New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied customer fill the empty tables of a new restaurant. These are social epidemics,...

This book uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty and the powerful and the dispossessed. In it the author challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks. He begins with the real story of what happened...

Lizette Henry, possessing unusual detection skills but struggling with a memory disorder, accepts help from the mysterious and seductive Xavier--a stranger who triggers disturbing images of an unspeakable crime of which Lizette may or may not be the perpetrator.

Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. In this lively and compelling account -- now updated with new material by the author -- Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months...

"Grace Blades is a master psychologist, respected by her peers and adored by her patients. She is hardworking and highly competent, a model of self-control. But in private, Grace indulges a secret thrill-seeking darkness, pursuing danger as an escape from the regimented life she's established. Closing her eyes as she flies down the Los Angeles freeway or targeting a stranger in a hotel bar for an anonymous moment of passion, Grace craves the rush....

Just as he is about to retire, middle-aged assassin Henry Brogan discovers he is a target and the person hunting him is a younger clone of himself that can anticipate his thoughts and actions.

The Blue Ridge Madam was built by Willa Jackson's great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water's heyday. It now stands as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. But Willa has lately learned that socialite do-gooder Paston Osgood has restored the Madam to her former glory and plans to open a top-notch inn. Could the troubled past finally be laid to rest? When a skeleton is found buried beneath the property's lone peach tree, Willa And Paxton...

On a day when everything goes wrong for him, Alexander is consoled by the thought that other people have bad days too. Alexander wakes up to a bad day & things get progressively worse as the hours wear on, until he thinks he may escape it all & go to Australia. On a day when everything goes wrong for him, Alexander is consoled by the thought that other people have bad days too. Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with...

Promising to be the debut novel of the season, The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband--and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive... Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London's most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel...

Award-winning science journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman demonstrate that many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring--because key twists in the science of child development have been overlooked. The authors discuss the inverse power of praise, why insufficient sleep adversely affects kids' capacity to learn, why white parents don't talk about race, why kids lie, why evaluation methods for "giftedness"...