{"product_id":"9780374713218","title":"How We Are: Book One of the How to Live Trilogy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first book in a major new trilogy, How to Live: \u003ci\u003eHow We Are\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHow We Break\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow We Mend\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe live in small worlds.\u003cbr\u003e    \u003ci\u003eHow We Are\u003c\/i\u003e is an astonishing debut and the first part of the monumental \u003ci\u003eHow to Live\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy, a profound and ambitious work that gets to the heart of what it means to be human: how we are, how we break, and how we mend.\u003cbr\u003e    In Book One, \u003ci\u003eHow We Are\u003c\/i\u003e, we explore the power of habit and the difficulty of change. As Vincent Deary shows us, we live most of our lives automatically, in small worlds of comfortable routine—what he calls Act One. Conscious change requires deliberate effort, so for the most part we avoid it. But inevitably, from within or without, something comes along to disturb our small worlds—some News from Elsewhere. And with reluctance, we begin the work of adjustment: Act Two.\u003cbr\u003e    Over decades of psychotherapeutic work, Deary has witnessed the theater of change—how ordinary people get stuck, struggle with new circumstances, and finally transform for the better. He is keenly aware that novelists, poets, philosophers, and theologians have grappled with these experiences for far longer than psychologists. Drawing on his own personal experience and a staggering range of literary, philosophical, and cultural sources, Deary has produced a mesmerizing and universal portrait of the human condition.\u003cbr\u003e    Part psychologist, part philosopher, part novelist, Deary helps us to see how we can resist being habit machines, and make our acts and our lives more fully our own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47104124322032,"sku":"9780374713218","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780374713218_p0.jpg?v=1763691341","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780374713218","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}