Best Books of 2023

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Hello Beautiful (Oprah’s Book Club): A Novel

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

💝💝💝

Fourth Wing

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter―like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda―because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

💖💖💖

Moon of the Turning Leaves

In the years since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy, Evan Whitesky has led his community in remote northern Canada off the rez and into the bush, where they’ve been rekindling their Anishinaabe traditions, isolated from the outside world. As new generations are born, and others come of age in a world after everything, Evan’s people are stronger than ever. But resources around their new settlement are drying up, and elders warn that they cannot stay indefinitely.
Evan and his teenaged daughter, Nangohns, are chosen to lead a scouting party on a months-long trip down to their traditional home on the shores of Lake Huron—to seek new beginnings, and discover what kind of life—and what danger—still exists in the lands to the south.

Waubgeshig Rice’s exhilarating return to the world first explored in Moon of the Crusted Snow is a brooding story of survival, resilience, Indigenous identity, and rebirth.

💗💗💗

Yellowface

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Rich Dad Poor Dad: Concise Summary

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“Rich Dad Poor Dad” is a personal finance and self-help book written by Robert T. Kiyosaki. The book contrasts the financial philosophies and practices of two father figures: the author’s biological father (referred to as “Poor Dad”) and the father of his childhood best friend (referred to as “Rich Dad”). Here’s a brief summary of the key concepts from the book:

The Rich Don’t Work for Money:
- Rich Dad emphasizes the importance of financial education and learning to make money work for you instead of working for money.
- He encourages the development of assets that generate passive income, such as investments or businesses.
Assets vs. Liabilities:
- The author introduces the concept of assets and liabilities.
- Assets are things that put money in your pocket, while liabilities are things that take money out. Building wealth involves acquiring assets and minimizing liabilities.
Mindset and Education:
- Rich Dad stresses the importance of having a mindset geared towards financial independence and wealth-building.
- The author criticizes the traditional education system for not providing sufficient financial education and recommends seeking knowledge outside of conventional channels.
Entrepreneurship and Investments:
- The book encourages readers to think like entrepreneurs and investors.
- Building and owning businesses, investing in real estate, and making informed financial decisions are highlighted as key paths to wealth.
The Importance of Taking Risks:
- Rich Dad emphasizes the importance of taking calculated risks and learning from mistakes.
- He believes that fear and the avoidance of risks often hinder financial success.
Work to Learn, Not to Earn:
- The author advocates for gaining experience and knowledge over simply working for a paycheck.
- Acquiring new skills and expanding one’s knowledge base can lead to greater financial opportunities.
The Power of Passive Income:
- Rich Dad emphasizes the significance of creating and acquiring assets that generate passive income streams.
- Passive income allows individuals to earn money without actively working for it, providing financial freedom.
Understanding Taxes:
- The book discusses the importance of understanding tax laws and using them to one’s advantage.
- Learning how to minimize taxes legally can contribute to financial success.

“Rich Dad Poor Dad” encourages readers to rethink their approach to money and work toward financial independence. It challenges conventional beliefs about money, wealth, and success, promoting a mindset shift towards entrepreneurship and financial education. Keep in mind that while the book has been influential for many, opinions on its advice may vary, and it’s essential to consider individual circumstances when applying financial principles.

Book Summary: The Power of Habit p5

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Alcoholics who practiced the techniques of habit replacement, the data indicated, could often stay sober until there was a stressful event in their lives— at which point, a certain number started drinking again, no matter how many new routines they had embraced. However, those alcoholics who believed that some higher power had entered their lives were more likely to make it through the stressful periods with their sobriety intact. It wasn’t God that mattered, the researchers figured out. It was belief itself that made a difference. Once people learned how to believe in something, that skill started spilling over to other parts of their lives, until they started believing they could change. Belief was the ingredient that made a reworked habit loop into a permanent behavior.

You don’t have to believe in God, but you do need the capacity to believe that things will get better.

What can make a difference is believing that they can cope with that stress without alcohol. It lets people practice believing that things will eventually get better, until things actually do.

There is, unfortunately, no specific set of steps guaranteed to work for every person. We know that a habit cannot be eradicated— it must, instead, be replaced.

And we know that habits are most malleable when the Golden Rule of habit change is applied: If we keep
the same cue and the same reward, a new routine can be inserted.

For a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible. And most often, that belief only emerges with the help of a group.

If you want to change a habit, you must find an alternative routine, and your odds of success go up dramatically when you commit to changing as part of a group.

We know that change can happen. Alcoholics can stop drinking. Smokers can quit puffing. Perennial losers can become champions. You can stop biting your nails or snacking at work, yelling at your
kids, staying up all night, or worrying over small concerns. And as scientists have discovered, it’s not just individual lives that can shift when habits are tended to. It’s also companies, organizations, and communities, as the next chapters explain.

💕ε(´｡•᎑•`)っ Get your copy…Stay informed ε(´｡•᎑•`)っ 💕

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.

📚 Your copy is here 📚

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.

📚 Your copy is here 📚

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 JOURNAL, USA 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.

📚 Your copy is here 📚

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.

📚 Get your copy here 📚

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.

📚 Get your copy here 📚

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.

✨ Get you copy here ✨

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:

We all have it.
We’re all afraid to talk about shame.
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 p4

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Daring Greatly

CHAPTER 2
DEBUNKING THE VULNERABILITY MYTHS

There’s no equation where taking risks, braving uncertainty, and opening ourselves up to
emotional exposure equals weakness.

MYTH #1: “VULNERABILITY IS WEAKNESS.”

The perception that vulnerability is weakness is the most widely accepted myth about vulnerability and the most dangerous.

We’ve come to the point where, rather than respecting and appreciating the courage and daring behind
vulnerability, we let our fear and discomfort become judgment and criticism.

I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

Love is uncertain. It’s incredibly risky. And loving someone leaves us emotionally exposed. 💔

To put our art, our writing, our photography, our ideas out into the world with no assurance of acceptance or appreciation—that’s also vulnerability.

we’ve confused feeling with failing and emotions with liabilities.

The research taught me that the best place to start is with defining, recognizing, and understanding vulnerability.

Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.

We are totally exposed when we are vulnerable.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word vulnerability is derived from the Latin word vulnerare, meaning “to wound.” The definition includes “capable of being wounded” and “open to attack or damage.” Merriam-Webster defines weakness as the inability to withstand attack or wounding.

“Far from being an effective shield, the illusion of invulnerability undermines the very response that would have supplied genuine protection.”

❤️‍🔥 Get your copy of the book here ❤️‍🔥

School Supply Bestsellers

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80PC Alcohol Markers Set

KINSPORY White Double-Head Coloring Drawing Art Markers Pens, Gift Aluminium Suitcase for Artists Adult Kids

School Backpack for Girl

Vaschy Cute Backpacks for Little Kids Kindergarten with Chest Strap Large Pink Unicorn 🦄

1.UNIQUE DESIGN

2.EASY TO ORGANIZE

3.LARGE CAPACITY

4.LIGHTWEIGHT

5.EXCELLENT GIFT

Ohuhu 40 Color Alcohol Markers

Dual Nibs Art Marker Pens for Adults Coloring, Highlighter Sketch Markers for Drawing, Alcohol-Based Markers, 1 Colorless Blender, Permanent Markers Kids Pen Gift

DOUBLE TIPPED MARKERS, DOUBLE THE FUN

SUPERIOR BLENDABILITY

School Backpack for Men

RAVUO Water Resistant 15.6 inch Laptop Backpack Bookbags College Daypack Black Backpack School Bag with Side Pockets

DURABLE & WATER RESISTANT

EASY TO ORGANIZE

LARGE CAPACITY

COMFORTABLE TO CARRY

School Bags for Girls

2Pcs Bowknot Students Backpack, Elementary Princess Bookbag Sets for School

💕Give Kids a Better Feeling

💕A professional backpack

BIC Pencils Mechanical Pencils, Black, 0.7mm, Dozen Box 👍

Enjoy smooth, dark writing with the durable BIC Extra-Smooth Mechanical Pencil. With a fresh 0.7mm point only a click away, this HB pencil is perfect for standardized tests and eliminates the need to sharpen constantly, so you’re always ready to write, draw, sketch, or doodle. The smooth-writing lead does not smudge and erases cleanly, and each pencil comes with three HB leads, offering performance and value. This pencil is the perfect addition for your school or office supplies!

Post-it Flags Value Pack, .5″ x 1″ & 1″ x 1.7″, 320 Flags with 4 Dispensers, Assorted Colours

Scotch Thermal Laminating Sheets, 9″ x 11.5″, 3-Mil Thick, 100 Laminating Pouches

Scotch Scissors, 8″ Precision Ultra Edge Scissors, Titanium Fused Blades, 3 Pairs, Blue, Pink, Green

Scotch Thermal Laminator, 2 Roller System for a Professional Finish, Use for Home, Office or School, Suitable for use with Photos (TL901X), Silver/Black, TL901C

50 Personalized Waterproof Adhesive Labels 2.3×0.4 in, Vinyl Stickers for School Supplies, Books, Toys, Camping, Sports, Fantasy – Name & Icon, Dishwasher & Microwave Safe

Amazon Bestseller: Luqman’s Fifty Pearls of Wisdom

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The Wise Luqman gave his son advice in the form of pearls of wisdom. His advice is relevant in all times and can be used by any parent who wants to raise a child in the light of Islam. His advice is beneficial for adults too and also for new Muslims.