Providing a comprehensive perspective on human desire, this volume brings together leading experts from multiple psychological subdisciplines. It addresses such key questions as how desires of different kinds emerge, how they influence judgment and decision making, and how problematic desires can be effectively controlled. Current research on underlying brain mechanisms and regulatory processes is reviewed. Cutting-edge measurement tools are described, including practical recommendations for their use. The book also examines pathological forms of desire and the complex relationship between desire and happiness. The concluding section analyzes specific applied domains--eating, sex, aggression, substance use, shopping, and social media.

"Berkley Sensation contemporary romance"--Spine.

A fast-paced novel hailed by Entertainment Weekly as a "well-crafted, suspenseful thriller [which] offers sex, erotica, and more sex." In Sherry Sonnett’s compelling first novel, Vega Johnson, a successful L.A. investment counselor, is leading a respectable but dull life when she meets Paul Lattimer, a major player in a mysterious, international finance game. Immediately fascinated by and drawn to his power, she soon gets caught up in his dark world of kinky sex, white collar crime, and murder.

A lucid account of the history of Jainism The early Jainas were clever communicators. From sensuous poetry to voluptuous sculptures, tales that were both explicit and explorative, and even games, they employed a range of innovative techniques to explain and transmit their teachings. Sudhamahi Regunathan, a former vice-chancellor of the Jain Vishva Bharati University, takes a leaf out of their book as she writes this introduction to Jainism. Using an array of stories and myths, she starts with a historical account of the first twenty-three Tirthankaras as narrated in the Jaina texts and goes on to delve into the philosophy of the religion. The discussions on the tenets that form the bedrock of Jainism are illuminating -- be it anekanta, the belief in the multi-dimensionality of truth; santhara, the controversial practice of voluntarily embracing death; or the interplay between desire and restraint, which is at the heart of Jainism's simple way of life. Regunathan also highlights the contribution of the Jainas to building a common Indian ethos, and throws light on Jainism's many distinctions. It is a little known fact, for instance, that the first nun was initiated into the Jaina order long before the start of the Christian era. Scholarly yet accessible, The Colours of Desire on the Canvas of Restraint hopes to upturn the popular notion that Jainism is a 'dry' religion as it takes its readers into an austere yet colourful world.

Why do we read? What do we cherish in a book? What is the nature of a masterpiece? What do Alice Munro, Albert Camus, and the great Polish experimentalist Witold Gombrowicz have in common? In the tradition of Nabokov, Calvino, and Kundera, Douglas Glover’s new essay collection fuses his long experience as an author with his love of philosophy and his passion for form. Call it a new kind of criticism or an operator’s manual for readers and writers, The Erotics of Restraint extends Glover’s long and deeply personal conversation with great books and their authors. With the same dazzling mix of emotion and idea that characterizes his fiction, he dissects narrative and shows us how and why it works, why we love it, and how that makes us human. Erudite and obsessively detailed, inventive, confessional, and cheeky, these essays offer a brilliant clarity, a respite in an age of doubt. They raise the bar.