Theres a world of intriguing ideas in these new nonfiction books from five Bay Area authors. From Robert M. Sapolskys deep study of human behavior, to Steve Casners users guide to preventing injury and in between, Mugambi Jouets study of American exceptionalism, Adam Lashinskys look at the inner workings of Uber, and Jo Piazzas worldwide survey of women in their first year of marriage readers will find much to consider and perhaps put into practice in their daily lives.

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky (Penguin, $35, 800 pages)

It cant be easy to define and describe the scope of human behavior, but MacArthur Fellow Robert Sapolsky, a San Francisco resident and a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, explores the subject with passion, insight and wide-ranging vision. In 17 chapters, he examines the connection between emotion, aggression and empathy, considers the power of symbols and explains what childhood adversity does to our DNA, why nature and nurture are inseparable and how our brains divide the world into Us and Them. Its a big, sprawling mess of a subject, he admits, but Sapolsky makes the discussion fascinating and often very funny. Behave is brilliant and unusual a big book about science that offers hope for human nature.

Exceptional America: What Divides Americans from the World and from Each Other by Mugambi Jouet (University of California Press, $29.95, 368 pages) Mugambi Jouet, who teaches at Stanford Law School, takes a long look at the notion of American exceptionalism in this thought-provoking new book. Jouet was raised in Paris by a French mother and a Kenyan father, and he tackles his subject with a multicultural point of view, considering anti-intellectualism, fundamentalism, sex and gender roles and the politics of mass incarceration. The book takes the reader right up to the present; Jouet finished writing it just after the 2016 presidential election.

Wild Ride: Inside Ubers Quest for World Domination by Adam Lashinsky (Portfolio/Penguin, $28, 228 pages) Recent news that Uber, facing claims of harassment, discrimination and inappropriate behavior, had fired 20 of its employees probably didnt surprise author Adam Lashinsky. An assistant managing editor at Fortune, Lashinskys been looking at the embattled $70 billion ride-sharing company for several years. In this revealing new book, he traces many of Ubers problems to its controversial CEO, Travis Kalanick, whom the author calls insensitive to customer concerns and indifferent to the plight of Uber drivers. Lashinsky briefly worked as a driver for the company getting the job required no test, no interview, no nothing, he writes and he sums up the experience in a few words: The pay stinks, and the work is difficult.

How to Be Married: What I Learned from Real Women on Five Continents about Surviving My First (Really Hard) Year of Marriage by Jo Piazza (Harmony, $26, 304 pages) San Francisco travel editor Jo Piazza admits that life after marriage wasnt easy for her. As a single woman, shed been well-adjusted, with great friends and work she loved. Once she tied the knot, though, she just wasnt sure how well it was working. She began to feel a strange melancholy and wondered if other recently married women felt the same way. So for the next year, she asked them; along with her husband, Nick, she traveled to 20 countries on five continents and talked to women about their marriages. What she learned makes How to Be Married a practical and surprisingly helpful how-to.

Careful: A Users Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds by Steve Casner (Riverhead, $26, 336 pages) How careful are you? According to Steve Casner, a research psychologist who studies the accident-prone mind, modern life is driving the rate of injuries and fatalities sky-high. The San Francisco-based author lays out the science of safety, and offers practical techniques for thinking ahead, staying focused, and preventing accidents at home, at work, and on the road.

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Books by the Bay: Robert Sapolsky's 'Behave' offers hope for human nature - The Mercury News