Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too?

Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked.

Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to 'have it all,' Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of their issues being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take 'me-time' or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.

In Why We Can't Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X's predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss - and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.

An instant feminist classic, and perfect gift for all parents, women, and people working towards gender equality. Here is a brilliant, beautifully readable, and above all practical expansion of the ideas this iconic author began to explore in her bestselling manifesto, We Should All Be Feminists.

A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking how to raise her new baby girl a feminist.
Although she has written and spoken out widely about feminism, Adichie wasn't sure how to advise her friend Ijeawele. But as a person who'd babysat, had loved her nieces and nephews, and now, too, was the mother of a daughter herself, she thought she would try. So she sent Ijeawele a letter with some suggestions--15 in all--which she has now decided to share with the world.
Compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive, Dear Ijeawele offers specifics on how we can empower our daughters to become strong, independent women. Here, too, are ways parents can raise their children--both sons and daughters--beyond a culture's limiting gender prescriptions. This short, sharp work rings out in Chimamanda's voice: infused with deep honesty, clarity, strength, and above all love. She speaks to the important work of raising a girl in today's world, and provides her readers with a clear proposal for inclusive, nuanced thinking. Here we have not only a rousing manifesto, but a powerful gift for all people invested in the idea of creating a just society--an endeavour now more urgent and important than ever.

Have you ever seen something that wasn't really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing? Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. In some conditions, hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one's own body. Humans have always sought such life-changing visions, and for thousands of years have used hallucinogenic compounds to achieve them. In this book, with his usual elegance, curiosity, and compassion, Dr Sacks weaves together stories of his patients and of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture's folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all, a vital part of the human condition.

Celebrating Fifty Years of Picador Books

If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self – himself – he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.

In this extraordinary book, Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent tics or shout involuntary obscenities, and yet are gifted with unusually acute artistic or mathematical talents. If sometimes beyond our surface comprehension, these brilliant tales illuminate what it means to be human.

A provocative exploration of the mysteries of the human mind, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a million-copy bestseller by the twentieth century's greatest neurologist.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.