From Publishers Weekly:
In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on an unexpected public health threat. The report, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” drew associations between loneliness and “a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death,” with an impact on mortality “similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.” It outlined a national strategy aimed at fostering social connection: building more shared public spaces, for instance, and investing in local institutions that bring people together.
Publishers were already on the case, with a host of forthcoming books that reinforce the importance of friendship and community.
Closing the gap
Social health researcher Kasley Killam, author of The Art and Science of Connection (HarperOne, June), is among those who note that the link between social ties and well-being is not a new construct. “Our collective understanding of the health benefits of connection evolved slowly over decades with research and advocacy, before being accelerated by the pandemic,” she says.
In her book, Killam encourages readers to evaluate their satisfaction with each of their personal relationships and suggests strategies for determining the right amount of interaction for their personality type. She offers guidance on assessing the role each connection plays in their life, alongside tips on how to nurture different types of connections. Don’t be afraid to multitask, she advises: call a friend while folding the laundry or invite one along to run errands.
Social ties needn’t be strong to have an impact, and a lack of so-called weak ties, such as those between coworkers, are known to adversely affect health. “Even post-Covid, many people aren’t in the office like they used to be,” says Jessica Case, associate publisher at Pegasus Books. “There’s this lingering dearth of social interaction and it’s catching up with a lot of us.”
She acquired The Laws of Connection (June) by science writer and The Intelligence Trap author David Robson because of the book’s grounding in neuroscience and psychology as well as Robson’s holistic take on relationships. “This isn’t about networking or getting ahead,” Case says. “It’s a philosophical approach to the importance of seeking connection and community.” PW’s review called the book a “persuasive study,” noting the balance Robson strikes between explaining the science behind the benefit of social connections and offering “action points” that guide readers toward self-reflection.
Given increased acknowledgment of the ways in which social health affects physical and mental health, the rise of “social prescribing” makes sense. In The Connection Cure (Simon & Schuster, June), journalist Julia Hotz explains a social prescription as “a nonmedical resource or activity that aims to improve a person’s health and strengthen their community connections.” That could mean volunteer work, an art course or, as one geriatrician in Cleveland suggests to combat loneliness among his patients, activities including arboretum walks and ballroom dancing classes.
Hotz examines outcomes in countries that have turned social prescribing into policy, such as England and Japan, which in recent years each appointed government ministers to tackle the loneliness epidemic. The U.S. gained its first loneliness ambassador in November 2023, when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Ruth K. Westheimer, the 95-year-old sex therapist known professionally as Dr. Ruth, to the honorary position. In The Joy of Connections (Rodale, Oct.), Dr. Ruth, writing with journalist Allison Gilbert and longtime collaborator Pierre Lehu, offers 100 ways to combat feelings of isolation, including prioritizing social activities, making concrete plans instead of vague promises, and staying open to new experiences.
Confronting loneliness isn’t too different from the sex education work that made Dr. Ruth a household name in the 1980s, Gilbert says. “Taboo and shame are the same threads that are showing up in her conversations about loneliness. People are uncomfortable to admit they feel like they don’t have enough friends.”
Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly
PG did not include links with the covers of any of the books because those books available in ebook form, did not permit any sort of Look Inside function to allow interested readers to get a better idea of the specific content included, the quality of writing, etc. The publishers evidently desired that prospective purchasers travel to a physical bookstore to learn about what is actually inside the books rather than allow them to do the same thing at their home or office with an electronic device.
Exhibit 7921 demonstrating that traditional publishers are really stupid about marketing and selling their books. Because of such retrograde Twentieth-century idiocy and its impact on ebooks sales, both publishers and authors are the ultimate losers.
