Full AspenCat Catalog

In an inspirational handbook, the discoveries of Donald O. Clifton, the grandfather of positive psychology, show how the briefest interactions affect people's relationships, productivity, health, and longevity.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, David Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself. Sedaris sets his powers of observation toward middle age and mortality, that vertiginous...

"A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people-morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners-who work in it and what led them there. We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we're so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look? Fueled by...

A psychological analysis based on the author's studies in play behavior reveals how play is essential to the development of social skills, problem-solving abilities, and creativity. From a leading expert comes a groundbreaking book on the science of play, and its essential role in fueling intelligence and happiness throughout life. Dr. Brown shows that play is anything but trivial -- it is a biological drive as integral to health as sleep or nutrition....

"Award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson has influenced legion MBA grads as well as Big Think authors from Brené Brown to Adam Grant with her pioneering work on psychological safety. Now, Amy is bringing her work to the wider world, upending our entire cultural notion of failure with this guide to the science of failing well, which actualizes the potential of psychological safety for both individuals and organizations alike"--Provided...

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family. - Publisher. "Much of my lecture at Carnegie Mellon focused on the professional side of my life--my students, colleagues and career. The book is a far more personal look at my childhood dreams and all the lessons I've learned....

Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women's voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In this book the author examines why women's progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers solutions that can empower women to achieve...

Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy is a far-reaching study of how music captivates us so completely and why we form such powerful connections to it. Leading us to an understanding of the pleasures of sound, Robert Jourdain draws on a variety of fields including science, psychology, and philosophy. He uses music from around the world to show how melodies work, how rhythm differs from beat, and why some sounds are beautiful and others ugly. Music, the Brain,...

"'Fans of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will adore The Jane Austen Society... A charming and memorable debut, which reminds us of the universal language of literature and the power of books to unite and heal.' -Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people...