Search

Chuck Palahniuk's latest satire, "Shock Induction," explores a wave of high school suicides that shakes the nation. The story follows Samantha Deel, a talented teenager who is deeply affected by her boyfriend's suicide. When she catches the attention of an organization called Greener Pastures, she agrees to join their mysterious program. The novel incorporates excerpts from Greener Pastures' "Guide," which promotes conformity and a new order. As Sam embarks on a dangerous journey, she also grapples with her secret pregnancy. Palahniuk's patchwork structure includes sidebars and ironic observations, offering a clever depiction of Sam as a survivor. Fans of Palahniuk's work will enjoy this thought-provoking novel. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the novel "The Mesmerist" by Caroline Woods, which combines two historical sources: the women living in Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers and the murders committed by socialite Harry Hayward. The author was inspired by the progressive women of the time and the modernity of the women who ran Bethany Home. The novel focuses on Abby Mendenhall, one of the founding members of Bethany, and her desire to give her life meaning through an investigation. The author also wanted to depict the Gilded Age in a fresh way and included mesmerism as a necessary element in the narrative. [Extracted from the article]

"Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age" by Norman Ohler is a nonfiction book that explores the connection between Nazi Germany and the U.S. government in regards to drug use. The author highlights how the U.S. adopted the Nazis' approach to drugs, using them for military purposes and unethical testing. Ohler also discusses the potential medicinal uses of LSD that were suppressed by American officials, and suggests that widespread psychedelics use in the 1960s contributed to cultural upheaval. This book provides a comprehensive and thought-provoking examination of the topic. [Extracted from the article]

Grafton, director of UC Santa Barbara's Brain Imaging Center, explains the "components of the mind that allow anyone to engage with and change the world" in this thoughtful debut. To explain "body schema", the map of the body that the brain maintains to control posture and movement, Grafton uses examples of how it can malfunction, such as in people with epilepsy, one of whom reported, just before an attack, feeling "herself become smaller and smaller." The book's concepts aren't always intuitive, but Grafton does his best to employ understandable examples, such as cooking breakfast as an instance of "hierarchical reinforcement learning", or fixing his camp stove as an illustration of motor control. [Extracted from the article]

The seismic political upheavals of 20th-century China serve as the backdrop to one prominent family's rise and fall in this comprehensive debut memoir by global banker and international relations attorney Yan. A child of privilege, Yan knew Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and Communist Party Head Deng Xiaoping, but was not exempt from "the toxic mirage of the Cultural Revolution" - the forced indoctrination of schoolchildren and attacks on those perceived to be enemies of the revolution - nor did it cushion her at age 10 when her grandfather and father, both senior civil servants, and her mother, a translator, were arrested for spying in November 1967. Yan expertly captures a tumultuous period in this smart, colorful family history. [Extracted from the article]