Book Talk
BOOK DISCUSSION ... In conjunction with the Walker Evans photography exhibition, Gavin Jones, chair of Stanford’s English department, will lead a discussion on “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” a collaboration between James Agee and Walker Evans that documents Depression-era tenant farming in rural Alabama at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Cantor Arts Center, Museum Way at Lomita Drive, Stanford University. The book is available at the Cantor Arts Center bookshop. Information: 650-7234177 or http://events.stanford.edu/ events/299/29955. AUTHOR AUTHOR ... Upcoming book readings at Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, include: Marcus Cootsona (with introduction by Stanford Tennis Coach Dick Gould), “Occam’s Racquet: 12 Steps to Smarter Tennis” (Feb. 28, 7 p.m.); Irvin D. Yalom, “The Spinoza Problem: A Novel (March 6, 7 p.m.); Jack Kornfield, “Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are” (March 7, 7 p.m.); George Dyson, “Touring’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe” (March 7, 7 p.m., Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, www.computerhistory.org/events); Spencer West, “Standing Tall: My Journey” (March 9, 7 p.m.); Alexander Gordon Smith, “Fugitives: Escape from Furnace 4” (March 12, 7 p.m.); Dr. Eric Topol, “The Creative Destruction of Medicine” (March 13, 7 p.m.); Cara Black, “Murder at the Lanterne Rouge” (March 14, 7 p.m.); and Elaine Pagels, “Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation” (March 17, 7 p.m.). Kepler’s members are admitted free; general admission requires purchase of event book or a $10 gift card. Information: www.keplers.com. KEYNOTE SPEAKER ... Abraham Verghese, author of “Cutting for Stone,” “My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story” and “The Tennis Partner,” will be the featured speaker at Breast Cancer Connections 4th annual Spring Benefit on Tuesday, March 13, from 8 to 10 a.m. Tickets to the event, which will be held at the Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club Ballroom, 2900 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, are $100. Information: http://bcconnections.org/ events/fundraisers/ or www.keplers. com.
AUTHOR EVENT ... Dr. Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution, will talk about his memoir, (continued on next page)
A monthly section on local books and authors
Don’t touch that cookie! Book offers advice on how to rev up one’s willpower by Kathy Cordova “The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It,” by Kelly McGonigal, The Penguin Group, 275 pp., $26
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t’s that time of the year when most of us who were optimistic or foolish enough to make New Year’s resolutions have inevitably given up our low-carb diets, triathlon training and the hope that we will ever be able to fit our car into the garage. Why is it that aspirations that seem so promising on Jan. 1 are often abandoned by midFebruary? T he a nswer, most people would agree, is willpower. Most of us would also agree that we don’t have as much willpower as we would like. In fact, Americans cite lack of willpower as the biggest reason they struggle to reach their goals, according to the American Psychological Association. Imagine how our lives could change if there were simple, proven ways to train our brains to order the salad instead of a burger or get off the couch and go for a run? That is the promise of the new book, “The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.” In it, author Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., who teaches a class about willpower at Stanford University, combines the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology and economics with feedback from her students to create an accessible, step-by-step guide to understanding and strengthening willpower. With a book like this, it’s easy to wonder if it’s just another of the many platitude-filled, self-help books published at the beginning of the year that won’t improve our lives any more than our forsaken resolutions. As a mass consumer of self-help books, including everything from “The Secret” to “Master Your Metabolism,” who has been trying to lose the same 10 pounds for the last five years, I know a little about the genre and the subject. The trouble with most self-help books is that after you read them you know what
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to do, but you still have the problem of motivating yourself to do it. I may have found the answer to this dilemma in the pages of this book. “The Willpower Instinct” has several things going for it: First, the author has impressive credentials. McGonigal is a health psychologist and educator for the Stanford School of Medicine’s Health Improvement Program who specializes in helping people manage stress and make healthy choices. McGonigal also writes the “Science of Willpower” blog for Psychology Today. She’s a longtime vegan, a yoga expert and a two-time author at the age of 34 — evidence pointing to some personal expertise in her subject. Second, the book, which is dense with academic studies (with 25 pages of reference notes), is grounded in the experiences of her students, making the theories relatable and reality-tested. The author writes: “A class survey four weeks into the course found that 97 percent of students felt they better understood their own behavior, and 84 percent reported that the class strategies had already given them more willpower.” She also notes that if the scientific conclusions didn’t work as well in real life as they did in the laboratory, we won’t find them in the book. Most importantly, the book explains complex brain science and its applications in a clear and entertaining way that makes them easy to understand and use in our daily lives. The information, anecdotes and advice make inherent sense. I found myself highlighting and dog-earing almost every page and I had too many “Aha!” moments to count. The book is divided into 10 chapters, modeled after the 10-week course. McGonigal suggests reading one chapter per week to let the ideas sink in and to take the time to do the
“Willpower Experiments” that are interspersed throughout the book. The author provides specific strategies for strengthening willpower in many different areas, including dieting, exercising, procrastinating and
curbing addictive behaviors such as smoking, drinking, gambling and obsessively checking email. Most of the advice and exercises are simple and quick to implement. For example, McGonigal cites
Veronica Weber
MEET THE AUTHORS ... Upcoming authors at Books Inc. at Town & Country Village in Palo Alto include Meredith Maran, “A Theory of Small Earthquakes” (March 1, 7 p.m.); Susan Stone Belton, “Real Parents, Real Kids, Real Talk” (March 10, 1 p.m.); Joan Lester, “Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong” (March 14, 7 p.m.); and Claire Bidwell Smith, “The Rules of Inheritance: A Memoir” (March 20, 7 p.m.). Information: www.booksinc.net.
Title Pages
Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and educator for the Stanford School of Medicine’s Health Improvement Program, wrote “The Willpower Instinct,” offering insights into what willpower is and how everyone can manage it.