Local nonfiction author POPE BROCK presents Another Fine Mess: Life on Tomorrow’s Moon
Porter Square Books welcomes local nonfiction author POPE BROCK, who has published Indiana Gothic (about the murder of his great-grandfather), and now, Another Fine Mess: Life on Tomorrow’s Moon—a work of what might be called speculative nonfiction.
Now that we’ve pretty much ruined planet Earth—no big secret—science tells us the human race could be doomed. Well, not all science, but some of it, enough to have sparked a lively interest in setting up someplace else.
But where?
The answer is the moon of course, and that’s what this book explores: the many ways in which today’s scientists, entrepreneurs, architects and, yes, a few loonies are working to get colonies established there ASAP. Filled with research, interviews and expert projections, these pages reveal how a web of fantastic new technologies could give mankind a brand new start off-world.
This event is free and open to the public.
Protecting the Planet: A Discussion of the Climate Crisis and Climate Visionaries
Join Trident Booksellers for a book talk with a focus on the science, communication, advocacy, and opportunity of climate change. The talk will focus on today’s climate crisis and climate visionaries, their inspiring work, and the promising solutions that could bring us to 100% wind, water and solar power by 2050.
The book in focus: Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change by authors MARIAH TINGER and BUDD TITLOW.
This event is free and open to the public.
Protecting the Planet is being sold by Trident Booksellers. You can purchase a copy in-store or online here.
The Most Important Year: Dr. SUZANNE BOUFFARD on Pre-K Education
What do our young children need in the earliest years of school, and how do we ensure that they all get it?
Porter Square Books invites author SUZANNE BOUFFARD to answer her own question with a reading from her book The Most Important Year: Pre-Kindergarten and the Future of Our Children.
Cutting-edge research has proven that early childhood education is crucial for all children to gain the academic and emotional skills they need to succeed later in life. Children who attend quality pre-K programs have a host of positive outcomes including better language, literacy, problem-solving and math skills down the line, and they have a leg up on what appears to be the most essential skill to develop at age four: strong self-control. But even with this overwhelming evidence, early childhood education is at a crossroads in America. With engrossing storytelling, BOUFFARD takes us inside some of the country’s best pre-K classrooms to reveal the sometimes surprising ingredients that make them work–and to understand why some programs are doing the opposite of what is best for children.
This event is free and open to the public.
Neuroscientist TALI SHAROT on “The Influential Mind”
Harvard Book Store welcomes cognitive neuroscientist TALI SHAROT—founder and director of the Affective Brain Lab at University College London—and Harvard Law School’s CASS R. SUNSTEIN for a discussion of Sharot’s latest book, The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others.
In The Influential Mind, neuroscientist TALI SHAROT takes us on a thrilling exploration of the nature of influence. We all have a duty to affect others―from the classroom to the boardroom to social media. But how skilled are we at this role, and can we become better? It turns out that many of our instincts are ineffective, because they are incompatible with how people’s minds operate. SHAROT shows us how to avoid these pitfalls, and how an attempt to change beliefs and actions is successful when it is well-matched with the core elements that govern the human brain.
This event is not ticketed.
The Influential Mind will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
ELI FINKEL on the “All-or-Nothing Marriage”
If you think you know all there is to marriage, don’t be afraid to put that to the test. Brookline Booksmith welcomes ELI J. FINKEL, professor at Northwestern University, to read from and discuss his book The All-or-Nothing Marriage.
The institution of marriage in America is struggling, but— as FINKEL’s most recent research reveals— the best marriages today are better than the best marriages of earlier eras. FINKEL provides a sweeping historic overview, showing that the primary functions of marriage from 1620 to 1850 revolved around food, shelter, and protection from violence. From 1850 to 1965, the primary functions increasingly revolved around love, companionship, and sexual fulfillment. Nowadays, a new kind of marriage has emerged, one that can promote self-discovery, self-esteem, and personal growth like never before.
This event is free and open to the public.
How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Body, and Brain
Harvard Book Store welcomes psychologists DANIEL GOLEMAN and RICHARD J. DAVIDSON for a discussion of their book, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body.
In the last twenty years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, DANIEL GOLEMAN and RICHARD DAVIDSON show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it.
This event is ticketed. You may purchase tickets here.
The book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
Bestselling Author/Astrophysicist MARIO LIVIO on What Makes Us Curious
Like science and/or psychology? Come to Harvard Book Store as they welcome astrophysicist MARIO LIVIO—the bestselling author of The Golden Ratio, Is God a Mathematician?, Brilliant Blunders, and The Accelerating Universe—for a discussion of his latest book Why?: What Makes Us Curious.
Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio investigates perhaps the most human of all our characteristics—curiosity—as he explores our innate desire to know why.
This book will be for sale at the event for 20% off. There will also be a signing after the event.
No tickets required for entry.
