Spence does for the senses what Marie Kondo does for homes

Talks total sense, lots of fun facts, right up there with the best of the best

An extraordinary compendium of everything you need to know about how to cope with the hidden sensory overload of modern life, engagingly told

In Sensehacking, Charles Spence offers a whole new twist on what it means to 'make sense' of the world around us. Drawing on his renowned expertise in the field of crossmodal science, Professor Spence shares a wealth of insights and practical tips that will help you improve your social, cognitive and emotional well-being through sensory stimulation and management

Charles Spence draws on his wealth of experience to provide insights into how our senses are interwoven in every aspect of our lives. Spence shows how sensehacking - which he defines as 'using the power of the senses, and sensory stimulation, to help improve our social, cognitive and emotional well-being' - is all around us. In addition to practical suggestions for enriching our own lives, Sensehacking provides unsettling insights into how commercial interests are manipulating our perceptions and behaviour. This book will shed light on much that goes unnoticed, and is especially timely in these pandemic times.

Truly accessible, entertaining and informative. On every page there are ideas to set you thinking and widen your horizons

Wonderfully curious and thought-provoking . . . brilliant

Popular science at its best

A fascinating read. Given how pervasive technology has become, the way we relate to our senses could be the most crucial element in creating environments that are conducive to emotional and cognitive well-being. The science shows how we should evolve from an audiovisual dominated world, to one that caters mindfully to all our senses

Charles Spence is the paragon of the transdisciplinary scholar, a Renaissance man for the digital age. From his base at the Crossmodal Research Lab at Oxford, Professor Spence moves comfortably beyond the confines of experimental psychology and across the disciplines of the humanities, social sciences, design art and industry, while also crossing or merging the senses. Sensehacking is a tour de force of the sensory studies literature, a synthesis without equal. This book contains lots of helpful tips about how to use your senses to lead a healthier, happier life (and insights into how designers and marketers are only too happy to arrange your senses for you in the interests of moving merchandise), but it above all concerns "getting the sensory balance right." Rebalancing the senses and diverse sensations relative to each other is vital to our cognitive, emotional and social well-being, so do get hacking by reading this book from the finest and most innovative multisensory (and intersensory) mind of our times

Exceedingly appealing . . . promises to make us feel happier, relaxed, more focused and productive, and improve sleep and perception

I have long loved Oliver Burkeman's wise and witty journalism that both interrogates and elevates the 'self-help' realm-revealing its possibilities for absurdity while honoring the deeper human impulses that it meets. Four Thousand Weeks is a splendid offering in that spirit. This book is at once sobering and refreshing on all that is truly at stake in what we blithely refer to as 'time management.' It invites nothing less than a new relationship with time-and with life itself

Four Thousand Weeks is a book to read and re-read, to absorb and reflect on. Compassionate, funny and wise, it has not left my mind since I read it. The modern world teaches us to pretend to be immortal-this book is a dip in the cold, clear waters of reality, returning us refreshed and alive

Peppered with good stories... Subtle, provocative and multi-layered... Offers many wise pointers to a happier, less stress-filled life, with none of the usual smug banalities of the self-help genre... Happy days!

Four Thousand Weeks is full of such sage and sane advice, delivered with dry wit and a benevolent tone. I didn't wish back any of the time I spent reading it

A fantastic, warm, clever book

Terrific

Every so often you read a book that so profoundly shifts your thinking that you feel indebted with gratitude to the author. Utterly brilliant

So easy to read that I finished it in one sitting... I'll probably never organise my time so well again

I seldom read self-help books, but Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks is in a class of its own

A compelling argument for why we should be doing less and doing it better... This comforting, calm book is filled with sensible, practical ideas

Burkeman offers practical solutions to problems that might otherwise seem too monolithic to disassemble

Oliver Burkeman's Guardian feature was called "This Column Will Change Your Life". The wisdom of this book could do the same

[A] brilliant, comforting time-management guide

Uplifting and original

Set to be one of this summer's must-reads, Paris Lees' debut book is a coming-of-age memoir about her early life in the East Midlands. Written in Nottingham dialect, it's a story of growing up in a small town, with deliciously evocative tales of Noughties nights out.

Energetic, dark and hilarious. Paris Lees, with her loud and proud sense of self, is set to explode.. if you read one book this summer, make it What It Feels Like for a Girl... radically cool, explosive and riotous ... long may Lees' voice shine neon bright

Like Alan Sillitoe on acid... it's got to be a film. I've never read anything like it.

Raw and original

Extraordinary, riotous, furiously unique, moving and funny, What It Feels Like for a Girl is a deeply important book as well as being a fantastic read

Clever, gripping, messy, sad. I loved it.

Sadness and joy also go hand-in-hand in What It Feels Like for a Girl, an exuberant account of Paris Lees's tearaway teenage years in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, where "the streets are paved wi' dog shit". Her gender nonconformity is just one aspect of an adolescence that also features bullying, violence, prostitution, robbery and a spell in a young offenders' institute. Yet despite the many traumas, Lees finds joy and kinship in the underground club scene and a group of drag queens who cocoon her in love and laughter.

Bold and compulsively readable... She writes with humour about heartbreakingly harrowing moments while simultaneously capturing the dazzling joy of Nottingham nightlife and the importance of finding those who accept you for who you truly are