CONNECTED: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED

BY Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD,
AND Dr. Jame H. Fowler, PhD

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Drs. Christakis and Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide. In CONNECTED, the authors explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, CONNECTED overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm-that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. It will change the way we think about every aspect of our lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH is a professor at Harvard University with appointments in the Departments of Health Care Policy, Sociology, and Medicine. He was trained both as a physician and social scientist. Until recently, his clinical practice focused on the care of seriously ill patients receiving hospice care. His research has for over a decade focused on how social networks form and operate. In 2009, he was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

Dr. Jame H. Fowler, PhD is a social scientist who conducts research on social networks, political participation, the evolution of cooperation, and genopolitics (the study of the genetic basis of political behavior). He is an Affiliate of the Center for Wireless and Population Health at CALIT2 and Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of California, San Diego. He holds graduate degrees from both Harvard and Yale, and he also served for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador.

REVIEW:

Now I know why my father always told me "money goes to money"! Dr. Christakis and Dr. Fowler write in CONNECTED about how social networks can influence everything we do, are, and have! Thus, perhaps, the growing popularity of things like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. They explain what a social network is and how it is made up of people and the connections they share. They also explain with some REALLY pretty graphics that you can understand upon reading their easy style of writing, that there are different kinds of networks and the ones they concentrate on for us are social networks that don't result from someone telling us we have to do something but rather from our own decisions. The kind of social networks we belong to are a result of many factors including everything from behaviors to money, from health to finding the right partner. These social networks can come to dictate so many things in our lives including success, politics, and so much more.

The book is divided into sections after the introductory explanation that concentrate on various factors that are involved in networking and how they can effect us positively or negatively. Areas covered include emotions, love and sex, health, money, politics, evolution and even technology. It is a fascinating book that is well presented with sound research and would be a great book for so many people but one that I thought of right away is for young people starting out, or people with major life changes. It also is wonderful to understand just why we do some of the things we do and why some things happen to us as they do. So, yes, Dad, "money does go to money" because of social networking...how simple was that?! Now let's all read and go make some money !

GIVEAWAY:

THANKS TO VALERIE AND THE
HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE
5 COPIES OF THIS AMAZING BOOK
TO GIVE AWAY. HERE IS WHAT YOU
NEED TO DO TO WIN A COPY!

RULES:

--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
--PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN THE COMMENT
---ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: Comment below telling something you find interesting about this book and why you want to win it.

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+1 MORE ENTRY: Enter one other of my UPCOMING giveaways and then come back here and tell me the contest is that you entered.

ALL ENTRIES ARE DUE BY
6 PM, EST, OCTOBER 16

THANKS FOR ENTERING AND

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!