Together by Vivek H. Murthy

An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter
“Excellent and provocative . . . a gateway to . . . urgent debates.” —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Time • Marie Claire • Kirkus Reviews

In this revelatory investigation, science journalist Lydia Denworth takes us in search of friendship's biological, psychological, and evolutionary foundations. An "expert guide" (Kathryn Bowers, New York Times Book Review), Denworth weaves past and present, field biology and neuroscience, to show how our bodies and minds are designed for friendship across life stages, the processes by which healthy social bonds are developed and maintained, and how friendship is changing in the age of social media. Now including a Q&A between the author and her close friend to guide reflection and conversation, Friendship is a clarion call for putting positive relationships at the center of our lives.

Consider Facebook—it’s human contact, only easier to engage with and easier to avoid. Developing technology promises closeness. Sometimes it delivers, but much of our modern life leaves us less connected with people and more connected to simulations of them. In Alone Together, MIT technology and society professor Sherry Turkle explores the power of our new tools and toys to dramatically alter our social lives. It’s a nuanced exploration of what we are looking for—and sacrificing—in a world of electronic companions and social networking tools, and an argument that, despite the hand-waving of today’s self-described prophets of the future, it will be the next generation who will chart the path between isolation and connectivity.

Manifesting Happy is a journey of self-care for educators. The book is recognition of the essential capacity that educators fulfill each and every day. By combining two foundational theories, the dimensions of wellness and applied behavior analysis, readers will create a comprehensive self-care plan by which they can manifest a stronger sense of self and well-being. The book provides an overview of the eight dimensions of wellness and introduces opportunities to gain a better sense of holistic balance. Readers will be exposed to the science of behavior analysis and the benefits of grounding wellness to the scientific principle of the functions of behavior. Through an easy to follow four step planning process of Discover, Define, Design, and Do educators can create a self-care plan that will help them to manifest their happy in order to best support students in the classroom. The book also includes self-care strategies to practice and even ideas to implement with students.

Offers a unique approach to becoming a better friend to FIND better friendships We know that our friendships increase our happiness, our health, and our longevity, yet people in the U.S. have fewer close confidantes today than we did three decades ago. Even though there's a huge amount of information in the media discussing these relationships, and our social media feeds run 24/7, most of us haven't come up with a constructive approach to friendship. But learning to BE a better friend is the first step to acquiring and cultivating better, more rewarding friendships. Friendship is voluntary; it's not legally binding; and it usually has no economic consequences. Yet, friendship, true friendship, is important and comes with challenges the can make or break a relationship. Each chapter of Better You, Better Friends: A Whole New Approach to Friendship explores and addresses a particular kind of challenge--envy, money, honesty--and discusses ways to overcome them or to know when to bow out of a relationship that brings more stress than happiness. Through expert input and personal stories, including her own, Shaw offers a new level of understanding of what makes a good friendship and a good friend.

Restart prepares readers to do the hard work of reentering an in-person post-pandemic world by examining the relationships we have formed with ourselves, our devices, and others in quarantine. Social anxiety and a tendency to avoid any awkwardness in embodied spaces were on the rise before the pandemic. Matters are far worse now that we have spent more than a year overly reliant upon our technology, incapable of safely spending time socially and relationally with others. All the while, research indicates that the kind of resilience and grit that in-person interactions involve are crucial for life satisfaction and success. This means that the social isolation from which we are emerging will have profound and lasting effects on us unless we actively work to re-integrate communal living healthily. In Restart: Designing a Healthy Post-Pandemic Life, Doreen Dodgen-Magee discusses how to harness the energy of the global re-opening of day-to-day in-person life and how to use that energy to create healthier relationships with technology, our social connections, and ourselves. Special emphasis on social anxiety, the re-opening of businesses, and how to help children through this transition is offered. Readers will learn how to break habits that hurt us/them, keep us/them isolated, and damage our/their mental health. Also offered are tips, tools, and recommendations for how to set norms that will help readers manage their anxiety, hesitance, and over-excitement about reentering an interactive world.