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HT Picks: New Reads
This week’s list of interesting reads includes a book on making your brain resilient, another on understanding how to drive lasting change, and a collection of stories from a pioneer of feminist writing
Building a better brain
Throughout our life, we work to keep our bodies healthy and fit, but how often do you think of doing the same thing for your brain? In Keep Sharp, Dr Sanjay Gupta draws on cutting edge research and engages with scientists around the world as they discover the secrets to cognitive longevity. Exploding the myths, he reveals the best evidence-based practices for brain health, whether they be the ideal diet, physical activity, supplement, or mind set, and more importantly, explains why. He even provides an innovative 12 week programme that anyone can use to build a better brain. The years before memory problems begin are a remarkable opportunity to train your brain to be resilient to diseases such as Alzheimer’s - even if you have genetic risk factors. For those already experiencing cognitive decline, or caring for a loved one with dementia, Dr Gupta offers guidance and insights for a more productive and positive tomorrow.So don’t wait to start enhancing your brain! Keep Sharp is the only manual you’ll need to enjoy a healthy brain for life.*
Ensuring lasting change
From the spread of Covid-19 to the rise of political polarization, from implicit bias to genetically modified food, from NASA to Netflix - it’s time to think differently about how change works. Damon Centola is the world expert in the new science of networks. His ground-breaking research across areas as disparate as voting, health, technology and finance has highlighted powerful and highly effective new ways to ensure lasting change. In this book, Professor Centola distils over a decade of experience into a compelling new theory that challenge previous assumptions that new ideas are either contagious or not. The real story of social change is more complex and much more interesting. When we are exposed to a new idea, our social networks guide our responses in striking and surprising ways. Drawing on deep-yet-accessible research and fascinating examples, Change presents a paradigm shifting new science for understanding what drives lasting change, and how, by recognizing our blind spots, we can alter the world around us.*
Of sexuality and desire
One of the pioneers of feminist writing in India, Kamala Das is known for her provocative writing on female sexuality and desire. Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories includes some of her very best fiction. In A Little Kitten, a newly-married woman finds her life turning dull and insipid as the tedium of marriage begins to settle in. An old woman believes she is a princess and is delighted to be courted by three suitors in The Princess of Avanti. A man realizes, too late, that he is in love with the woman he is breaking up with in The Sea Lounge. In these and other stories, Kamala Das is bold and unflinching in her exploration of themes such as violence, desire, sex, marriage, family, communalism and death.*
*All text from book flap.
