The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms
By Danielle LaPorte
Self Help – Motivational; Business & Economics – Entrepreneurship
The Fire Starter Sessions is an apathy-kicking, integrity-infusing guide to defining success on your own terms.
As the creator of DanielleLaPorte.com–deemed “the best place online for kick-ass spirituality,” Danielle LaPorte’s straight-talk life-and-livelihood sermons have been read by over one million people. Bold but empathetic, she reframes popular self-help and success concepts:
– Life balance is a myth, and the pursuit of it is causing us more stress then the craving for balance itself.
– Being well-rounded is over-rated. When you focus on developing your true strengths, you enter your mastery zone.
– Screw your principles (they might be holding you back).
– We have ambition backwards. Getting clear on how you want to feel in your life + work is more important than setting goals. It’s the most potent form of clarity that you can have, and it’s what leads to true fulfillment.
Thieves of Bay Street: How Banks, Brokerages and the Wealthy Steal Billions from Canadians
By Bruce Livesey
Business & Economics – Commerce
A newsmaking exposé about why Canada’s financial industry is a haven for fraud.
Beneath the veneer of stability that saw Canada’s banking sector through the financial crash of 2008, investigative reporter Bruce Livesey has uncovered a rampant failure of epidemic proportions. Though no large financial institution has recently gone bust in this country, white-collar criminals, scam artists, Ponzi schemers and organized crime, from the Hells Angels to the Russian mafia, know that Canada is the place in the Western world to rip off investors. And the fraudsters do so with little fear of being caught and punished.
Thieves of Bay Street investigates Canada’s biggest financial scandals of recent years. Readers will learn what banks do with investors’ money and what happens when they lose it. They will meet the bogus investment gurus, the brokers who lose money with both reckless abandon and impunity, the bankers who squander money in toxic investments, the lawyers who protect them and the regulators who do nothing to keep them from doing it again. And most importantly, they’ll meet the victims who are demanding that our vaunted banking sector finally come clean on its dirtiest secret.
Ecoholic Body: Your Ultimate Earth-Friendly Guide to Living Healthy and Looking Good
By Adria Vasil
Health & Fitness – Beauty & Grooming
Adria Vasil, Canada’s straight-shooting green living expert, is back, and this time it’s personal . . . care, that is. Her latest eco bible delivers the lowdown on virtually every product that comes into contact with our bodies. From the pollutants clogging your sinus meds all the way to the outlaw toxins leaching from your sandals, Ecoholic Body has you covered, head to toe. Never shy to blow the whistle, Adria calls out supplement and shampoo makers that exaggerate their green cred. This witty, indispensable guide will arm you with the knowledge you need to keep you and your family healthy, happy and green, all while detoxing the planet.
– Discover the “Mean 15” ingredients to avoid
– The lowdown on mineral makeup, natural cosmetics, tattoos and more
– Nature’s best remedies and superfoods that are good for the planet and your body
– Pollution-triggered health problems
– Ecoholic weight loss plan
– Toxin-free baby bum balms, shampoos, bubble bath, oils and powders
– Plus exhaustive testing guides for everything from natural deodorant to herbal shampoos
The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives
By Katie Couric
Personal Growth: Body, Mind & Spirit – Personal Transformation
What was the tipping point for Malcolm Gladwell? What unscripted event made Meryl Streep who she is? How did Mario Batali cook up his recipe for success? In this inspiration-packed book, Katie Couric reports from the front lines of the worlds of politics, entertainment, sports, philanthropy, the arts, and business—distilling the ingenious, hard-won insights of leaders and visionaries, who tell us all how to take chances, follow our passions, cope with criticism, and, perhaps most important, commit to something greater than ourselves.
Among the many voices to be heard here are financial guru Suze Orman on the benefits of doing what’s right, not what’s easy; director Steven Spielberg on listening rather than being listened to; quarterback Drew Brees on how his (literal) big break changed his life; and novelist Curtis Sittenfeld on the secrets of a great long-term relationship (she suggests marrying someone less neurotic than you).
Delightful, empowering, and moving, The Best Advice I Ever Got is the perfect book for anyone who is thinking about the future, contemplating taking a risk, or daring to make a leap into the great unknown. This book is for all of us, young or old, who want to see how today’s best and brightest got it right, got it wrong, and came out on top.
The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us
By Nora Young
Social Science – Media Studies; Business & Economics
We generate enormous amounts of online data about our habits: where we go, what we do, and how we feel. Some of that is stuff we choose to report; some of it is the offhand data trails we leave behind. The Virtual Self looks at the debates and challenges around virtual data-sharing — from Facebook status updates to Google Navigator — and its potential for building more responsive communities and governments. Nora argues that if we wrestle now with issues like privacy and data control, we can harness the power of that data.
The host of CBC Radio’s Spark, Nora Young has fascinating information at her disposal, unique insights into the intersection of the virtual and real worlds, and a wonderful voice for making all of these clear to a general audience. Accessible and entertaining, The Virtual Self takes that personal, psychological reality of everything from email to status updates and teases out the increasingly bigger impacts on the real world around us of the virtual information we all generate.
OUR RELAXING READ OF THE MONTH
By Anne Tyler
Fiction – Literary; Family Life
Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron has spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. When he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, independent young woman, she is like a breath of fresh air. Unhesitatingly, he marries her, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable life together.
But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy’s unexpected appearances from the dead help him to live in the moment and find some peace. Gradually he discovers, as he works in the family’s vanity-publishing business, (turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trails of life) that maybe for this beginner there is a way of saying goodbye.
A beautiful, subtle exploration of loss and recovery, pierced throughout with Anne Tyler’s humour, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.
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