The Science and Practice of Clarity and Compassion
July 1, 2022
From the 1970s to 2020, when Cecchi-Azzolina proclaimed Your Table Is Ready, he meant it; he was ma�tre d' for sparkly New York restaurants like River Caf�, Minetta Tavern, and Le Coucou (50,000-copy first printing). Critic, journalist, and author of the National Book Award finalist Lifting as We Climb, Dionne uses personal experience--from harassment to health issues--to plumb issues of size, race, and gender in Weightless (100,000-copy first printing). A vending-machine entrepreneur by age nine now famed for TikTok's Her First $100K, Dunlap was surprised to learn in college how many female friends lacked money-management skills and now seeks to bring out the Financial Feminist in every woman (100,000-copy first printing). Following nine sometimes glamorous, sometimes painful decades and publication of the New York Times best-selling memoir Lady in Waiting, Glenconner asks Whatever Next, then delivers lessons learned while living in proximity to the Crown (50,000-copy first printing). In Why We Meditate, internationally best-selling author Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) and Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Rinpoche join forces to explain why and how meditation can help practitioners push back destructive emotions. In Screaming on the Inside, New York Times opinion writer Grose examines 200 years of unrealistic, even morally questionable parenting expectations to reveal the damage done to generations of mothers in particular (100,000-copy first printing). In Smitten Kitchen Keepers, her much anticipated third book, star food blogger Perelman tests and retests classics to offer failproof recipes for cheddar broccoli quiche, lemon poppy seed cake, and more. Quilter's Hatching draws on both reportage and personal experience to explore the impact of assisted reproductive technology today. From Forbes staffer Sorvino, Raw Deal details the current crisis facing the U.S. meat industry, flailing after consolidation, price fixing, and supply-chain issues even as alternative meat producers emerge.
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October 24, 2022
In this illuminating program, psychologist Goleman (Altered Traits) and Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche (The Wakeful Body) share advice on how readers can overcome distraction with meditation. Tsoknyi imparts guidance on bringing one’s mind, body, and feelings into alignment, while Goleman contributes dispatches on the science behind Tsoknyi’s principles and exercises. Tsoknyi details his “handshake” method for bringing together “our awareness and our feelings” by focusing one’s attention on one’s body and emotions. This practice, Tsoknyi contends, allows practitioners to confront harmful emotional patterns and alter them to be less destructive. He elaborates that the ideal outcome is to rediscover one’s “essence love,” which happens when “we are just okay for no particular reason.” Goleman notes that this advice resembles cognitive therapy’s focus on disrupting “troubling emotional patterns” and offers research support for Tsoknyi’s insights, as when he details a study that found people who acknowledged their anxiety in an “accepting, nonreactive way” felt less anxious after doing so. Goleman includes many vignettes about his time working with Tsoknyi that feel a bit superfluous compared to the meatiness of Tsoknyi’s offerings, but the science enlightens and Tsoknyi’s charisma and compassion will please meditators of all stripes. Those looking for an accessible, jargon-free primer on meditation should check this out.
November 15, 2022
A Tibetan Buddhist monk and a psychologist offer a poetic and practical treatise on the practice and science of meditation. In the same vein as The Art of Happiness, in which psychiatrist Howard Cutler explored Dalai Lama's wisdom from his Western perspective, Goleman and Rinpoche offer a dual perspective on meditation. The authors successfully synthesize their ideas and viewpoints, demonstrating their shared interest in science as well as their extensive experiences with meditation. The text is a smooth, interwoven narrative of science, religion, and poetry, and each chapter begins with a discourse of various aspects of Buddhist meditation practice by Rinpoche, followed by a discussion of the relevant scientific research by Goleman. Alongside Rinpoche's discussions of classic meditation practices--particularly those that help us to let go of worry, cultivate empathy, or quell our anger--are Goleman's clear explanations of the evolutionary basis for such emotions and the ways in which science has confirmed the efficacy of ancient Buddhist practices in helping us regulate these emotions. The book is highly practical by nature, and each chapter ends with a step-by-step guide to various meditation practices, elements that will be useful for both experienced meditators and novices. For every specific emotional problem addressed--e.g., chronic worrying--the authors present actionable steps based on both Tibetan Buddhist meditation techniques and modern psychological tools. Far from being another fluffy self-help book in which meditation is characterized as an emotional and mental panacea, this book does not shy away from discussing the potential downsides of practices such as compassion and mindfulness and offers ways to combat negative side effects. Although experienced meditators might already be familiar with most of the information found in the book, they will still garner inspiration from Rinpoche's delightful, and often funny, discourses. An appealing, instructive mixture of Eastern spiritual practices and modern psychological research.
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October 1, 2022
Both deeply personal and methodologically sound, this book by American Psychological Association Lifetime Achievement Award winner Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) and Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Rinpoche (Open Heart, Open Mind) offers a framework for meditation that draws on the spiritual and scientific. Each chapter explains the why behind an aspect of meditation, offers an exercise that immediately gives readers a way into the practice, and examines scientific reasons for the benefits. For example, there are scientific studies about how meditation can slow breathing, improve cognitive function, and alleviate anxiety, anger, and confusion. The coauthors draw on their combined experiences in ways that make meditation psychologically and personally relevant. VERDICT As valuable for skeptical or reluctant meditative practitioners as it is for experienced ones, this book is actionable, intentional, personal, and practical.--Emily Bowles
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.