UDM Libraries Book of the Week

This delightfully funny holiday gem tells the story of Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsly) a 1940′s nine-year-old who pulls out all the stops to obtain the ultimate Christmas present. It’s Christmas time and there’s only one thing on Ralphie Parker’s Christmas list this year: a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-Shot, Range Model Air Rifle, but many obstacles stand in the way of his dream because every adult that he confronts keeps telling him he’ll shoot his eye out. Meanwhile The Old Man just got a major award (a lamp shaped like a woman’s leg), and Mom is making sure The Old Man doesn’t come near her turkey, Ralphie’s friend gets his tongue stuck to a flag pole, and Ralphie utters the f-word in front of his father. Christmas is drawing nearer and Ralphie visits Santa at the department store in hopes of asking him for his dream gift. Will he receive it? Let’s hope so.

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By Gad Saad

Foreword by David M. Buss, author of The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and The Evolution of Desire

• What do all successful fast-food restaurants have in common?
• Why do men’s testosterone levels rise when they drive a Ferrari or a Porsche?
• Why are women more likely to become compulsive shoppers and men more likely to become addicted to pornography?
• How does the fashion industry play on our innate need to belong?

The answer to all of these intriguing questions is “the consuming instinct,” the underlying evolutionary basis for most of our consumer behavior.

In this highly informative and entertaining book, Dr. Gad Saad, the founder of the vibrant new field of evolutionary consumption, illuminates the relevance of our biological heritage to our daily lives as consumers. While culture is important, Dr. Saad shows that innate evolutionary forces deeply influence the foods we eat, the gifts we offer, the cosmetics and clothing styles we choose to make ourselves more attractive to potential mates, and even the cultural products that stimulate our imaginations (such as art, music, and religion).

The Consuming Instinct demonstrates that most acts of consumption can be mapped onto four key Darwinian drives—namely, survival (we prefer foods high in calories); reproduction (we use products as sexual signals); kin selection (we naturally exchange gifts with family members); and reciprocal altruism (we enjoy offering gifts to close friends). The author further highlights the analogous behaviors that exist between human consumers and a wide range of animals.

For anyone interested in the biological basis of human behavior or simply in what makes consumers tick—marketing professionals, advertisers, psychology mavens, and consumers themselves—The Consuming Instinct is a fascinating read.

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By James P. McCartin

A hundred years ago Catholic believers young and old, rich and poor, would fill churches on holy days, drawn together in prayer and in the conviction that they, the laypeople, needed the clergy and patron saints to mediate between them and their God. Today a Catholic believer in America is as likely as not to find God for herself.

This book traces dramatic changes in the practice of faith among American Catholics through evolving ideas about prayer. Where so many have seen the movement of American Catholics away from traditional devotional practices as a symptom of encroaching secularism, author James P. McCartin shows how the changing practice of prayer itself was the primary catalyst behind Catholics’ growing sense of spiritual independence.

Prayers of the Faithful reveals how, over the decades, Catholics’ ways of praying underwent a significant shift alongside the larger transformations of American society and culture. The book documents the novel ways of praying that transcended the formal rites of earlier generations. Whether “praying in tongues” or working on behalf of social justice or participating in public protests as outpourings of prayer, lay Catholics consistently expanded their notions of praying. And in doing so, McCartin suggests, they reshaped and redefined American Catholicism. By examining the spiritual life of prayer over the twentieth century, this book thus opens up new ways of understanding Catholics, their church, and their place in American life.

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By Adrian Alverez

The world is experiencing an obesity epidemic. In both industrialized and emerging countries, the percentage of adults and children with obesity is increasing annually. It is no longer unusual to encounter a patient with extreme or morbid obesity in the operating room; these patients are routinely scheduled for every type of surgical procedure. Everyone involved in the peri-operative management of the surgical patient with morbid obesity – surgeons, anesthesiologists, internists, psychologists, nurses, nutritionists, respiratory therapists – must be aware of the special needs of these patients. Morbid Obesity: Peri-operative Management, second edition, considers the perioperative care of the morbidly obese patient, from preoperative preparation to intraoperative management and through to their postoperative course. Edited by leading experts in the management of the morbidly obese surgical patient, Morbid Obesity: Peri-operative Management, second edition, provides clear, practical clinical guidance on the management of the extremely obese surgical patient.

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