Jenna's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 21  There are a total of 115 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Astor"
Star rating for Astor
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society. The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New...
Book cover for "Atomic habits"
Star rating for Atomic habits
Author:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
James Clear presents strategies to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that help lead to an improved life.
Book cover for "The chaos machine"
Star rating for The chaos machine
Author:
Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Description:
The gripping and galling inside story of how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks preyed on psychological frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions. The companies' founding tenets, combined with a blinkered focus on maximizing engagement, have led to a destabilized world for everyone.
Book cover for "Dead wake"
Star rating for Dead wake
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania
“Both terrifying and enthralling.”—Entertainment Weekly
Thrilling, dramatic and powerful.—NPR
Thoroughly engrossing.—George R.R. Martin

On May 1, 1915, with...
Book cover for "The devil in the white city"
Star rating for The devil in the white city
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
An account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event--architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.
Book cover for "Digital minimalism"
Star rating for Digital minimalism
Author:
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestseller
"Newport is making a bid to be the Marie Kondo of technology: someone with an actual plan for helping you realize the digital pursuits that do, and don't, bring value to your life."—Ezra Klein, Vox
Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living
...
Book cover for "Four thousand weeks"
Star rating for Four thousand weeks
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
"A lively philosophical guide to time and time management, setting aside superficial efficiency solutions in favor of reckoning with and finding joy in the finitude of human life"--
Book cover for "The gifts of imperfection"
Star rating for The gifts of imperfection
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
In this work, the author, a leading expert on shame, authenticity, and belonging, shares ten guideposts on the power of wholehearted living, a way of engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.
Book cover for "The happiness project"
Star rating for The happiness project
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
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...
Book cover for "How to change your mind"
Star rating for How to change your mind
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction, and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these ... substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips...
Book cover for "Isaac's storm"
Star rating for Isaac's storm
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting true story of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, still the deadliest natural disaster in American history—from the acclaimed author of The Devil in the White City
“A gripping account ... fascinating to its core, and all the more compelling for being true.” —The New York Times Book Review

September 8, 1900, began innocently in...
Book cover for "The last castle"
Star rating for The last castle
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
"The ... true story behind the ... Gilded Age mansion Biltmore--the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States"--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "The life-changing magic of tidying up"
Star rating for The life-changing magic of tidying up
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The book that sparked a revolution and inspired the hit Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo: the original guide to decluttering your home once and for all.
ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE—CNN
 
Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of...
Book cover for "The nineties"
Star rating for The nineties
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Essays about 1990s popular culture, politics, sports, literature, music"--
Book cover for "The poisoner's handbook"
Star rating for The poisoner's handbook
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Chronicles the story of New York City's first forensic scientists to describe Jazz Age poisoning cases, including a family's inexplicable balding, Barnum and Bailey's Blue Man, and the crumbling bones of factory workers. The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime....
Book cover for "The splendid and the vile"
Star rating for The splendid and the vile
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
In this "portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz, ... Larson shows ... how Churchill taught the British people 'the art of being fearless.' It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home Chequers; his wartime retreat Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course...
Book cover for "Stolen focus"
Star rating for Stolen focus
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening and how to get our attention back."-- "Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening-and how to get our attention back....
Book cover for "Talking to strangers"
Star rating for Talking to strangers
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
The popular podcast host and author explores how people interact with strangers and why these exchanges often go wrong, offering strategic tips for more accurate and productive interactions.
Book cover for "Think again"
Star rating for Think again
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
"The bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your beliefs and to know what you don't know, which can position you for success at work and happiness at home. The difficulty of rethinking our assumptions is surprisingly common--maybe even fundamentally human ... The new science of intellectual humility shows that as a mindset and a skillset, rethinking can be taught, and Grant explains...
Book cover for "The woman they could not silence"
Star rating for The woman they could not silence
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Threatened by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and outspokenness, her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her and makes a plan to put her back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions...