Steven D. Levitt

Stephen J. Dubner

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Texas

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Freakonomics

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Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Stormlight Archive

Words of Radiance: Book Two of the Stormlight Archive (The Stormlight Archive, 2)

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

All the Light We Cannot See

Thomas L. Friedman

Oliver Wyman

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

The World Is Flat

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Audrey Schulman

"Recovering." While that simple word that once described Dr. Francine Burk's situation, the reality is much more complex. Her new reality is feeling unduly thrilled by her increasing ability to walk across a room without assistance. And it's being offered a placement at a prestigious research institute where she can put to good use her recent award money. With the Foundation's advanced technological resources and a group of fascinating primates, Francine can begin to verify her subversive scientific discovery, in which she finds that the bonobos she's studying are as complex as the humans she's working alongside.

Theory of Bastards

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Taylor Jenkins Reid

A Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup. "I devoured Daisy Jones & The Six in a day, falling head over heels for it. Daisy and the band captured my heart."--Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine book pick) NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR - The Washington Post - Esquire - Glamour - Real Simple - Good Housekeeping - Marie Claire - Parade - Paste - Shelf Awareness - BookRiot Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock 'n' roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she's pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend. The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice. Praise for Daisy Jones & The Six "Backstage intrigue is the engine of Daisy Jones & The Six. . . . [A] celebration of American mythmaking."--Vogue "Each character is compelling but Daisy Jones is the star. She's a blazing talent who is unapologetic in her sexuality and lives life on her own terms. . . . Like a poignant song with lyrics that speak to your soul, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid will transport you to another place and time."--Associated Press "Reid's wit and gift for telling a perfectly paced story make this one of the most enjoyably readable books of the year."--Nylon "Wildly delicious." --Entertainment Weekly

Daisy Jones and the Six

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Megan Angelo

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

An electrifying story of two ambitious friends, the dark choices they make and the stunning moment that changes the world as we know it forever Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss--a striving wannabe A-lister--who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss's methods are a little shady--and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can't be wrong. Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity--twelve million loyal followers--Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks. Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we'll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.

Followers

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Trey Gowdy

Using the Power of Questions to Communicate, Connect, and Persuade

The former federal prosecutor and congressman for South Carolina breaks down the art of persuasion into a few shockingly simple, easy-to-follow, and proven steps that will help readers win arguments, gain support for their cause, and convey their message successfully.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . Formercongressman and prosecutor Trey Gowdy teaches you how to effectively communicate and persuade on the issues that matter most to you,drawing on his experience in the courtroom and the halls of Congress.

"A must-read for people who wanttolearn how bestto succeed."-Dana Perino, Fox News host and bestselling author of And the Good News Is . . .

You do not need to be in a courtroom to advocate for others. You do not need to be in Congress to champion a cause. From the boardroom to the kitchen table, opportunities to make your case abound, and Doesn't Hurt to Ask shows you how to seize them. By blending gripping case studies from nearly two decades in a courtroom and four terms in national politics with personal stories and practical advice, Trey Gowdy walks you through the tools and the mindset needed to effectively communicate your message.

Along the way, Gowdy reflects on the moments in his life when he learned the most about how to argue and convince. He recounts his missteps during his first murder trial, the conversation that changed his view on criminal justice reform, and what he learned while questioning James Comey and Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Sharing the techniques he perfected advocating in law and politics, Gowdy helps you identify your objective, understand your personal jury, and engage in the art of questioning so you can be heard, be understood, and, ultimately, move others. Whether it's getting a boss to take a chance on your idea, convincing someone to support your cause, or urging a child to invest more effort in an important task, movement requires persuasion. Doesn't Hurt to Ask shows you how to persuade, no matter the jury and no matter the cause.

Doesn't Hurt to Ask

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Michele Harper

A Memoir

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Times Notable Book “Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring.” —The New York Times Book Review “An incredibly moving memoir about what it means to be a doctor.” —Ellen Pompeo As seen/heard on Fresh Air, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Weekend Edition, and more An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself. Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn’t move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman. In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken—physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process. The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper’s journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky: How to tell the truth when it’s simpler to overlook it. How to understand that compassion isn’t the same as justice. As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.

The Beauty in Breaking

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Andrea Pitzer

A Global History of Concentration Camps

A groundbreaking, haunting, and profoundly moving history of modernity's greatest tragedy: concentration camps For over 100 years, at least one concentration camp has existed somewhere on Earth. First used as battlefield strategy, camps have evolved with each passing decade, in the scope of their effects and the savage practicality with which governments have employed them. Even in the twenty-first century, as we continue to reckon with the magnitude and horror of the Holocaust, history tells us we have broken our own solemn promise of "never again." In this harrowing work based on archival records and interviews during travel to four continents, Andrea Pitzer reveals for the first time the chronological and geopolitical history of concentration camps. Beginning with 1890s Cuba, she pinpoints concentration camps around the world and across decades. From the Philippines and Southern Africa in the early twentieth century to the Soviet Gulag and detention camps in China and North Korea during the Cold War, camp systems have been used as tools for civilian relocation and political repression. Often justified as a measure to protect a nation, or even the interned groups themselves, camps have instead served as brutal and dehumanizing sites that have claimed the lives of millions. Drawing from exclusive testimony, landmark historical scholarship, and stunning research, Andrea Pitzer unearths the roots of this appalling phenomenon, exploring and exposing the staggering toll of the camps: our greatest atrocities, the extraordinary survivors, and even the intimate, quiet moments that have also been part of camp life during the past century.

One Long Night

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Yan Ge

Stories

From multi-award-winning author Yan Ge, a shimmering, genre-bending English-language debut that announces the next phase in a major literary career. “A bewitching collection of stories that will leave you awestruck, shaken, and wanting to reach for it again and again.” —Paul Yoon, author of Run Me to Earth In twenty years, Yan Ge has authored thirteen books written in Chinese, working across an impressive range of genres and subjects. Now, Yan Ge transposes her dynamic storytelling onto another linguistic landscape. The result is a collection humming with her trademark wit and style—and with the electricity of a seasoned artist flexing her virtuosity with a new medium. A young woman bonds with an encampment of poets after a devastating earthquake. Against her better judgment, a college student begins to fall for an acquaintance who might be dead. And a Confucian disciple returns to the Master bearing a jar full of grisly remains. Weaving between reality and dreamy surreality, these nine stories wend toward elsewhere, a comforting, frustrating, just-out-of-reach place familiar to anyone who has ever experienced longing. Through it all Yan Ge’s protagonists peer thoughtfully at their own feelings of displacement—physical or emotional, the result of travel, emigration, or exile. Brilliant and irresistibly readable, Elsewhere explores the utility (or not) of art in the face of lonesomeness, quotidian, and spectacular. This highly anticipated collection is further proof that Yan Ge is a generational literary talent, to be watched closely for decades to come.

Elsewhere

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First published in Italy in 1957 amid international controversy, Doctor Zhivago is the story of the life and loves of a poet/physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Taking his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be shelter in the Ural Mountains, Zhivago finds himself instead embroiled in the battle between the Whites and the Reds. Set against this backdrop of cruelty and strife is Zhivago's love for the tender and beautiful Lara, the very embodiment of the pain and chaos of those cataclysmic times. Pevear and Volokhonsky masterfully restore the spirit of Pasternak's original—his style, rhythms, voicings, and tone—in this beautiful translation of a classic of world literature.

Doctor Zhivago

Erik Tarloff

A novel about sexual love, straight and queer, about love between friends, between exes, between parents and children, between lovers old and new, Erik Tarloff’s Tell Me the Truth About Love tells the story of Toby Lindeman, a divorced man in San Francisco leading what appears to be an enviable bachelor’s life. Suave, attractive, somewhat detached from the emotional needs of those around him, he seems to sail blithely above life’s common difficulties as he goes about his duties as chief fundraiser for the San Francisco Opera.

But then, to his own surprise, he falls passionately in love with the most inappropriate woman possible, the long-time mistress of the powerful man on whom his own future seems to depend. As Toby navigates the risks of this relationship, encountering heartbreak and professional catastrophe along the way, he also finds himself reconnecting on a much deeper level with all the people in his life. Suspenseful, sexy, and often laugh-out-loud funny, Tell Me the Truth About Love is a very contemporary look at the varieties of human connection.

A novel about sexual love, straight and queer, about love between friends, between exes, between parents and children, between lovers old and new, Erik Tarloff's Tell Me the Truth About Love tells the story of Toby Lindeman, a divorced man in San Francisco leading what appears to be an enviable bachelor's life. Suave, attractive, somewhat detached from the emotional needs of those around him, he seems to sail blithely above life's common difficulties as he goes about his duties as chief fundraiser for the San Francisco Opera. But then, to his own surprise, he falls passionately in love with the most inappropriate woman possible, the long-time mistress of the powerful man on whom his own future seems to depend. As Toby navigates the risks of this relationship, encountering heartbreak and professional catastrophe along the way, he also finds himself reconnecting on a much deeper level with all the people in his life. Suspenseful, sexy, and often laugh-out-loud funny, Tell Me the Truth About Love is a very contemporary look at the varieties of human connection.

Tell Me the Truth about Love

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Kate Elizabeth Russell

2000: Bright, ambitious fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher. 2017: Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa. Now Vanessa finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? -- adapted from jacket

My Dark Vanessa

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Sarah Perry

“Masterful…scary and smart, working as a horror story but also a philosophical inquiry into the nature of will and love. Perry did as much in her richly praised novel The Essex Serpent, but this is a deeper, more complex novel and more rewarding.” —Washington Post For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction. It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . .

Melmoth

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Shastri Akella

For fans of Shuggie Bain and A Burning, a queer coming-of-age novel set in 1990s India, about a young man who joins a traveling street theater troupe, seeking to outrun the dark secrets of his past

"An exquisite novel destined to be a classic." âe*Eric Nguyen, author of Things We Lost to the Water

Shagun knows he will never be the kind of son his father demands. After the sudden deaths of his beloved twin sisters, Shagun flees his own guilt, his mother's grief, and his father's violent disapproval by enrolling at an all-boys boarding school. But he doesn't find true belonging until he encounters a traveling theater troupe performing the Hindu myths of his childhood.

Welcomed by the other storytellers, Shagun thrives, easily embodying mortals and gods, men and women, and living on the road, where his father can't catch him. When Shagun meets Marc, a charming photographer, he seems to have found the love he always longed for, too. But not even Marc can save him from his lingering shame, nor his father's ever-present threat to send him to a conversion center. As Shagun's past begins to engulf him once again, he must decide if he is strong enough to face what he fears most, and to boldly claim his own happiness.

Utterly immersive and spellbinding, The Sea Elephants is both dark and beautiful, harrowing and triumphant. An ode to the redemptive joys of art, Shastri Akella's debut novel is a celebration of hard-won love--of others and for ourselves.

The Sea Elephants

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Katee Robert

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

She was the face that launched a thousand ships, the fierce beauty at the heart of Olympus...and she was never ours to claim.

*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Patroclus that's as sinful as it is sweet.*

In Olympus, you either have the power to rule...or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city's inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning.

Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize...or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way.

Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give to away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can't keep her hands off--Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield?

"Deliciously inventive...Red-hot."--Publishers WeeklySTARRED for Neon Gods

"I get shivers just thinking of their interactions. SHIVERS."--Mimi Koehler for The Nerd Dailyfor Neon Gods

The World of Dark Olympus:

Neon Gods (Hades & Persephone)

Electric Idol (Eros & Psyche)

Wicked Beauty (Achilles & Patroclus & Helen)

Radiant Sin (Apollo & Cassandra)

Wicked Beauty

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Paul Mendez

Nominated for a 34th annual Lambda Literary Award • An essential and revelatory coming-of-age novel from a thrilling new voice, Rainbow Milk follows nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of his Jehovah's Witness upbringing.

In the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso has immigrated to Britain from Jamaica with his wife and children in order to secure a brighter future. Blighted with unexpected illness and racism, Norman and his family are resilient but are all too aware that their family will need more than just hope to survive in their new country.

At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London, escaping a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community, and his depressed hometown in the industrial Black Country. But once he arrives he finds himself at a loss for a new center of gravity and turns to sex work, music, and art to create his own notions of love, masculinity, and spirituality.

A wholly original novel as tender as it is visceral, Rainbow Milk is a bold reckoning with race, class, sexuality, freedom, and religion across generations, time, and cultures.

"An essential and revelatory coming-of-age narrative following nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of his Jehovah's Witness upbringing"--

Rainbow Milk

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Charlie Jane Anders

From the former editor-in-chief of io9.com, a stunning novel about the end of the world--and the beginning of our future Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn't expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one's peers and families. But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who's working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world's magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world's every-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together--to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages. Charlie Jane Anders' critically acclaimed All the Birds in the Sky is a deeply magical, darkly funny examination of life, love, and the apocalypse.

All the Birds in the Sky

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Mona Awad

From the author of Bunny, which Margaret Atwood hails as "genius," comes a "wild, and exhilarating" (Lauren Groff) novel about a theater professor who is convinced staging Shakespeare's most maligned play will remedy all that ails her--but at what cost?

Miranda Fitch's life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she's on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That's when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda's past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what's coming to them, and the invisible doubted pain that's kept her from the spotlight is made known.

With prose Margaret Atwood has described as "no punches pulled, no hilarities dodged...genius," Mona Awad has concocted her most potent, subversive novel yet. All's Well is a "fabulous novel" (Mary Karr) about a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.

All's Well

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Calla Henkel

"Hoping to escape the pain of the recent murder of her best friend, art student Zoe Beech finds herself studying abroad in the bohemian capital of Europe-Berlin. Zoe, rudderless, relies on the arrangements of fellow exchange student Hailey Mader, who idolizes Warhol and Britney Spears and wants nothing more than to be an art star. On Craigslist, Hailey unknowingly stumbles on an apartment sublet posted by a well-known thriller writer. Feeling as though they've won the lottery, the girls move into the high-ceilinged prewar flat. Soon they realize that their landlady, Beatrice, who is supposed to be on a residency in Vienna, is watching them-and her next book appears to be based on their lives. Taking stock of their mundane routines-Law and Order binges and nightly nachos-Hailey insists they become people worthy of a novel. As the year unravels and events spiral out of control, they begin to wonder whose story they are living, and how will it end? Other People's Clothes is brilliant on the sometimes dangerous intensity of female friendships, on millennial life in the city, on the lengths people will go to in order to eradicate emotional pain"--

Other People's Clothes

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Rebecca Dinerstein Knight

A “richly imagined and darkly comic” (Jenny Offill) love story set in the Arctic Circle that explores self-discovery and the power of starting over. Now a major motion picture, starring Jenny Slate, Gillian Anderson, Zach Galifianakis, and Alex Sharp.

22-year-old Frances has fled heartbreak and claustrophobic Manhattan for an isolated artist colony in the beautiful, barren landscape of northern Norway. Yasha, a Russian immigrant raised in a bakery in Brooklyn, travels to Norway to fulfill his beloved father's last wish: to be buried "at the top of the world." Both have come to learn how to be alone. But under the ever-present midnight sun, Frances and Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other, instead.

Ninety-five miles north of the Arctic Circle, the two form a bond that fortifies them against the turmoil of their distant homes, offering solace amidst great uncertainty. With nimble and sure-footed prose enriched with humor and warmth, Dinerstein reveals that no matter how far we travel to claim our own territory, it is ultimately love that gives us our place in the world.

A "richly imagined and darkly comic" (Jenny Offill) love story set in the Arctic Circle that explores self-discovery and the power of starting over. Now a major motion picture, starring Jenny Slate, Gillian Anderson, Zach Galifianakis, and Alex Sharp.

22-year-old Frances has fled heartbreak and claustrophobic Manhattan for an isolated artist colony in the beautiful, barren landscape of northern Norway. Yasha, a Russian immigrant raised in a bakery in Brooklyn, travels to Norway to fulfill his beloved father's last wish: to be buried "at the top of the world." Both have come to learn how to be alone. But under the ever-present midnight sun, Frances and Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other, instead.

Ninety-five miles north of the Arctic Circle, the two form a bond that fortifies them against the turmoil of their distant homes, offering solace amidst great uncertainty. With nimble and sure-footed prose enriched with humor and warmth, Dinerstein reveals that no matter how far we travel to claim our own territory, it is ultimately love that gives us our place in the world.

The Sunlit Night

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Genevieve Gornichec

Angrboda's story begins where most witch's tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to give him knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into a remote forest. There she is found by a man Loki, and her initial distrust grows into a deep and abiding love. Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who she is keen to raise at the hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life - and possibly all of existence - is in danger.

The Witch's Heart

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Katie Williams

FINALIST FOR 2018 KIRKUS PRIZE

NAMED ONE OF THE "BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2018' BY KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Sci-fi in its most perfect expression...Reading it is like having a lucid dream of six years from next week, filled with people you don't know, but will." --NPR

"[Williams's] wit is sharp, but her touch is light, and her novel is a winner." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Between seasons of Black Mirror, look to Katie Williams' debut novel." --Refinery29 

Smart and inventive, a page-turner that considers the elusive definition of happiness.

Pearl's job is to make people happy. As a technician for the Apricity Corporation, with its patented happiness machine, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She's good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion?

Meanwhile, there's Pearl's teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of "pursuit of happiness." As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett--but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job--not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either.

Told from an alternating cast of endearing characters from within Pearl and Rhett's world, Tell the Machine Goodnight delivers a smartly moving and entertaining story about the advance of technology and the ways that it can most surprise and define us. Along the way, Katie Williams playfully illuminates our national obsession with positive psychology, our reliance on quick fixes. What happens when these obsessions begin to overlap? With warmth, humor, and a clever touch, Williams taps into our collective unease about the modern world and allows us see it a little more clearly.

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Steven D. Levitt; Stephen J. Dubner