Book Description
Lucia Capacchione has discovered that our non-dominant hand is a direct channel to that potential and, through the "other hand" exercises and experiments in this course, she will show you how to do such things as:
-Talk to your inner child.
-Aid in recovery from addictions.
-Channel the deep inner wisdom of your True Self.
-Help your body to heal.
-Heal your relationships.
-Uncover hidden artistic abilities.
-Change negative attitudes about yourself.
Through various drawing and writing exercises with your other hand, Lucia Capacchione hopes you will discover the power that lies hidden in your other hand. The exercises will help you explore and understand your thoughts and feelings on a completely different level, finding out things about yourself that have been buried or concealed for quite some time.
Customer Reviews:
Lending a Hand.......2007-01-22
This book mixes theoretical discussion of brain hemisphere function with prescription of practical exercises designed to reawaken the neural circuitry associated with the non-dominant hand. The writer, a qualified psychologist who uses a form of art therapy, draws on her knowledge of Sperry, Jung and Transactional Analysis in positing a theory that exercising the less used hand can lead to the rediscovery or re-emergence of long forgotten aspects of personality and unrealised talents. She cites personal experience and the experience of clients/patients who have engaged with her in a therapeutic relationship. The book is very interesting and ought to be taken seriously, even though the theory would have to be regarded as speculative at this point of time.
Interesting but not compelling.......2006-12-12
I didn't find this book very useful although it was interesting.
Simply put, a good book.......2003-02-22
I picked up this book while going through a phase. I was trying to tap into my more artistic side which had been easy for me up until about three years ago, with real world concerns pressing in and working at a job that didn't spark my creativity I found it harder and harder to distinguish what I really wanted to do compared to what I thought I should do. This book I was hoping would help-and it did. It has many, many exercises to help you get more in touch with your more spontaneous, child like side. Many of these exercises were uncomfortable for me at first for me because they involved giving up the control I held so rigidly to.In fact I found it very hard because giving up control would mean I would have to trust in myself. I didn't know how to flow anymore and this book is all about flow. Some of the exercises involve drawing pictures with your non-dominant hand and others involve getting in touch with different parts of yourself you might have left behind for some reason or another. I find Lucia Cappachione an author who's style is very warm and the personal stories she tells in the book set her apart from self help guru's who just preach and preach and give nothing of themselve's in turn. This book is never boring and is like a kid's activity book for adults.
art involves the whole brain.......2002-12-19
I believe that the author is sincere about her claims that drawing with the other hand can lead to well-being. However, it is very common knowledge now that artistic creativity involves the whole brain, not just the mysterious right brain. Using one hand or the other does not just use the right brain-- in fact, if you saw someone draw while hooked up to brain scan, many parts of the brain would literally light up.
I give the exercises in this book 5 stars and I think it is great way to discover your creativity and experience parts of yourself that are otherwise untapped (although that it "heals" is yet to be proven-- it would be great to see the studies that prove this claim). It is the theory that the author is basing her claims on that is the problem. Artistic expression, even with a non-dominant hand, is a little more complex than the "intuitive" part of the brain or the right brain doing all the work. This idea has been proven incorrect for the last 10 or 15 years, it is time the author caught up with the literature in order to give her readers the best possible information on why art expression is a way to health.
Power indeed!.......2002-07-29
I've recently started doing the exercises in this book, and I am already progressing in my efforts to overcome fear (fear being the only thing which holds people back) and achieve happiness. This book can be a major help to everyone in moving along their path of personal growth. I've always sensed that life didn't have to be a painful struggle, and getting in touch with my inner self by dialoguing with myself using my dominant and non-dominant hands is providing me with powerful insights into how I can live the life I want to live. I recommend combining this book with "Your Handwriting Can Change Your Life" by Vimala Rodgers (who also recommends writing with your non-dominant hand). Happiness is possible for everyone and not nearly as difficult as it may seem.
Book Description
The unholy alliance of the Political Right and Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love. It also threatens to generate a popular aversion to God and religion by identifying religious values with a pro–war, pro–business, pro–rich, anti–science, and anti–environmental stance.
In the past few decades, the Republicans have achieved political dominance by forging a union with a Religious Right that provided a sanctimonious veneer to policies that help the rich get richer while ignoring the needs of the middle class and the poor, dismantling environmental and civil liberties protections, and seeking global domination. The Right champions the materialism, and ruthless selfishness promoted by the global competitive marketplace, and then laments the moral crisis when the values that people have learned all day in the world of work gets carried home into personal life and contributes to family instability and a culture of loneliness. Enter the Religious Right with nurturing communities for the faithful and a culture that blames liberals, activist judges, and all secular people for the moral and spiritual emptiness so many Americans experience. The Left, on the other hand, remains largely tone–deaf to the spiritual needs of the American people. It is the yearning for meaning in life, not just the desire for money or power that is at the core of American politics.
Customer Reviews:
empty secular society and overly absolute religious attitudes are shared problems.......2007-10-08
What do the Left and the Right have in common? A sense of meaninglessness in what is called the "real world"--work--unites us all. So Lerner begins his examination of the spiritual ills that unavoidably shape our politics. Lerner does not give a solution, only hints, for this longing for meaning, raising the question of why more of us don't do more to change the work world--namely, fear.
One of Lerner's main themes is the nature of two voices we all must deal with, that of fear and that of hope. Ironically the voice of fear usually results in efforts toward what he calls the more aggressive and adamant right hand of God, the voice of hope allows us to stay with the more ambiguous, seemingly weaker side, the left hand of God.
So throughout this book Lerner shows all too often not only the political right by also the political left giving in to fear and choosing the right hand. Lerner presents some helpful history. At the very least read the chapter "The Religion of Secularism and the Fear of Spirit." He has had a lot of exposure over the years in his activism to those who are determined to exclude all religion from the political sphere. Also be sure to read "Elitism on the Left." His analysis rings true and is gentle yet sophisticated.
I couldn't help but feel Lerner is less a writer per se than a leader, organizer, spiritual director, and activist. His discussion will make you want to join his larger support group or spiritual network. At first I thought this was a kind of informal church of Jew, Christian, and any other religion or spiritual searcher, that I would love to have joined, but it appears to be wholly spiritual--you won't meet in person, unless you become involved in some of Lerner's activism.
Thank God for Rabbi Lerner. I think we need to support his voice and presence as spiritual leader in the political sphere. His web site is impressive and inclusive.
When do the religious cross the line in politics? On a somewhat humorous note, in a long footnote Rabbi Lerner reveals a time when I think he crossed it: Bill Clinton had given a speech that was clearly using Learner's unique language of "meaning." (Oddly when the president uses your writing without acknowledgment, this is a compliment; anyone else and it's called plagiarism.) The White House then asked Lerner to consult with them before saying anything more. Lerner agreed! I couldn't help but think of the Hebrew prophets. I don't think they would have agreed -- they wouldn't have been allowed to say anything significant!
Intriguing.......2007-07-09
Repetitive. The whole thing could have been condensed to one chapter. After a certain point, I couldn't read anymore. Nevertheless, the concept is inspiring.
Mercy to balance Severity.......2007-05-04
in flipping thru television channels last night
i arrived at one of those strange stations with the
very high numbers that is not standard viewing.
This rabbi was speaking, and I wouldn't normally
have paused my remote control scan for a religious
speach, but he was speaking a message that was so
compelling that I listened to the rest of his talk.
in terms of Kabbalah,
if we imagine God having a right hand of Severity,
of the manifest destiny of America's military might
and the right winged Fundamentalist Christian support
backing up the Republican agenda,
we can also imagine God having a left hand of Mercy,
of social reform, of diversity being not only allowed
but encouraged, of charity, of the socialist agendas
of the left winged progressive liberal Democrats.
the good rabbi went on to express the great
thirst for spiritual meaning in a world controlled
by money, defined by money, with success at work
being contribution to the bottom line, with success
at home being how much material worth has been collected,
leaving us empty, leaving us wanting a real Meaning
in our lives, a Spiritual Meaning.
the Right Wing has identified and addressed this
thirst, pointing out that people need to return to
traditional religion and values. there has been a
migration during the past few decades by the
"New Deal" generation towards the Right because of
this thirst for Spiritual Meaning.
he went on to note how the Left is trapped in
secular humanism, in scientific method, in athiesm
as being the "religion" of the Left. progressive
thinkers with a Spiritual agenda are welcome to
participate in the politics of the Left, but only
if they check their religious baggage at the door.
Rabbi Lerner proposes a movement in the Left that
is centered around Spirituality, putting God back into
the "bleeding heart liberals" and "taking back our
country from the religious right".
If you get a chance to hear him speak in person,
you should attend. He frequents speaking in left slanted
Methodist and Episcopalian Christian churches. I can't
imagine him speaking in a Southern Baptist church, but
if he ever did, I would buy a ticket just to see the
reaction.
A Must Read Book.......2007-04-03
Every couple of pages I found myself enlightened. "Oh, that makes sense" or "Yeah, I can see that." This book answers questions about our lives in America, what went wrong, and what we can do about it, on both a macro and a personal level. Why we (all of us) feel so overwhelmed and beaten down, what ever happened to all the progress that appeared to be unstoppable in the "sixties", how did the country move so far to the right, and what can we realistically do about it. This book is about justice and compassion and human dignity, giving value to those we would identify as our "enemy"
If you wonder how it all went wrong, and how we can restore it; read this book!
Extremely insightful book.......2006-11-23
This is a really well-written book that very accurately portrays the "values" crisis (I prefer Lerner's term meaning needs) that is growing increasingly chronic in the United States. I actually found myself looking at how I categorize and appraise others differently after reading this book, in terms of where and when I view people with utilitarian lenses...where I parcel people into lists of attributes and even beliefs without seeing the total person. It's appalling how often I do this out of reflex and training. This book is also a reminder that to understand political currents you really need to understand individuals and the goggles through which they view the world.
Further, I feel that Lerner clearly addresses some of the biggest frustrations I've had with the Left in this country, in terms of their own materialist dogmatism. I absolutely agree with Lerner's assessment that the Left has been deaf and dumb to the meaning needs of Americans, thus opening the way to the Republicans filling this gap in extremely hurtful ways. Through these currents, the extreme Right have consistently bred and fed the flames of intolerance, fear and bigotry in an already reactionary populace following 9/11.
I hope that those in the Democratic party read this book with an open mind, and choose their leaders with an eye to finding those who actually stand for something besides winning elections. Because frankly, people aren't stupid and the Democratic Party's consistent waffling on their ideals and/or reactionary stance changes in response to attacks by the Right Wing are an embarrassment. If you don't believe the values you espouse or don't have the strength to stand behind them (or only "develop" them in response to polling data) then you're not going to fool anyone into thinking you're sincere. I don't think the problem is a lack of values in the Democrats so much as a lack of faith in the American people. They need to find someone who's willing to stand up there and take hits...not crumple every time someone on the Right reacts to what they're saying and bludgeons them with the same old language of fear.
Great book...and a good start on this dialogue. The biggest message of this book is hope, and a call for people to pull together and not be misled by the most vocal extremists of both sides.
Customer Reviews:
A life-changer.......2007-01-22
A great book! Changes the way you know yourself and others - examines the way each of us recieves information and processes it, and how we are effected by stress and learning situations. Gives a start to improving brain intergration, through exercies and recommended activites, depending on your individual profile.
easy to understand.......2006-08-31
I really enjoyed this book as I had read Carla's book 'Smart Moves'. It is a very easy to read and understand book and makes it clear how children and adults learn, how their dominance patterns affect their learning, the impact of understanding of brain, foot, hand, eye and ear dominace on learning. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the brain and learning.
A Goldmine of Kinestetic Research.......2005-09-07
This is the book that started me on a wonderful journey of exploration in the world of accelerated learning. With Dr. Hannaford's companion book, "Smart Moves" I was able to get a solid handle on this facet of learning. When I talk to groups, this is one topic that seems to hold their attention more than anything else.
Brian E. Walsh PhD, author of Unleashing Your Brilliance
The next revolution in education and parenting.......2000-04-27
Dr. Carla Hannaford is at the forefront of mind/body/heart integration. We are fortunate to have her sharing her expertise in Smart Moves and the present book. Muscle checking, like Brain Gym exercises, are understandably difficult to master just from a book. For over 20 years, I've been sceptical about muscle checking, wondering if it was due more to subjective variations in the application of pressure. But I begin to see more validity to its use now. Knowing the dominance factors and the 32 dominance profiles is a great help to appreciating our individual differences. There are also many suggestions for integration. One needs to go beyond the simplistic right/left brain dominance theories and even the 8 or 9 multiple intelligences. Education worldwide needs such a revolution in integration through physical movements and the development of heart intelligence and all the senses.
A Right-brainers Nightmare.......1999-01-30
I purchased this book several months ago and I have been slowly integrating into my work with special Ed children. Lots of good, solidly backed information that fits so well with Occupational Therapy in the Classroom. However, this book is not friendly towards the right-brained readers like myself. I had to read the muscle-checking section 20 times before I figured it out, and I am still a little confused. Three other OTs and two PT also struggled with her descriptions. I think this will be the downfall of this otherwise wonderful book.
Bool Description
What do Bill Clinton, Jay Leno, Monica Seles, Bruce Willis, Jerry Seinfeld, Paul McCartney, Prince Charles, Keanu Reeves and Oprah Winfrey have in common?
If you answer "they are all left-handed," right on, because these famous men and women are among the thousands of left-handers who have left their mark on the world. In LEFT IS RIGHT: The Survival Guide for Living Lefty in a Right-Handed World, author Rae Lindsay presents an upbeat look at the sinistral side of life. She lists dozens of notables, past and present, who belong to this "exclusive club" (estimated members in the Unit ed States: 40 million), discusses the theories about hand preference and brain organization, and traces the superstitions and religious customs as sociated with lefties through history.
Lindsay notes that presidents and presidential wannabes may swing left or right politically, but favor their left hands physically. In the last race for the White House, Clinton, Perot and Dole (whose right hand and arm were injured in World War II), were all southpaws. Earlier, lefties Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes also vied for the Republican slot. Three of the last five presidents have been left-handed: Gerald Ford, #38 (and his vice-president, Nelson Rockefeller), George Bush, #41, and currently, Bill Clinton. The feisty Harry Truman, #33, was a lefty, and so was the ill-fated James A. Garfield, #20.
Rae Lindsay writes that "all the world's major languages have special terms for being left-sided or left-handed...and very few of them are flattering," dating back to the Latin word sinister, which really meant "the pocket side" of togas. In modern languages gauche means "clumsy" or "awkward," as well as left; mancini indicates "crooked" or "maimed"in Italian; in Romany bongo translates as "evil" or "crooked;" and in Spanish, no ser zurdo means to be "very clever," in other words, not to be left-handed.
On the brighter side, lefties seem more adept at processing information and concepts from the right side of the brain, the hemisphere which controls intuitions, the five senses, and "holistic thinking" which allows us to grasp broader concepts, such as an entire painting or musical compositi on. LEFT IS RIGHT: The Survival Guide for Living Lefty in a Right-Handed World also lists sources for special products for southpaws, ranging from t-shirts and diaper pins to the "Left is Right"
Customer Reviews:
Left Is Right.......2002-01-08
Left-handers know they have it tough in the world, but for all those non-believing right-handers, this is the book you need to read. It is a thorough examination of left-handedness, including word origins, derivations of "left is evil" myths, famous left-handers, relevant anatomy, historical and cultural concessions to right-handers, and even a list of retail stores who cater to southpaws. Very well-done all the way around.
Very good stuff for southpaws.......2002-01-07
I really liked LEFT IS RIGHT because it provided excellent information for lefties, ranging from humorous anecdotes and helpful history to easily understood explanations for why people are left-handed...and lists and lists of famous lefties. Right on! for this special book for lefties.
Excellent Book!.......2001-12-19
I enjoyed reading Rae Lindsay's book. I really like her writing style. It was a light read and anyone interested in lefties should read this book!!
Excellent Book!.......2001-12-19
I enjoyed reading Rae Lindsay's book. I really like her writing style. It was a light read and anyone interested in lefties should read this book!!
Excellent! A great read........2001-12-19
It's about time someone wrote a great book for us lefties! WOW! This book is so fun to read and is so informative that I would recommend it to anyone. Yes, even right-handers! You can't imagine how much cool and interesting stuff is packed into this book.
Book Description
A labor of love and enthusiasm as well as deep scientific knowledge, Right Hand, Left Hand takes the reader on a trip through history, around the world, and into the cosmos, to explore the place of handedness in nature and culture. Chris McManus considers evidence from anthropology, particle physics, the history of medicine, and the notebooks of Leonardo to answer questions like: Why are most people right-handed? Are left-handed people cognitively different from right-handers? Why is the heart almost always on the left side of the body? Why does European writing go from left to right, while Arabic and Hebrew go from right to left? Why do tornadoes spin counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere? And how do we know that Jack the Ripper was left-handed?
McManus reminds readers that distinctions between right and left have been profoundly meaningful--imbued with moral and religious meaning--in societies throughout history, and suggests that our preoccupation with laterality may originate in our asymmetric bodies, which emerged from 550 million years of asymmetric vertebrate evolution, and may even be linked to the asymmetric structure of matter. With speculations embedded in science, Right Hand, Left Hand offers entertainment and new insight to scientists and general readers alike.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating exploration of right and left.......2007-03-09
This book definitely makes one pay more attention to asymmetry and what it means. The book is full of very interesting research, characters,and anedoctes, and it definitely tickle one's curiosity about the whole topic. I am left-handed, but I think that right-handed people would be just as interested, also because handedness is by no means the only asymmetry explored here.
I had only two (small) problems with this book: the author proposes his genetic model for handedness stating that it is a hypothetical model. Later in the book, however, he seems to take the model a bit too much as if it were real. And the final few chapters seem a bit rushed, compared to the initial ones. All in all, a good and interesting read.
wonderful.......2006-01-19
excellent read for anyone who loves learning fascinating things about the world, things they never even fathomed. more than just a book for, or about, left-handedness, this book is accessible, smart, funny, and gripping.
Very interesting for both left & right handers.......2004-03-24
I'm a 'lefty', 'southpaw', 'cack-handed' etc. My daughter bought me this for my birthday. It was a very interesting read.
The only downside was that some of the chapters seemed too long, at over 30 pages? There were points when the topic of the chapter seemed exhausted, and was strung out, and on more than one occasion my interest waned, only to perk up on the next page when some new issue was introduced, and off we went again?
What I liked best was the little anecdotes, like how it took years for Canada to decide whether to drive on the Left or the Right, with British Columbia & the Maritime Provinces not changing over until after the First World War, and then still over a number years between 1920 and 1924. Similarly how Western & Eastern Austria drove on different sides of the road until 1938.
A fascinating read.
Left-Right Symmetries in Baseball and Physics.......2003-08-19
As a left-hand thrower in baseball and right-footed kicker in American football in my youth, I was fascinated by the enormous amount of information on left-right asymmetries presented by the erudite Professor McManus. However my confidence in the validity of the flood of information from his extraordinarily broad set of sources was marred by finding the Professor dead wrong on contributions from the two small areas that I know better than he does -- baseball and parity in physics.
The main advantage of batting left-handed is not due to that batter being closer to first base but to the easier job the left-swinger has in hitting a right-hand pitcher's curve ball. And switch-hitters do not have an "advantage because of the unpredictability of their shot making" but because, batting left-handed against right-handed pitchers and right-handed against left-handed pitchers, they hit curve balls better.
Also, the "asymmetry" in the force on a compass needle near a current that McManus considers that Oersted ignored in early failures to detect that force in the infancy of physics, vanishes if the experimenter uses a current to makes his own magnetized needle. Indeed, it was just that left-right symmetry of electromagnetic forces that led physicists to believe that it was likely that the other fundamental forces would be similarly
symmetric. Hence, the violation of that left-right "parity" symmetry which Yang and Lee postulated and that Wu, Ambler, and others demonstrated, was very important. I agree with McManus that the "mistake" that he describes is "incredible", but it is his mistake and not that of physicists.
Great Read.......2003-01-10
This book is easy to read and penetrates to great depth on large numbers of subject. A well written and interesting argument, the author manages to link a wide range of arguments. I really enjoyed this book.
Amazon.com
Far more detailed than a typical collection of left-handed trivia, David Wolman's Left-Hand Turn Around The World examines 200 years of anatomy in a search for the roots of hand preference. The results are surprising, and perhaps a bit disappointing to anyone who prefers believing "left-handed people are the only ones in their right minds".
Wolman travels the world for answers, from a mildly gruesome visit to Broca's bottled brains in a Paris museum to the latest Berkeley research labs. Throughout the journey, the science is as accessible as any animal documentary and as well-documented as any rigorous reader will demand. Included in the mix are a trip to a graphologist's convention and a visit with a gentleman whose handedness is the result of surgically combining his left hand with his right arm. Wolman's Fulbright fellowship-winning reporting is always clear and entertaining—he has a fine knack for presenting complex theories in direct, dryly amusing language. He frequently inserts himself into the research, in one case borrowing his nephew for a visit with a pediatric neuropsychologist.
With the most recent research offering the theory that strength of hand preference is more important than the actual hand preferred, the final conclusion could be an eye opener to those who prefer the old ideas that lefties are more creative, athletic, artistic and generally more wonderful. As Wolman says in conclusion, you can still says lefties are special, because they are. Jill Lightner
Book Description
A light-hearted exploration into the science, history, and culture of all things Southpaw
If left-handedness were a religion, where would Mecca be? This book recounts one lefty's quest to uncover the causes and consequences of left-handedness. Wolman's travels take him from the halls of history to the halls of science, as he visits a Scottish castle designed for left-handed sword-fighting, nineteenth-century brains on display in a Paris museum, and a California laboratory where he experiences first hand the brain-zapping tools of modern neuroscience. He confers with an Atlanta primatologist about connections between chimpanzee coordination, handedness, and the evolution of language, while also seeking the mystical significance of left-handedness at a handwriting analysis conference in Virginia, a palmistry training program in Quebec, and in the woods of Left Hand, West Virginia. Along the way, he meets colorful Southpaws such as Diabolos Rex, follower of the Left Hand Path, an inspiring amputee named John Evans, and members of Japan's National Association of Left-Handed Golfers.
Weaving his personal experience with a blend of sharp-eyed reporting and intriguing personalities, Wolman crafts an entertaining and accessible narrative about his search for the essence of what it means to be a Southpaw.
Customer Reviews:
Left Hand Turn a great book.......2007-08-13
this is a must read for any left hander! It was very informative, and it was interesting to read just how unfairly left handers were treated thru the ages!
Much-Enjoyed Combo of Science, Travel, and Humor.......2006-03-12
This is a great book. As a (mostly) right-handed person, I wasn't too sure at first, but it was truly a delight. I learned a lot about the brain and a mysterious little facet of human behavior that people usually overlook. Wolman's side-excursions into the worlds of palmistry, graphology, and lefty golf are a welcome -- and funny -- change of pace from the science material, and his portrait of the guy with the hand transplant is terrific. Think of Kurlansky with a sense of humor, and Sobel with a sense of adventure. A good read for left-handers, of course, and anyone who's curious about the world.
An absorbing and entertaining book.......2006-02-13
You're probably a left-hander if you think that driving a stick shift (in an American car, at least) is an invitation to disaster; if you've ever jangled elbows with the person on your left at a dinner party; or if you have a story about a grade school teacher who was just sure she could make you change your sinister ways. If so, then I have a book for you. (The rest of you oppressors can stop reading.)
In A Left-Hand Turn Around the World, fellow lefty David Wolman chases down "the mystery and meaning of all things Southpaw." I learned a good deal from reading this book, though some of it was useless (like chapters on how handwriting analysis and palmistry are crocks, which I knew already) and some way over my head (like the chapter on genetic shifts, which I tried desperately to understand but found confusing and counterintuitive). But there's plenty of other fascinating stuff here to chew on, and Wolman is a fine and engaging writer, with the quirky humor and keen eye for irony that I would expect from an enlightened lefty.
One thing he debunks right away, for example, is the popular misconception that people who can write with either hand are ambidextrous. This is not ambidexterity, which requires an equal facility with either hand for all handed tasks (eating, writing, drawing, throwing, sweeping, cutting, etc.). True ambidexterity is actually extremely rare. (p. 15) In contrast, many people evince some kind of "mixed-handedness."
What Wolman says about mixed-handedness, in fact, may turn out to be the greatest revelation of the book. It may well be that we've been asking the wrong question about handedness all along, supposing a dichotomous lefty-righty split when in fact the real question is mixed-handedness versus strong-handedness. (p 117) People who demonstrate a consistent, across-the-board preference for one hand or the other are considered strong-handed, and may share certain traits and abilities, while mixed-handed people are wired differently and have other natural advantages and disadvantages.
I've already recommended this book to a couple of cool Southpaw friends. Other people probably won't understand our compulsion to read it, and the numerous "that's just like me!" moments we'll experience from its pages. They are so accustomed to ruling their righteous world that they never have to stop to think about how the other ten percent live. But hey, I'm not mad. Some of my best friends are right-handed. Just tell them to please, please, stop designing the cars I have to drive.
A longer version of this review was posted on February 6, 2006 at The Review Revolution (janariess.typepad.com).
Very interesting - I learned something new.......2006-01-21
Being left handed and having been forced to write with my right hand since a child, I can sympathize with the author's experience as a left hander. His one year quest to learn more about this subject is very illuminating. I agree with many of the assertions and conclusions. For example, I was a fencer in College Varsity and I definitely agree with the fact that there is a distinct advantage in some sports for a left hander. I always thought the condition is based on genetics but I learned that it was not as simple as first appears. I recommend this book for all people to learn more about the complexity of life and to accept and celebrate our differences.
Humorous with just a touch of scientific research........2005-11-21
This is a light and carefree look at the left handed world. It's a mixture of science (the brain's contribution - which now is known to happen much earlier than previously thought), culture (where to sit at a dining table), humor (as in left handed sword fighting), and a dose of I'm not sure just what to call it about stories such at one where a man had his left arm attached to his right shoulder (To move his thumb, his brain sends out signals to move his little finger. Question, is he left handed?).
Mr. Wolman is a leftie, he took off a year to research leftiness. He lives in Portland, Oregon, which is just about as far left wing as any city in the country, besides being on the left hand side of the map. -- Sorry, I couldn't help it.
An amusing book, potentially a very good gift for the right person, no I mean the left person, no that's not what I meant either.
Book Description
- Why are most people right-handed? Do left-handers behave differently from right-handers? - Why is the heart on the left-hand side of the body? - Why is each side of the human brain so different? - Why do the British drive on the left? Why do European languages go from left to right, while Arabic ones read the other way? - Why do clocks go clockwise? - What is the relationship between handedness and speech disorders, such as stuttering? RIGHT HAND, LEFT HAND uses sources as diverse as the paintings of Rembrandt and the sculpture of Michelangelo, the behaviour of Canadian cichlid fish and the story of early cartography. Modern cognitive science, the history of the Wimbledon tennis championship and the biographies of great musicians are also used to explain the vast repertoire of 'left-right' symbolism that permeates our everyday lives.
Customer Reviews:
On the other hand .... what is the other hand?.......2006-08-31
Right and left; they are so much part of everyday life that we tend to forget them, and their significance. Why do some people use their left hand, rather than their right? This volume does not necessarily answer that question, but I appreciate the subject rather more. It may make a reader more conscious of how they do things, which hand or foot (or indeed, eye) they `lead' with. There is also the matter of conscious or unconscious discrimination. Hitherto, I would not have thought I suffered in that area, but became not quite sure ...................
The factual presentation is very good, including the way that left-handedness is increasing in the Western World since 1920. There is good detail on the biological aspects of right-left, although discussion of why we are primarily composed of left handed amino acids and right handed sugars was not a question that demanded an answer from me. Chris McManus opened up the subject in an appealing way, and I felt that he could have written much more. He clearly knows his subject!
The presentation of complex biological and language studies was given in a very ordered way, and some of the traps of modern thinking were not present. Some people are `left brained', but language is controlled by the left hemisphere in some individuals, and by the right hemisphere in others. Therefore `left brained' as a concept is devoid of meaning, and McManus does not use the term. The book leads the readers on through a text hat has no story - but it does not seem like that.
Hitherto, I was conscious that I am right handed, but did not realize how much I use my right hand (I am a very strong right-handed person). What I was aware of is that I have some tasks that I use my left leg/foot in preference to my right. I now wonder why? Many may not have considered the genetic aspects of handedness before, but be aware of some of the social consequences (scissors, tin openers, and some adults stuttering as a result of being forced to write with the right hand, when naturally left handed). Language studies, not confined to the Western world, have shown that there is a parallel in many cultures of right = good, left = bad. You just have to look UK dialects at words for `left-handed' to see that.
I was left rather disappointed about the argument for the genetic aspects of left-handed inheritance, which I felt was taken to be rather more self evident than I saw it. McManus was also somewhat dismissive of some common misconceptions about left handedness and left handed, rather than bound up in empirical evidence.
That said, a very good read, and it has made me more conscious of what I am doing with which hand AND foot. I hope that I am more considerate to those that differ from the norms of society, not just left handed people.
Peter Morgan, Bath, UK [..]
Right... let's see what thoughts I have left..........2005-01-03
McManus has worked hard on his PhD. Deep in the midst of this book he spills the beans and with two or three pages of density describes his own theory on why our world is assymetric. You get the feeling that he was holding back and, with glee, finally gets to give his own take on the issue. To be honest Chris, you lost me for a bit there. Otherwise...
Either side of this dense doctoral declaration is an extremely readable account of all sorts of situations where right and left have influenced us. From the minutae of DNA through to global driving standards, McManus leaves no stone unturned. He writes well using a wealth of sources to illustrate his discussion with very interesting illustrations that cause you to think twice about situations you have so far taken for granted. I found myself carrying out little experiments and noticing everyday things and actions differently while reading the book which I bought simply because I'm right-handed and my wife left-handed.
One of the strengths of this book is the website that accompanies it where detailed notes and expanded discussion on the footnotes can be found.
While the story develops well on the whole, I did find that the last two or three chapters seemed tacked on the end a bit as an eclectic collection of all sorts of trivia about left/right. Interesting, but it gave me the feeling that Mr. McManus was trawling through a folder of all the scraps of info he hadn't so far covered in his research.
Good read though...
Book Description
Most of the time, we take our hands for granted, but this unusual book gives younger children an opportunity to ponder their hands, understand how to use them, and learn to tell left from right. They learn how their thumbs make picking up objects an easy task. The bookÂ's unique design consists of eight board pages on its left-hand side and eight more on its right-hand side. Pages are die-cut to match the general shape of hands. They explain the many uses of hands in simple words and attractive color illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
left hand, right hand: a "Hands-On" book about left and right.......2007-01-04
I bought this for my grandson, he is 2, for that age is kind too long, I thought it would be short and simple.
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