Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

"Dacher Keltner has a book called Awe — A-W-E. It's a great book."

"There has been a rash of books about awe and wonder—essentially celebrating the profound impact of these emotions upon the human brain. UC Berkeley professor Dacher Keltner’s Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life offers a very readable, scientifically sound exploration of a near-ineffable experience, which he defines as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” (As an aside, I spoke to the philosopher Robert Clewis about ‘the sublime’ early last year, and he noted that he had been collaborating with experimental psychologists researching awe; the sublime, he said, could be interpreted as a form of ‘aesthetic awe.’) And, on a similar topic but taking a very different—more personal—approach, Katherine May’s Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age shares stories from her own life, in which she has sought to escape feelings of stress, disconnection, and overwhelm by re-awakening her awareness of the subtle beauty that can be found everyday life. She swims in the sea, keeps bees, and watches a meteor shower… Altogether these gentle personal essays make for a feelgood book that might be dipped in and out of, and it should appeal to those who enjoyed her debut Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in a Difficult World , which amassed a huge fanbase during the Covid lockdowns. A couple. Kevin Kelly, ‘senior maverick’ at Wired magazine and veteran tech writer, has a new book out: Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier is a compendium of short, aphorism-like words of advice aimed primarily at a younger audience. Much of it feels familiar territory but nevertheless bears repeating. (“Habit is far more dependable than inspiration,” he observes, channeling Atomic Habits . “Don’t focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout.”)"