top of page

Books

Anchor 1
Upside: The New Science of Post-Traumatic Growth

 

Most survivors of trauma, whether they live through life threatening illnesses or accidents, horror on the battlefield, or the loss of a loved one, suffer, sometimes for months or years. But over the last few decades, psychologists have discovered that suffering is only part of the experience. Many trauma survivors, with the right circumstances and proper support, also benefit from some of life’s most terrible experiences. Strange as it may sound, they emerge from the trauma and their suffering stronger, more focused, and with a new perspective on their future. 

 

Journalist Jim Rendon delivers a deeply reported look at the life-changing implications of post-traumatic growth—an emerging field of psychological research. He shows how the suffering caused by traumatic events can become a force for dramatic life change, moving people to find deeper meaning in their lives and driving them to help themselves and others. In fact, more than half of trauma survivors report positive changes from these experiences—far more than suffer from the much better-known post-traumatic stress disorder. But how can terrible events lead to remarkable and dramatic breakthroughs? Can trauma really result in personal growth … and if so, how?

 

Comprised of interviews with leading researchers in the field and dozens of inspiring trauma survivors, Upside outlines the many paths trauma survivors can take to heal from their experiences and to discover new meaning in their lives. Rendon paints a vivid and comprehensive portrait of this groundbreaking area of scientific inquiry and offers a roadmap for anyone trying to understand how his or her tragedy could lead to triumph.

 

Find it at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com

 

Super-Charged: How Hippies, Outlaws, and Scientists Reinvented Marijuana

 

Marijuana has been illegal in the United States since 1937. Yet, thanks in large part to a loosely connected underground world of breeders, dealers, and smokers, the plant has been bred into as many as 2000 varieties. Since 1996, when California first passed legislation allowing for legalized medical marijuana, the underground has slowly surfaced, pushing what was once a decentralized, lawless world closer to the corporate world of business, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals.

 

Super-Charged gets up close and personal with the people who have transformed this controversial drug. With personalities and backgrounds as diverse as the plant itself, the growers include a former Silicon Valley software entrepreneur; third-generation Humboldt, California, growers; a publicly traded pharmaceutical company; and the famous marijuana personality Jorge Cervantes. Jim Rendon takes readers behind the scenes and into the homes and grow operations of the committed, quality-obsessed practitioners in the international underground industry responsible for creating today's super-charged cannabis.

 

Ironically, these pioneers who built this illegal industry may one day find themselves out of business in the face of the drug's growing mainstream acceptance. Just how this could come about is part of the incredible story.

 

Find it at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com.

 

Anchor 2
bottom of page