"Caleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously peopled by the founding members of the Beat Generation, where his steadiest companions were the adopted cats that lived with him both in the city and the country. As an adult, he has had many close feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate...

"Addiction is a topic that straddles public and personal interests; societal and criminal justice issues; and family, social, and medical responses. It is a continuing area of uncertainty and concern for society and trained professionals. This Very Short Introduction presents the basic facts about addiction: what it is, how and why it develops, how it is treated, and how society can respond to it. Keith Humphreys considers why some people become addicted...