Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You by Peter M. Vishton

Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You By Peter M. Vishton provides evidenced based advise on how to live a smarter life. His section on Marriage and relationships begins with the initial neural connection of falling in love and describes what is needed to maintain a relationship and clues to determine when the couple's relationship is over.  If a person reacts to the other one with disgust, it is time to move on.

One minute summary of Outsmart Yourself 

Train Yourself Like a Dog

How to Make Stress Work for You by Kimberly Bethany Bonura

Kimberly Bethany Bonura's, How to Make Stress Work for You, helps re-frame the definition of stress. She notes that there is a big difference between minor annoyances and major physical or psychological trauma. We often over react to the minor annoyances such as getting stuck in traffic or waiting in line at the DMV.  She actually highlights the process of post traumatic resilience for individuals that become stronger after going through a major traumatic event.

She also provides mindfulness strategies used to handle the minor annoyances and also help us to become more resilient for more significant events. 

Introduction to How to Make Stress Work for You 1:19 Minutes

Why You Stress Arousal and Value Judgment - Approx. 32 minutes

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson's pens a well written summary of the history of the Universe in  A Short History of Nearly Everything, He clearly explains the limits of our current knowledge about the Universe from the very big to the extremely small with a pleasant wit.

Bill Bryson discusses his book - 27 minutes

The Maid and the Queen by Nancy Goldstone

The story of Joan of Arc and Yolande of Aragon the Queen of Sicily in The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc is well told and thoroughly researched by Nancy Goldstone. This piece of history is set near the end of the 100 Years War between England and France. The Queen's political savvy and Joan's pious and youthful enthusiasm serve France well during a time when alliances can be bought, the church is profitable and leaders are often incompetent.

The book would make an excellent movie with the French King, Charles VI, drifting in and out of sanity.  Treachery and larceny consistently trump patriotism. Leaders alternately suffer from fear and hubris.  Academics fight pitched battles over orthodoxy a scenario repeated throughout history.

We get to know Joan as the the quick witted teenager who brims with confidence as she vows to fulfill her vision of restoring Charles VII to the throne of France and driving the British back to England.  Her boldness is her strength and her liability. Her facility with language allows her to inspire troops and defend and verbally destroy her opponents.

Facts about Joan of Arc - 2 min. 

The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Taleb's The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (Incerto) is a departure from his previous books.  It is a collection of parables about a wide range of topics.  The author recommends reading a few of these brief bits of zen-like wisdom a day and pondering the implications.

I found the sum of his concise brief thoughts to be a mixed bag but often thought provoking. These thoughts provided the germs for the ideas that were fully explored in his book Anti-Fragile - Things that Gain from Disorder.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb answers 10 questions - 6 minutes

Animated version of the Bed of Procrustes  - 7 minutes

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman

I recently listed to The Areas of My Expertise and would highly recommend the audio version over the text version primarily due to the addition of troubadour Jonathan Coulton. It takes comedic courage to devote a whole audio CD to a list of 700 Hobo names read to the strumming of Mr. Coulton's guitar with the audio quality slightly above that of a short wave radio broadcast. We are also treated to interesting but completely erroneous facts about each state coupled with a state song that spectacularly fails to capture the spiritual essence of member of the union.

In these overly politicized times, it was great to escape in the alternate history and alternate facts that    do not in anyway provide enlightenment. We learn about FDR's controversial strategy to end the hobo wars of the late 1930's to halt the hobo take over of certain branches of the US government.

All Animals vs. All Humans - 2 minutes

The theme of The Areas of My Expertise  - 2 minutes

Minnesota Reflections by N.G. Carlson

Similar to Minnesota Reflections - N. Carlson

With an the helpful guidance from my editor, Robin Lindemann, the latest in the series of reflections books, Minnesota Reflections, is now available from Amazon.  The book includes reflected photos of a trip to Minnehaha Falls, U of Minnesota Duluth, The Mall of America, The U of Minnesota Twin Cities, Silverwood Park and a fireworks display at Duk Duk Days in New Hope. 

Duk Duk Daze Fireworks - N. Carlson

I hope readers enjoy a unique perspective on familiar sites made possible by a cellphone and the Camera 360 app. 

Book cover for Minnesota Reflections

Images from and inspired by the book Minnesota Reflections - 2 min. 36 secs.