Thank you for reading this week's Shop Update. 💖

I love a good nonfiction book. For many years, I read almost nothing but nonfiction and had my topics that I read about so much that I could predict what would be said in the book. For example, I loved reading about the brain, personality, behavioral economics, decision-making, and cognitive biases. And many times when I read these books, I read about the marshmallow test — it became an ongoing joke for me.

Here’s the crazy part: many of the books I read back in that time used the marshmallow test and other similar studies in psychology to claim all kinds of things about human nature and decision-making that aren’t true! Many of those studies don’t replicate when repeated, and it turns out the marshmallow test isn’t the magic talisman everyone thought it was back then.

Which brings us to today’s selection of nonfiction books. You know what’s great about reading old nonfiction? It’s easier to see what they got wrong (or right), you can have a conversation with the book based on what has been learned since it was written, and you can judge it by how well it has stood the test of time.

So let’s dive in! Some of today’s books are just cool reference books, like this kids’ dictionary with lovely color illustrations, or this 1941 dictionary, also with illustrations, or even this old Girl Scout Handbook. I was tempted to read this Will Rogers book because I had just read a book on his best buddy. This set is a must for those that like to read about the Civil War, and this one about the Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age looks so interesting!

Here is a list of all the books in this week's update:

• What Did You Say? A Book of Homophones, 1977
• The How and Why Wonder Book of Machines, 1960
• The Illustrated Book About South America Including Mexico and Central America, 1963
• Dictionary of Basic Words, Illustrated, 1969
• The Pony Express Goes Through: An American Saga Told by Its Heroes, 1940
• Trust Thyself: A Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson for Young People

• Anthology of Children’s Literature, Fourth Revised Edition, 1970
• Stories from Old Egypt, Edward and Marguerite P. Dolch, 1964
• They Told Mr. Hakluyt, Frank Knight, 1964
• Little Friends From Many Lands, Mary Windsor, 1935

• Themes and Variations, Aldous Huxley, 1954 — Chatto and Windus Collected Edition
• Lee’s Lieutenants, 3-Volume Set, Douglas Southall Freeman, 1946
• Leonardo Da Vinci, Oversized Art Book, 2002
• The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, Oversized, 1991

• Medical Missions: The Two-Fold Task, Walter R. Lambuth, 1920
• Dare to Believe!, May Rowland, 1961
• The Art of the Healer, Bernard Aschner, 1942

• Alabama Heritage Illustrated, 1967
• Babyhood: A Monthly Magazine for Mothers, Vol. II, 1886
• Build Your Own Brooklyn Bridge, Alan Rose
• CSS Alabama: Builder, Captain and Plans, 1985
• Cut & Assemble The Wizard of Oz Toy Theater
• Games and Game Leadership, Charles F. Smith, 1932
• Girl Scout Handbook, Revised Edition, 1930
• Lessons in Voice Culture: The Perfect Method, Edmund Shaftesbury, 1889
• Plant Diseases: The Yearbook of Agriculture, 1953
• Soil: The Yearbook of Agriculture, 1957
• Webster’s Comprehensive Illustrated Dictionary and Atlas, 1941
• Will Rogers: Ambassador of Good Will, P. J. O’Brien, 1935