The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives

William Stixrud PhD

****"It is not an overstatement to say that this is one of the most radical and important books on raising healthy, resilient, purpose-driven kids." - Madeline Levine, author of *****The Price of Privilege***

**"An invaluable resource for the thinking parent." - Lisa Damour, author of *****Untangled***

**"Compelling, revolutionary, and wise, *****The Self-Driven Child***** empowers parents with the courage, the tools, and the mindset to reduce toxic stress, and to foster our child's capacity for resilience. Its message is one every parent needs to hear." --Tina Payne Bryson, co-author of *****The Whole Brain Child***

**"Read it. Your children will thank you." - Paul Tough, author of *****How Children Succeed*****

A few years ago, Bill Stixrud and Ned Johnson started noticing the same problem from different angles: Even high-performing kids were coming to them acutely stressed and lacking any real motivation. Many complained that they had no control over their lives. Some stumbled in high school or hit college and unraveled. Bill is a clinical neuropsychologist who helps kids gripped by anxiety or struggling to learn. Ned is a motivational coach who runs an elite tutoring service. Together they discovered that the best antidote to stress is to give kids more of a sense of control over their lives. But this *doesn't *mean giving up your authority as a parent. In this groundbreaking book they reveal how you can actively help your child to sculpt a brain that is resilient, stress-proof and ready to take on new challenges.

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

Adam Grant

****The #1 New York Times bestseller that examines how people can champion new ideas—and how leaders can fight groupthink, from the author of Give and Take and co-author of Option B

“Reading Originals *made me feel like I was seated across from Adam Grant at a dinner party, as one of my favorite thinkers thrilled me with his insights and his wonderfully new take on the world.” —Malcolm Gladwell, author of *Outliers and The Tipping Point

“Originals is one of the most important and captivating books I have ever read, full of surprising and powerful ideas.* It will not only change the way you see the world; it might just change the way you live your life. And it could very well inspire you to change your world.” —Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In*

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky

**A New York Times Bestseller.

"Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it."— Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post

“It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave *is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal***

From the celebrated neurobiologist and primatologist, a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior, both good and bad, and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do?

Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: he starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its evolutionary legacy.   And so the first category of explanation is the neurobiological one. A behavior occurs--whether an example of humans at our best, worst, or somewhere in between. What went on in a person's brain a second before the behavior happened? Then Sapolsky pulls out to a slightly larger field of vision, a little earlier in time: What sight, sound, or smell caused the nervous system to produce that behavior? And then, what hormones acted hours to days earlier to change how responsive that individual is to the stimuli that triggered the nervous system? By now he has increased our field of vision so that we are thinking about neurobiology and the sensory world of our environment and endocrinology in trying to explain what happened.

Sapolsky keeps going: How was that behavior influenced by structural changes in the nervous system over the preceding months, by that person's adolescence, childhood, fetal life, and then back to his or her genetic makeup? Finally, he expands the view to encompass factors larger than one individual. How did culture shape that individual's group, what ecological factors millennia old formed that culture? And on and on, back to evolutionary factors millions of years old. 

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

Martin E. P. Seligman

From the bestselling author of Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness comes “a relentlessly optimistic guidebook on finding and securing individual happiness” (Kirkus Reviews).

“This book will help you flourish.”

With this unprecedented promise, internationally esteemed psychologist Martin Seligman begins *Flourish, *his first book in ten years—and the first to present his dynamic new concept of what well-being really is. Traditionally, the goal of psychology has been to relieve human suffering, but the goal of the Positive Psychology movement, which Dr. Seligman has led for fifteen years, is different—it’s about actually raising the bar for the human condition.

*Flourish *builds on Dr. Seligman’s game-changing work on optimism, motivation, and character to show how to get the most out of life, unveiling an electrifying new theory of what makes a good life—for individuals, for communities, and for nations. In a fascinating evolution of thought and practice, *Flourish *refines what Positive Psychology is all about.

While certainly a part *of well-being, happiness *alone *doesn’t give life meaning. Seligman now asks, What is it that enables you to cultivate your talents, to build deep, lasting relationships with others, to feel pleasure, and to contribute meaningfully to the world? In a word, what is it that allows you to *flourish? “Well-being” takes the stage front and center, and Happiness (or Positive Emotion) becomes one of the five pillars of Positive Psychology, along with Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment—or PERMA, the permanent building blocks for a life of profound fulfillment.

Thought-provoking in its implications for education, economics, therapy, medicine, and public policy—the very fabric of society—*Flourish *tells inspiring stories of Positive Psychology in action, including how the entire U.S. Army is now trained in emotional resilience; how innovative schools can educate for fulfillment in life and not just for workplace success; and how corporations can improve performance at the same time as they raise employee well-being.

The Thinking Body

Mabel Elsworth Todd

A Barefoot Doctor's Guide for Women

Georgette Delvaux

Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don't, and How to Make Any Change Stick

Jeremy Dean

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Shunryu Suzuki

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."

So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books.  Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line.  In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about.  An instant teaching on the first page.  And that's just the beginning.

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

Meik Wiking

New York Times Bestseller

Embrace Hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) and become happier with this definitive guide to the Danish philosophy of comfort, togetherness, and well-being.

Why are Danes the happiest people in the world? The answer, says Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, is Hygge. Loosely translated, Hygge—pronounced Hoo-ga—is a sense of comfort, togetherness, and well-being. "Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience," Wiking explains. "It is about being with the people we love. A feeling of home. A feeling that we are safe."

Hygge is the sensation you get when you’re cuddled up on a sofa, in cozy socks under a soft throw, during a storm. It’s that feeling when you’re sharing comfort food and easy conversation with loved ones at a candlelit table. It is the warmth of morning light shining just right on a crisp blue-sky day.

The Little Book of Hygge introduces you to this cornerstone of Danish life, and offers advice and ideas on incorporating it into your own life, such as:

Get comfy. Take a break.

Be here now. Turn off the phones.

Turn down the lights. Bring out the candles.

Build relationships. Spend time with your tribe.

Give yourself a break from the demands of healthy living. Cake is most definitely Hygge.

Live life today, like there is no coffee tomorrow.

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to Be Calm and Mindful in a Fast-Paced World

Haemin Sunim

A multimillion-copy bestselling book of spiritual wisdom about the importance of slowing down in our fast-paced world

“Is it the world that’s busy, or is it my mind?”

The world moves fast, but that doesn’t mean we have to. In this bestselling mindfulness guide—it has sold more than three million copies in Korea, where it was a #1 bestseller for forty-one weeks and received multiple Best Book of the Year awards, and it's being published in more than 20 countries—Haemin Sunim (which means "spontaneous wisdom"), a renowned Buddhist meditation teacher born in Korea and educated in the United States, illuminates a path to inner peace and balance amid the overwhelming demands of everyday life.

The Situation Is Hopeless But Not Serious (The Pursuit of Unhappiness)

Paul Watzlawick

**Calling upon metaphors, vignettes, jokes, innuendos, and certain other "right-hemispheric" language games, Paul Watzlawick shows how we can (and do) make everyday life miserable. ** Do you see the past through a rosy filter that makes it seem like Paradise Lost? Are you convinced that traffic lights always turn red for you? Do you have to win (so as not to lose)? After extricating yourself from a bad relationship, do you find another partner just like the previous one? If so, congratulations! You have the makings of an unhappiness expert. With the techniques in this book, you can raise yourself to the genius level. A word of warning, however. Along the way you may begin to ask yourself, "How did I manage to turn myself into my own worst enemy?" Fortunately, this tongue-in-cheek (but serious) volume takes a look at that question too.

Special attention is given to such topics as "Four Games with the Past," "Self-fulfilling Prophecies," and "Why Would Anybody Love Me?" Those who believe that the search for happiness will eventually lead to happiness will find much to ponder in the section "Beware of Arriving."

An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

Oliver Sacks

On the Move: A Life

Oliver Sacks

A ***New York Times *Notable Book

One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Louis Post-***Dispatch, BookPage, Slate, *Men’s Journal******

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Natalie Goldberg

** ** The all-time best-selling writer's handbook turns thirty.

If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

Brenda Ueland

The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America

David Whyte

In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in a dark wood where the true way was wholly lost -DANTE**

Like Dante, many of today's corporate workers find themselves lost in the day-to-day duties of their jobs. Our lives seem shaken by the events of September 11 and the seemingly endless examples of corporate scandal, it's become more difficult than ever to find meaning in the workplace.

**Has your work lost its meaning? Are you afraid of pursuing your dreams for fear of failing or--worse--getting fired? Do you yearn to find creativity, and even joy, in your job? ** **In The Heart Aroused, David Whyte brings his unique perspective as poet and consultant to the workplace, showing readers how fulfilling work can be when they face their fears and follow their dreams. Going beneath the surface concerns about products and profits, organization and order, Whyte addresses the needs of the heart and soul, and the fears and desires that many workers keep hidden.

Through the poetry of both classic and modern masters, Whyte helps readers find both professional and personal fulfillment. In Beowulf, Whyte uncovers the key to confronting office conflicts. Like the poem's courageous hero, readers will travel to the belly of the beast of a problem and emerge triumphantly with a solution. The poems of Pablo Neruda help on find inner silence even in the busiest, most confining office space. With T.S. Eliot as a guide, Whyte teaches readers to appreciate the need to open themselves up to possible failure--and as a result, probable success.

The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery (Toltec Wisdom)

Don Miguel Ruiz

In this long-awaited sequel to The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz collaborates with his son, don Jose Ruiz, to offer another powerful agreement for transforming our lives. The fifth agreement encourages us to see the truth, to recover our authenticity, and to change the message we deliver not only to ourselves, but to everyone around us.