Emory Reads

"Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years of helping people translate ideas into action, they show you how to improve your life right now instead of waiting for the outside world to change. With insight, compassion, and hope, Brooks and Winfrey reveal how the tools of emotional self-management can change your life immediately."

"When journalist John Leland set out to meet members of America's fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment."

"Chris Stedman's personal and searing exploration of authenticity in the digital age, shines a light on how age-old notions of realness can be freshly understood in our new online lives."

"At thirteen, Ed Cohen was diagnosed with Crohn's disease--a chronic, incurable condition that nearly killed him in his early twenties. Exploring his own path to healing, he argues that learning to heal requires us to desire and value healing as a vital possibility. With this book, Cohen advocates reviving healing's role for all those whose lives are touched by illness."

"A guide to using the science of the body clock to promote better sleep, better health, and better thinking. By dismantling long-standing myths and citing cutting-edge science, Foster empowers readers to get back into rhythm and live healthier, sharper lives: scheduling meals to prevent obesity and diabetes; timing medications to increase their effectiveness; getting better sleep through exposure to natural light; and much more."

"A hilarious and transformational book about how to tackle fear--that everlasting hater--and audaciously step into lives, careers, and legacies that go beyond even our wildest dreams. Luvvie Ajayi Jones has been challenged by the enemy of progress known as fear. She was once afraid to call herself a writer, and nearly skipped out on doing a TED talk that changed her life because of imposter syndrome. This book is about how to live boldly in spite of all the reasons we have to cower."

"Offering a frank and funny critique of the cultural forces that are driving us mad, Caroline Dooner examines how treating ourselves like never ending self-improvement projects is a recipe for burnout."

"Although people choose to adopt new eating habits for individual reasons, broader forces shape why fad diets seem to make sense. Anxious Eaters sheds new light on why people adopt such diets and why these diets remain so attractive even though they often fail."

"Over the past several decades, globalization has homogenized what we eat, and done so ruthlessly. The numbers are stark: Of the roughly six thousand different plants once consumed by human beings, only nine remain major staples today. Just three of these--rice, wheat, and corn--now provide fifty percent of all our calories."

"Studying the extreme beliefs and practices of food cults allows us to see the ways in which food serves as a nexus for religious beliefs, sexuality, death anxiety, preoccupation with the body, asceticism, and hedonism, to name a few."

"This accessibly written, comprehensive summary of research findings on the gut microbiome and its implications for health and disease. The book examines the various potential causes of imbalance in the microbiome, such as diet and other lifestyle factors, and then identifies strategies for improving human health by protecting the gut microbiota. The science-based information is detailed but accessible to general readers or students without extensive background knowledge."

"In No Meat Required, author Alicia Kennedy chronicles the fascinating history of plant-based eating in the United States, from the early experiments in tempeh production undertaken by the Farm commune in the 70s to the vegan punk cafes and anarchist zines of the 90s to the chefs and food writers seeking to decolonize vegetarian food today. No Meat Required brings much-needed depth and context to our understanding of vegan and vegetarian cuisine, and makes a passionate argument for retaining its radical heart."

"Chronic obesity is on the rise; our food is laced with additives and chemicals; and the environment is being devastated by factory farming, pesticides, fertilizers and monoculture. It is time to re-evaluate what we eat and how we eat it, and re-think the practices of agribusiness, food processing manufacturers and supermarkets."

"What should we have for dinner? Pollan's revolutionary examination has changed the way Americans think about food. The Omnivore's Dilemma continues to transform the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating."

"This groundbreaking work of practical, popular science reveals that fat is much smarter than we think. Fat is an obsession, a dirty word, a subject of national handwringing--and, according to biochemist Sylvia Tara, the least-understood part of our body."

"This book offers a much-needed reframing of food discourse by presenting alternative ways of thinking about the changing politics of food, eating, and nutrition. It examines critical epistemological questions of how food knowledge comes to be shaped and why we see pendulum swings when it comes to the question of what to eat."

"Body neutrality is a body image approach focused on finding acceptance and liberation from the body-focused culture in which we live. Body neutrality is a shift toward seeing our bodies as a vessel of who we are rather than as who we are. This guide is organized into thirteen chapters, each outlining a different concept of body neutrality ranging from comparison and identity to mindfulness and gratitude, inviting participation from the reader through end-of-chapter activities."

"No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head."

"Fat Talk is a stirring, deeply researched, and groundbreaking book that will help parents learn to reckon with their own body biases, identify diet culture, and empower their kids to navigate this challenging landscape. Sole-Smith draws on her extensive reporting and interviews with dozens of parents and kids to offer a provocative new approach for thinking about food and bodies, and a way for us all to work toward a more weight-inclusive world."

"In The Intermittent Fasting Revolution, prominent neuroscientist Mark Mattson shows that intermittent fasting is not only normal but also good for us; it can enhance our ability to cope with stress by making cells more resilient. It also improves mental and physical performance and protects against aging and disease. Mattson-whose pioneering research uncovered the ways that the brain responds to fasting and exercise-explains how thriving while fasting became an evolutionary adaptation."

"Omega-3 fatty acids can limit the inflammation that is the underlying cause of many severe diseases of modern civilization, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

"The Science and Practice of Middle and Long Distance Running links together the science and coaching artistry associated with preparing distance runners for events ranging from 800 m up to ultra-marathon distances and translates cutting-edge scientific research from the fields of physiology, biomechanics, psychology and nutrition into practical suggestions for achieving success."

"Graphic memoir of Bechdel's lifelong love affair with exercise, set against a hilarious chronicle of fitness fads in our times. Alison Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others."

Daniel Simpson's The Truth of Yoga offers an overview of yoga's evolution from its earliest origins to the present. It can either be read chronologically or be used as a reference guide to history and philosophy. Each short section addresses one element, quoting from traditional texts and putting their teachings into context. The intention is to keep things clear without oversimplifying.

"In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and--even more important--on his writing."