A BookPage Best Nonfiction Book of 2024 From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking. Utilizing the linguistic insights of her "witty and brilliant" (Blyth Roberson, author of America the Beautiful?) first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet. "Magical thinking" can be broadly defined as the belief that one's internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain's coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven. In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the "halo effect" cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the "sunk cost fallacy" can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we've realized they're not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell's prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"One of those life-changing reads that makes you see--or, in this case, hear--the whole world differently." --Megan Angelo, author of Followers
"At times chilling, often funny, and always perceptive and cogent, Cultish is a bracing reminder that the scariest thing about cults is that you don't realize you're in one till it's too late."--Refinery29.com
The New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Magical Overthinking and Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how "cultish" groups, from Jonestown and Scientologists to SoulCycle and social media gurus, use language as the ultimate form of power.
What makes "cults" so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we're looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join--and more importantly, stay in--extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell's argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .
Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of "brainwashing." But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear--and are influenced by--every single day.
Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities "cultish," revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven's Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of "cultish" everywhere.
Spend a day with social workers in 62 different settings, and learn about the many career paths available to you. Did you ever wish you could tag along with a professional in your chosen field, just for a day? DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS allows you to take a firsthand, close-up look at the real-life days of 62 professional social workers as they share their stories. Join them on their journeys, and learn about the rewards and challenges they face.
This book is an essential guide for anyone who wants an inside look at the social work profession. Whether you are a social work graduate student or undergraduate student, an experienced professional wishing to make a change in career direction, or just thinking about going into the field, you will learn valuable lessons from the experiences described in DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS.
The 5th edition includes updates throughout, as well as new chapters on police social work, library social work, suicide prevention/intervention, anti-trafficking, social work and the opioid crisis, legislative social work, adoption social work, social work education, and arts-based social work.
From the Foreword:
The more I thought about the book and what it contributes, I realized that it paints a "word picture" of what social work is as a profession. This is not an easy thing to do, given how multifaceted social work is and given the many settings in which it is practiced. This book presents the mosaic that is social work--a mosaic of multiple "tiles" held together with the core values of service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, the importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence, all applied "within the context and the complexity of the human experience," as stated in the NASW Code of Ethics. -Kathryn Conley Wehrmann, Ph.D., LCSW, President, NASW
From the Introduction:
My hope is that you will use this book as a starting point--an introduction to the variety of roles social workers play every day. Use it as you would the opportunity to literally follow and observe 62 different social workers for a day. Soak up as much as you can from each experience, decide what you would like to explore further, and then take it from there! -Linda May Grobman, MSW, LSW, ACSW
WINNER OF THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South--and thus of America--by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration." --Isabel Wilkerson
An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South--and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America
We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.
This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.
Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity, South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.
A Recommended Read from: The New Yorker - The New York Times - TIME - Oprah Daily - USA Today - Vulture - Essence - Esquire - W Magazine - Atlanta Journal-Constitution - PopSugar - Book Riot - Chicago Review of Books - Electric Literature - Lit Hub
The Parenting Book Every Parent Wants is for those parents who want to raise socially and emotionally healthy children. After many years of hearing parents tell their therapists, "My baby didn't come with instructions" and "I did the best I could," the author decided put together some crucial guidelines to help parents and caregivers learn the most important basic needs of their new precious baby. These guidelines are based on a history of researchers who were committed to understanding the implications of healthy bonding between main caregivers and infants.
By using the simple steps throughout this book, together with your intuitive parenting skills, this guide will help ensure healthy bonds between you and your baby.
His latest highly topical book, Perceptions of a Renegade Mind, is published in very different circumstances with vast numbers of people acknowledging that he has been vindicated by the happenings of the 'Covid' era. His predictions over more than 30 years have been proved stunningly accurate since the turn of 2020 often down to the fine detail.
Icke set out only in January 2021, to write a book to quickly bring enormous numbers of people worldwide up to speed and who can now see that something very strange is happening. But they ask, what exactly? What is going on? He answers those questions in his usual dot-connected detail and lays out the background to what he calls the 'Global Cult' which operates across borders to advance a long-planned agenda for total human control. Those who read his section on 'Covid' will view events of 2020 and 2021 in a totally new light as he produces the evidence that humanity has been misled on a scale that defies belief. David Icke's time has come, and Perceptions of a Renegade Mind is destined to be an international best seller that could not have been published at a more important and relevant time or with such a now receptive audience to what he has to say.
An uncompromising counternarrative, and invitation to every aspiring ally, moderate or proud American to peek inside black men's experiences during the twin-pandemic: COVID-19 and the continued pandemic of social injustices.
Through a blend of the hybrid culture that was heavily scrutinized, and the author is accustomed- equal parts urban and civil rights-these once empty pages are now intentionally filled with rawness, authenticity, and fact. Matthew invites the strong willed and curious reader to walk with him and six Black men to hear their stories.
Written during a time when facts were doubted, Walk with Me intentionally upholds feelings and experience with research. Complemented by statements from Black men in law enforcement and public health, as well as reviews from experts in the fields of well-being, racial trauma and structural whiteness, this book takes an unapologetic look at the country we love and how we can and must do better.
A warm, yet unyielding welcome into the author's mind, heart, and life experience, Walk with Me is a source of emotional resonance, and a weapon for allies to use in the fight for justice.