New York Times Bestseller“What, What? is a welcome—and joyful—reminder that true wisdom comes from asking the right questions. Should you read this book? Absolutely.”—Clayton Christensen, bestselling author of How Will You Measure Your Life?Based on the wildly popular commencement address, this guide to the art of asking (and answering) good questions comes from the former Dean of Harvard ...

The organization of Shakespeare's plays has challenged, even baffled audiences and critics since the 17th century. Cymbeline has been dismissed as "incoherent." Hamlet "is of no clear shape." And Antony and Cleopatra "bewilders the mind."These judgments result from an incomplete understanding of Shakespeare's constructive practice. It is not the narrative arc alone that organizes the plays but a complex structure of interwoven narrative and thematic actio...

How is it that, half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones? In his important new book, Five Miles Away, A World Apart, James E. Ryan answers this question by tracing the fortunes of two schools in Richmond, Virginia--one in the city and the other in the suburbs. Ryan shows how court rulings in the 1970s, limiting the scope of desegregation, laid the ground...

From the New York Times bestselling author, a transformational roadmap to mastering the seven essential questions of leadership, whether you are a leader on your campus, in your community, or in the C-suite.Drawing from his extensive experience guiding major institutions through everyday operations and unprecedented crises, former President of the University of Virginia and author of the bestselling Wait, What? Jim Ryan demonstrates how as...

How is it that, half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones?In his important new book, Five Miles Away, A World Apart, James E. Ryan answers this question by tracing the fortunes of two schools in Richmond, Virginia—one in the city and the other in the suburbs. Ryan shows how court rulings in the 1970s, limiting the scope of desegregation, laid the ...

Joining the ranks of Tina Seelig’s What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, Clayton Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life, Mary Karr’s Now Go Out There, and George Saunders’ Congratulations, By the Way comes an insightful guide that reveals the secret to pursuing a rich, fulfilling life: the art of asking (and answering) good questions.In his commencement address to the graduating class of 2016, James E. Ryan, dean of the Harvard University Gradu...

A groundbreaking, practical three-week program to help you cope with life’s tough moments, overcome misfortune, build habitual resiliency, and ultimately boost your overall happiness.Truly happy and successful people share a common trait: resilience. Not only do they know how to rebound from setbacks, they are strengthened by challenges, gaining the emotional toughness to persevere, whether facing a professional crisis, a personal tragedy—or just an ordinary bad day. The good news ...

A sterling roster of natural and social scientists in conversation with top-flight journalist Stefan Klein—shedding new light on their work, their lives, and what they still hope to discoverWhen acclaimed science writer Stefan Klein asks Nobel Prize–winning chemist Roald Hoffmann what sets scientists apart, Hoffmann says, “First and foremost, curiosity.” In this collection of intimate conversations with nineteen of the world’s best-known scientists (including three Nobel Laureates)...

The journey of a lifetime exploring the question of whether life is inevitable or a one-off fluke, and how it got kick-started.How did we get here? All cultures have a creation story, but a little over 150 years ago Charles Darwin introduced a revolutionary new one. We, and all living things, exist because of the action of evolution on the first simple life form and its descendants.We now know that it has taken 3.8 billions of years of work by the forces of...

The brain’s superpowers have been discovered by neuroscience. Your genius mind knows how to make your brain dissolve worry and stay in your best internal states longer. The result is a life full of possibility.The Worry-Free Mind shows you how to decipher the architecture of your model of reality, shift it to a newer version, and overcome your tendency to worry every day. With the powerful tools it offers, you can access your inner resources, lower stress, calm your reacti...

""A breakthrough book. In a world of increasingly specialized knowledge, it takes a particular gift and some stubbornness to cut across the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy and psychology and to ask the fundamental question: Why it is that we can allow our best selves to be captured by and torpedoed by thoughts and actions that sink us?. . . . [Kessler's] ultimate answer is profound and one that could be life-changing and life-saving. I know I will be handing this boo...

Economics drives the modern world and shapes our lives, but few of us feel we have time to engage with the breadth of ideas in the subject. 50 Economics Classics is the smart person's guide to two centuries of discussion of finance, capitalism and the global economy. From Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to Thomas Piketty's bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century, here are the great books, seminal ideas clarified and illuminated for all.