Check out our new page for Students and this article by Cal Flyn about the 5 best books in Psychology for students featuring the Blog
​​fivebooks.com/best-books/the-best-psychology-books-for-teens-jessica-flitter-laura-brandt-nancy-fenton/

Featured Books
We always feature three books, but there is much more to explore!  Just click on the Blog link and the top of the page for over 100 more exciting book reviews and activities.
Click on the photo of the book you are interested in and you will be taken directly to the blog posting for that book.

David Epstein challenges conventional thinking by claiming that hyper specialization in a single field, sport, activity or pursuit can lead to a narrow scope of understanding that can result in a myopic view of the world. Epstein argues that those who are most successful in their respective fields often have wide ranging experiences. Epstein makes the argument that experimentation allows a person an opportunity to find those activities that they really love and when they decide on the area they would like to pursue, they do it with passion and intensity. Even if the final area of passion is seemingly unrelated to what they have explored earlier, the variety of experiences allows one to see problems in the field with a new perspective and generally improves problem solving. We may need to rethink pushing children into sports or academic pursuits too early in life.

This repost of a book from 2017 includes an updated activity with some new TED talks to use in your classroom. Talk Like TED offers tips utilized in some of the most successful talks. The tips for giving great talks are organized into three categories: Emotional (touch the heart), Novel (teach something new), and Memorable (present ideas in a unique manner). As teachers, we may need deliver content to students in a presentation form, and this book provides tools to use to increase engagement and learning. Each chapter describes a method from a successful TED talks including insights from the speakers. Teachers can use TED talks by showing them in class or by using demos, ideas, and examples from the talks to highlight difficult topics and build engagement so students log on and watch the entire talk to learn more. Look for new TED talks on linguistic relativity (Boroditsy, Chen), motivation and emotion (Bloom), and combating teacher stress (Jensen).

Lori Gottlieb takes the reader on a hilarious yet heartfelt journey through her daily life as a therapist. She also provides a behind the scenes peek into her own therapy sessions after a rough break up. Gottlieb does much to reduce any stigma that might still exist about seeing a therapist, but she also recognizes that the goal is to move a person to the point that they no longer need therapy. Gottlieb's clients include a newly married women's who discovers she has a terminal illness, a narcissistic sitcom producer and a young woman who keeps going after the "wrong men". Gottlieb acts as a therapist and tries to make a connection with each client. This book puts a human face on therapy sessions.

---

If you are interested in learning more about these books and many others, click on the Blog link at the top of the page. Each of the book review postings includes a brief explanation of the book, a related classroom activity, key psychological concepts referenced in the book, and other resources such as websites or podcasts.