Do you want to understand your feelings, build relationships with loved ones and just have fun? Get started with Psychologies’ top book releases of the month.
Fiction
“iPhuck10” Viktor Pelevin
A novel that unexpectedly causes deep tenderness. This is still intellectual reading, oversaturated with cultural codes, requiring broad erudition from the reader and giving in return the joy of unraveling the author’s jokes. But at the same time – who would have thought – this is a very feminine (forgive the involuntary sexism) love story with a good ending.
A few words about the plot, far-fetched and uninteresting in itself. The middle of the XXII century, the utopian world of prohibitively high technologies. The heroine is a living woman, Mara Gnedykh (do you hear the Hindu Mara in her? Do you hear the “couple of bays”?) is an art historian, curator of exhibitions, a computer genius and a criminal.
An auxiliary character is Porfiry Petrovich, an algorithm, not a robot, just a few lines of computer code, created to solve crimes and at the same time write novel after novel about them (an ironic nod to the detective as a genre and Dostoevsky personally). Mara rents Porfiry for art and criminal purposes and sexual pleasures. The text is built around their dialogues, a love war and a carousel of episodic characters like gallery owners, bank workers, taxi drivers, teenagers, freaks of all stripes, whom Pelevin loves so much.
It is built – on them, but rests – on the incredible personal charm of the author.
In modern Russian prose, Pelevin’s authorial voice is heard more distinctly than others. He is unique – first of all, by intellectual humor, the ability to put into one joke both a language game, and a logical paradox, and philosophical thought. This is how he always wrote.
But the former irony and some irritation that people caused in Pelevin gave way to tenderness. The finale is sentimental and poignant: love conquers death.
Leading up to it, Pelevin habitually scoops up from world culture, and the first Buddhist truth “life is suffering” and the two main manifestos of literature – “To be or not to be” by Hamlet and the answer to him “and yes I said yes I I want Yes” by Joyce’s Molly, and the immortal dialogue between Archpriest Avvakum and his wife.
Life is ontologically meaningless, short, irrevocable, and it is unbearable to realize it, but it is impossible not to realize it.
Pelevin low – who would have expected from him – bows to “people who, on the hump of their daily torment, found the strength to live,” to humanity as such.
If briefly and literally, then this: “Live oh. But yes”.
Eksmo Publishing House, 416 p.
“Handbook for Housekeepers” by Lucia Berlin
Unless the unpopularity of the story as a genre can be explained that world fame found the American Lucia Berlin after her death. She wrote just over 80 stories, half of which was included in the Housekeeper’s Guide. A Protestant girl in a Catholic school, a housewife who visits the laundry once a week – Lucia Berlin makes heroines of ordinary American women with whom nothing happens at all.
They are not perfect, we are not perfect either, and that’s okay. Everything is valuable and everything is appropriate. The laundry is spinning in the machine, the bus is moving, life is going on.
There is prose about which it is impossible to say exactly how it was made: you open a book and it is as natural to read as it is to breathe, and it is impossible to characterize it. This is not a complaint, not edification, not entertainment. This is high art, clean air without smell and taste, the standard of prose.
Translation from English by Svetlana Silakova.
Corpus, 496 c.
“Kangaroo Notebook”. Kobo Abe
An unnamed Japanese man has daikon sprouts on his legs. He tries to lime them and goes to the sulfur springs in Hell (it’s true a resort in Japan, the play on words is preserved). I would never have read a novel with such a plot if it were not for Kobo Abe (1924-1993), who shines like an unfading star in the sky of Japanese post-war modernism. In modernism, it is customary to see in every thing a symbol of another thing, and inside one kangaroo – another kangaroo (hence the name).
But I love the master for the manner of combining the incompatible. So, in the Japanese hell there is a district for dead children. But the girls are there too: they heat rice buns in the microwave. In any death there is a little life, and in any life there is a lot of death, in short and in my retelling. But the original, I assure you, is much better.
Translated from Japanese by Sergey Logachev.
Foreigner, 240 p.
Dr. Lisa Glinka. “I’m always on the side of the weak.” Diaries, conversations
Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka is a pediatric anesthesiologist-resuscitator and specialist in palliative medicine. A year ago, she died in a plane crash over Sochi. She was 54 years old, and by this time she had managed to open a public organization “Fair Help” and several hospices, help thousands of people, receive a bunch of state awards, popular fame as a saint and the stigma of “war PR”.
The book includes selected interviews and recordings of her LiveJournal. Interviews are long, sometimes over the top emotional. The notes are hurried in a medical way, with an intonation of dry, restrained bitterness. About how there was no place for little Yosya in the hospice, they had to urgently open a children’s ward, but Yosya did not wait. About the homeless woman Lyudka, whom her beloved exchanged for potatoes. About the courage of the dying and the weaknesses of the living…
Dr. Liza received a lot of reproaches about what she was doing wrong – as a doctor, human rights activist, citizen and person – and advice on what and how she should do it. She rarely answered them, but in one interview she formulated her position clearly:
“We are all born good, and what will happen in life is a big question. So don’t be so quick to judge.” This book is the last line of a man who has dedicated himself to quenching the pain of others.
Edited by Elena Shubina, 318 p.
Literature for children
“Magic Yarn» Mac Barnet, John Klassen
From 3 years. In a city where everything was white with snow or black with soot, little Annabelle found a chest of colored yarn and knitted a sweater. First to myself, to my dog, then to neighbors, houses and trees, and the yarn did not end. The evil duke stole the chest, but he himself returned to Anabel. What is this yarn? Childish fantasy that colors the world, or love that knows no end? The book received a Caldecott Honor and became a New York Times bestseller thanks to the duo of artist John Klassen and young writer Mac Barnett.
Translation from English by Tatyana Nosova. Career Press, 40 p.
“Crafts. Book of Masters”. Hana Vashkova, Petra Bartikova
From 8 years. Lace makers and glassblowers, potters and blacksmiths, drotari and saddlers… These are not just words that have almost left the language, but entire worlds that have disappeared with the development of machine production. We know the importance of fine motor skills, creativity and labor. But the disappearance of crafts has deprived children of choice. Luckily, some activities are back in style, and your child may want to learn how to make stained glass or musical instruments. Support him in choosing a hobby.
Translation by Anastasia Naumova.
Melik-Pashaev, 72 p.
“Injustice”. Nika Dubrovskaya
From 14 years. The first and foremost thing a rebellious teenager fights for is justice.
He starts with himself and almost immediately proceeds to reorganize the world: injustice is more often seen when it concerns not ourselves, but those close to us. The struggle for women’s rights and racial equality, student riots and environmental demonstrations – there are many ways to defend the right ideas, says artist Nika Dubrovskaya. Her Anthropology for Children project began in 2008 and has now been implemented as an exhibition, lecture series and book at the same time.
Scooter, 104 p.
Non-fiction
“The Art of Understanding the Child”. Svetlana Krivtsova, Galiya Nigmetzhanova
“Books for parents are divided into two groups,” says psychologist Alexander Asmolov. – Some are about children (about developmental norms, crises and age-related features), reading them helps to compare your expectations from a child with generally accepted ones. Such books are read with an underlying question: “Is my child normal?” Others are about how to manage children: how to stop a tantrum, how to properly wean, how to prepare for the birth of the next child, how to report the death of a grandmother, and much, much more. Reading them inspires optimism and confidence: it turns out that you can solve any problem!
The book by child psychologists, Psychologies experts Svetlana Krivtsova and Galiya Nigmetzhanova cannot be attributed to any of these groups, although it is about children and interaction with them. Its main character is a parent, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather … – an adult who holds in his arms, leads by the hand, washes, teaches, feeds the child, talks to him. How does this person feel in a variety of situations? How is this or that view, point of view, assessment of the child born in his mind? How can he penetrate the inner world of a son or daughter?
Does a preschooler need to be understood? After all, he already receives care, toys, entertainment, education and affection … It turns out that understanding is the most important thing that is needed for happiness, even for a very small person. It is the moment of understanding in this particular situation, here and now, that children perceive as love, everything else is not the main thing.
This is confirmed by world psychology, and each of us knows that this is true, it is enough to pay attention to the fact that we remember the experiences of “incomprehensibility” all our lives.
Character, attitude towards people and towards ourselves, our very life history grow out of the experiences of childhood misunderstanding. That is, we, parents, carry in ourselves childhood experiences of loneliness and at the same time the same ways to make a child lonely and unhappy that we “peeped” from our mothers and fathers.
The authors have been advising parents for many years and sympathize with them very much. And the very atmosphere of the book is so delicate and accepting that it is easy to get infected with it, it forms a desire and readiness to patiently understand the essence of what is happening with the child. Right now, in everyday situations.”
Alexander Asmolov, Doctor of Psychology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education.
Clever, 318 p.
Psychotherapy
“Psychodrama treatment. Theory and practice”. Reinhard Krueger
An adult man dresses up as a girl and plays a scene: an older woman tells her to change into her old dress. He then suffers from guilt and shame. How to treat him for fetishism by means of psychodrama? At the direction of the therapist, he places all the characters on three chairs: the “girl”, her “mother” and the “man”, that is, himself. They enter into a dialogue, and it turns out that he is trying to reconnect with his distant mother, making up for the lack of closeness experienced in childhood.
This is just one example from the extensive clinical collection that Dr. med. Reinhard Krüger brings to the attention of the reader. Its main theme is the application of psychodrama techniques in the treatment of specific mental disorders. A special role in his approach is played by creative mentalization – establishing a connection between experience and behavior.
Class, 720 p.
Psychology
“Mom, don’t worry!” Sasha Galitsky
Dealing with elderly parents is not easy. It often ends in misunderstanding and quarrels. Adult children are annoyed that old people talk a lot, constantly give advice, save on everything, refuse help. Parents grumble that their children are endlessly trying to “fix” them, ignoring their real needs. How to establish normal relationships and not go crazy at the same time? Do not even try to stand your ground in a situation of a brewing conflict, it is useless, the author notes, it is better to switch to a safe topic, and the quarrel will quickly fade away.
All the recommendations that are included in this manual, the Israeli artist Sasha Galitsky derived from his own practice: for more than 15 years he has been working as a teacher of a carving circle in a nursing home. And interaction with centennial men and women is his everyday life, which he draws with unique humor and self-irony. The last quality, by the way, is indispensable in any relationship.
Zakharov, 186 p.
“The Gift of Fear. How to recognize danger and respond appropriately.” Gavin de Becker
Every day we run the risk of falling for the bait of intruders – robbers, rapists, scammers. Many of them skillfully disguise themselves: help carry bags, lull our vigilance with compliments and feigned concern. Gavin de Becker, a U.S. public figure protection specialist, is confident that each of us is able to recognize threat signals from others. But often we do not pay attention to them or drive suspicions away from ourselves so as not to offend a person. This is what criminals use.
Becker shows how important it is to pay attention to details. For example, on a first date, you should listen to how the interlocutor talks about past relationships: the tendency to blame others and make yourself a victim should alert you. Becker explains how to guess the motives of strangers and breaks down the mistakes we make when we let our guard down.
Alpina non-fiction, 410 p.
The Compass of Emotions by Ilse Sand
How many unnecessary conflicts and far-fetched experiences can be avoided if you learn to understand your own and other people’s feelings. A calm and concise book by a Danish psychotherapist is an excellent companion in this independent work. It will help to understand the encrypted messages of anger, envy or fear and dispose of them constructively, in a businesslike way. After all, feelings are what we have.
culture
“Culture of knitting”. Joan Terney
In the past, knitting was more of a household chore and seemed to be a symbol of patriarchy. But over the past half century, the “relic of the past” has become a fashionable fad. British researcher Joan Turney examines it in different contexts: knitting and feminism, … and postmodernism, … and psychoanalysis.
For women, knitting can be both a means of manipulating a man and a symbol of her subordinate position. It helps to escape from the world – or to unite with others, immerses in serene contemplation – and introduces to political actionism. As a result, knitting appears to the reader as a complex cultural phenomenon, closely related to the values of the modern world. But it does not cease to be an ordinary occupation – it all depends on the observer, the author recalls.
UFO, 288 p.
Work
“Prisoners of their own thoughts. The Meaning of Life and Work According to Viktor Frankl Alex Pattakos
The therapeutic method of Viktor Frankl was formed in the conditions of terrible trials – war and concentration camps, where the psychologist spent a total of three years. Today, his technique is used to help people with mental and physical injuries. The head of the Center for Meaning, Alex Pattakos, believes that Frankl’s ideas are also relevant for finding meaning in everyday life. For example, at work.
Of course, in the office we are not fighting for life, but we are worried about the threat of layoffs, we are worried about whether we will be able to provide for our families, we strive to meet the expectations of loved ones, to receive recognition from colleagues. Torn between these needs, we often forget the meaning. As Pattakos shows, turning to Frankl’s experience helps us to revise our fears and redirect the energy we spend on self-criticism and internal dialogues to creativity and creation.
Alpina Publisher, 206 p.
Feelings
“Taste. The science of the least understood human feeling.” Bob Holmes
Most of us find it difficult to describe our taste sensations. We operate with only a dozen epithets: bitter, sweet, sour … and we cannot always explain why potatoes are tastier than zucchini for us. But Canadian journalist Bob Holmes does not experience such difficulties. He explores how our taste buds are influenced by other senses, as well as history, evolution, genetics, economics, cultural and social differences.
Talking about the psychological aspects of taste perception, the author comes to a very encouraging conclusion. Now we are going through a period of “taste renaissance”: we rarely eat anything for the sake of a banal satisfaction of hunger, we learn to distinguish between 50 shades of wine or coffee taste. Therefore, no matter how fast food lures us with simplicity and speed, real cooking will still win.
Alpina Publisher, 348 p.
Food
“The book of culinary inspiration” Alena Andreasyan
All recipes in this beautiful deluxe edition include only healthy ingredients – no sugar and a minimum of animal products. This approach is not surprising, since Alena Andreasyan is a former model, and she knows the principles of healthy eating better than many others. But healthy doesn’t mean boring. Some readers will be surprised to find that without sugar and butter, you can cook a hearty breakfast, delicious dinner or dessert. It is convenient that it is always indicated what can replace some rare component (for example, chia seeds or kale).
Describing in detail the process of creating each dish, the author shares his childhood memories and the history of relationships with a particular product. And at the beginning of the book it reminds you what appliances should always be in the kitchen of a good housewife.
Without a prescription, 235 p.