Book picks similar to
Don'ts for Wives by Blanche Ebbutt


non-fiction
humour
relationships
english

How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You


Leil Lowndes - 1996
    In How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You readers will find 85 techniques based on scientific studies regarding the nature of love, including:Finding potential love partnersMaking an unforgettable first impressionDodging love bloopersEstablishing sexual rapportBy using these pragmatic, down-to-earth strategies, anyone can turn new or casual relationships into lasting ones--or make current relationships deeper.

The Making of Outlander: The Official Guide to Seasons 1 & 2


Tara Bennett - 2016
    Spanning the first two seasons of the Starz network sensation, The Making of Outlander leads readers behind the scenes and straight into the action as cast members, writers, producers, musicians, costume designers, set decorators, technicians, and more share the many adventures and challenges they face to make this sweeping saga come alive on the screen.In exclusive interviews, the show's stars, including Caitriona Balfe (Claire), Sam Heughan (Jamie), and Tobias Menzies (Frank Randall/Black Jack Randall), discuss the daunting task of embodying some of fiction's most beloved characters--and satisfying the high expectations of devoted Outlander readers. Executive producer and showrunner Ronald D. Moore looks at the inner workings of the writers' room, shares his crew's travels to the authentic overseas locations, and chronicles the brainstorming, building, breakneck pacing, and boundless energy that make everything from the show's architecture to its outfits period-perfect. In addition, the book examines all the Outlander episodes through exclusive interviews with their writers and directors, providing fascinating facts into the making of each hour.Best of all, The Making of Outlander offers a veritable feast of lavish photographs--including an array of images spotlighting the stars in all their characters' grandeur and up-close personal portraits. Featuring an introduction by Diana Gabaldon herself, this magnificent insider's look at the world of the Outlander TV series is the companion all fans will want by their side.

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human


Jonathan Gottschall - 2012
    We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It’s easy to say that humans are “wired” for story, but why?In this delightful and original book, Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems—just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival.Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Gottschall tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic?Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more “truthy” than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler’s ambitions were partly fueled by a story.But as Gottschall shows in this remarkable book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral—they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us.

Dave Gorman vs. the Rest of the World: Whatever the Game — Dave Takes on All Comers!


Dave Gorman - 2011
    Which is a shame... because Dave Gorman likes playing. He REALLY likes games. So he knocked on the biggest door you could ever imagine - the internet - and asked 76,000 people if they fancied a game. This is the story of what happened next.Dave was up for anything and gamely played them at whatever they chose. He played some classics - Monopoly, Scrabble, dominoes and cribbage. He played many games he'd never heard of before - Khet, Kubb, Tikal or Smite anyone?He played board games and physical games. He's thrown sticks, balls, frisbees and darts. He's rolled dice and he's drawn cards.From Liverpool to Hampstead and from Croydon to Nottingham, Dave travelled the length and breadth of Britain meeting strangers in strange places -- their homes, at work, in the back rooms of pubs -- and getting some hardcore game action. From casual players to serious game geeks, from the rank amateur to the world champion, he discovered a nation of gamers more than happy to welcome him into their midst.He's travelled all around the country and met all sorts of people - and it turns out us Brits are a competitive bunch! And it seems that playing games can teach you a lot about what makes the British tick. Of course, Dave hasn't been keeping score. Much.

Uncle John's Gigantic Bathroom Reader (Uncle John's Bathroom Reader #10 & 12)


Bathroom Readers' Institute - 2006
    Make that pretty huge. No, wait--it's GIGANTIC! Presenting Uncle John's Gigantic Bathroom Reader, featuring two of our best-selling and hard-to-find titles: Uncle John's Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader and Uncle John's Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader, now bound together in this omnibus hardcover edition for your reading pleasure. Tipping the scales at more than 700 pages, this massive missive is guaranteed to boost your IQ! Packed with fun facts, tantalizing tidbits, and intriguing information, this is no book for the faint of heart. This gigantic volume has it all: entertainment, humor, forgotten history, science, origins of everyday things, strange lawsuits, and a great big pile of pop culture. So don't go to your throne alone -- take Uncle John with you!

Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions


Johann Hari - 2018
    He was told—like his entire generation—that his problem was caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate this question—and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong. Across the world, Hari discovered social scientists who were uncovering the real causes—and they are mostly not in our brains, but in the way we live today. Hari’s journey took him from the people living in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin—all showing in vivid and dramatic detail these new insights. They lead to solutions radically different from the ones we have been offered up until now.Just as Chasing the Scream transformed the global debate about addiction, with over twenty million views for his TED talk and the animation based on it, Lost Connections will lead us to a very different debate about depression and anxiety—one that shows how, together, we can end this epidemic.

The Lore of the Unicorn


Odell Shepard - 1930
    Unicorns and their magical powers are studied as they appear in legend and literature, including the Bibles of both East and West.

White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India


William Dalrymple - 2002
    James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad when in 1798 he glimpsed Kahir un-Nissa—'Most excellent among Women'—the great-niece of the Nizam's Prime Minister and a descendant of the Prophet. Kirkpatrick had gone out to India as an ambitious soldier in the army of the East India Company, eager to make his name in the conquest and subjection of the subcontinent. Instead, he fell in love with Khair and overcame many obstacles to marry her—not least of which was the fact that she was locked away in purdah and engaged to a local nobleman. Eventually, while remaining Resident, Kirkpatrick converted to Islam, and according to Indian sources even became a double-agent working for the Hyderabadis against the East India Company.It is a remarkable story, involving secret assignations, court intrigue, harem politics, religious and family disputes. But such things were not unknown; from the early sixteenth century, when the Inquisition banned the Portuguese in Goa from wearing the dhoti, to the eve of the Indian mutiny, the 'white Mughals' who wore local dress and adopted Indian ways were a source of embarrassments to successive colonial administrations. William Dalrymple unearths such colourful figures as 'Hindoo Stuart', who travelled with his own team of Brahmins to maintain his temple of idols, and who spent many years trying to persuade the memsahibs of Calcutta to adopt the sari; and Sir David Ochterlony, Kirkpatrick's counterpart in Delhi, who took all thirteen of his wives out for evening promenades, each on the back of their own elephant.In White Mughals, William Dalrymple discovers a world almost entirely unexplored by history, and places at its centre a compelling tale of love, seduction and betrayal. It possesses all the sweep and resonance of a great nineteenth-century novel, set against a background of shifting alliances and the manoeuvring of the great powers, the mercantile ambitions of the British and the imperial dreams of Napoleon. White Mughals, the product of five years' writing and research, triumphantly confirms Dalrymple's reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.

Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity


Janell L. Carroll - 2004
    Janell Carroll clearly conveys foundational biological and health issues, extensively cites both current and classic research, and addresses all material in a fresh and fun way; her book helps teach students what they need, and want, to know about sexuality. Her focus takes into account the social, religious, ethnic, racial, and cultural contexts of today's students. Dr. Carroll has used feedback from the first edition to add even further value to this popular title-streamlining student pedagogy and providing dynamic learning opportunities through Active Summaries at the end of chapters, a new online student tutorial, new video components, and content for Classroom Response Systems. This continues to be the text most representative of today's students, incorporating new sexual position art, a new pronunciation guide, and (for instructors) a new cross-cultural Slang Guide.

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity


Amartya Sen - 2005
    The Argumentative Indian is "a bracing sweep through aspects of Indian history and culture, and a tempered analysis of the highly charged disputes surrounding these subjects--the nature of Hindu traditions, Indian identity, the country's huge social and economic disparities, and its current place in the world" (Sunil Khilnani, Financial Times, U.K.).

Geisha


Liza Dalby - 1983
    Her new preface considers the geisha today as a vestige of tradition as Japan heads into the 21st century.

The Simple Truth About Love


Bradley Trevor Greive - 2005
    The SImple Truth About Love matches his highly inspirational thoughts with his trademark adorable and irresistible wildlife images for a heartwarming book that readers will fall for.  What more can you possibly say about love? Leave it to Bradley Trevor Greive to cut through centuries of words that examine this universal emotion to present both the sum and substance of love in a way that will touch readers' hearts. As he's done in numerous other titles—from The Blue Day Book to Dear Dad—Bradley combines his uncomplicated wording and unique viewpoint in a way that appeals to readers everywhere.The Simple Truth About Love explores this driving sentiment throughout its many nuances, while recognizing the elements that make it such an incredibly wonderful part of our lives. Helping along the way, of course, are the individually selected animal photographs that perfectly convey the ideas that Bradley presents. From the chick sheltered beneath his mother's wing to the cubs locked in joyous embrace, the images make this book a delight on it's own.

Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships


Tristan Taormino - 2007
    Drawing on in-depth interviews with over a hundred women and men, Opening Up explores the real-life benefits and challenges of all styles of open relationships -- from partnered non-monogamy to solo polyamory. With her refreshingly down-to-earth style and sharp wit, Taormino offers solutions for making an open relationship work, including tips on dealing with jealousy, negotiating boundaries, finding community, parenting and time management. Opening Up will change the way you think about intimacy.

The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History


Katherine Ashenburg - 2007
    For the seventeenth-century aristocratic Frenchman, it meant changing his shirt once a day, using perfume to obliterate both his own aroma and everyone else’s, but never immersing himself in – horrors! – water. By the early 1900s, an extraordinary idea took hold in North America – that frequent bathing, perhaps even a daily bath, was advisable. Not since the Roman Empire had people been so clean, and standards became even more extreme as the millennium approached. Now we live in a deodorized world where germophobes shake hands with their elbows and where sales of hand sanitizers, wipes and sprays are skyrocketing.The apparently routine task of taking up soap and water (or not) is Katherine Ashenburg’s starting point for a unique exploration of Western culture, which yields surprising insights into our notions of privacy, health, individuality, religion and sexuality.Ashenburg searches for clean and dirty in plague-ridden streets, medieval steam baths, castles and tenements, and in bathrooms of every description. She reveals the bizarre rescriptions of history’s doctors as well as the hygienic peccadilloes of kings, mistresses, monks and ordinary citizens, and guides us through the twists and turns to our own understanding of clean, which is no more rational than the rest. Filled with amusing anecdotes and quotations from the great bathers of history, The Dirt on Clean takes us on a journey that is by turns intriguing, humorous, startling and not always for the squeamish. Ashenburg’s tour of history’s baths and bathrooms reveals much about our changing and most intimate selves – what we desire, what we ignore, what we fear, and a significant part of who we are.

You Have What It Takes: What Every Father Needs to Know


John Eldredge - 2004
    Now this small book goes a step further, encouraging fathers to pass this insight on to their children. It is not by accident, contends John Eldredge, that little boys dream of being heroes and little girls dream of being rescued by a prince. It is woven into the very fiber of the sexes. Men struggle with this most pivotal role, and Eldredge's writing is the affirmation and encouragement each man needs.Eldredge gives fathers a look inside both themselves and their sons and daughters, encouraging them to give their children permission to be who God designed them to be.