transactions, gambles, wealth, bankruptcies, swearing, and politics. The author uses the game that swept Wall Street at the time, namely “Liar’s Poker,” as a metaphor for the trading games that were turbulent and full of lies.

This book covers all the classical investment practices any stakeholder needs to know. It has been known by many as the “Stock Market Investing Bible” since it was first published in 1949. This book analyzes the difference between “investment” and “speculation,” and discusses how investors respond to market fluctuations. It also introduces the core idea of value investing, “margin of safety,” and what strategies defensive and enterprising investors should use.

Why does no server acknowledge your presence when you walk into an English pub? Why are house numbers in England always hidden out of sight? How come the Englishmen are the courtliest gentlemen in the world and the most notorious football hooligans? What are they revealing to others with all of their peculiar mannerisms? As an entertaining guide to English personalities, Watching the English will introduce you to the most authentic English people.

“Listen to your heart and start writing.” This was the advice that Anne Lamott told her students on the first day of a writing workshop. Drawing on her own writing experiences, Lamott aptly demonstrates her methods for writing. She also provides step-by-step guidance on how to tackle various situations in the writing process from her book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

This book systematically discusses the theory of cultural neurosis and strongly refutes Freud's biological determinism. It is a thorough critique and revision of traditional psychoanalysis as well as one of Horney's most representative works. It marks the beginning of the social-cultural school of thought in the field of psychoanalytic study. Upon its release, it elicited a dramatic response from readers and has been reprinted several times.

This book mainly tells the story of how several ordinary Wall Street workers found out the secret of the bond market, realized the crisis hidden under the "subprime" bubble, and got rich by shorting the market. The book also reveals the dark side of American financial institutions and financial rating agencies. It analyzes the various causes of the financial crisis.

You probably are familiar with company performance. But what affects performance? Is it the corporate culture, customers, values, or managers? If what affects performance is a factor that is known for certain, then why is our company performance not improved after implementing the same strategies that top companies such as Toyota and Starbucks use as revealed in various management books? In fact, factors that affect performance are uncertain. We are often misguided by business delusions, thinking that we operate in a world of certainties. So, what are these delusions? And how can we improve performance in a world of uncertainty?   quotation

Critics, investors, and senior managers need to make predictions about the future of their industry. The key to forecasting is to identify the signals of change, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, and assess their strategic decisions. Seeing What’s Next is based on the innovation theories from The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution. It can help us to predict the future of industries and make informed decisions.

Albert Einstein once said, “Interest is the best teacher.” However, it has become increasingly common for us to see children who are not interested in school or even hate school. This is a a source of frustration for teachers and parents. Why don’t students like school? How do you get students to enjoy school? This book will give you a thorough explanation of the real reasons why students don’t like school from the perspective of cognitive psychology, and lead you to the golden key that unlocks the secret of interest in learning.

Why can’t the poor escape poverty? Esther Duflo and Abhijit V. Banerjee went deep into 18 impoverished countries and regions on five continents to explore the causes of poverty and possible solutions. They examined the daily life, education, health, economic situation of the poor, and government policies and assistance from non-governmental organizations. Based on the results of randomized controlled trials, Duflo and Banerjee put forward many practical suggestions that guide policymakers, philanthropists, and others committed to poverty alleviation.  

Deliberately or not, people tend to undervalue the role of playwrights compared to directors, actors, and actresses. We all know that a playwright writes plays, but few have explored the core competencies of playwrights. According to Lajos Egri, the author of this book, playwriting is all about building character-driven conflicts with a premise. After learning his approaches, you can become a great storyteller and sophisticated viewer who can interpret any play. Since its publication in 1946, The Art of Dramatic Writing has become a classic on the subject of creative writing. It remains a must-read for students of playwriting and screenwriting and is highly acclaimed by top Hollywood screenwriters.

How to achieve an investment performance that is better than the market average? It requires different ways of thinking. In his investment memos written over the years, Howard Marks  proposed "second-level thinking ". You must deviate from the norm. If you want to beat the market, you must think of something others haven’t thought of, see things they miss and bring insight they don’t possess. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the most important things in your investment: value, long-term shareholding, being attentive to cycles, and so on.

Babylon, one of the four ancient civilizations, was a wealthy nation with countless gold and jewels but with limited natural resources. Its brilliance was entirely the result of human wisdom. The Richest Man in Babylon introduces ancient wisdom from 5,000 years ago and reveals how Babylon got rich. You will become enlightened about wealth and understand its most fundamental laws. These oldest and most effective laws of wealth can guide you from being penniless to success and happiness.

Google’s success relies on excellent talent and teams. So how does Google get the most outstanding talent in the world to work for it? And how does it train and keep talent and explore human creativity to the maximum? This book reveals the team management and pursuing talent methods of Google that subverted traditional perceptions for the first time. It was ranked first in the bestseller list of The New York Times and has been recommended by many famous media outlets in the United States.

Who makes money better than anyone else in the world? Many people would say it’s Warren Edward Buffet. Investors around the world are dying to know the secret of Buffett’s success. What made him so wealthy? What does his experience look like? This book records Buffett’s legendary life, from his childhood to his rise as one of the wealthiest men of his generation, and discusses his investment philosophy and life wisdom.

Every entrepreneur is eager to know what kind of startup can gain a foothold in the business world, and understand how to make innovative products, face competition, assemble teams, sell products and services, and ensure a company's sustainable development. In this book, Peter Thiel, known as the "Silicon Valley venture capital godfather," gives the right answers based on his entrepreneurial history and experience. In his opinion, startups must find unique ways to innovate if they want to succeed.

Do you run every day? Do you feel pain when you run? In fact, humans are born to run with extremely springy legs and dense sweat glands, which allow us to run and cool off simultaneously. The greatest distance runners on earth are the reclusive Tarahumara, who live in the Copper Canyons of Mexico. They chase prey in the mountain and can run for dozens of hours without getting injured. This book unveils the mysteries of the Tarahumara and their secrets about running.

Do schoolteachers cheat to meet high-stakes testing standards? Is sumo wrestling a corrupt sport? What caused crime rates in the United States to plunge in the 1990s? When you encounter these "strange" questions in this book, you’ll be surprised to learn it was written by an economist. With the help of data in the form of schoolchildren’s test scores, sumo match records, abortion history, or crime rates, the author has come to various shocking conclusions and unmasked the real world behind the veil.

When it comes to being influential, the first thing that comes to mind is altering the attitudes and decisions of our audience through some sort of effort or skillful communication and negotiation. However, this book, “Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade”, tells us the different methods that top persuaders use to prepare so that their audience is receptive when receiving new information. It introduces some new approaches which can be used to enhance the possibility of agreements through persuasion.

As one of the classic works of contemporary linguistics, this book marks the beginning of the study on cognitive linguistic metaphor systems. The book is both academic and popular. It shows that metaphor is both a vocabulary problem in language and an essential method of human thought processing that participates in not only human cognitive processes but also, more importantly, is the primary method of human living. Metaphor is based on our daily life experience. If we use metaphor effectively, we can, in turn, use metaphors to change our thoughts, thus improving our lives.

Modern marketing is essentially a war. In this war, the enemy is the competitor, and the customer is the target. If you want to defeat your competitors and occupy your targets, serving customers is just not enough. You must also learn how to defend yourself, attack your competitor, and utilize guerrilla or flanking warfare against the competition. By examining different forms of corporate positioning, the book Marketing Warfare discusses four military strategies often used in war to help companies succeed in marketing: defensive warfare, offensive warfare, guerrilla warfare, and flanking warfare.

A young hedge fund manager won the auction for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett, the Sage of Omaha, with a bid of $650,100. The meal with Buffett turned out to be the most valuable lesson in his life. Through constant reflection, he got rid of his ignorance and arrogance and finally became a successful value investor. What exactly happened during this lunch? What kind of wisdom did he gain from the master investor? This book will give you answers and take you into this Nirvana journey of exploring wealth and wisdom.

Homo sapiens were once an inconspicuous group in the corner of Africa. How did they eventually make it to the top of the biological chain and take over the planet? Where did money and religions originate from? Why did the empires created by humankind rise and fall one after another? How did science and capitalism become the most crucial tenets of modern society? This book will help you sort out the journey of humankind from ancient times. By uncovering the origins of cultures, religions, laws, nations, and credit, humankind can reexamine itself.

Memories help us to truly know ourselves. We rely on our memories to discern our identity, status, and expectations. However, the physiological mechanism of memory is inherently unreliable, not to mention that there is constant interference from our external environment. The book “The Memory Illusion” offers a comprehensive explanation of the physiological mechanisms of memory and the causes of memory illusions. This international bestseller has become widely regarded as a popular science book and has been translated into multiple languages.

In the 1980s, RJR Nabisco, the producer of the well-known Oreo cookie brand, was acquired by a securities company at a whopping price. The acquisition approach is a classic example of a leveraged buyout. By gathering first-hand data and using fascinating descriptions of the events, the two authors of the book have recreated the most famous Wall Street merger and acquisition war in the 1980s. So, how did KKR, the “barbarian” in the security market, acquire the business tycoon, RJR Nabisco?

In the course of human evolution, our ancestors often encountered problems related to survival or reproduction. To solve these problems, we have evolved a unique set of psychological mechanisms and behavioral patterns that enable us to better adapt to our environment. So how does evolution affect our psychological mechanisms? And how closely does this relate to our lives? This book, “Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind,” will help us understand the factors involved in these questions.

This book examines some common phenomena in daily life from the perspective of behavioral economics, in order to reveal irrational factors in human behavior. It analyzes the external and internal reasons for irrational behaviors and offers ways we can avoid them. Behavioral economics refutes the fundamental assumption of traditional economics that people behave in rational ways. This book explains the complex theories of behavioral economics in plain language that everyone can understand.

At least a third of the people around the world are introverts. In a culture that prefers extroversion, introversion is regarded as an inferior personality trait. By introducing many studies from leading psychologists in the United States, the author of this book explains the traits and strengths of introverts to show how introverted people are undervalued and how they should make use of their strengths.

Pursuing simplicity and ease of use is human nature. Simplicity and ease of use are the keys to winning users and determining the life of a product. Based on more than 20 years of practical experience, Giles Colborne has proposed four strategies to achieve simplicity: remove, organize, hide, and displac. In addition, Colborne has explored how to create an unforgettable user experience according to user needs.  

The rapid development of Internet technology and smart products has provided people with a lot of convenience. Meanwhile, all kinds of notifications and messages mean people's working time has become highly fragmented. The author keenly points out that more than 60% of knowledge workers work time is spent on shallow work. This type of work not only yields limited output value but also permanently reduces people's capacity to work deeply! This book describes how to train the brain to eliminate distractions, improve deep work ability, and create more value.

This book is an investment amateur’s guide to stock investment written by Peter Lynch, which reveals his life experience in stockpicking. It is not only a memoir of his personal stockpicking, but also provides a good course in stockpicking by illustrating real-life cases. Lynch first tells the story of how he increased the assets of the Magellan Fund from US $20 million to US $14 billion. Then, he shares 21 classic cases of stockpicking and teaches us how to pick stocks in different industries.

People can sometimes take advantage of you, or perhaps you feel that it’s difficult to say no. These are both manifestations of a loss of control in your life. To have a balanced and healthy life, clear boundaries are essential. A boundary is a personal line that indicates who is responsible and for what. It defines what you are and what you are not. Boundaries have a significant impact on every aspect of our lives, and this book is going to tell you how to establish healthy boundaries.

Human consciousness is invisible and impalpable; it seems to be an untraceable mystery. Throughout history, consciousness has always been a conundrum for scientists. The author of this book, Stanislas Dehaene, combines his cutting-edge achievements in experimental studies and consciousness research to describe how to study consciousness scientifically. He also discusses the applications of consciousness research, leading us to understand the creation and role of consciousness and providing insight into the development and challenges of neuroscience.

In contemporary society, almost everyone suffers from anxiety. To cope with it, people turn to psychologists, books, and radio stations for help. However, they eventually find that even after spending so much time and energy searching for a cure, their anxiety not only remains, but they may feel even more stressed out and helpless. Is anxiety really this powerful? Is there any way to fight anxiety? This book provides a practical guide that will help those dealing with panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Have you heard of Condoleezza Rice, the former United States Secretary of State? Do you know how she, as a black woman in America, found her place in society? This bookey will tell you how Rice’s family gave her the best education and cultivated her self-esteem, confidence and courage to stand up for herself in a country that was not always friendly to black people. It also helps us understand how Rice went from Stanford provost all the way to Secretary of State.

Many people are familiar with the name Warren Buffett. Buffett is a world-renowned investment wizard and a representative figure of the philosophy of value investing. Known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, Buffett has been able to consistently maintain a high return of 20% for many years. How does he achieve this? This book systematically illustrates Buffett’s economic moat theory. The sole purpose is to teach investors to pick stocks accordingly and to construct high-return portfolios.

There has never been a written work of world history that is as concise and vivid as A Little History of the World. Guided by the author’s elegant brushstrokes, we can enjoy an uninterrupted view of this historical panorama. We can imagine the waves and ripples created by the Athenian fleet in the Aegean Sea, the dawn of the Renaissance in Florence, and the smoke and light of Enlightenment permeating throughout Europa. With this book, you will be infected by Gombrich's endless positive expectations for the future of human civilization.

On 11 March, 2011, a massive earthquake in Japan caused a super-tsunami. Seventy-five students unfortunately died while in the care of their teachers. Seventy-four of them perished in just one place, the Okawa Primary School. In Japan, a country with abundant experience coping with earthquakes, schools are supposed to be the safest place. So, what caused this disaster? Having spent six years uncovering the truth, the author discloses the hidden ghosts beneath the exquisite surface of Japanese society.

Enron spent 16 years becoming a historic American business giant and a rising star in the natural gas industry. However, in just one month, it squandered 65 billion dollars’ worth of accumulated assets. It suddenly declared bankruptcy and underwent the second-largest bankruptcy case in American history. What happened? Who should be blamed? The system or Humans in charge? Two top editors at Fortune magazine spent 16 months investigating what went wrong. Their investigation culminated in a book, which we will reveal to you in this Bookey.

Have you ever suffered abuse, sexual assault, a serious car accident, or some other injuries? Life often leaves us with too many psychological traumas and nightmarish memories. We struggle to get rid of them and forget them, only to find we can’t. The brain and body never forget the psychological trauma caused by an event, and it is not “all in one’s head,” but rather has a physiological basis. This book will take us through the secret of the body that never forgets trauma.

What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses is a science book published by the Scientific American, the world’s leading popular science magazine. It has been widely praised after its publication, and was listed as Amazon’s Top 10 Science Books in 2012. This book uncovers the mystery of plants. It examines whether plants have the senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, proprioception, and even memory, and helps us comprehensively understand plants’ inner world.

Is the purpose of exercise just to keep fit and lose weight? Of course not. John Ratey and Eric Hagerman use convincing experimental data and case studies to demonstrate that exercise is a natural brain booster. It not only provides a cure for many diseases but also has a preventative effect. In addition to improving memory and attention deficit disorder, exercise helps us fight off stress and anxiety, balances hormones in women, and will make you less fearful in your struggle against aging.

Why does a child who was previously close to their parents suddenly become estranged? The internal need hidden behind children’s rebellious and aggressive behaviors is their desire for emotional attachment and responses. Many may ask how parents can notice their children and build an intimate relationship with them. In reality, almost all parents have never truly understood their children’s minds, nor have they realized what their deep desires are. What is going on? Hold on to Your Kids will help you solve the puzzle of parent-child relationships.

How does Buffett, known as the Sage of Omaha, invest? This book will take you on a journey through Buffett’s investment history. We’ll learn how Benjamin Graham, Philip A. Fisher, and Charlie Thomas Munger influenced Buffett’s investment outlook, philosophy, and methods. Integrating his investment principles into your thinking and investment actions may not make you a billionaire, but it can help you improve your investment skills in the long term.

“The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature” introduces a revolutionary theory that is against the mainstream view of human nature. It constructs new meanings and moral concepts after destroying old ones, and rebuilds our confidence in human nature. This book will clarify the origins, connotations, and limitations of human nature, trace the roots of many types of human suffering, dispel the mist of moral illusions, and reach the land of reality. It also confronts hot topics in the scientific study of human nature: violence, gender, art and so forth, and reveals multiple differences and universal values behind conflicts.

When it comes to economics, we often think of obscure concepts and principles. However, the book How An Economy Grows And Why It Crashes simplifies this by telling a story of people fishing on an island. Through this story, we can more easily understand the economy, economic growth, its root cause, as well as inflation and deflation. This book makes dry and dull economic concepts easy to understand, and at the same time mirrors the operating system of the U.S. economy.

This is a book about anti-cancer methods which are based on compelling scientific research. The author wrote this valuable book using both his perspective as a physician and as a cancer patient himself. In the process of his 18 year long fight against cancer, he tried various approaches for preventing cancer and its growth. He also experienced cancer recovery using different lifestyle adjustments, such as changes to his food, exercise, mood and environment. This book has been published in 37 languages and in more than 50 countries, with a total circulation of over 1.8 million copies.

Do you want to know how Apple founder Steve Jobs, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Forbes World's billionaire Mark Cuban manage their time? Based on his interviews with 7 billionaires, 13 Olympic athletes, 29 straight-A students and 239 entrepreneurs, The New York Times bestselling author Kevin Kruse summarized the 15 time and energy management habits of productive people, and put forward his unique E-3C System for time management.

The brain can tell whether a story is good or not. This book uses the findings of innovative brain science research to talk about the creation of Hollywood film scripts, novels, and so on. It reveals the secrets of our brain, cognitive traps, and practical writing techniques. This book can transform an amateur writer into a master of story. Advertising professionals, journalists, and white-collar workers will also benefit from this book and transform them from listeners into excellent storytellers.

Why is it increasingly difficult for kids from poor families to move upward in a society with little social mobility? In a society with little social mobility, the belief that one can become successful through hard work appears to be a myth. This is the state America is in right now. Based on a long term follow-up study that consisted of interviews with 107 young adults and their parents across America, this book uncovers various social issues brought about by a lack of social mobility. This is reflected in aspects of family structure, parenting, schooling, and community. In this age of inequality, equality of opportunity is becoming increasingly rare. Evidence of the failed American dream is all around us.

“The snowball just happens if you’re in the right kind of snow, and that’s what happened with me. I don’t just mean compounding money either. It’s in terms of understanding the world and what kind of friends you accumulate.” This is Warren Buffett’s snowball philosophy. He was once the richest man in the world, having earned his enormous wealth through investing. Many have wondered how Buffett did it. What are his philosophies of doing business? This book will give you the answers.  

Trevor Noah was born in South Africa before the elimination of apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation. Because his father is white and his mother is Black, he was born a “crime.” Though he was classified as colored and suffered from all kinds of inequality, he grew up under the protection of his mother, who was brave, pious, rebellious, and optimistic. Thanks to that, Noah grew up like a normal teenager without being negatively influenced by his social environment.

Bowling Alone is a relevant examination of the level of American civic engagement in community life. Through years of research, the author gathered a lot of statistics and case studies that vividly illustrate the downward trend in American civic engagement in community affairs, and the phenomenon of declining social capital. The author analyzes not only the causes, but also the negative repercussions of the decline of social capital. On top of this, he offers suggestions for how to revive social capital. This classic, although published in 2000, nevertheless provides insight into the future and predicts social phenomena occurring in America today.  

This book is a memoir of a man who was once known as “The Wolf of Wall Street.” At one point, Jordan Belfort made a whopping $12 million in just three minutes. Forbes magazine called him “a twisted version of Robin Hood” in the stock market. He was later sentenced to prison for having swindled investors out of approximately $200 million. Through Belfort’s revelation of his life’s trajectory, we get a glimpse into the dazzling world of power, greed and excess. 

A renowned American journalist reveals to us this exciting and in-depth investigative work, which is the result of years of interviews and tracking. It shows us how a small and wealthy group of radical right individuals, centered around the Koch Brothers, bypasses public investigation, buys political power, influences Americans’ decisions, votes secretly, and facilitates conservative political agendas through all kinds of foundations and anonymous political groups.

This book predicts the collapse of capitalism by reviewing the history of its development. Driven by the Internet of Things, the Communications Internet, the Energy Internet, the Logistics Internet, and 3D printing technology, a new zero marginal cost society is arising on the horizon. The book argues that mankind will enter the era of the Collaborative Commons where a biosphere consciousness based on the Empathetic Civilization will eventually emerge.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook only at the age of 19. At 25, he already owned a net worth of $4 billion, making him the youngest on Forbes’ World’s Top 10 Youngest Billionaires list that year. People hailed him as the next Bill Gates. But, how exactly did he make it? This book, The Facebook Effect, gives a detailed account of why and how Zuckerberg founded Facebook. It also reveals why Facebook was able to stand out from many other social networking companies and become an unparalleled force.

Adam Smith regarded The Theory of Moral Sentiments as far more important than his most famous work The Wealth of Nations. He devoted most of his life to revising and improving The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In this book, beginning with human sympathy, Smith comprehensively and systematically discusses a set of concepts, such as good and evil, justice, beneficence, prudence, and self-denial. He believed that sympathy is the origin of all ethics such as justice, beneficence, and self-denial.

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention is a thought-provoking book that has studied 91 innovators, including 14 Nobel Prize winners, for 30 years. Based on these excellent innovators’ working style, personality traits, and thinking patterns, the author reveals the deep potential of the human mind and proves that creativity is the result of continuous investment in attention. Additionally, the author finds ways for ordinary people to cultivate their creativity, thereby enriching their lives both culturally and in quality.

Looking at the title only, you may mistake this book as an art book that introduces Vermeer’s artworks. But in fact, this book starts from the details in seven of his paintings to explore the drastic social changes that took place in the 17th century. Beginning with details like a hat, a porcelain dish, gold and silver, and a globe, the author tells fascinating stories that vividly present a picture of the trade and communication between China and the West in the 17th century.

This book describes how the encrypted virtual currency Bitcoin was created. It also gives a step by step explanation of how virtual currencies became more popular, driven by people with different motivations. In this process, the original financial and power centers were challenged. Many people became wealthy, while others engaged in criminal behavior. This book provides an excellent context for understanding financial technology and the digital economy and has been recommended by both the New York Times and The Financial Times.

Nobody wants to get sick, especially with hereditary disorders. However, this book tells us that some diseases used to be the natural selection of genes because they could improve our chance of survival under specific environments. These disorders have thus embedded themselves in our genetic code. Hemochromatosis, diabetes, iron deficiencies, anemia, roundworms... these undesirable terms we are unwilling to mention are the unique evolutionary legacy of life.

In modern times, we can see that the foundation of modern civilization stems from Europe. Examples of this include democracy, the concept of human rights, and the industrial revolution. They have all left a deep impact on the development of the world. How were these cornerstones of civilization created How did European civilization come about? And why has Europe influenced modern civilization so profoundly This book views these questions from different perspectives to give us a quick, clear, and systematic understanding of the history and civilization of Europe.

For many people, the United States represents“ freedom and opening up”. But tracing its root back, you will find that there is also a solid Christian foundation in the United States. Then how did they step from“ sexual abstinence”to“ sexual liberation” In the 20th century, the attitude toward sex for the people in the United States changed a lot. It can’t be denied that the“ sexual liberation” also encountered a strong resistance from people who were opposed to obscenity and pornography. The author describes the rise of the sex industry and free-love culture along with relevant social changes in the United States.

When Western Europe fell into the dark ages, Constantinople in the east sustained the ember of Greek and Roman civilization. It served as a bastion for Christians against the Islamic world. The city had been on the front line of the confrontation of the two major monotheisms during the for centuries. In 1453,200,000 Ottoman soldiers approached the city, and Constantinople only had 8,000 defenders. After several weeks of massive artillery bombardment, the Byzantine Empire fell completely. The Greeks and Christians in the city were slaughtered, and thereupon the Middle Ages terminated.

Macroeconomics may seem far from our lives. However, when there is something wrong with a country’s macroeconomic indicators, everybody is deeply affected. Therefore, each of us must learn how macroeconomics works. This book does not use much terminology. It uses stories that everyone can understand in order to explain how macroeconomics functions, and helps us understand our lives through economic theories.

Leonardo’s impressive painting skills didn’t result from a natural talent, but from his decades-long observation of nature as well as his research and experiments in various fields of study. His intense observation of movements allowed his paintings to be realistic and lively. His study of anatomy contributed to the mysterious facial expressions of his subjects. His knowledge of geometry created the perfect combination of art and science. Leonardo’s scientific exploration was initially done for the purpose of artistic creation, but later on, his primary motivation was to satisfy his curiosity. He asked questions like “Why is the sky blue?” “What does the tongue of a woodpecker look like?” His questions referred to various fields of study, and he was able to make innovative observations on anatomy, physics, botany, architecture, geology, and military engineering. And all these were reflected in more than 7,200 pages of his manuscripts that have been preserved to this day.

Second World War did not only trigger wars of aggression and counter-aggression among multiple nations, but also provoke domestic revolutionary wars and the ideological class wars. The three types of wars led to expulsions and vendettas within the European nations. Violent ethnic cleansing and civil wars occurred, along with the Soviet-led scuffles between the National Liberation Front and right-wingers. These latter two types of conflicts continued on for many years, deepening the rift between Eastern and Western Europe which end up with the beginning of the Iron Curtain and instigating the Soviet-American Cold War. Savage Continent is the historical record of the period between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, and it is based on many historical sources. The book is an account of the years of darkness when the European continent was plunged into violence and chaos after World War II. The book discusses the causes and effects of vengeance that occurred among different nations and people. It gives reflections on the war and offers opinions on how to avoid conflicts.

Longitude tells of a legendary history of the exploration of the Earth’s longitude. This popular science book not only integrates the history of astronomy, navigation and watchmaking, but also tells a fascinating tale. This book answers the question like how people position and navigate when the only available references were the sun, the moon and stars, If positioning and navigation were inaccurate, what troubles it brings to sailing, and who the person is solve this probelm. The book made the New York Times bestseller list as soon as it was first published in 1995. Owing to its dramatic plots, Longitude has been adapted into documentaries, TV series, and a movie. Longitude has been translated into 30 languages and is hailed by readers as a gem of literature that is not just a novel, but more than a novel. 

Jack Welch, the former president and CEO of General Electric, who was known as the "manager of the century", passed away on March 2, 2020. Lawrence Culp, the global president and CEO of GE, immediately announced Welch’s death. In the announcement, he said that, “He reshaped the face of our company and the business world. Jack was a strong and constant influence throughout my career despite never having worked directly for him.” As Culp said, Welch reshaped the business world. He is an influential master of management, as well as an example for other managers. He is widely known in the business world as one of the most distinguished managers and world's greatest CEO. In 1960, Welch joined the new chemical development division of General Electric. In 1981, Welch, who was only 45 at the time, became the youngest president and CEO in the history of General Electric. During the 20 years he ran General Electric, the company led the market. Its market value rose from 13 billion dollars to more than 400 billion dollars. It was also at the top of Fortune’s list of “most admired companies in the United States” for 3 consecutive years. His “Six Sigma” standard, globalization and e-business almost redefined the concept of modern enterprise.

What is an economic bubble? It means that a certain kind of financial asset, for example, stock or real estate, which attracts many investors and drastically increases in price for a short time. The sharp rise in the prices of financial assets causes a lot of money to flow into a particular industry, leading to this industry’s prosperity. This kind of prosperity is like a bubble in a bath. It seems that the market is prosperous, but actually, it is an illusion. When the market cools down and people withdraw their investments, the asset prices will collapse. The financial sector calls this false prosperity an economic bubble. The author of this book, Robert J. Shiller, believes that the main reason for economic bubble formation is the collective irrationality of human beings, so he calls the economic bubble "irrational exuberance."   Professor Shiller categorized the precipitating factors of "irrational exuberance" into structural factors, cultural factors, and psychological factors. Firstly, "irrational exuberance" is influenced by structural factors such as political policies, industry development, population size, investor psychology, the growth of mutual funds, the expansion of the volume of trade and so on. It is also fueled by the "amplification effect" of the market. Secondly, from a cultural point of view, the news media and the zeitgeist play a significant role. Finally, from a psychological point of view, these various factors can not affect the market unless human "psychological factors" are also involved. 

Too Big to Fail uncovers the thrilling story behind the 2008 financial crisis. It was written from the unique perspecitves of the insiders of the crisis. Studded with exciting details, it shows how major U.S. regulators and investment banks responded to the financia crisis. The financial crisis started with the collapse of Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest investment bank on Wall Street. It gradually spread from the real estate market to the real economy, and then swept across the world, affecting everyone. It is the tremendous incident of the global financial industry. 

The relationship between mother and daughter is very complicated. The main reason for the situation mentioned above is that many girls did not receive genuine love from their mothers during their growth. Their mothers were always self-centered, desired to control their children and lacked affection for them, which later causes many psychological problems in their children’s adult life. These mental problems include over-sensitivity, indecisiveness, a general sense of insecurity, lack of self-trust, inability to succeed in relationships, and so forth.  Written by Karyl McBride, the book contains details of many of the negative emotions involved in the mother-daughter relationship. The purpose is not for us to blame our mothers, but to ask us to recognize the facts, understand what we are going through, and confront the problem before we can recover.

If it wasn’t just a dream or a movie stunt, imagine what a miracle it would be if the woolly mammoths of the Ice Age reappeared in front of our eyes, stomping on the ice field! This behemoth that lived in the Ice Age is a close relative of modern elephants, but it was taller and heavier than an elephant. Its ivory was long enough to reach the ground, and its entire body was covered with hair, which is why it’s called the "Woolly" Mammoth. More than 3000 years ago, due to excessive hunting by our human ancestors, woolly mammoths became completely extinct. And guess what, scientists are now using modern genetic technologies to resurrect them. This is not only to make up for the faults humans made to the ecological environment, but also to rebuild the ecology of the Arctic tundra and steppe across multiple continents, and to prevent the melting of glacial permafrost. Only in this way can we stop the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases contained in permafrost, and avoid the looming enormous disasters caused by environmental deterioration.   This book describes the story of a group of top scientists, working from the HMS Genetics Laboratory to the research stations in the Siberian tundra, using the most cutting-edge genetic technologies to resurrect the woolly mammoth that became extinct 3,000 years ago. The book also elaborates on the potential future impact of the development of biological and genetic engineering on humans, and the environment. It should be noted that this book is not science fiction, but a serious and non-fiction popular science book. To write this book, the author read a large amount of materials and interviewed many people involved in the research of this fascinating species. To protect their privacy, he has only changed some story backgrounds and character relationships. The author's ingenuity makes this book reads like a suspense novel, overturning the impression of science being something dry and incomprehensible. By switching among storyboards, between explaining the development of the field of genetics and the hardships and achievements of outstanding scientists, the book offers readers a cinematic experience. 

Charlie Munger is not only the most successful investment thinker and entrepreneur in the world, but is also a “bookworm” who regards reading and thinking as paramount in his life. As he stated, “in my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time: none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.” It could be said that Charlie is a person who succeeds entirely based on his wisdom, which is undoubtedly inspiring for all book lovers.  His success is based solely on his investments, and the success of his investments depends entirely on his self-cultivation and learning. He has used his wisdom in an ethical way and achieved great success in the commercial world, which is proof that even in the market economy and material world of today, sentimental readers can still distinguish themselves and help others realize their dreams through self-cultivation. 

Our understanding of science begins with the textbooks from our school days. In these books, the scientific world is presented as a pearl necklace composed of a series of scientific events; each event is like a pearl on the necklace. Scientists are a group of people who contribute to collecting the empirical facts, establishing theories and methods of a particular scientific field, like a pearl master. Proponents of this view of the history of science believe that the development of science is linear and cumulative, just like climbing slowly up a stable and reliable slope. However, the author Thomas Kuhn believed that some authoritative books, including textbooks and popular science books, actually mislead us. In the real history of scientific development, it is often difficult to precisely define when a scientific event occurs, and who the first person is that has discovered a specific scientific event. Science does not develop through the accumulation of discoveries and inventions of famous individual scientists in the way that we imagine. This book argues that the route of scientific development appears as multiple independent development curves, showing non-linear and revolutionary features. Thomas S. Kuhn presented us with the common features of scientific progress, accurately described the process of scientific development using the concept of "transformations of the paradigms," and profoundly interpreted the nature of scientific revolutions. In fact, scientific revolutions do not only concern the accumulation and progression of knowledge, but also a whole set of changes in world views and methodologies.

The world we live in is full of complexity and uncertainty, and we may no longer make wise judgments based on intuition alone. We need to prepare ourselves with a toolbox full of mental tools that are ready to be used at any time. With the help of these mental tools, we can observe the world more objectively, maintain mature reasoning, and improve our ability to make better decisions and do things better.  The author Rolf Dobelli used “mental accounting” as a mental tool. In the case of loss or misfortune in life, he suggested that we use the “mental accounting” tool to help us to switch our perspectives on life. For example, you can preset a “donation account” and pre-deposit $ 1,000 in it every year. Whenever you are issued a ticket for illegal parking or speeding, you can pay the fines using this “donation account” and imagine that the money paid to the fine is actually a tax to improve social welfare. In this way, you can avoid feeling regret or anger whenever you are fined.

In the 19th century, under the dominance of the market economic system, America experienced rapid economic development through market liberalism. During the 1930s, after the Great Depression affected their confidence in the market economy, the American people held great concern for the future. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in as a President and carried out his famous New Deal programs. The deal included insurance plans for natural and man-made disasters, as well as temporary plans such as creating employment and providing relief directly to the poor through the federal government. In 1936, Keynes published his epoch-making book The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. He advocated that the government should act as a ‘rational economic man’ in order to overcome market failure. During the Second World War, the government even set budgets. This started an unprecedented control over all aspects of economic life. In light of the New Deal, the public increasingly began to accept government intervention. However, with the expanding scale of government intervention, economic efficiency was constantly decreasing instead of steadily increasing, as was anticipated by the Keynesians. People started to question: does government intervention really promote social prosperity and improve social welfare? Does it bring damage? This book Free to Choose will answer these questions for you.

The Age of Gold that we are discussing today will take you back to a legendary age in human history, to look at the stories of bravery, tenacity, and toughness of everyday people affected by the Gold Rush. They were both great explorers and speculators in pursuit of profit. Their experience was the beginning of the American Dream and the best representation of the entrepreneurial culture that continues to influence the world.  This era is the Age of Gold in America from 1848 to 1869, as noted in the book. The California Gold Rush of 1848 was the most interesting historical period in America. In the riverbeds of Sacramento, California, a carpenter stumbled upon a mineral particle that glittered with gold. It has since sparked the world's never-ending search for the land of gold. People of different countries and races participated in the Gold Rush, and experienced storms, disease, war, fire, as well as challenges from the darkest depths of human nature. This group of daring pioneers established a prosperous, orderly, and harmonious California from the wilderness, starting down the path towards the modern American society we are familiar with. How did the Gold Rush, 170 years ago, affect the US and the world of "universal wealth creation" today? The Age of Gold gives a vivid and accurate narrative of Gold Rush history, where you will find both detailed and objective answers. 

Do you know Elon Musk? He is the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. As a successful cross-industry serial entrepreneur, Musk seems to have a constant passion for advancing the path to entrepreneurship. Initially, Musk didn’t want to start a business. He just wanted to get a job at Netscape, But he failed as he was not good at interpersonal communication. As a result, he decided to code and founded Zip2, which was later acquired by Compaq for $307 million. Musk earned his first bucket of gold. Then, with a firm goal and eternal passion, Musk entered the rocket, automobile, and solar energy industries. He created a huge business empire worth about $30 billion in 12 years. How did Elon Musk become so successful? The answer is, it is through access to exponential technology in various fields, including the Internet, clean energy, and space exploration. Exponential technology refers to any technology that develops on an exponential growth curve and multiplies its power regularly. This explanation may still sound abstract. Let’s look at some examples. In technology or business news, we often hear or read about technologies like 3-D printing, cloud services, artificial intelligence, and genomics. These are all exponential technologies. In this book, the authors Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler elaborate on the methods of using exponential technology to build successful businesses. They also share their own entrepreneurial experience and introduce several critical exponential tools. If you’re a reader with a goal of becoming an entrepreneur, you can get practical entrepreneurial advice from this book. Alternatively, if you’re a regular reader, you can still get a better understanding of this fast-changing world. 

As a nation with 5000 years of history, China is steeped in vibrant cultures and lasting traditions, and the culinary tradition is an indispensable part of this. ‘To the people, food is Heaven’ is a well-known saying in China. And from ancient times till the present day, Chinese people have never ceased being passionate about eating. What’s more, China has a vast territory and enjoys abundant resources. The variety in climates, crops, and traditions in China carved out four great regional cuisines: Sichuanese, Shandongnese, ‘Huaiyang,' or 'Weiyang,’ and Cantonese cuisines. In the Qing dynasty, the great regional cuisines were further divided into eight: Anhui, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, and Zhejiang cuisines. No matter how many realms, the classic four or the expanded eight, these regional cuisines of China have attracted more and more people from different countries, regions, and ethnicities. Why is this, and what is China and its food culture? The book Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper by the British gourmet Fuchsia Dunlop will uncover the secrets for you Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper is a memoir of eating, written by the British gourmet and author, Fuchsia Dunlop. It records her adventures in eating throughout China since 1992. In it, Dunlop not only introduces the fantastic flavors of regional foods of China, but also marks out the differences between the East and the West in terms of food culture. It swiftly became a best-seller after its publication and was acclaimed by many top book reviewers. The New York Times described it as an ‘insightful, entertaining,' and ‘scrupulously reported exploration,' 'a swashbuckling memoir studded with recipes,' and a 'distinguished contribution to the literature of gastronomy.' The Press Association of UK praised its significance of cultural exchange through food, saying that it's 'not simply a record of sights, sounds, and tastes, but a sympathetic and passionate attempt to explain another people’s way of seeing the world.' 

The Rite of Spring is a work of modern ballet. But how does a ballet relate to World War I? Why is this ballet considered to be the birth of the modern age? By chronicling the events from the 1913 premiere of the ballet The Rite of Spring to Hitler's death in 1945, this book probes into the causes and effects of World War I from an artistic perspective. It provides an insightful reading of the relationship between social consciousness, cultural dynamics, and World War I. In this book, the author Modris Eksteins examines the lives of ordinary people, literary works, and significant social events of the time, showing how people in particular historical periods established modern ideas and forms of awareness. 

Despite being in the same category of yellow, what is the difference between gamboge yellow, cadmium yellow, chrome yellow, lemon yellow and Naples yellow? Why do colors have a variety of strange names? What kind of yellow did Vincent Van Gogh choose for his painting Sunflower to convey his intense emotions? Why has this blazing color faded into the relatively dim and dull color that we see today? These questions have haunted painters and art lovers on many occasions. In the book Bright Earth: The Invention of Color, these questions are answered by a chemist. Throughout the ages, the interpretation of art has always focused on style, form, and technique. Compared to this, how artists use colors and how they obtain these colors has rarely been questioned. The art historian John Gage once argued that in the study of art history, one of the aspects that has been neglected is the artist’s tools. An essential tool for artists, color, has always lacked appropriate attention. Now, Bright Earth brings us Western art history from the perspective of colors, telling us how the development of science and technology in different eras has expanded the scope of colors, thereby realizing or changing the different forms of creating art. It studies how the demand for art has been stimulated by the development of chemical technology, and how artists and schools were able to accept and use new pigments and new technologies. This kind of reciprocal two-way approach presents us with a unique perspective for understanding Western art history. In this book, Ball not only professionally and meticulously examines Western art masters and their works, but also provides a new understanding of art history from the perspective of colors and technology. The book Bright Earth has been continuously reprinted in Europe and America and has received unanimous praise from readers, especially artists.

When you first heard about this book, you may not have been very interested. Of course, we have been breathing since we were born. As such, if it’s a human instinct to breathe, then why exactly do we need to learn it? However, the answer is that, yes, we in fact do need to learn how do it, because most of us have been breathing incorrectly! This is not an exaggeration. Have you experienced shortness of breath and a rapid heartbeat after just a very short run or workout? If this is familiar to you, then it’s maybe due to using the wrong breathing technique. This makes you gasp while running, but also can cause other health concerns, such as anxiety, insomnia, obesity or even heart disease. Not everyone breathes correctly even though breathing is a basic human instinct. Why do we breathe in the wrong way? And what is the right breathing technique? The Oxygen Advantage will change the way you understand breathing. This book not only introduces fundamental knowledge of breathing, but also provides simple, but effective programs for you to master a superior breathing technique. 

The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World was another life-changing, healing work by Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, following his book No Future Without Forgiveness. It was also highly recommended by Nelson Mandela. In the face of the harm and grief caused by apartheid and the pain of losing family members, how can we begin to heal our inner wounds? Revenge and grudges won't help us, but will only trap us in our suffering. Only forgiveness will lead to the emancipation of our soul. This book is brilliant as a practical guide to healing ourselves and the world.

Jeanne Calment, a person with a life span of 122 years, was born in 1875 and died in 1997, was the longest living person on record. This wonderful French woman took up fencing at the age of 85, and was still able to ride a bike when she reached 100 years old. She walked around her hometown, Arles, in the south of France, to thank the people who had sent her birthday wishes on her 100th birthday.  On the other hand, in contrast to Calment, there are people in their middle age who suffer from chronic diseases, have weak immune systems, low energy levels, looking weary and 10 years older than their peers. Why do people age at different rates? Why do some people stay energetic into old age, while others who are much younger, are sick, have foggy brain, and suffer from ongoing fatigue and tiredness? What is the secret behind aging? The Telomere Effect explores aging down to the cellular level, and reveals the secret of how the environment and mental status affects the speed of aging in humans. The book then provides suggestions on diet, sleep, sports, followed with tips on how to change our way of thinking to help us slow down aging and be more energetic. 

This book is about the interesting life of Nobel Prize winner Richard P. Feynman. Richard P. Feynman was acknowledged by many as the most intelligent scientist after Einstein. However, Feynman’s life was not all about physics. His hobbies ranged from cracking open safes and making bets, to playing pandeiro.   Though surprising, this is true. This man, whom Bill Gates and Steve Jobs regarded as an idol, had a mischievous personality and was always full of passion. Since childhood, Feynman was unconventional by nature. The first time the wife of the Dean of the Princeton Graduate College met him, she exclaimed, "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!” Feynman was born full of curiosity for everything. With his father's guidance and education, he had a strong desire for knowledge since childhood. Although most of the book centers on Feynman's jokes and mischief, between the lines we can see the traces of Feynman's genius.  This book revolves around the anecdotes that occurred in Feynman's life starting from his childhood. He grew up with a persistent personality, being determined to thoroughly figure out all that he was interested in. In addition, he did not study for usefulness, but instead simply for fun. Even when he later joined the "Manhattan Project" that created the atomic bomb, Feynman continued on in his pranking ways. 

When speaking of setting a goal, most of us feel highly excited to set goals that are seemingly attainable for the new year, such as losing weight or quitting smoking. We tend to be very ambitious when writing down our plans, looking forward to achieving breakthroughs in the new year. However, in reality, we just end up giving up on them and put it behind us much before the end of the year. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology showed that about 50 percent of people make new-year plans, but 88 percent of them failed in the end. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 7 out of every 10 smokers in the US express that they want to quit smoking. However, in reality, less than 15 percent really manage to do it. Barack Obama is one of them. When he served as the senator of Illinois, he resolved to quit smoking, and Michelle Obama gave him an ironclad demand that he should not succumb even during the stresses of the campaign. But the New York Times reported at the end of 2008 that “his good-humored waffling in various interviews about smoking made it plain that Mr. Obama, like many who have vowed to quit at this time of year, had not truly done so.” Why do we always fail to reach our goals despite so many of the plans we make? Why is it so hard to implement them, despite our strong will and motivation? What actually determines our success and failure? If we want to reach our goals successfully, what should we do exactly? Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals will help us answer these questions.

In June 2007, the 5th largest investment bank on Wall Street, Bear Stearns, announced that its two funds involved in the subprime loan market had suffered significant losses. On July 31st, Bear Stearns announced that the two funds were insolvent. Bank of America (BOA) also lost more than 4 billion dollars as the result of providing payment guarantees for the assets of these two funds. In August, BNP Paribas announced the freezing of three investment funds facing losses in the U.S. subprime market, signaling the subprime crisis had officially arrived like an earthquake. However, this was just the prelude to a more serious global economic crisis. The author of this book, the then Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, struggled at the forefront of this economic crisis. Let’s first understand what the Federal Reserve is. The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States. It was established in 1913 by the former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to serve as a "lender of last resort" in case of a financial crisis, lending money to commercial banks to help them weather the crisis. Today, the Board has seven members, including a chairman, a vice-chairman, and five other executive directors. All of them are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve fourteen-year terms. This book is Ben Bernanke's memoir of the financial crisis that began in 2007. In this book, Bernanke discloses how the Fed took innovative measures to curb the spread of the financial crisis, and consequently rescued the United States economy from the crisis. The book fully discloses the details of the decision-making process and combs through Bernanke's thinking and introspection on financial policies and financial instruments, which he drew from his in-depth knowledge and wealth of experience as a macro-economist. We have also unlocked another book, Too Big to Fail, which reveals the response of the main regulatory agencies and investment banks in the United States after the financial crisis happened. If you are interested, feel free to go check out that Bookey.

Many companies see innovation as their key driving force, but some have chosen the wrong direction or have put their efforts in the wrong place to achieve this. As a result, innovation has been almost reduced to simply a game of chance. However, this book, Competing Against Luck, answers the question of where exactly to look for innovation opportunities. Giving a hint to what the book is about through its title. As a result of 20 years of refinement, this team, consisting of the foremost authorities on innovation and growth, have introduced the theory of “Jobs to Be Done” as the core concept in Competing Against Luck. How should we then understand the theory of “Jobs to Be Done”? As Harvard marketing professor Ted Levitt once put it: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” Customers buy a product not necessarily to own it but to “hire” it to complete “Jobs to Be Done”. Therefore, from a jobs perspective, we’ll be able to find innovation opportunities for our companies. 

Do you remember the moment in your childhood when you gazed up at the stars for the first time? What sparked your curiosity about the universe? Have you ever felt confused about why people cannot fly? Why do different creatures exist? Why am I able to think? Have you ever felt astonished by “being alive” or that “the world exists at all”? Many people wonder about the point of our curiosity? What can philosophy do? It cannot provide you with lots of money or food. Philosophers are just a group of “lazy bones” individuals. They think about meaningless things endlessly and waste social resources. However, the author Jostein Gaarder believes that everyone is born with a natural curiosity about the world. But as people grow older, and lead a progressively easy life, they become unwilling to learn about the world. Philosophers are those who embark on this dangerous journey once again. Some of them fall off, but many persist. They yell at the people who live easy lives for being too concerned with material matters, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space!” But no one cares. They may even refer to them ironically as, “a bunch of troublemakers!” And continue on with their conversations, “Would you pass the butter, please? How much have our stocks risen today? What is the price of tomatoes? Have you heard that Princess Di is expecting again?” Right, we have no idea – we often only care about things that do not matter at all and turn a blind eye to crucial events. So, as the book says, “Now you must choose.” You can choose to become an indifferent person who has no feelings just like everyone else. Or you can choose to embrace a mindset full of curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. If the latter is your choice, Sophie’s World will surprise and enlighten you.

Since the twentieth century, from the advent of computers to the Internet and finally to artificial intelligence, technology has been developing at a tremendous speed. It brings dramatic changes to human life, and even influences our own memory, attention, and perception. Before the invention of printing technology in China, people had to memorize a sea of ancient records to be able to discuss national issues. In contrast, in our world today, we may not even remember our mother’s cellphone number. In ancient times, humans had an intimate relationship with nature. They worked according to the sunlight. To avoid being harmed, they had to be vigilant and focused all the time, listening attentively to the rustle of grass in case of poisonous snakes. They paid close attention to the smell of the wind to judge if there were any fierce beasts present. They must fully concentrate when foraging for mushrooms to avoid poisonous ones. However, nowadays, we are no longer sensitive to all these things. We have turned all our attention to the wonderful virtual world, because technology can help us solve most of the problems in our life. Before we realize it, technology has become the most important thing that dominates our life. However, while enjoying its numerous benefits, will we encounter unprecedented challenges with the expected prevalence of biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and big data in the near future? The book Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow makes an in-depth exploration and analysis to answer this question. Backed with substantial evidence, it boldly conceives the future of human destiny. What’s more, it meditates on issues that we barely think about or have no answer for, guiding us to boundlessly imagine our future. This book has received tremendous positive reviews from the public, and was included in Bill Gates’ summer reading list. It is also highly acclaimed by many leading newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, and New Scientist.

From New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, these big American cities have experienced a century of significant changes, recovering from the Great Depression and other economic crises time and time again. Many people thus believe that big cities will spontaneously flourish for eternity. However, it is important not to forget what happened to Detroit. Detroit once was the fourth largest city in America. In 2013, the city became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection. So, what are the factors that determine the prosperity and decline of big cities? The Death and Life of Great American Cities will give you the answer.  The author of this book Jane Jacobs never studied urban planning in school and didn’t even receive a college degree. However, after she carefully observed the operation and rules of big cities, she concluded that vibrant cities have the following features: mixed primary uses of districts, short and uninterrupted streets, new buildings mixed with old buildings, and a high-density population. In her views, good cities automatically produce a complex “ballet”, which shows the vitality of big cities.  Nevertheless, these views were contrary to the popular city planning theories at that time. According to traditional urban planning and renewal theories, big cities are considered enlarged small towns. Big cities are divided by function during planning and then combined. Such practices actually undermine the functions of a city as a whole. This book denounced such theories and provided new ideas and principles for the construction of big cities.  

What comes to your mind at the mention of seeds? Maybe some listeners will think of grains and bread; some will think of nuts and vegetables, or perhaps nothing will come to their mind. People in modern society rarely care about or observe the seemingly irrelevant world of plant seeds. However, did you know that seeds are closely linked with the future destiny of humankind, and seeds have long ago risen to a national strategic level? On the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, there is a large building called the safest Noah's Ark on Earth, which is located more than 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole. It is the Global Seed Vault. As of the beginning of 2018, the number of seed samples stored at the facility has surpassed 1 million. Humans can only open the Noah's Ark once they have encountered nuclear war, asteroid impacts, climate change, sea-level rise, or other doomsday crises that have caused the destruction of seeds in the outside world. Seeds will turn out to play a vital role during the life and death of humankind. Small seeds can be spotted everywhere. Apples, bread, coffee, soy milk, silk fabric, etc. are gifts given by the seeds. Around us, seed plants make up more than 90% of our flora, and have become one of the most vigorous groups of organisms on earth. This also means that the plants we usually see are pretty much all seed plants. In the vast plant kingdom, what special abilities do seeds have, and how do they make their mark on the plant kingdom? It may be hard to imagine that other kinds of plants have dominated the earth for more than 100 million years. For example, in ancient times, spore plants were like noble lords, who led the landscape with large-scale forests filled with dendritic stone pine plants, equisetum plants, and ferns. Compared with the spore plants, seed plants are regarded as having humbler origins, with only a few plants playing a leading role in the ecosystem such as cypress, cycads, and ginkgos. What about now? Those forests of spore plants have long decayed and become coal. When algae plants took a backseat, seed plants dramatically seized the victory. So, how did seed plants successfully conquer the plant kingdom? What are the characteristics that allowed them to turn the tables and change their status, thus having a considerable impact on the progress and development of our human civilization? This book will answer all your questions.

Scientists estimate that the earliest hominins arose around 6 million years ago, and it took that much of a time for human evolution to achieve the stage of modern humans. During most of this span of time, humans walked barefoot, so our foot structure and walking style have adjusted for walking in such way. Specifically, our soles have developed a rich and extensive neural network that can detect discomfort in our feet when walking. As a result, we naturally and continuously adjust our posture while walking in order to avoid damage to the joints. However, wearing shoes impairs such ability.  With a history of barely more than 45,000 years, wearing shoes is a new fashion that only appeared relatively recently compared to the 6 million years of human evolution. Hence, as far as our bodies are concerned, wearing shoes is still a new territory. Our feet have yet to totally adapt to this new environment, which has led to a series of problems. Studies have shown that foot diseases such as flat foot and Beriberi can be easily induced by placing feet in humid, deoxygenated, and closed conditions over an extended period, such as in a shoe.  As a matter of fact, in the wake of changes in our living conditions, more and more diseases have emerged due to our body's inability to adapt to the new environment. These diseases are also known as 'mismatch diseases.' For example, high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer, depression, and anxiety. Seeking to understand the causes, preventions, and cures of mismatch diseases, this popular science book begins with a modern context and then looks back on the history of human evolution. In this book, you will get to know the evolutionary origins of all our body parts, and why they developed as they did, and in what environment they are formed. 

In 1994 in Rwanda, nearly one million Tutsi people were killed in just three months. It was not hostile external forces that committed the crime, but rather their former neighbors and friends, the Hutus. With these circumstances, we can’t help but ask, what is it that planted the “evil” seeds in the hearts of the Hutus, and what was it that was able to make these otherwise simple civilians mercilessly butcher’s their compatriots? Such is the central question which Zimbardo tried to answer in “The Lucifer Effect”: how exactly does a good person become evil? Lucifer, synonymous with Satan, once the “light bearer” and God’s favorite angel, was sent to hell due to his lust for power. Named after Lucifer, the book brings us through a series of cases displaying how vulnerable people become influenced by certain situations, and how we can all become fallen angels like Lucifer: from angels to devils. 

As a practical work on interpersonal relations, this book takes an in-depth look at human nature and taps into the hidden weakness of humanity, Through reading this book, one can get to know more about themselves and make further self-improvements. Many of us are familiar with or have even read this book. It has continued to gain popularity and receive acclaim from readers around the world. It has also been published in many editions. Data shows that this book has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, a truly remarkable number in the history of publication. It provides people with guidelines for dealing with others, in addition to sharing many ideas about how to live a happy life. Numerous people have benefited from it. Ever since Carnegie revealed the secret to harmonious relationships to many people around the world, other books on the subject of interpersonal relationships have emerged. Due to his enormous influence, Carnegie has been praised as one of the greatest experts in self-help and interpersonal relationships.

Today’s book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future is the world’s first authorized biography of Elon Musk. For the first time, it reveals the details of how Musk built and operates PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity. With the many ups and downs ubiquitous of the business world, few CEOs have been able to be as glamorous and conspicuous as Musk. Elon Musk is an obsessive, perfectionist dreamer. He is also an entrepreneur full of unique ideas and burning passion who keeps creating new business models. After Steve Jobs, he is the entrepreneur and industrialist of Silicon Valley who gets the most attention. From PayPal to Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity, his entrepreneurial journey went through numerous twists and turns. Still, every time when it seemed to be on the ropes, somehow, it achieved a turnaround that amazed the whole world. His almost crazy obsession with technology makes him a legendary figure given his involvement and breakthrough in the areas of the Internet, finance, automobile, aerospace, and clean energy.

Curiosity is a beautiful but torturous thing. Some people believe that curiosity is our ultimate weapon to break through our destiny, and the driving force behind all human behavior. If we are compared to a machine, to arouse our curiosity is to power us on. The power enables us to operate and to realize our potential, and find meanings in life.  On the other hand, we must also be aware that restraining curiosity is a homework we have to do throughout our lives. Have you realized that, since the era of mobile phones and the Internet, our attention has never been more divided under the stimulation of massive information? Some people have various interests and hobbies. They know a little of everything, but none of their interests lead them to develop skills that reach a professional level. Therefore, excessive curiosity might not necessarily be a good thing, because it makes it difficult for us to focus on one thing.  In the age of information explosion, curiosity exists as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it leads us to explore and open the door to a new world. On the other hand, it challenges our ability to focus, making it difficult for us to have an in-depth understanding in a particular field. 

In the East, shadows connote a ‘weak light’. They can be generated either when light is insufficient, or when something is blocking the light. For example, shadows are cast during the time when the sun sets or the twilight fades. Shadows also emerge from the overhang of a roof baking in the sun. That’s how shadows are perceived in Japanese aesthetics, as obscure and perceptual. It’s like looking through a semi-transparent veil, we can’t see clearly, but the vagueness is what makes it enchanting. Japan is mountainous and surrounded by the sea, so it enjoys both a unique and natural scenery. There you can find misty snowy mountains, steamy hot springs, and splendid cloud-like cherry blossoms. You can also see the ever-changing waves in the ocean that create a mystical mirage. The Japanese love nature, and they have developed a sensitivity for the beautiful yet capricious natural environment that they live in. They incorporate the aesthetics of shadows and obscurity into every aspect of their lives. Such an aesthetic view is well presented in this poetic essay, In Praise of Shadows, where this attitude is supported by the author’s detailed description of life.

At the first sight of the word “mindfulness” in the book title, some of you might feel some apprehension. You might be thinking: “I’m not a spiritual person who needs to be seated through a meditation exercise or practice mindfulness.” Or, “I’m an atheist who believes in science. Why would I need to do such things?” In fact, Mindfulness: An Eight-week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, is not written for spiritual persons only, but for each and every of us. Living within modern society, we may often have experienced certain negative emotions, such as anxiety and depression. In fact, the Gallup 2019 Global Emotions Report shows that sadness, anger, and worry were three negative emotional indicators of respondents which continued to increase over the years and hit an all-time record high in 2019. The world has become sadder, more worried, and angrier than ever before. In this regard, Mindfulness: An Eight-week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Denny Penman, may offer you a new way of thinking, as well as a solution to our current emotional state.  The book, Mindfulness: An Eight-week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, shares an eight-week mindfulness program and offers a series of simple and practical forms of meditation exercises. It aims to help us catch and withhold our negative thought patterns. Through practicing non-judgmental observations of the present moment, we will be able to get away from our negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, and annoyance, and find our inner peace. The methods in the book are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a priority treatment solution, and have proved effective in treating both depression and psychological trauma.

Speaking of art, some may find it too highbrow and mysterious for ordinary people to appreciate, so they refrain from proactively enjoying it or learning about it. When was the last time you went to an art exhibition or a concert? And when was the last time you read an art book? Many people refrain from taking part in art activities. After all, in this fast-paced society, people prefer to use their time for things that they deem “useful.” However, the majority of people misunderstand the true meaning of “usefulness.” Is having a new car useful? Or moving into a bigger house? Or getting a promotion? Can these worldly possessions truly decide how happy we are? We live our lives like a spinning top, always in motion. Sometimes, we may break down and have a fight with our partners. We may be unable to sleep in the middle of the night. We may feel empty inside after a busy day at work, and lose our desire for new experiences. In a word, we are too busy with our livelihood to take care of our spiritual and psychological needs. Art is part of ordinary life. We can actually use art as a form of therapy to heal our psychological wounds, satisfy our emotional needs, and increase our self-knowledge. Thus, we can live a better life. 

In 2018,a young entrepreneur named Michael Hood asked Buffett what skills young people should focus on. Buffett answered, “Invest in yourself. The one easy way to become worth 50% more than you are now — at least — is to hone your communication skills — both written and verbal. If you can’t communicate, it’s like winking at a girl in the dark — nothing happens. You can have all the brainpower in the world, but you have to be able to transmit it.”  Many people may think that some are born with the gift for being an excellent conversationalist, while others are not. In fact, there is no such thing as a gift for being good at holding a conversation. People who are good at communication just know some simple skills that everyone can learn. In this book, Conversationally Speaking, Alan Garner uses everyday language and rich teaching examples to help us learn conversation skills and gain the upper hand in social situations.

Financial freedom has long been the ultimate dream of many. After achieving financial freedom, you can quit a job you don’t like, choose a career you love, and even travel around the world without working. For most people, the biggest obstacle to living the life of their dreams is the lack of money. Moreover, once you experience a financial crisis, you realize just how important money is. So, how can we overcome our financial difficulties and not let money control our lives, but instead, make it our helper? In this Bookey, we will share with you a practical set of personal wealth management methods to help you improve your financial situation, realize financial protection and security, and even achieve financial freedom. Once you’ve achieved financial freedom, you’ll be better able to fully tap into your potential, while living a free and independent life. After its publication in Germany, this book was hugely successful and was once the number one bestseller of the year. Since then, it has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold worldwide. Many people have made remarkable progress in their personal wealth management through applying the investment and financial ideas and strategies introduced in this book.

Many people have read book series published by Harvard Business School. They read such books because of the prestige they associate with the name ‘Harvard’ and feel as if they can gain much knowledge by reading them. The current book "Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd," as always, maintains the writing style used in Harvard academic research, while also using concise and clear language to uncover the secrets behind marketing competition. This is just like when you go to the supermarket to buy dairy products. First of all, you have to determine the type of dairy product you want to buy. Also, you have to figure out whether or not you like their packaging and flavor. Then, you have to find the expiry date of the product. And most importantly, you have to determine whether the brand you have in mind is available or not. If the dairy product you like happens to be out of stock, you'll have to spend much more time looking for, and comparing, other brands. On the other hand, when you are shopping and see products that you are not familiar with, most probably, you will need more time examining these products. If the products look similar, and you are unable to discern their differences, then you may not even have the patience to choose one. Nowadays, shopping behavior has now created a phenomenon. In the minds of consumers, a brand may represent more than a mere set of symbols. A brand’s advantage is to allow you to produce memories and influence your behavior. When shopping, you'll face a wide variety of brands and products, and what you remember is what you will choose to purchase next. To master the essence of “marketing", marketing knowledge alone is not enough; people also need to understand consumer psychology. So, if you want to know where frequent consumption and brand loyalty come from, you can perhaps find answers in this book.

Once you hear the title, Why We Buy, you may immediately think to yourself and ask, “well, why indeed do I buy things? Of course, it's just because I want to buy something.” In fact, there is much to learn about shopping. Researchers have studied the shopping habits and psychology of consumers for sometime, and have developed a science that analyses shopping. First, let us tell you something interesting. At America's retailer Wal-Mart, diapers and beer are sold together. Some of you might be wondering: “aren't all products in supermarkets neatly sorted? Why put diapers and beer together? This is a strange categorization.” Actually, however, this odd arrangement has led to a significant increase in the sale of both diapers and beer. Why? In the United States, some women usually take care of their children at home, and often call their husbands to buy diapers for the kids when coming home from work. And, often enough, men will buy a beer they like in the midst of buying diapers. Wal-Mart learned of this phenomenon, and so made adjustments to the layout of its goods and subsequently profited as a result of this. But how did supermarkets find business opportunities, like putting beer and diapers together, when looking at a vast amount of chaotic data? Paco Underhill, the author of Why We Buy gives us the answer. Starting from looking at real-life and common shopping experiences, Underhill acutely analyzed the science of shopping seen behind these cases. This book provides an in-depth analysis of consumers' shopping psychology and motivation. Furthermore, it studies the interaction between consumers and the sales environment, and describes how retailers and marketers use various strategies to keep customers and increase sales. This book acts like a Bible for retailers and is popular worldwide.

Before we proceed, first think of the following two questions. Question one: Imagine you’ve been given $1,000, and you need to choose from two options. Option A is a 50% chance to win $1,000. Option B is a 100% chance to win $500. Which one would you pick? Question two: You've been given $2,000, and you need to choose from another two options. Option A is a 50% chance to lose $1,000. Option B is a 100% chance to lose $500. Which one would you pick this time? These were the two questions that the two psychologists asked their research participants. The result showed that for the first question, the majority picked the option with a 100% chance of winning $500. When answering the second question, however, most people chose the prospect with a 50% chance of losing $1,000. However when you think carefully, you'll see that the two questions are virtually identical. If you are happy with $1,500, then you should pick both options offering the same resulting amount with a 100% chance. On the other hand, if you’d like to take the opportunity to win the $2,000, then you should choose both options giving you a 50% chance to achieve it. So, why would people make contrary choices, even if the gain remains the same and the only difference being the description? We make all kinds of similar irrational choices in our daily lives. What lies behind such behavior and preferences? That is precisely one of the points that the book we're sharing with you today seeks to explore. The above study was designed by two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who are the focus of The Undoing Project. In the 1970s, they began their research on the human thinking process. They initiated the scientific understanding of decision-making and judgment, which subverted the basic assumptions of the traditional economic theory, and later developed behavioral economics.

Everyone has a desire for happiness and hopes to lead a more meaningful and happier life. But what on earth is “happiness?” The straight A student, the flawless fashion model on the cover of a magazine, the touching “happily ever after” ending of a romantic comedy; these examples of “perfection” are commonly seen in everyday life. They are so convincing that it makes us believe that this is true “happiness.” We try our best to do everything perfectly and earn our ticket to enter the so called “gate of happiness”. However, we always end up disappointed. Even after working so hard, we are susceptible to the pressures of life and intrusive negative emotions. We still experience moments of unhappiness. Are we not trying hard enough? Why can’t we be rewarded with happiness? We may find the answers in today’s book The Pursuit of Perfect: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a RICHER, HAPPIER Life.

“London was the sun in the financial solar system. Bankers of the City, London’s financial district, were self-styled potentates. Firms such as Barings and Rothschilds maintained an imperial reserve; to be asked for lunch was like being received in audience by a king.” This is how the author describes the financial circle of London in the 30s and 40s. One day in 1835, an American named George Peabody set foot in London. Peabody was born into a poor family in Massachusetts. His father died when he was just a teenager, and Peabody started working in his brother's shop in order to feed his mother and six siblings. His early years of poverty shaped him into a frugal and diligent man. He kept working and devoted himself to accumulating wealth. In 1838, George Peabody opened his business at 31 Moorgate Street, London. At that time, his humble office had only a counter, a safe, and a few desks. But can you imagine that years later this shabby business would grow into a wealthy financial empire? How many legendary stories happened during this time? How was the financial empire built? This is the story of The House of Morgan. This book is a classic business literature whose subject stretches across finance, history, politics, diplomacy, and economics. With the Morgans as the main characters in the storyline, it describes the 150-years of the rise and fall of Wall Street. It provides detailed accounts from the dusty historical records of the mediation that House of Morgan has executed between political and financial figures, and unveils the mysterious financial empire built by four generations of the Morgan family.

You may have seen a video like this online: people who was born colorblind received a surprise gift -- a pair of glasses that correct colorblindness. The moment they put on the glasses, they immediately burst into tears. They never imagined that the world, which had always seemed monotone, was actually colorful. This reaction reflects the most primitive human emotion. Human's administration for colors can be traced back to the mysterious cave paintings done by our ancestors who lived in ancient times. Throughout human history, people have racked their brains for how to extract various colors from flowers, ore, and even corpses. People's desire for color has a rich and long history/ Carmine was once a prized item on the luxury market in Europe; the competition for indigo caused conflicts between countries. It is difficult to imagine that the British Empire on which "the sun never sets" was once shaken by mere pigments. Because people are so obsessed with color, it seems reasonable for some countries to protect their dying-making techniques, even if they need to use force...

When choosing a career, many people will face the choice of going into a big company or a small company. Some choose big companies for stability. However, once entering a big company, they complain that all workers seem to be a small fish in a big pond. Within these corporate environments, few people in their lifetime can fight their way through and achieve a breakthrough. Furthermore, employees of big companies also face a complex management environment. Overstaffed organizations, multiple leadership positions, brain drain, and shirking responsibility are common afflictions in big companies that, not only make a company lose vitality, but also leaders to lose direction. In this book, Welch tells us how he stood out after a few years of working as a junior engineer, despite joining GE as nobody at first. What’s more, it demonstrates how he turned GE, a big enterprise full of "big company diseases”, into a dynamic and innovative company worthy of being a worldwide benchmark after he rose to management. Welch's story can provide useful inspiration for every employee and business manager.  This book, Jack: Straight From The Gut, is an autobiography personally written by Jack Welch himself who devoted himself to condensing decades of management experience and all his life into one book. In his autobiography, Welch describes his growth process, management secrets, and how to create a unique management model to help companies get rid of bureaucracy problems. Moreover, it shows how he has led GE in maintaining its leading position during its 20 years of commercial ups and downs.

You’ve probably experienced flight delays. If you paid attention to the passengers around you, you would see that they’d react differently to flight delays. Some would be listening to music with headphones on, completely ignoring the situation around them. Some would be grumbling, walking into the departure lounge in a huff after hearing the news of delay. Some would calmly but firmly demand to be rerouted immediately. And some would angrily and loudly question the staff. The differences in how people react to a flight delay have much to do with their Emotional Style. Richard J. Davidson, a psychologist and neuroscientist, proposed Emotional Style model in this book, the first theory of human emotions based on modern neuroscience. Through rigorous experiments and data analysis, Davidson puts forward that Emotional Style comprises six dimensions, and each of them is the result of a particular pattern of brain activity. The six dimensions introduced in the book give us a clear picture of our Emotional Style, which plays a major role in every aspect of our lives, including our physical health. The good news is, Emotional Style is malleable, which means that we can shape it to work to our advantage.

In the novel The Red and the Black, the author Stendhal tells the story of Julien, a carpenter’s son who leads a miserable life due to his humble background. Julien is a fervent admirer of Napoleon because Napoleon abolished the long-standing feudal system and aristocracy, and advocated meritocracy. Many senior officials in Napoleon’s government came from the underclass. Julien dreams of following in the footsteps of his hero with his intelligence and abilities. However, Julien lives in the time of the Restoration, an era in which there was rigid social stratification. It was hardly possible then for ordinary people to improve their social status. Therefore, Julien employs all kinds of disgraceful methods to improve his status. He initially seduces the mayor’s wife, and then worms his way into the Marquis’s daughter’s confidence. Julien thought that he could take this opportunity to achieve his dream of becoming a noble, but he ends up facing the brutal reality of death from the guillotine. The anxiety for social status possessed Julien. This kind of stress is ubiquitous among humans. The British writer Alain de Botton discusses this phenomenon in his book Status Anxiety. The book made a painstaking investigation into the causes of status anxiety, and explored ways to relieve this kind of concern from the various perspectives of philosophy, art, politics, and religion. After publication, the book gained tremendous popularity among British readers. It was later translated into dozens of languages and sold well all over the world. A documentary adaptation of this book with the same title similarly gained extensive praise after its release and made its way around the world.

Since the beginning of his career, social psychologist Roy Baumeister has conducted many experimental observations. He found that many couples eventually break up because they continually fought over trivial issues. Many husbands and wives have also experienced this problem. It seemed that merely being together would cause them to fight. Some people even reported trying to find a place to have a drink after work or socialize with friends, in order to arrive home late and avoid any further conflicts. In spite of this, Baumeister advised them to go home early after work. Some people were confused: why give couples more time to fight with each other? Baumeister didn’t see it this way. His research showed that many people were exhausting their willpower at work, and they had none left to deal with their partners’ demands and annoying habits when they got home. So when their partner said something they didn’t like or asked for something, the other person often responded in a mean, sarcastic manner, thus turning the situation into a bitter quarrel. Baumeister suggested that people go home early, that is, when they still have enough energy or willpower. Only with a certain amount of willpower can you deal with family affairs. Our willpower, like an account balance, is a fixed value, which requires us to spend our wealth of willpower as wisely as we manage our finances. The book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength is a practical willpower training manual. This book will tell you how to maintain your willpower and help you become a focused, self-disciplined, and efficient person. Since its publication, the book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength has been highly praised by many scholars and best-selling authors. Daniel Todd Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, commented that, “Willpower is sinfully delicious. Once you start reading, you won't be able to stop. A fascinating account of the exciting new science of self-control.” David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, praised the book by saying, “Tierney and Baumeister have produced a highly intelligent work full of fascinating information (and great advice) about a core element of modern living. Bravo!” 

Most people regard “science” as being objective and trustworthy, and perhaps a little mysterious. Some people even like to back their own work or products with science, as this makes them appear more authoritative. For instance, advertisers like to brag about their products in a scientific tone, and some churches even claim that science has proven that the Bible is true. It’s not hard to see that science is highly esteemed and has become synonymous with professionalism and authority. So what is so special about science? Where does its authority come from? What is the “scientific method” that everyone celebrates? What are the requirements for a discipline to be called science? And how does one distinguish between science and pseudo-science? The book What is This Thing Called Science, as you will learn in this Bookey, was written to elucidate and answer questions of this kind. The author Alan Chalmers tells us that our understanding of science continues to evolve throughout history, and there is no universal standard that can be applied to all disciplines. As we study the different stages of the development of science, we will realize that the so-called science is just like a primary school student that improves their ability to understand the world by constantly learning from their past mistakes. After all, modern science as we know it today has only developed over the last three to four hundred years.  What can we ordinary people get out from this book? Well, two things at least. First, it teaches us how to learn across disciplines. As you might know, three famous investors, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Ray Dalio, all have repeatedly emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary learning. If you do study across disciplines, you would know that many disciplines are closely related to the philosophy of science. After reading this book, What is This Thing Called Science, you will have a systematic understanding of science itself, and it will be much easier for you to study other disciplines. Second, this book is also quite useful to our work and daily life. For example, you can identify pseudoscience through the lens of falsificationism, make good investment decisions by using Bayesian approaches, and quickly grasp the core knowledge of a discipline using a structuralist perspective, and the list goes on.  

We often believe that, if a company wants to achieve long-term growth, it must attract more customers by using various innovative marketing and expansion methods. However, without the use of any advertising, Zappos, an online shoe retailer established by Tony Hsieh, a Chinese American, has transformed from a company with zero sales into the "shoe king” of the footwear industry, with an annual sale of 1 billion US dollars and the world’s number one shoe-selling website. What’s more surprising, among every 100 customers of Zappos, 75 are willing to buy shoes from them again. In 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos for 1.2 billion US dollars, which created a new record of corporate acquisition in the United States’ e-commerce history. So, as an ordinary person, how did Tony Hsieh successfully establish Zappos in what was the then bleak e-commerce environment? And, what kind of business model did he use to lead the employees to make huge profits, while enabling the company to achieve long-term growth? Today’s Bookey will answer these questions. The author of the book, Tony Hsieh, is the co-founder as well as the CEO of Zappos. Under his business model of "repeat customer strategy”, Zappos has transformed from a company with zero sales into the "shoe king" of the footwear industry with an annual sale of 1 billion US dollars in just a decade. Tony Hsieh himself also got onto Fortune magazine’s list of “billionaires under the age of 40”, ranking number 27 with a fortune of 1 billion US dollars. This book is a self-narrative of Tony Hsieh’s history of entrepreneurship. In the book, Tony Hsieh discloses Zappos' "repeat customer strategy”. In a sensible manner, he talks about how Zappos improves its customer service and experience to cultivate customer loyalty, and uses customers' recommendations and word of mouth as the company’s free advertising. Zappos’ experience not only applies to all business fields, but also helps company employees at different levels achieve growth both in their lives and careers. Since its publication in English, the book has received positive acclaims from major media and ranks the top on the book list of the New York Times, USA Today, and so on. It has been translated into more than 20 languages and is a popular worldwide. Harvard has also used Zappos as a case study three times in its past courses. 

This book was published as a tribute to Darwin in 2009, on his 200th birthday anniversary, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin. The book is a combination of discoveries in modern research, including genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy. It rigorously and elegantly proves that evolution is more than just a correct theory; it's a fact.

Many people begin to pay attention to their diets to lose weight and maintain health. But, we are often overwhelmed by too many theories and diet programs. This book analyzes essential dietary nutrients such as fats, protein, and vitamins. By analyzing the effects of various diets, it eliminates many of the misunderstandings surrounding food. It provides us with useful dietary advice, which can help us identify the key factors affecting health and obesity, as well as create healthy diets to suit our needs .

The author of this book starts with his own entrepreneurial experience. He freely shares anecdotes from his more than twenty years of working in entrepreneurship, administration, and investment in Silicon Valley. In addition to this, he explains the ins and outs of establishment, management, selection of employees, company culture, sales, and the relationship between the CEO and the board. Most books on entrepreneurship tell you how to do the right thing, not how to screw things up. But this book will let you know what you should do when things are falling apart. 

Can you believe that a single book can get you to stop smoking? While it sounds impossible, 10 million people worldwide have successfully stopped smoking with the help of this book. Allen Carr's The Easy Way to Stop Smoking has been translated into more than 30 languages, and over 9 million copies have been sold all over the world. The method of stopping introduced in this book doesn’t rely heavily on willpower. It’s a self-contained system. By practicing the method, smokers can quit in an easy, fast, and thorough manner. This Bookey will introduce this method to you, and help you quit smoking easily.  

This Explains Everything assembles discussions from scientists on the online platform, Edge. Each chapter introduces an important scientific way of thinking. The book shows the scientists’ innovative perspectives and the relations between different fields of study, through which we ourselves can adjust our own ways of seeing the world. With the acquisition of these ways of thinking, it would be as if we stood on the shoulders of giants, discovering new truths about how the world works. 

Traditional art critics usually focus on a painting's artistic expressions, such as lines, colors, and composition. This book, Ways of Seeing, however, directs our attention to something else, such as the artwork's historical background, the artist's purpose, and the hidden intentions behind different ways of interpretation. The book tells us the secrets behind images and gives us a whole new perspective to appreciate artworks.

Have you ever wondered why others do a better job than you even though you’ve both spent the same amount of time working on something? Why do others love what they do and do it with great passion, while you don’t? Why do you find yourself faced with unrealized dreams, even when you have followed your heart by pursuing your mission in life? This book, So Good They Can't Ignore You, will teach you how to accumulate career capital, how to take control of your career path, and how to find a mission for your career. With its guidance, you’ll be able to build a career that you truly love. 

Citing a wide range of secret documents, private diaries, conference reports, and records of interrogation, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich chronicles the entire process of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany for readers, presenting a magnificent historical picture of World War II. Trevor-Roper, a renowned British historian and professor at the University of Oxford, recognized the book as “one of the most important works of history in our time.”

When we speak of performances, we perhaps picture a stage or a big screen, and an atmosphere that is far from the lives of ordinary people. However, this book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, points out that, in fact, all of us are acting performances by presenting to others a certain image or social role in our daily life, with or without intention. Since the book was published, it has long been regarded as a classic in sociology. 

How do we create a hot-selling technology product? How can high-tech enterprises win more business? This book tells you the marketing secrets behind high-tech products. The author, Geoffrey Moore, examines the psychological traits of different kinds of consumers, and discloses the serious marketing mistakes that are often made by high-tech enterprises. He then gives a detailed explanation of how a high-tech company could expand and secure its business, while surviving and thriving among fierce competition.

As ordinary people, we often admire geniuses. We think that they are born gifted and can gain achievements in a certain area without too much effort. But that’s not true. People from all walks of life who are regarded as geniuses all rely on acquired practice, and more specifically, deliberate practice. Scientific research has shown that human brains are very adaptive. Learning isn’t a way of reaching one’s potential but rather a way of developing it.

Continuously updating Facebook, playing games all day long, and exercising even when injured, behavioral addiction brings temporary pleasure but harms long-term happiness. Have you considered getting rid of these habits? This book will take us through the history of behavioral addiction and the biology behind it. We will see how our addictive experiences are engineered, how we can get rid of them, and how we can even use addictive mechanisms to change our behavior for the better.

This book shines a light on the fascinating human history related to the various functional areas of the house in both a thoughtful and entertaining way. Regardless of what happens in the world, or what is discovered, created or bitterly fought over, through wars, famines, the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, and so on, these events will eventually be reflected in various ways in our daily household life. It can be said that houses are museums of history, and there is a splendid history hidden behind each room.

When someone mention cancer, presumably nobody will ask them to introduce the word! Cancer is a term for an aggressive, hard-to-cure disease. People with cancer face not only a huge financial burden but also the fear of looming death. In the United States, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men will develop cancer in their lifetime. Therefore, what exactly is cancer? Can cancer be completely cured? This book, The Emperor of All Maladies, shall reveal these mysteries for you. 

This is a story about HeLa, the immortal cells, and Henrietta Lacks, who was the owner of these cells. This story recounts the history of progress in human medicine, the research and development of cancer vaccines, cloning technology and gene mapping. It raises the discussion on medical ethics, the ownership of body tissues, the right to informed consent, and cultural beliefs. How did HeLa cells come into being? Why are these cells immortal? What’s the significance of the birth of HeLa? The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will tell you the details of this story.

Selling is a science. The ability to sell can be learned and cultivated. Based on more than 40 years of sales experience, the author offers his principles, techniques, and tricks to making sales in this book. Every reader can easily understand these sales tips and use them to strike a deal. The Sales Bible has been a bestseller for over ten years ever since its publication, and has received acclaim from salespeople around the world.

This book is a thought-provoking work which rivals the famous Silent Spring. Today, the ferocious wave of urbanization, the crises of environmental pollution, and the overwhelming tide of online information have hijacked the childhoods of countless children. The broken bond between our young people and nature, the high rate of illnesses such as childhood obesity, attention-deficit disorder, and depression, and the surge in the number of children with nature-deficit disorder are all biproducts of social progress. This book is an instructional guide aimed at healing the broken bond between our young people and nature.

In modern times, we can see that the foundation of modern civilization stems from Europe. Examples of this include democracy, the concept of human rights, and the industrial revolution. They have all left a deep impact on the development of the world. How were these cornerstones of civilization created? How did European civilization come about? And why has Europe influenced modern civilization so profoundly? This book views these questions from different perspectives to give us a quick, clear, and systematic understanding of the history and civilization of Europe.

There is little doubt whether or not humans are different from animals. However, modern genetics has called into question the extent of these boundaries. After all, there is only 1.6 percent of a genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees. If alien scientists came to visit us from outer space, they would not hesitate to categorize humans as a third type of chimpanzee. As such, how did humans evolve to become the way we are today? What sets us apart from all other living things and allows us to call ourselves the most dominant species on the planet? ‘The Third Chimpanzee’ attempts to provide a systematic answer to these questions. 

You probably have a stable and decent job, but you do not dare to rest for a second, because you are afraid that, should there be an unexpected accident, you will lose everything you have. How can you become a truly rich person, who does not have to worry about livelihood and can make financial freedom a reality? This book will tell you this: being hardworking is not enough; you also need a bit of financial intelligence. This book is just about to help you develop your financial intelligence and understand the secrets behind the mindset of the rich.

Every parent wants the best for their children, but what kind of education is precisely best for them? What kind of education is in line with their stages of development? Through this book, Montessori, the founder of the world-famous “Montessori Method,” helps us understand that the growth of a child comes from his internal order. They know how to guide themselves to explore and adapt to the external environment. Only when they are able to grow up independently, will they become healthy children in both body and mind.

While we may think that we live in a highly developed civilization, there’s still a large number of people suffering from gender-based violence, sexual trafficking, or “Honor Killings”. They are also called slaves of the 21st century, and the reason behind this is simply because they were born women. This book records stories of women's suffering in different parts of the world. It hopes to raise people’s awareness and enable more women to find hope in desperation.

In today’s rapidly changing world, new problems in management are constantly emerging. During such times, many of us attempt to improve ourselves by reading books and learning from successful management experiences of others. Whether you are new to management or an experienced manager, you should maintain a state of continuous learning by drawing on the knowledge of others. However, if you have limited time and can only read one book on management, “The Essential Drucker” couldn’t be a better choice. 

This book is one of the later renown works of Carl R. Rogers, the master of humanism,, and it’s his best-selling publication. This book consolidates and summarizes the concepts and methods behind counseling and psychotherapy. It puts forward the unique concept of “person-centered” psychotherapy, which has significantly influenced the field of psychology, education, management, and politics. Rogers believes that when given the proper psychological atmosphere, people generate creativity and positivity, making individuals capable of obtaining growth using their own inner strength. 

For many people, happiness seems to be something elusive. Some wish to find happiness but have no idea how. ‘Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment' is the literary version of Harvard’s most popular course on happiness. The book explains the underlying reasons why most people are unhappy and informs us that happiness is the measurement of a successful life. True happiness is “the overall experience of pleasure and meaning.” Increasing the sense of happiness can help us get rid of existential anxiety, release individual potential, and improve our quality of life.

Haruki Murakami was not a hard-working student. He got married before graduating from university, and it took him seven years to obtain his degree. He was both rebellious and did not play according to the rules. After leaving university, he first opened a store, and then switched to writing novels and became very successful. People often joke about how often he is nominated for the Nobel Prize, but never indeed wins. He has even become a popular figure on a UK bookmaker’s odds list. How did he begin his career as a novelist and what were his creative inspirations? This autobiographical essay will reveal Haruki Murakami’s creative life.

People usually think of microbes as the root cause of diseases, while also associating them with germs and dirt. However, in fact, microbes are indispensable to living organisms on earth. Humans and microbes both cooperate and coexist. In the human body, microbes play multiple important roles; such as shaping the organs, modulating the immune system, and digesting food. This book tells the story of the symbiotic relationship between organisms, and the roles that microbes play in all spheres of life. It will change the way we look at our bodies, and the world.

The book ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ is both a bestseller in inspirational psychology, and praised as the gospel of physical and mental health. This book holds the record for being a Number 1 New York Times’ bestseller for fifty weeks, with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide. In the book, the author reveals a psychological method to pursue physical and mental harmony, while also opening up the perfect path for rebuilding a harmonious life. To add to the book's popularity, its concept of the “Overall Health” has also quickly swept the entire world.  

For many people, the impression of Japanese people is that they are on the one hand gentle and polite, but on the other hand can be brutal and cruel; they are traditional and conservative, but they are also willing to learn. Contradiction is a feature of Japanese people’s character. So, what is the cultural origin behind the nation’s contradictory character? The Chrysanthemum and the Sword examines the characteristics of the Japanese national character and Japanese culture from an anthropological view. This book became popular worldwide after its publication, and is praised as “the ground-breaking work of modern Japanology.”

Inevitably, there will be “crucial moments” in our lives that are difficult to solve but will have a significant impact on the overall course of our life. However, most people handle these moments poorly, and even choose to avoid them. This book teaches us practical skills to handle crucial conversations, avoid unnecessary arguments, and achieve effective communication. This book is based on over 20 years of empirical research and data gathered from more than 100,000 people around the world. The skills described here have been adopted by more than 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, and the book has sold 3 million copies in the United States.

‘How to Read a Book’ is a reading guide that will offer you detailed guidance for reading. Since its first publication in 1940, it has received positive reception in many Western countries, leading to it being republished several times. The author’s deep contemplation and broad view on the subject, can make reading much easier for people who both do not understand it and are exploring it for the first time. This book not only introduces general methods for reading, giving specific techniques for different types of books, but also discusses the essence and meaning of reading.

From time to time in our daily lives, we get into difficult conversations, such as when we ask for a promotion or end a relationship. Such conversations, though seemingly ordinary, leave us feeling anxious and put us in a dilemma. So, what should we do in difficult conversations? This book ‘Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most’ can give you the answer. This book is the product of fifteen years of research by the Harvard Negotiation Project and has been an international bestseller since its publication. 

The internationally acclaimed book Decisive Moments in History, uses a comprehensive perspective to view the history of humanity. The author picked 12names out of 100 billion people in history and depicted 12 beautiful moments in which individuals shaped human civilization. Whether it is Cicero raising his arm in a cry for action in the face of authority, the heroism of the Antarctic expeditions, or the moment that the decisive battle took place at Waterloo, when these willful individuals collided with historical destiny, sparks flew in every direction, and decisive moments in history emerged and formed our civilization.

Most of us are probably a little scared when we hear the word “virus”. After all, viruses are responsible for the loss of countless lives throughout human history. But did you know that there is also a good side to these viruses. They play an essential role in biological evolution. It can even be said that the evolution of all animals and plants is not possible without viruses. Unfortunately most people still don't know much about viruses. This book, A Planet of Viruses, will unveil the mystery behind viruses and help you understand the relationship between viruses and humans.

Were you under the impression that the Silk Road was just a trade route? Or a ‘belt’ around the world? The history of the Silk Road is a condensed version of world history. The historical journeys of countries don't happen in isolation – but are instead all inextricably linked to the Silk ‘Roads’. The book’s author redefines world history from the perspective of the Silk Road. By reading this book, you will discover that the Silk Road not only encompasses the history of humans, but also determines the future of the world.

"Failure is the mother of success”, is a saying that all of us have heard before. Still, few have a thorough understanding of this old saying. In life, failure is not a rare occurrence. However, while some people are afraid to fail and instead escape from their responsibilities, others are able to draw a lesson from their failures and improve themselves. Why are there these two completely different attitudes towards failure? What are the correct ways to deal with failure and learn from it? This book will give us a detailed answer. 

Speaking of pirates, what do you have in mind? Captain Jack from Pirates of the Caribbean? Or the hot-blooded anime character One Piece? These films and television works are often filled with romanticism, but real pirates in history lived by plundering and killing. A group of such barbarians, however, had once established a democratic republic, in which they voted for the captain, equally distributed the property, and even paid pensions to the disabled crew members. This practice was much more advanced than the systems of many countries at that time. How did the pirates build such a world?

People nowadays can’t help checking their cellphones every few minutes and they feel uneasy without browsing Facebook after an hour. Given such phenomena, authors of the book Hooked, proposed a novel and practical concept called the “Hook Model” based on their years of research. This model reveals the fundamental design principles of addictive Internet products. So, what is the “Hook Model”? How can we use it? Stay tuned.

Why are some individuals powerfully persuasive and influential? Why would we repeatedly agree to other’s requests? This book reveals six main psychological principles hidden behind the obedient behavior of others towards us. Businesses and experts of persuasion constantly apply these principles to obtain our compliance. After listening to this book, you will be also able to make better decisions and improve your influence to obtain others’ compliance.

In the difficult journey of life, in order to live a peaceful and fulfilling life, we need to constantly explore and try to find our true selves. If you are confused by the process of looking for yourself, and if you’ve worked hard but received nothing in return, maybe this book ‘The Road Less Traveled’ can help you out. It was written by M. Scott Peck, a great psychotherapist in America. Since its publication, this book has been on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly 20 years, a miracle in the history of publishing.

Can fishes think? The book What a Fish Knows describes the colorful lives of fishes, and explains the behaviors and sociality of fishes with the most ground-breaking scientific achievements. It tells us that fishes also have ideas and emotions, like pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy. This book inspires us to rethink the relationship between humans and fishes from a new perspective. 

If you feel trapped in endless work as an executive, and wish you had more than 24 hours a day to keep working, you’ve come to the right place. This book is written by Peter F. Drucker, the master of management. It’ll teach you how to manage your time, work better and be an effective executive.

When making all kinds of decisions, we think that we are always making smart and rational choices. But is that really the case? This book tells us that in many cases, we are being irrational. This book will help you overcome your irrationality and make better decisions. The 2017 Nobel Economics Prize was awarded to economists who had made outstanding contributions to "behavioral economics”. This book is a straightforward interpretation of these "behavioral economics." 

A bestseller for 40 years, The Minto Pyramid Principle has been widely acclaimed and translated into many languages. It has been reprinted numerous times and has always achieved good rankings among bestseller books in various countries. The Minto Pyramid Principle is a logical thought, a form of expression, and a standard behavior. It has an outlined structure and a clear logic, and it distinguishes the subject from the object. It can effectively improve your thinking, communicating, and problem-solving processes, allowing them to become more logical and organized. It can help you build a structure and organize ideas quickly, especially when developing a course, writing, or preparing a speech.

It’s widely agreed that only companies with a massive scale, various product types, and a large sales network can win the upper hand. Nevertheless, 37signals, a software company with neither budget nor advertising, few staff and salespersons, has a booming business and earns huge profit. What’s the secret of success? How did it manage to gain a foothold and stand out in the fierce competition?

Brands are now profoundly rooted in our daily life. Some of us even get addicted to one specific brand. Why can these brand marketers successfully manipulate us? As is revealed in this book, brand marketing has schemed to prey on and amplify consumers' most deeply rooted emotional needs. Fear, anxiety, desire, conformity, and so on, are all in the service of manipulating the way we think, act, and make decisions.

Are you struggling because your child always goes against you? Are you worried about not being able to communicate respectfully with your kid? These problems can be solved with this book-- “How to Talk to Kids So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk.” Since its first edition was published in the 1980s, three million copies have been sold worldwide. It has been a bedside table book for tens of thousands of parents. It teaches parents straightforward and practical ways to bond with their kids through the language of love, helping them develop a healthy parent-child relationship.

Steve Jobs was a man like a god in many people’s eyes. He pursued perfection. He was arrogant and unyielding. He went his own way. He lived just to change the world. We often listen to music with our cellphones, work with our laptops, or go to the cinema to watch an animated film-- Jobs made his contribution to all of these. How did a man, both genius and crazy at the same time, create those epoch-making products? Let’s uncover it in this book!

Change is nothing new to us. For example, we may want to change our overweight body through physical exercise, build up good social relations through positive communication, or increase our knowledge through studying. Everyone has dreamed of making changes, but we often finally give up due to various obstacles in the process. So, what on earth are the factors that influence change? What are the ways to realize change?

Genghis Khan lived between the mid twelfth century to the early thirteenth century, impacting the course of world history for nearly eight hundred years beyond his life. In other words, today all aspects of our lives are still subjects to the impact brought by Genghis Khan. His influence on the world is far beyond our imagination. In this book, the author tells us the life experience of Genghis Khan in great details. He reveals the reasons why Genghis Khan’s legacy has been influencing the world for more than seven hundred years.

This book is called, “the concept that has the greatest impact on American marketing”. It is even comparable to Taylor’s scientific management and Peter Drucker’s management theories. It has changed people’s understanding on the previous marketing concept of “meeting demands”. It clarifies that the key for companies to win in increasingly competitive markets, is to let your customers remember your products firmly.

Parent talk is more meaningful than expensive early childhood education classes. The gap of 30 million words, which refers to the difference between the number of words children from different backgrounds are exposed to when young, greatly affects children physically and psychologically. Through this book, you will see how important parent talk is. You will also learn “the Three Ts” to communicate with children scientifically: tune in, talk more, and take turns. This is a primer on language education for novice parents.

This book contains general rules of learning that 11 cognitive psychologists have spent a decade working on. Let’s uncover the mistakes of our current learning habits, and adopt the most straightforward and scientific strategies for the current "era of complexity”. We can do this by applying these advanced research findings in psychology and neuroscience. Since its publication, this book has topped the Amazon educational psychology category list for four consecutive years.

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind is a classic book in the field of social psychology. Since its publication in 1895, it has been translated into about 20 languages. In this book, the author examines the unique psychology of crowds, and in particular makes a penetrating comparative analysis of the different psychological characteristics between individuals and crowds. The problems discussed in this book, written a hundred years ago, are still relevant to a lot of people today. Why is the “irrationality” of crowds often unbelievable and difficult to understand? We may find the answers to our confusions in this book.

"Brave New World," is dystopian classics, which had a profound influence in intellectual fields around the world. In the dystopian society illustrated in this book, human happiness is "socially conditioned." People seem to live happily, without any misfortune or agony. However, as the book goes on, we find they have lost their affection and sentimentality. Even worse, they have lost their creativity and ability to think independently.

During World War II, many ancient and picturesque cities were reduced to piles of ruins under a "scorched-earth policy." "Is Paris burning?" was a question that Hitler bitterly put to his Chief of the General Staff on the day of the liberation of Paris in 1944. Facing the great danger that the city’s glorious architecture and art treasures might be burnt to the ground, how did resistance groups and the Allies react? This book will give you a real and vivid description of the history of Paris's fight for liberation.

Why do children from different social classes have different starting lines? Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life tells us that parents of different social classes differ in parenting styles due to differences in family economic levels, educational backgrounds, and work experience. Middle-class families tend to employ a pattern of concerted cultivation, while working-class and poor families tend to allow children to grow naturally. Different parenting styles have different effects on children’s development.

What kind of children can be happy for their whole lives? Is it going to be the rich kid or the well-behaved kid? Well, The Optimistic Child will tell you that optimism, interest, and good habits are the most precious qualities. If there is no interest, there will be no motive for self-development, and if there are no good habits, then there is nothing to secure self-development. And what is the foundation of enthusiasm and good habits? Optimism. Optimism is the mark of a successful education.

When someone cuts in line in front of you at the supermarket and you feel furious, do you get angry at the person or say nothing at all? When your boss promises you a pay raise but soon regrets and denies it, do you just accept it or fight for what you want? So many confrontations test our social relationships, and so many of us are overwhelmed by them. Given this situation, the five authors of Crucial Confrontations looked into various industries and have found out how to turn interpersonal crises into windows of win-win cooperation.

Can you imagine a city like this: For more than three thousand years, it has been given countless titles. It is a temple of god, the capital of two states, and the Holy Land for three major religions. It is also known as the place where news happens every hour, every day. It is the Holy Land, but also a cemetery. Flaubert called it a "morgue," and Huxley called it a "religious slaughterhouse." This city perfectly combines contradictions like holiness and cruelty. This is Jerusalem, a city that makes the world restless.

This book is a classic in social science with worldwide popularity. It enjoys a similar reputation with two other books, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, and Idols of the Tribe: Group Identity and Political Change. This book essentially explores the answers to some questions about the “active phase” of mass movements, such as who will be the true believers? Why are they so fanatical? and What are the characteristics of the leader during different stages of the mass movement?. The author Eric Hoffer once called it “a book even children can understand”. The views in this book are applicable in any mass movement on the planet.

In this information explosion era, people's attention span is dwindling. Whoever catches public attention also catches the business opportunity. However, seizing attention is not something that only happens in contemporary society. The battle for public attention has already begun a century ago. How did merchants benefit from the battle for attention? What changes has the media undergone as a result? How have advertisements evolved over time? How has marketing encroached on every area of our lives? This book will interpret these topics in detail.

Pixar, the producer of WALL·E, had a difficult path to development. Pixar’s glory is similar to the outcome of colliding “tectonic plates”. One of the plates symbolizes artistic pursuit resulting from the pressure of innovation. The other plate symbolizes the pressures of trying to survive in the real world and dealing with aspects like financing, the box office, and production speed. How did a talented and artistic team, but also being one ridden with heavy debt, quickly develop into a creative empire with a market capitalization of 6 billion U.S. dollars?

Many people believe that the most reliable way to acquire wealth must be a slow-paced process. It requires factors such as good grades, working hard, salary rises, getting promotions, fixed deposits, making investments with 10% of your capital, as well as pension plans. The Millionaire Fastlane, on the contrary, demonstrates the vital deficiencies of this commonly known as “Get Rich Slow” concept, and proposes a new theory called the Fastlane. What is the Fastlane? What are the strategies behind this new idea? How are ordinary people like us supposed to switch lanes and become millionaires? This book will reveal these secrets to you.

What is ugliness? Is it merely the opposite of beauty? What are the categories of ugliness? With rich written and illustrative material and unique insights, the book On Ugliness scrutinizes our biases against ugliness. It overturns traditional aesthetics and presents a fascinating history of the “aesthetics” of ugliness. The book draws closely on the visual arts, combining these with key literary works from across the ages. It discusses how ugliness has been portrayed in the Western tradition, from the classical era, the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Romantic period, all the way to modern times.

‘Never Eat Alone’ was published in 2005 and has been a top seller ever since it became known to the public. It has spread widely to 16 nations and regions, reaching tens of millions of people, and has been on the Top. 1 ranking position in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the United States’ Amazon list. The book offers a number of lifelong social rules that break down the way people think about social behavior. It can help people change their casual behaviors in life, build more valuable relationships and achieve greater success.

“Amusing Ourselves to Death” is part of Neil Postman’s series of books criticizing the contemporary media. The book suggests that we are unknowingly living in a metaphorical world created by the media, which is redefining the way we live. The Washington Post described the book as a scathing indictment by Postman, and praised the book as being talented, powerful and significant. As one of Postman’s most important and representative works, ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ has been translated into multiple languages and published in over 50 countries.

When it comes to the mind, the first thing most people think of is the “brain”. This is because scientific evidence shows us that the brain is the center of thinking and consciousness. There are also people who believe that our thoughts are controlled by the soul. This book tells us that the mind is a system of organs of computation. It is the result of “natural selection”, produced as our ancestors went through the process of overcoming the challenges to survival. In other words, the mind is not the brain, but the result of the brain's actions.

If someone asks you: how did America win the Second World War? Your answer might certainly be: through their superior military strength. However, did you know that books also played a decisive role? Soldiers read armed services editions of books while waiting to land in Normandy; in the hellish trenches of battlefields in the Pacific; in field hospitals; and on warships. Books, as key ideological weapons, led America to the final victory of World War II. This is precisely the story “When Books Went to War” would like to share with you. 

Compared with front-line employees or high-level leaders, managers often face excessive workloads and deal with never-ending problems. Their roles and effects are often underestimated. This book teaches how middle managers, as the mainstay of an organization, can achieve maximum output with effective input such as output-orientation, one-on-one meetings, performance appraisal and so on. Andy Grove was one of the founders and a former CEO of Intel. As a scientist, Grove participated in bringing about significant breakthroughs in the technology of semiconductors. As an outstanding entrepreneur and manager, he frequently led Intel in successful transformations. In 1997, he was rated as the “Person of the Year” by the weekly magazine Time. He taught strategic management courses at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for a long term. He was also an honorary professor of Harvard University. 

Artificial intelligence has already entered our lives. While we enjoy the convenience it brings us, we are also worried that it might take our jobs, access our data, and make decisions for us. Given the numerous challenges we will be facing in the future, how do we make sure we can stay at the forefront of time and survive? Following Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, as the finale of the trilogy, the book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century will bring you to a significant discussion about human destiny in the twenty-first century.

Reality is broken. Gamers are abandoning reality in droves and migrating into the virtual world. Countless numbers of people detach themselves from society and indulge in games. Some worry that, sooner or later, gamers who escape from the real world and normal life will cause a total social disaster. Is this true? The book "Reality Is Broken" tells us that games won't bring a disaster; on the contrary, it argues that they are the key to the future, and that they can make the world a better place. This book was written by the American author Jane McGonigal, a famous futurist. She is the Director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future. She worked as the chief game designer for 42 Entertainment, a renowned company that specializes in creating and producing alternate reality games. She has been viewed as a kind of ambassador of the $60.4 billion global game industry since she spoke at the influential TED Talk conference in 2010.When she at TED talks that received even more attention than those of Bill Gates. 

Nowadays, candies and desserts are our everyday treats, and even sugar itself is an essential part of cooking. It appears that sugar has been incorporated into our lives. But did you know, as humble as it seems, sugar used to be a symbol of class division in history? In the past, the sugar that European nobles possessed was as valuable as a luxury item, and was considered even more admirable than owning a Louis Vuitton bag. It not only triggered wars of different scales but also changed the world. Is sugar that important? The book, Sweetness and Power, will show you the answer. This book was written by Sidney W. Mintz, who was once a faculty member at the Department of Anthropology at both Yale University and Johns Hopkins University. He successively published numerous studies on the anthropology of food and made outstanding achievements. He was internationally accredited as the leading scholar in his field and was acclaimed as the Father of Food Anthropology worldwide. As one of the masterpieces of Professor Sidney W. Mintz, economists and humanities scholars around the globe have viewed the book, Sweetness and Power, with interest. 

At one point or another, we all experience rejection, loneliness, frustration, and low self-esteem. These are psychological injuries that we should not ignore. As such, we’d better use a mental health medical kit to cure ourselves. The book we are going to talk about today claims that with just a few simple steps, we can alleviate mental pain, cheer ourselves up, and hit the road again. The author of this book is Dr. Guy Winch, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from New York University. He has completed several years of post-doctoral work in family and couples therapy at NYU Medical Center. He is a licensed psychologist, author of the best-selling book The Squeaky Wheel, an expert in the study of emotional distress and their cures, a sought after speaker, and a worldwide popular author.

This book is a classic in the advertising world. If people in the advertising industry were to know only one person and one book, it would no doubt be David Ogilvy and his book Confessions of an Advertising Man. Even if you’re not in the industry, the book will still help you learn about the industry and the people in it. In this book, David Ogilvy, the “pope of modern advertising”, illustrated his distinctive advertising philosophy and business principles.

The purpose of the book, ‘The Design of Everyday Things’, is to help readers learn to appreciate good design and become better observers and thinkers. It gives us an idea of what good design should look like, as well as how good designers think. It points out that the design of objects in everyday life should be human-centered, simple, usable, and as pleasant as possible. If people commit errors while using objects, it’s not due to the fact that they are stupid, but rather, because the design itself is flawed.

Peter F Drucker said, “just as management has become the specific organ of all contemporary institutions, and the integrating organ of our society of organizations, so innovation and entrepreneurship have to become an integral life-sustaining activity in our organizations, our economy, our society.” This requires managers of all institutions to treat innovation and entrepreneurship as a normal and uninterrupted daily behavior and practice, both within their enterprise, and in their own work. The purpose of this book is to provide the necessary conception and tools to fulfill this task.

The Zimmermann telegram incident was one of the key components that brought about the end of World War I. Zimmermann, the then-Foreign Minister of Germany, secretly contacted Mexico and tried to form an alliance to contain the United States and ultimately win the war. However, the telegraph was intercepted by the British intelligence agency, which resulted in a declaration of war against Germany by the previously neutral United States, thereby changing the course of world history. Using the most authentic records available, this book explores the intelligence activities and diplomatic strategies behind the First World War.

We have a natural desire to connect, which is just as important as our need for food or air. One study showed that the difference in happiness for people who were isolated versus those connected with others was equivalent to the difference of earning an extra one hundred thousand dollars per year. Although connecting with others brings great happiness, many people find it difficult. Aside from the importance of social skills, this book illustrates the secret of how our brains are wired to connect from the perspective of human nature. It seeks to help us build better social relationships and discover hidden social strengths.

Paper is a necessity in our daily lives. Although electronics have partially replaced the role of paper, people are still attracted to the pliable touch of paper and the smell of books. What makes paper so important to us? How was it invented? And how does it influence human society? Well, this book happens to be about paper, and it’s going to tell us about the various aspects of paper, such as its history of communication, culture, and society.

The general public considers medicine to be precise, surgeons to be rational, and treatments to be miraculous. However, this book tells us that the world of medicine is full of chaos, uncertainty, and complications. The essence of medicine is the pursuit of perfection through complexity. In this book, Atul Gawande shares the unforgettable stories he experienced during his eight-year surgical training. He demonstrates the complexities that doctors face from all sides, and documents their mental developments as they struggle with these complexities. 

In modern society, everyone is eager to attain freedom and self-fulfillment. People claim to be willing to give up anything for freedom. However, this book presents a different picture. In reality, lots of people, even the majority who seem to pursue and praise freedom, are unknowingly trying to escape from it. Their actions actually run counter to what they claim. The author probed into this phenomenon to explain the emergence of freedom, as well as why and how people escape from it. His aim was to show us a path to real freedom.

How many times must a surgeon be put to the test when he is trying to move from professional to exceptional? ‘Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance’ tries to answer this question. This is the second book of Atul Gawande’s medical trilogy. In this book, Atul Gawande proposes that benevolence is the basis of becoming a surgeon. In order to become an excellent surgeon, one needs to possess diligence, the drive to do right, and ingenuity, in addition to simply possessing masterful medical skills.

Parents are the very people who love us most in the world, but self-absorbed parents can inflict irreversible harm on our growth. Many people can’t get rid of the haunting shadow of such harm even after they reach adulthood. From the perspective of self psychology, this book explains the negative influence that results from improper parenting, and proposes feasible strategies to help people who suffered heal their childhood trauma and rebuild a brand-new self.

THE Theory of the Leisure class：An Economic Study of Institutions was published in 1899, and it immediately became one of the most popular books of the time. It made a big impact in the Western academic world and was a must-have for intellectuals. Through his close observation of the upper class, the author managed to affirm the nature of the leisure class and sharply criticize the rapid growth of Western capitalism.

Michelle Obama was an ordinary black girl who was born during a time of prominent racial discrimination in America. She made her way into Ivy League universities, got an elite job, and then became First Lady of the United States. She was the first African American First Lady in the history of the country. In this book, Michelle examined her life in a candid, sincere, and inspiring manner. She hopes that readers can be inspired by her experiences and become who they want to be. 

In life, parents reward children who make progress in school, and bosses use bonuses to motivate their employees to work hard. The method of “do A to get B” is effective in the short term, but in the long term, as the rewards increase, people lose the passion for accomplishing anything. Why would there be such a consequence? What are the harms of using rewards in the long term? Is there any way to replace rewards? Punished by Rewards will give us the answer.

Do you often complain about not having enough time or having a lot of work to do? Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity will help you solve all your problems. This book introduces a method called GTD time management. It is an efficient workflow practice proven to help you "Win at the Game of Work and Business of Life." This book is based on the author’s over 30 years of consulting experience and personal exploration. It has been published in 33 countries, helping millions of readers around the world to get their work done easily and efficiently.

Before the discovery of the first black swan, people were convinced that all swans were white. Hence, a “Black Swan” indicates an unexpected and impactful rare event. From the financial crises to the sinking of the Titanic, or the September eleven attacks, “Black Swans” exist in all fields. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the nature and the rules of “Black Swans.” It enables us to understand both how society operates, and how to gain the upper hand in this uncertain world.

Depression is one of the deadliest diseases on the planet. As the population of depressives in modern society increases year by year, the majority still hold prejudices against depression. What on earth is depression? How can we cope with it? By means of self-analysis, the author of this book, Matt Haig, wrote about his feelings after suffering from depression. Through his personal experience, he presented the inner world of depressives and their journey of self-help to combat depression.

This book, as the title says, is about the seven habits of highly effective people. It teaches us how to achieve victory from the private to the public spheres, thereby making a tremendous change in life and career, and attaining both success and happiness. Known as the “Bible” of the American business community and government management department, the book is included in the training course of the Fortune Global 500 corporations, and is ranked by Forbes as one of the ten most influential management books in history.

“Children are acting as models in TV commercials with revealing clothing while adults like to wear school uniforms and consider themselves children.” Neil Postman, from his distinctive perspective as a scholar of media culture, warns that the above-mentioned phenomenon indicates that childhood is disappearing. His favorite book, The Disappearance of Childhood will show us evidence of the disappearance of childhood, and provide a theory that can explain the phenomenon of the disappearance of childhood.

In the year that World War II ended, aside from major historical events remembered by posterity, there were many forgotten people and things. The entire Old World had been turned into a pile of rubble. People not only felt the joy of victory, but also experienced repressed human nature and lust, as well as terrible hunger and hearts full of hatred. The book Year Zero: A History of 1945 will take you back to 1945 to see how an entirely new modern world was born from tattered ruins.

We all know that Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. However, you may not know that he was also a cross-disciplinary polymath. He was both a scientist with extensive knowledge, and an eloquent diplomat; both a social reformer concerned about civic improvement, as well as a well-known writer. At the same time, he was also a regular person; proud, humorous and possessed intricate love stories. In today’s Bookey on ‘Benjamin Franklin’, we will guide you through his ordinary, yet great, life.

Have you ever had similar experiences like these? You read a book from the evening till late at night, but it feels as if only two hours have passed. Or, when listening in class, the time goes faster if the teacher makes the course material interesting. Why does this happen? Is time speeding up? Actually, it is not. It’s an inner experience, known as “flow.” What is “flow” you may ask? This book will dissect this mystery for you.

If we pay attention to the ways we talk, we'll realize that the things we say can indeed hurt people. For example, there are verbal denials, rude interruptions, and casual judgments. In response to this phenomenon, the late Dr. Marshall Rosenberg developed a method of Nonviolent Communication, which takes an unusually mild, reserved approach to communication. UNESCO has listed it as one of the best means of nonviolent resolution in formal or informal education worldwide. Nonviolent Communication can eliminate people's traces of hidden psychological violence and allow them to express their love naturally. 

Why is it that in many restaurants you can afford to buy a buffet for only 30 dollars? Why does the price of the same bottle of beer differ so much between the grocery store and a fancy hotel? Why do stores put a pair of 500 dollar shoes next to a pair of 100 dollar shoes? In fact, these are all tricks that businesses play on the customer. The book, Priceless, tells us that there is nothing such as an “original price” in this world, but only psychological battles that take place in our minds.

Can you imagine a city like this: For more than three thousand years, it has been given countless titles. It is a temple of god, the capital of two states, and the Holy Land for three major religions. It is also known as the place where news happens every hour, every day. It is the Holy Land, but also a cemetery. Flaubert called it a "morgue," and Huxley called it a "religious slaughterhouse." This city perfectly combines contradictions like holiness and cruelty. This is Jerusalem, a city that makes the world restless.

Can you imagine a city like this: For more than three thousand years, it has been given countless titles. It is a temple of god, the capital of two states, and the Holy Land for three major religions. It is also known as the place where news happens every hour, every day. It is the Holy Land, but also a cemetery. Flaubert called it a "morgue," and Huxley called it a "religious slaughterhouse." This city perfectly combines contradictions like holiness and cruelty. This is Jerusalem, a city that makes the world restless.