Written with heartrending honesty, a memoir that captures the devastation of this family legacy of depression and details the strength and hope that can provide a way of escaping its grasp. “A compassionate but clear-eyed view of his family history.” —Washington Post Christopher (Kit) Lukas’s mother committed suicide when he was a boy. He and his brother, Tony, were not told how she died. No one spoke of the family’s history of depression and bipolar disorder. The brothers grew up to achieve remarkable success; Tony as a gifted journalist (and author of the classic book, Common Ground), Kit as an accomplished television producer and director. After suffering bouts of depression, Kit was able to confront his family’s troubled past, but Tony never seemed to find the contentment Kit had attained—he killed himself in 1997.

Genetic sciences have produced a 'blue revolution' in the way we use aquatic biodiversity. By 2020 the world will be eating more farmed than wild fish, marine bacteria may yield the cure for cancer and deep-sea bacteria may be exploited to gobble up oil spills.

Many common psychological problems, such as depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and ADHD, can be linked to chemical imbalances in the brain. Dr. Paul Meier, whose clinic treats thousands of people per week, has written Blue Genes to help find answers for those who struggle. Through fascinating case studies, Dr. Meier shows the dramatic difference counseling and medicine can make. This empowering book addresses how genetics, environment, diet, fitness, and spirituality all affect our minds and our quality of life.

The advance of genetic sciences has led to a 'blue revolution' in the way we use aquatic biodiversity. By 2020, the world will be eating almost as much farmed as wild fish, marine bacteria could yield the cure for cancer and deep-sea bacteria may be exploited to gobble up oil spills. Science is moving ahead at a staggering speed, and the demand for genetic resources is growing rapidly - yet governance and policy lag far behind. This groundbreaking work is the first to look at the ownership, governance and trade in aquatic genetic resources. Blue Genes describes the growing demand for aquatic genetic resources and the desperate need to fill the policy vacuum about the management and conservation of aquatic biodiversity, which would help create a foundation for rules dictating access to, and use of, aquatic genetic resources. Special attention is paid to indigenous and local people having the right to access these resources and their role in managing and conserving aquatic biodiversity. The book concludes with policy recommendations specifically tailored to aquatic resources, with the use of six case studies from four continents to illustrate key issues.

Modern science postulates that our political predispositions can be traced to our genes. To some extent, there is such a thing as "red-state" or "blue-state" DNA. Our brains likewise bear the evolutionary imprint of hundreds of thousands of years of political wiring-for biased partisanship. The result is a political landscape characterized by irrationality and hostility. Americans today, like citizens of many other countries, find themselves trapped in hostile "red" vs. "blue" political warfare. While liberals and conservatives fight each other for power and influence, the world's problems go unsolved. Using recent scientific evidence from neuroscience, behavioral genetics, and evolutionary and cognitive psychology, Red Genes, Blue Genes is the first book to take a comprehensive look at the phenomenon of political irrationality. This book seeks to unravel a number of political mysteries: Why does it seem that liberals and conservatives are different kinds of people? Why are political arguments so hostile and impervious to reason? Why are partisans and political figures so certain they are right all the time? Why are citizens everywhere unsatisfied with "democratic" systems of government? Why are political campaigns so shallow, vicious and manipulative? This book provides answers to the above questions, showing how understanding political irrationality may enable us to devise new systems of government that are truly democratic. Book jacket.

Therese Borchard may be one of the frankest, funniest people on the planet. That, combined with her keen writing abilities has made her Beliefnet blog, Beyond Blue, one of the most trafficked blogs on the site. BEYOND BLUE, the book, is part memoir/part self-help. It describes Borchard's experience of living with manic depression as well as providing cutting-edge research and information on dealing with mood disorders. By exposing her vulnerability, she endears herself immediately to the reader and then reduces even the most depressed to laughter as she provides a companion on the journey to recovery and the knowledge that the reader is not alone. Comprised of four sections and twenty-one chapters, BEYOND BLUE covers a wide range of topics from codependency to addiction, poor body image to postpartum depression, from alternative medicine to psychopharmacology, managing anxiety to applying lessons from therapy. Because of her laser wit and Erma Bombeck sense of humor, every chapter is entertaining as well as serious.

A top behavioral geneticist argues DNA inherited from our parents at conception can predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses. This “modern classic” on genetics and nature vs. nurture is “one of the most direct and unapologetic takes on the topic ever written” (Boston Review). In Blueprint, behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin describes how the DNA revolution has made DNA personal by giving us the power to predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses from birth. A century of genetic research shows that DNA differences inherited from our parents are the consistent lifelong sources of our psychological individuality—the blueprint that makes us who we are. Plomin reports that genetics explains more about the psychological differences among people than all other factors combined. Nature, not nurture, is what makes us who we are. Plomin explores the implications of these findings, drawing some provocative conclusions—among them that parenting styles don't really affect children's outcomes once genetics is taken into effect. This book offers readers a unique insider’s view of the exciting synergies that came from combining genetics and psychology.

Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color . . . A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists. Maggie Nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press, 2007). She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.

Have you ever heard of a person who left you wondering, "How could someone be so twisted? So evil?" Prompted by clues in her sister’s diary after her mysterious death, author Barbara Oakley takes the reader inside the head of the kinds of malevolent people you know, perhaps all too well, but could never understand. Starting with psychology as a frame of reference, Oakley uses cutting-edge images of the working brain to provide startling support for the idea that "evil" people act the way they do mainly as the result of a dysfunction. In fact, some deceitful, manipulative, and even sadistic behavior appears to be programmed genetically—suggesting that some people really are born to be bad. Oakley links the latest findings of molecular research to a wide array of seemingly unrelated historical and current phenomena, from the harems of the Ottomans and the chummy jokes of "Uncle Joe" Stalin, to the remarkable memory of investor Warren Buffet. Throughout, she never loses sight of the personal cost of evil genes as she unravels the mystery surrounding her sister’s enigmatic life—and death. Evil Genes is a tour-de-force of popular science writing that brilliantly melds scientific research with intriguing family history and puts both a human and scientific face to evil.

Expert researcher Horowitz explores family trees from roots to branches, revealing not only how complex genealogical relationships work, but also how they can be surprisingly interesting.