How many of our desires are truly our own, and how many are simply a subconscious drive to imitate those around us? Is traditional success actually desirable? Do we even have free will at all? These new personal development books explore the subjects of freedom and limitation from multiple angles. They explore memory and the meanings we give things in a world where nothing lasts forever, providing guidance on how to live with the inevitable uncertainties of the human condition.
All Desire Is a Desire for Being: Essential Writings / Girard, René
“An approachable anthology of Girard’s writings covering thoughts on desire, imitation, rivalry, the roots of conflict and violence, religion’s deep structures and other cultural subjects. His work bridges diverse fields of human inquiry and has influenced many well known writers. His insight into contagious violence looks ever more prophetic and relevant years after his death. In many ways he is the thinker for our modern world of social media and herd behaviour. Girard spoke in language that was engaging, accessible and often controversial.” (Adapted from catalogue)
Determined: Life Without Free Will / Sapolsky, Robert M
“One of our great behavioural scientists mounts a brilliant full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy there’s some separate self guiding our biology. Sapolsky tackles all major arguments, exploring chaos and complexity science and quantum physics, consciousness, as well as some of the wilder shores of philosophy. He shows us that the history of medicine is in no small part the history of learning that fewer and fewer things are somebody’s “fault”; for example, for centuries we thought seizures were a sign of demonic possession. Yet, it’s almost impossible, to uncouple from our zeal to judge others or ourselves. He applies the new understanding of life beyond free will to some of our most essential questions around punishment, morality, and living well together. By the end, he argues that recognizing that we have no free will, though difficult, is not going to result in anarchy, pointlessness, and existential malaise, but instead make for a much more humane world.” (Adapted from catalogue and publisher)
Freedom: A Disease Without Cure / Žižek, Slavoj
“A radical new take on a perennial question in philosophy – can we ever be free? – by one of the world’s most famous living philosophers” (Catalogue and publisher)
One Last Thing: How to Live with the End in Mind” / Mitchell, Wendy
“How can we prepare for death? How do we talk about it with loved ones and be empowered to make our own choices? After a diagnosis of young-onset dementia, all of Wendy’s old fears melted away. What more was there to be afraid of when facing her worst fear: losing her own mind? During this time she’s written bestselling books, tried skydiving and supports multiple dementia advocacy groups. She’s spoken on living with it, but now – while she’s able – explores dying with it. A journey though all angles with conversations on the topic of assisted dying, from those who are fighting to make it legal to those vehemently opposed to it. To get on with the business of living, we need to talk about death.” (Adapted from catalogue)
The Success Myth: Letting Go of Having It All / Gannon, Emma
“On paper, everything in Emma’s life looked perfect. But she was also unhappy, burned out, yet still striving for more. She learned that our overly-celebrated ‘traditional’ version of success is making us lonely, unfulfilled and dispirited. She shares how to set goals that are ambitious (but not overwhelming), why ‘tick-box’ moments often feel anticlimactic, and how to break free from comparison and the endless pursuit of more or “having it all” to instead learn to craft your life on your own authentic terms, based on your authentic interests, to uncover your individual path to a truly fulfilling life, whatever that may look like.” (Adapted from publisher and catalogue)
The Things We Live With: Essays on Uncertainty / Nisbet, Gemma
“After her father dies of cancer, Nisbet is inundated with keepsakes connected to his life. As she becomes attuned to the ways certain items can evoke specific memories, she begins to explore the relationships between objects and people. Why is it so difficult to discard some and not others? Do they influence the ways we remember the past or perceive the future? She begins to connect his experiences of mental illness with her own, wondering whether hanging on to ‘stuff’ is ultimately a source of comfort or concern. An intimate, wide-ranging collection of essays about how we learn to live with the ‘things’ handed down in families which we carry throughout our lives. Not only material, but grief, memory, anxiety and depression. It’s about notions of home and restlessness, inheritance and belonging, and, above all, the ways we tell our stories to ourselves and other people.” (Adapted from publisher an catalogue)
