Bestsellers: Professional & Academic Biographies

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Elon Musk

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

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Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

Over the past twenty-five years, Naomi Klein has charted and documented our politics and culture with a series of trenchant bestselling books laying bare the effects of branding, austerity, and climate profiteering on our societies and souls.

With Doppelganger, Klein takes a more personal turn, braiding together elements of tragicomic memoir, chilling political reportage, and cobweb-clearing cultural analysis, as she dives deep into what she calls the Mirror World—our destabilized present rife with doubles and confusion, where far right movements playact solidarity with the working class, AI-generated content blurs the line between genuine and spurious, New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers further scramble our familiar political allegiances, and so many of us project our own carefully curated digital doubles out into the social media sphere.

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The Real Anthony Fauci

The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health

#1 on AMAZON, TWENTY WEEKS on the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST, and a WALL STREET JOURNALUSA TODAY and PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Over 1,000,000 copies sold despite censorship, boycotts from bookstores and libraries, and hit pieces against the author.
Pharma-funded mainstream media has convinced millions of Americans that Dr. Anthony Fauci is a hero. Hands down, he is anything but.

As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci dispenses $6.1 billion 😵 in annual taxpayer-provided funding for rigged scientific research, allowing him to dictate the subject, content, and outcome of scientific health research across the globe—truly a dark agenda. Fauci uses the financial clout at his disposal in a back handed manner to wield extraordinary influence over hospitals, universities, journals, and thousands of influential doctors and scientists—whose careers and institutions he has the power to ruin, advance, or reward in an authoritarian manner.

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Astor

The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune

The story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story—of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.

From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.

The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic, one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family’s story.

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Night Intruder

A Personal Account of the Radar War Between the RAF and Luftwaffe Night-Fighter Forces (Memoirs of World War Two in the Air Book 1)

An engrossing memoir of one RAF fighter pilot’s battle against the Luftwaffe in the dead of night.
Ideal for fans of Roderick Chisholm, E. C. R. Baker and Brian Lane.

After a tour of operations under the guidance of night-fighter ace, John ‘Cat’s Eyes’ Cunningham, Jeremy Howard-Williams was made flight commander of Fighter Command’s night experimental unit. This elite force was at the forefront of aerial night-fighting, attacking German airfields with newly developed radar equipment and defending Allied airspace by utilising a wide variety of aircraft from the Mosquito and Tempest to the Black Widow and Messerschmidt 410.

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Unreasonable Hospitality

The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

Essential lessons in hospitality for every business, from the former co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park.
Will Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a struggling two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world.
How did Guidara pull off this unprecedented transformation? Radical reinvention, a true partnership between the kitchen and the dining room—and memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality.

Today, every business can choose to be a hospitality business—and we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences.

🐞 Get your copy here 🐞

The CBS Murders

A True Account of Greed and Violence in New York’s Diamond District

Winner of the Edgar Award: The gripping account of a gruesome mass murder in gritty 1980s New York and the relentless hunt for a coldblooded killer.
On a warm spring evening in 1982, thirty-seven-year-old accountant Margaret Barbera left work in New York City and walked to the West Side parking lot where she kept her BMW. Finding the lock on the driver’s side door jammed, she went to the passenger’s side and inserted her key. A man leaned through the open window of a van parked in the next spot, pressed a silenced pistol to the back of Margaret’s head, and fired. She was dead before she hit the pavement.

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Tuesdays with Morrie

An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson

25th Anniversary Edition

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?

💖 Get your copy here 💖

Book Summary: Daring Greatly p7

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UNTANGLING SHAME, GUILT, HUMILIATION, AND EMBARRASSMENT

Guilt = I did something bad.

Shame = I am bad.

When we feel shame, we are most likely to protect ourselves by blaming something or someone, rationalizing our lapse, offering a disingenuous apology, or hiding out.

When we apologize for something we’ve done, make amends, or change a behavior that doesn’t align with our values, guilt—not shame—is most often the driving force.

Guilt is just as powerful as shame, but its influence is positive, while shame’s is destructive. Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we can change and do better.

Shame is highly correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression, eating disorders, and bullying.

In fact, shame is much more likely to be the cause of destructive and hurtful behaviors than it is to be the
solution.
Again, it is human nature to want to feel worthy of love and belonging. 💖

When we experience shame, we feel disconnected and desperate for worthiness. When we’re hurting, either full of shame or even just feeling the fear of shame, we are more likely to engage in self-destructive behaviors and to attack or shame others.

Humiliation is another word that we often confuse with shame. Donald Klein captures the difference between shame and humiliation when he writes, “People believe they deserve their shame; they do not believe they deserve their humiliation.”

Humiliation feels terrible and makes for a miserable work or home environment—and if it’s ongoing, it can certainly become shame if we start to buy into the messaging. It is, however, still better than shame.

The hallmark of embarrassment is that when we do something embarrassing, we don’t feel alone. We know other folks have done the same thing and, like a blush, it will pass rather than define us.

Getting familiar with the language is an important start to understanding shame. It is part of the first element of what I call shame resilience.

Achieve growth

Book Summary: The Power of Habit p3

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“When you learn to force yourself to go to the gym or start your homework or eat a salad instead of a hamburger, part of what’s happening is that you’re changing how you think. People get better at regulating their impulses. They learn how to distract themselves from temptations. And once you’ve gotten into that willpower groove, your brain is practiced at helping you focus on a goal.”

“When you learn to force yourself to practice for an hour or run fifteen laps, you start building self- regulatory strength. A five-year-old who can follow the ball for ten minutes becomes a sixth grader who can start his homework on time.”

Starbucks taught their employees how to handle moments of adversity by giving them willpower habit loops. One of the systems we use is called the LATTE method. We Listen to the customer, Acknowledge their complaint, Take action by solving the problem, Thank them, and then Explain why the problem occurred.

How willpower becomes a habit: by choosing a certain behavior ahead of time, and then following that routine when an inflection point arrives.

“When people are asked to do something that takes self- control, if they think they are doing it for personal reasons— if they feel like it’s a choice or something they enjoy because it helps someone else— it’s much less taxing. If they feel like they have no autonomy, if they’re just following orders, their willpower muscles get tired much faster.

Giving employees a sense of control improved how much self- discipline they brought to their jobs.

firms are guided by long- held organizational habits, patterns that often emerge from thousands of
employees’ independent decisions. And these habits have more profound impacts than anyone previously understood.

Routines provide the hundreds of unwritten rules that companies need to operate. They provide a kind of “organizational memory,”

Companies aren’t families. They’re battlefields in a civil war.

Book Summary: Daring Greatly p6

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CHAPTER 3
UNDERSTANDING AND COMBATING SHAME
(AKA, GREMLIN NINJA WARRIOR TRAINING)

Shame derives its power from being unspeakable. That’s why it loves perfectionists.

We have to be vulnerable if we want more courage; if we want to dare greatly.

It’s the epitome of daring greatly. But because of how you were raised or how you approach the world, you’ve knowingly or unknowingly attached your self-worth to how your product or art is received. In simple terms, if they love it, you’re worthy; if they don’t, you’re worthless.

If you’re wondering what happens if you attach your self-worth to your art or your product and people love it, let me answer that from personal and professional experience. You’re in even deeper trouble. Everything shame needs to hijack and control your life is in place. You’ve handed over your self-worth to what people think. You’re officially a prisoner of “pleasing, performing, and perfecting.”

When our self-worth isn’t on the line, we are far more willing to be courageous and risk sharing our raw talents and gifts.

A sense of worthiness inspires us to be vulnerable, share openly, and persevere. Shame keeps us small, resentful, and afraid.

The secret killer of innovation is shame. You can’t measure it, but it is there.

☣️ Shame becomes fear. Fear leads to risk aversion. Risk aversion kills innovation. ☣️

Shame derives its power from being unspeakable. That’s why it loves perfectionists—it’s so easy to keep us quiet.

WHAT IS SHAME AND WHY IS IT SO HARD TO TALK ABOUT IT?

the first three things that you need to know about shame:

  1. We all have it.
  2. We’re all afraid to talk about shame.
  3. The less we talk about shame, the more control it has over our lives.

shame is the fear of disconnection. We are psychologically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually hardwired for connection, love, and belonging.

Twelve “shame categories” have emerged from my research:

Appearance and body image
Money and work
Motherhood/fatherhood
Family

Parenting
Mental and physical health
Addiction
Sex
Aging
Religion
Surviving trauma
Being stereotyped or labeled

Neuroscience advances confirm what we’ve known all along: Emotions can hurt and cause pain.

☣️ Get your copy ☣️

Book Summary: Daring Greatly p5

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Chapter 2 (continued)

The willingness to show up changes us. It makes us a little braver each time.

In the song “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen writes, “Love is not a victory march, it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.” Love is a form of vulnerability and if you replace the word love with vulnerability in that line,
it’s just as true.

MYTH #2: “I DON’T DO VULNERABILITY”

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L’Engle

MYTH #3: VULNERABILITY IS LETTING IT

Vulnerability is based on mutuality and requires boundaries and trust.

Vulnerability is about
sharing our feelings and our experiences with people who have earned the right to hear them. Being vulnerable and open is mutual and an integral part of the trust-building process.

We need to feel trust to be vulnerable and we need to be vulnerable in order to trust.

When the people we love or with whom we have a deep connection stop caring, stop paying attention, stop investing, and stop fighting for the relationship, trust begins to slip away and hurt starts seeping in.

With children, actions speak louder than words. Because they can’t articulate how they feel about our disengagement when we stop making an effort with them, they show us by acting out, thinking, This will get their attention.

Trust is a product of vulnerability that grows over time and requires work, attention, and full engagement. Trust isn’t a grand gesture—it’s a growing marble collection.

MYTH #4: WE CAN GO IT ALONE

Going it alone is a value we hold in high esteem in our culture, ironically even when it comes to cultivating connection. I have that rugged individualism in my DNA.

Most of us are good at giving help, but when it comes to vulnerability, we need to ask for help too.

Until we can receive with an open heart, we are never really giving with an open heart. When we attach judgment to receiving help, we knowingly or unknowingly attach judgment to giving help. We all need help. 🤗

Vulnerability begets vulnerability; courage is contagious.

Going back to Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech, I also learned that the people who love me, the people I really depend on, were never the critics who were pointing at me while I stumbled.

Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.

Sometimes our first and greatest dare is asking for support. 🌹

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