Science & Nature

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Influenced by the dystopian futuristic vision of Margaret Atwood’s landmark 1985 feminist work The Handmaid’s Tale, Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel The Power fuses genre elements of speculative fiction with the traditional historical novel. Part allegory, part satire, the novel depicts a near-contemporary world in which women move into positions of real power through an inexplicable genetic anomaly: they develop an extra braid of muscle along their collarbones that enables them to shoot devastating jolts of... Read The Power Summary

Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business investigates the science behind habit formation in the human brain. Drawing on corporate case studies and pioneering scientific experiments, Duhigg analyzes how individuals, organizations, and societies can use the knowledge of habit formation to change their behaviors. Published in 2012 by Random House, the nonfiction book has reached a broad public readership and landed on the New York Times... Read The Power of Habit Summary

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The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a sociological study of the ways individuals encounter each other. Published in 1956 by Erving Goffman, it focuses on the relationship between an individual carrying out a particular role in society (what Goffman calls a “performance”) and those who are present but not participant (whom he calls “observers”) in the activity. While the text begins with a general introduction to Goffman’s methodology, with Chapter 1 solely an... Read The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life Summary

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power is an influential work by Daniel Yergin that was originally published in 1991. Yergin, a highly regarded American historian and economic researcher, examines the history and influence of the global oil industry. With a background in energy economics and policy, Yergin brings a wealth of expertise to this comprehensive examination, providing a detailed narrative of the oil industry’s evolution and its substantial impact on global... Read The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power Summary

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The Right Stuff is a lively account of the early American space program and its roots in the subculture of military test pilots that developed after World War II. Wolfe’s eclectic, wide-ranging narrative combines numerous elements: technological advancements in mid-20th-century flight; the generation of daring pilots who pushed innovations to their limits; and reflections on the moral, cultural, and political significance of the first astronauts at the height of the Cold War. Taken together, these... Read The Right Stuff Summary

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The Road to Mecca is a play by South African playwright Athol Fugard. It was first performed in 1984, won a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1988, and was adapted into a film in 1991. Based on the real-life story of Helen Martins, a South African woman whose home, “The Owl House,” is still open to the public, Fugard’s play explores themes of freedom versus oppression, trust, and the conflict between the self... Read The Road to Mecca Summary

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In The Selfish Gene, originally published in 1976, author and renowned British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins expands upon American biologist George C. Williams’s 1966 critique Adaptation and Natural Selection. In his text, Dawkins describes the molecular gene as the fundamental unit of evolution. Through the study of animal behavior, he explores numerous examples of natural selection. Like Williams, Dawkins shares a gene-centric view of evolution. Dawkins also extends Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by investigating... Read The Selfish Gene Summary

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The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (2011) is a nonfiction book by writer, editor, and media critic Nicholas Carr. Carr is a prolific nonfiction writer known for his analysis of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and human society. A 2011 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Shallows combines elements of personal essay, journalism, and academic research to explore The Impact of the Internet on Cognitive Processes, The Nature of Learning and Media in the... Read The Shallows Summary