A comic and heartwarming memoir about childhood's second act from Real Simple journalist Catherine Newman. Much is written about a child's infancy and toddler years, which is good since children will never remember it themselves. It is ages 4-14 that make up the second act, as Catherine Newman puts it in this delightfully candid, outlandishly funny new memoir about the years that "your children will remember as childhood." Following Newman's son and daughter as they blossom from preschoolers into teenagers, Catastrophic Happiness is about the bittersweet joy of raising children -- and the ever-evolving landscape of issues parents traverse. In a laugh out-loud, heart-wrenching, relatable voice, Newman narrates events as momentous as grief and as quietly moving as the moonlit face of a sleeping child. From tantrums and friendship to fear and even sex, Newman's fresh take will appeal to any parent riding this same roller coaster of laughter and heartbreak.

To fifty thousand readers, Catherine Newman is the beloved author of “Bringing Up Ben & Birdy,” a weekly column on babycenter.com. Now in the delightfully candid, outlandishly funny Waiting for Birdy, Newman charts the year she anticipated the birth of her second child while also coping with the realities of raising a toddler. As she navigates life with her existentially curious and heartbreakingly sweet three-year-old, and her doozy of a pregnancy, she lends her irresistibly unique voice to the secret thoughts and fears of parents everywhere. Filled with quirky warmth and razor-sharp wit, Waiting for Birdy captures the universal wonder, terror, humor, and tenderness of raising a family. On the web: http://www.babycenter.com, http://www.parentcenter.com

This unique and engaging study argues that the Western concern with achieving happiness should be understood in terms of its relationship to the political ideologies that have emerged since the Enlightenment. To do so, each chapter examines the place that happiness occupies in the construction of ideologies that have formed the political terrain of the West, including liberalism, postmodernism, socialism, fascism, and religion. Throughout, Hegel's phenomenology, Nietzsche's genealogy, and Derrida's account of deconstruction as reactions to modernization are used to show that the politics of happiness are always a clash of fundamental ideas of belonging, overcoming, and ethical responsibility. Stressing that the concept of happiness lies at the foundation of political movements, the book also looks at its place in the current global order, analyzing the emergence of such ideas as affective democracy that challenge the conventional notions of privatized, acquisitive happiness. Written in a clear manner, the work will appeal to political theory students and researchers looking for a critical and historical account of contemporary debates about the nature of happiness and ideology.

The Safe and Sane Guide to Teenage Plastic Surgery, by Dr. Frederick N. Lukash, is the only complete guide to this ever-expanding phenomenon. Written by the American Society of Plastic Surgery's acknowledged expert and official media spokesperson on pediatric and adolescent plastic surgery, this book answers those tough questions parents of potential teenage plastic surgery candidates have; Will surgery increase their child's self-esteem and help them fit in better? Or is it a dangerously easy solution to deeper issues? When is surgery right, and when is it not? Complete with action plans, real-life stories and pictures, The Safe and Sane Guide to Teenage Plastic Surgery offers advice on what can, can't and shouldn't be done - and on how to spot the doctors who will exploit a teen's fragile sense of self-esteem as well as his or her parent's pocketbook. Most important, Lukash provides a useful red light/yellow light/green light guide for considering teen plastic surgery.

The best-selling phenomenon from Japan that shows us a minimalist life is a happy life. Fumio Sasaki is not an enlightened minimalism expert or organizing guru like Marie Kondo—he’s just a regular guy who was stressed out and constantly comparing himself to others, until one day he decided to change his life by saying goodbye to everything he didn’t absolutely need. The effects were remarkable: Sasaki gained true freedom, new focus, and a real sense of gratitude for everything around him. In Goodbye, Things Sasaki modestly shares his personal minimalist experience, offering specific tips on the minimizing process and revealing how the new minimalist movement can not only transform your space but truly enrich your life. The benefits of a minimalist life can be realized by anyone, and Sasaki’s humble vision of true happiness will open your eyes to minimalism’s potential.

Learn to love uncertainty—and shape the future you want You have a successful life; a professional career, nice home, maybe kids or even a dog, so why are you so damn unhappy? Spread so thin at work, nothing gets the attention it needs; tasked with leading others through rapid change, you’re not sure where you’re heading yourself. Disruptive technology, catastrophic global events and increasing mental health problems means your secure and linear pathway to happiness no longer exists. Success today is not about the perfect plan to achieve more, manage change and mitigate risk. Our brave new world is calling us to throw out any rulebook and leap into what we fear most—the unknown. That’s exactly what Penny Locaso did when she turned her life upside-down to tackle our happiness-deficit problem. She emerged as the world’s first Happiness Hacker and the inventor of the Intentional Adaptability Quotient®: a quantifiable method for individuals and organisations to become more skillful at, and even relish, adapting to rapid change. Welcomed by business leaders worldwide, IAQ® catapulted Penny to prominence as a TedX Talk star and faculty member at the acclaimed Singularity University by showing that in our highly disruptive present we must embrace instability and complexity to achieve clarity, purpose, and the sense of meaning that brings real joy. Learn how experimentation, danger, and even failure are crucial to happiness and success Take courage and focus on what you’re avoiding, not what you’re missing Reskill yourself and others to accept—and even enjoy–uncertainty Explore your IAQ®: focus, courage, curiosity, accountability, connection, experimentation and reflection This book is an opportunity to look at work and the world through a new lens and see that by surfing on the edges of our comfort zone we—professionals, leaders, everyone—can intentionally adapt to create a successful and fulfilling future.

Catastrophic risks are much greater than is commonly appreciated. Collision with an asteroid, runaway global warming, voraciously replicating nanomachines, a pandemic of gene-spliced smallpox launched by bioterrorists, and a world-ending accident in a high-energy particle accelerator, are among the possible extinction events that are sufficiently likely to warrant careful study. How should we respond to events that, for a variety of psychological and cultural reasons, we find it hard to wrap our minds around? Posner argues that realism about science and scientists, innovative applications of cost-benefit analysis, a scientifically literate legal profession, unprecedented international cooperation, and a pragmatic attitude toward civil liberties are among the keys to coping effectively with the catastrophic risks.