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The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness
Paula Poundstone · back to the book
What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Hide books by the same authorConfessions of a Conjuror
Derren Brown · 336 pages
My Life as an Experiment: One Man's Humble Quest to Improve Himself
A.J. Jacobs · 250 pages
A.J. explores the big issues of our time--happiness, dating, morality, marriage--by immersing himself in eye-opening situations. In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with equal parts insight and humor. (And drives his patient wife, Julie, to the brink of insanity.) Among the many adventures: He outsources his life to
What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers
Amy Sutherland · 192 pages
While observing exotic animal trainers for her acclaimed book Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used these training techniques with the human animals in her own life--namely her dear husband, Scott? In this lively and perceptive book, Sutherland tells how she took the trainers' lessons home.The next time her forgetful husband stomped through the
Promise Land: My Journey Through America's Self-Help Culture
Jessica Lamb-Shapiro · 224 pages
"Raised by a child psychologist who was himself the author of numerous self-help books, as an adult Jessica Lamb-Shapiro found herself both repelled and fascinated by the industry: did all of these books, tapes, weekend seminars, groups, posters, t-shirts and trinkets really help anybody? Why do some people swear by the power of positive thinking, while others dismiss it as so many empty promises?
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
Neil Strauss · 452 pages
The author and his friends become preoccupied with perfecting their techniques in seducing women, until an unexpected meeting with a female guitarist makes him question his lifestyle.
Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story
Debbie Tung · 184 pages
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
Richard H. Thaler · 432 pages
Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans―predictable, error-prone individuals. *Misbehaving* is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth―and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world. Traditional economics assume
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Lori Gottlieb · 432 pages
From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist’s world—where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she). One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crash
The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
Gretchen Rubin · 301 pages
Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.In this lively and compelling account of that year, Rubin carves out her place alongside the a
Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting
Pamela Druckerman · 284 pages
"The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent." French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special. Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
Eric Weiner · 403 pages
Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier
Approval Junkie: Adventures in Caring Too Much
Faith Salie · 256 pages
"In this hilarious collection of essays, comedian Faith Salie reflects on the absurd hoops she's jumped through in order to win approval. From running in place in a darkened shower in Africa at 4 am to lose weight, to agreeing to an exorcism at the behest of her crazy ex-husband, to eating pig organs with Harrison Ford's son after her producers told her it would "make good TV", Salie has done it a
Meaty
Samantha Irby · 272 pages
"Samantha Irby explodes onto the printed page with her debut collection of brand-new essays about trying to laugh her way through failed relationships, being black, taco feasts, bouts with Crohn's disease, and more. Every essay is crafted with the same scathing wit and poignant candor thousands of loyal readers have come to expect from visiting her notoriously hilarious blog, bitchesgottaeat.com"-
Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living
Doug Fine · 210 pages
Advance praise for Farewell, My Subaru"Fine is Bryson Funny." --Santa Cruz Sentinel "Fine is an amiable and self-deprecating storyteller in the mold of Douglas Adams. If you're a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-style humor -- and also looking to find out how to raise your own livestock to feed your ice-cream fetish -- Farewell may prove a vital tool." -- The Washington Post "Fine is an
Housebroken: Admissions of an Untidy Life
Laurie Notaro · 270 pages
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Laurie Notaro isn't exactly a domestic goddess--unless that means she fully embraces her genetic hoarding predisposition, sneaks peeks at her husband's daily journal, or has made a list of the people she wants on her Apocalypse Survival team (her husband's not on it). Notaro chronicles her chronic misfortune in the domestic arts, including cooking, cleaning, a
Tasteful Nudes: ...and Other Misguided Attempts at Personal Growth and Validation
Dave Hill
"From the Book Jacket: Dear ridiculously attractive person who just so happens to be holding Tasteful Nudes in his or her soft and supple yet commanding hands, Hi. My name is Dave and this is my very first collection of essays. As you can probably imagine, it pretty much has everything. In fact, if you like stories about stolen meat, animal attacks, young love, death, naked people, clergymen,
If You Ask Me
Betty White · 258 pages
"Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories
The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death
Colson Whitehead · 234 pages
"In THE NOBLE HUSTLE Colson Whitehead does for participatory journalism what he did for zombie novels in ZONE ONE: Take one literary genius, add $10,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker, and stir. On one level, Colson Whitehead's THE NOBLE HUSTLE is a familiar species of participatory journalism - a longtime neighborhood poker player, Colson was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from
One for the Books
Joe Queenan · 244 pages
One of America's leading humorists seriously examines his own obsession with books. Joe Queenan became a voracious reader as a means of escape from a joyless childhood in a Philadelphia housing project. In the years since then he has dedicated himself to an assortment of idiosyncratic reading challenges: spending a year reading only short books, spending a year reading books he always suspected he
A Year in Provence
Peter Mayle · 207 pages
In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January's frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glo
Carsick
John Waters · 322 pages
John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin mustache, and a cardboard sign that reads 'I'm Not Psycho', he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. But who should we be more worried about, the delicate film director with genteel manners or the unsuspecting travelers transporting the Pope of Trash? Along
Sloppy Seconds: The Tucker Max Leftovers
Tucker Max · 288 pages
The Curse of Lono
Hunter S. Thompson · 205 pages
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson travels to Hawaii to cover the 1980 Honolulu Marathon.