PT Bookshelf

If you wear magnets in your shoes to draw energy from the earth or
areconsidering the purchase of an infinite energy machine, you should
read Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud (Oxford, 2000,
$25) by University of Maryland physicist Robert Park, Ph.D. Park gets to
the essence of true scientific thinking without mathematical formulas,
then uses real-life examples to show how people (including scientists)
are led astray by pseudoscience.

Sometimes, life stinks. The ability to smell it, however, helps you
tell safe from spoiled, male from female, and friend from foe, yet
chances are you pay little attention to this key sensation. Jacobson's
Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell (Norton, 2000, $24.95), written
by naturalist and science writer Lyall Watson, will entertain you as it
explains the importance of what the nose knows.

If you or a loved one abuses drugs, get a copy of Recovery Options:
The Complete Guide (Wiley, 2000, $15.95 paperback). Authors Joseph
Volpicelli, M.D., Ph.D., a University of Pennsylvania researcher, and
Maia Szalavitz, a journalist and former cocaine and heroin addict,
explain the roles biology and experience play in addiction, and provide
practical suggestions for escaping its grip.

The support of friends and family is useful in dealing with any
persistent life problem, but sometimes we need the help of people who
know our pain firsthand. The Support Group Sourcebook (Wiley, 2000,
$14.95 paperback), written by Linda Klein, a support group facilitator,
shows how to get the most out of a support group, and the book should be
read by anyone trying to cope with a chronic health or behavior
problem.

If you are among the 50 million Americans caring for someone with
Alzheimer's, you will want to read The Last Childhood: A Family Story of
Alzheimer's (Three Rivers Press, 2000, $14 paperback). Author Carrie
Knowles, an award-winning journalist, tells the absorbing story of her
own mother's inexorable and horrific deterioration at the hands of this
debilitating disease.

Do you know someone who is "book smart", yet can't figure out how
to change a light bulb? According to Practical Intelligence in Everyday
Life (Cambridge University Press, 2000, $21.95 paperback), people who
excel in academics often lack the kind of brains needed in other
settings. Written by Yale psychologist Robert Sternberg, Ph.D., and a
host of other experts, this book is intended primarily for scholars, but
should prove accessible and interesting for most PT readers.

Children of divorce often find it difficult to voice their
feelings. I Don't Want to Talk About It (Magination Press, 2000, $8.95
paperback) helps them do so by using animal metaphors to illustrate the
emotions of a little girl whose parents are breaking up. (She wants to
roar like a lion, for example, so she can't hear what her parents are
saying.) Written by counselor Jeanie Franz Ransom, M.A., with
illustrations by Kathryn Kunz Finney, this book is intended for children
ages 4 to 10. An afterword by Philip Stahl, Ph.D., offers practical ways
for parents to help kids cope.

Adapted by Ph.D.