How Psychology Works by DK Publishing

How Psychology Works by DK Publishing ISBN-13: 9781465468611 Hardback: 255 pages Publisher: DK Publishing Released: June 5, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Using straightforward definitions and clear, striking visuals, this book makes the workings of the brain easy to understand and shows what happens when things go wrong, with information on disorders such as anxiety and paranoia, as well as explanations of the different therapies that are used to treat them, from CBT to psychoanalysis, group therapy to art therapy.

How Psychology Works explains hundreds of psychological terms clearly and simply, such as neurosis, psychosis, psychopathy, self-efficacy, flow, human factors, and false memory syndrome. It also includes an introduction to the different approaches psychologists use to understand how we behave and think and a detailed look at how the brain influences behavior and psychological health.

With its combination of bold infographics and clear, easy-to-understand text, this book explores and explains the various approaches that psychologists use to study how people think and behave, such as behaviorism, cognitive psychology, and humanism, and shows how these approaches can be applied to real-world situations. With examples from the workplace to the sports field, the courtroom to the classroom, How Psychology Works shows how psychology plays a huge role in all of our lives.


My Review:
How Psychology Works provides an overview of psychology. As with most DK books, this one is full of helpful diagrams along with the text. The book started by providing a timeline for the history of psychology and describing how the brain, memory, and emotions work. It then gave brief descriptions for 48 psychological disorders and 29 therapies used to heal these disorders. It finished by describing how psychology is used in the real world, like in education, sports, the workplace, forensics, politics, and so forth. I found the book informative and interesting.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Death and Destruction on the Thames in London by Anthony Galvin

Death and Destruction on the Thames in London by Anthony Galvin ISBN-13: 9781912786688 ebook: 299 pages Publisher: Sapere Books Released: Feb. 4, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
The history of London is bound up with the infamous river that flows through its centre. It is both the giver of life to the city and the bringer of destruction. It was a centre of trade and allowed people to travel. But it also brought pollution and sewage from upstream, caused floods, and its inky blackness has been a heart-breaking siren call to suicides.

As London evolved from a sparse ancient civilisation into the bustling multicultural hub it is today, many of its great tragedies played out on the banks of the Thames: the infamous Gunpowder Plot, the devastating Great Fire of 1666 and the destruction wreaked by Second World War bombing.

In Death and Destruction on the Thames in London, Anthony Galvin follows the history of this great city and looks at how the river has played a part in the political events – and deadly occurrences - which have shaped the modern world.


My Review:
Death and Destruction on the Thames in London provides a series of brief, grim stories centered around the Thames from throughout London's history. The author talked about disasters, accidents, crime and murder, destruction occurring during war, disease, floods, river pollution, smog, suicide, execution, and more. Many of these stories provided interesting bits of London's history, like the Gunpowder Plot, the many fires including the Great Fire, the building of various tunnels under the river, and the Frost Fairs. We're given details about what happened and even some quotes from people who witnessed the events.

However, some chapters, especially the chapters on the executions and suicides, focused so much on the grisly details of the death and violence that it wasn't pleasant reading. I ended up skimming about a third of the book because of that. While I have heard details of many of these events in other books, I did learn some new things about the river.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Women Warriors by Pamela Toler

Women Warriors by Pamela Toler ISBN-13: 9780807064320 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Beacon Press Released: Feb. 26, 2019

Source: ARC review copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
The woman warrior is always cast as an anomaly--Joan of Arc, not G.I. Jane. But women, it turns out, have always gone to war. Historian Pamela Toler draws from a lifetime of scouring books for mentions of women warriors to tell their stories and to consider why women go to war.

Tomyris, ruler of the hard-riding Massagetae, and her warriors killed Cyrus the Great of Persia when he sought to invade her lands. She herself hacked off his head in revenge for the death of her son. The West African ruler Amina of Hausa, a contemporary of Elizabeth I, led her fierce warriors in a campaign of territorial expansion for more than thirty years. Like Elizabeth, she refused to marry; unlike Elizabeth, she never claimed to be a Virgin Queen. Contemporary accounts of medieval sieges in Europe describe women using firearms, participating in night raids, joining in the defense of breaches in the walls, and fighting hand-to-hand at the improvised barricades that often provided a last line of defense. Among the examples of female samurai in Japan are the Joshigun, a group of thirty seriously combat-trained women who fought against the forces of the Meiji emperor in the late 19th century.

These are the stories of those who commanded from the rear and those who fought in the front lines, those who fought because they wanted to, because they had to, or because they could. Considering the ways in which their presence has been erased from history, Toler concludes that women have always fought: not in spite of being women but because they are women.


My Review:
Women Warriors is as much about how various cultures (including modern America) have viewed women warriors as it is about the warrior women themselves. Each chapter had several examples of that theme (Queens who led troops, etc.) and each biography was about 3 pages long. The bios covered why the woman went to war, what she did during the war, and how her contemporaries viewed her. Between each bio (and even within it), the author commented on people's attitudes about the female warriors. It was an interesting, brief overview of the fact that women have been going to war from ancient to modern times and in cultures all over the world.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

The Healing Power of Herbs by Tina Sams

The Healing Power of Herbs by Tina Sams ISBN-13: 9781641522397 Paperback: 244 pages Publisher: Althea Press Released: Jan. 15, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
For hundreds of years, herbs have been sourced for their countless benefits to our minds and bodies. Today, as information about herbal medicine is more widely available, more and more people are creating and using their own herbal remedies right at home.

The Healing Power of Herbs describes 30 vital herbs that are easy to find and grow, along with simple guidance for using them for your specific medicinal needs. From teas and tinctures to syrups and salves, The Healing Power of Herbs features recipes for making everything from virus-fighting elixirs, to sore muscle rubs, to tasty treats that kids will love! With The Healing Power of Herbs you will build a solid foundation for growing, preparing, and using 30 powerful herbs to treat, heal, and care for yourself and those you love.


My Review:
The Healing Power of Herbs provides profiles for 30 healing herbs plus instructions on how to make herbs into teas, syrups, etc. The author started with tips on how to safely forge wild herbs, grow herbs, or buy organic herbs. She described how to make herbs into teas, syrups, oils, salves, pills, poultices, compresses, and use them in baths. She described the process for each in enough detail that a beginner can successfully make them for themselves. She talked about how to select the best herbs for the imbalances you are experiencing. She also talked about storing the herbs, safety issues, and dosages.

She did profiles on 30 common herbs. She provided the herb's name, other common names, description of the herb, safety considerations when using it, which parts are used, the properties and uses for it, suggested preparations and dosage, growing or harvesting tips, and ways to use it at home (including two recipes per herb for things like salves or teas). Overall, I'd recommend this book to those beginning to use herbs in healing and those who wish to make their own preparations.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Prairie City by Angie Debo

Prairie City by Angie Debo ISBN-13: 9780806130941 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press Released: Sept. 15, 1998

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Prairie City is the social history of a representative midwestern town - a composite of several Oklahoma small towns. Beginning with the "one flashing moment" of the 1889 land run, which opened the "Oklahoma Lands" for white settlement, Angie Debo depicts the struggles of the settlers on the vast prairie to build a community despite seasons of drought, prairie fire, and destitution. Solidly based on historical research, Prairie City chronicles the arrival of the railroad, the growth of political parties and educational institutions, KKK uprisings, the oil boom, the Depression and the New Deal, and the effects of two world wars on small-town America.


My Review:
Prairie City describes what life was like in the frontier Oklahoma towns. It's a composite of several Oklahoma small towns, and most of the characters are fictional. It doesn't read like a novel, but we do follow the changing fortunes of several families as part of how the history of the town is told. It started with the 1889 land run and ended in 1943 (when the book was originally written). I covered economic developments (claiming the land, the train, the oil boom, etc.) and social and political movements (church, school, & political party growth, KKK, the New Deal, etc.) and things like how the locals reacted to the world wars. It was an interesting read.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.