In this selection from The Body, his compulsively readable and bestselling owner’s manual to the human body, Bill Bryson introduces us to the mysterious, and often devastating, world of disease. Written with extraordinary insight and filled with remarkable facts, When Things Go Wrong deepens our understanding of the maladies that afflict us--what they are and how they work. A Vintage Short.

In this book we have experts writing on various neuroscience topics ranging from mental illness, syndromes, compulsive disorders, brain cancer and advances in therapies and imaging techniques. Although diverse, the topics provide an overview of an array of diseases and their underlying causes, as well as advances in the treatment of these ailments. This book includes three chapters dedicated to neurodegenerative diseases, undoubtedly a group of diseases of huge socio-economic importance due to the number of people currently suffering from this type of disease but also the prediction of a huge increase in the number of people becoming afflicted. The book also includes a chapter on the molecular and cellular aspects of brain cancer, a disease which is still amongst the least treatable of cancers.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A must-read owner’s manual for every body. Take a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body in this “delightful, anecdote-propelled read” (The Boston Globe) from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything. With a new Afterword. “You will marvel at the brilliance and vast weirdness of your design." —The Washington Post Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body—how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Brysonesque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best.

God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail. The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas. With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey. An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans.

An Owner’s Manual for Everyone. This book is a summary of “The Body: A Guide for Occupants,” by Bill Bryson. Did you ever think you needed an owner's manual for our complex body? Our body is the product of three billion years of evolutionary tweaks. In The Body, Bill Bryson took a boring science book and turned it into an understandable book for everyone. The book guides us through the human body—how it functions, how it heals itself, and how it can fail. It leads you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. Read this book to better understand one of the enduring mysteries of human biology. This guide includes: * Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts. * Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth. Value-added from this guide: * Save time * Understand key concepts * Expand your knowledge

Comer and Gould's Psychology Around Us demonstrates the many-often surprising, always fascinating-intersections of psychology with students' day-to-day lives. Every chapter includes sections on human development, brain function, individual differences and abnormal psychology that occur in that area. These "cut-across" sections highlight how the different fields of psychology are connected to each other and how they connect to everyday life. Every chapter begins with a vignette that shows the power of psychology in understanding a whole range of human behavior. This theme is reinforced throughout the chapter in boxed readings and margin notes that celebrate the extraordinary processes that make the everyday possible and make psychology both meaningful and relevant. The text presents psychology as a unified field the understanding of which flows from connecting its multiple subfields and reinforces the fact that psychology is a science with all that this implies (research methodology, cutting edge studies, the application of critical thinking).