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A new challenge for Serafina

Serafina’s defeat of the Man in the Black Cloak has brought her out of the shadows and into the daylight realm of her home, Biltmore Estate. Every night she visits her mother in the forest, eager to learn the ways of the catamount. But Serafina finds herself caught between her two worlds: she’s too wild for Biltmore’s beautifully dressed ladies and formal customs, and too human to fully join her kin.

Late one night, Serafina encounters a strange and terrifying figure in the forest, and is attacked by the vicious wolfhounds that seem to be under his control. Even worse, she’s convinced that the stranger was not alone, that he has sent his accomplice into Biltmore in disguise.

Someone is wreaking havoc at the estate. A mysterious series of attacks test Serafina’s role as Biltmore’s protector, culminating in a tragedy that tears Serafina’s best friend and only ally, Braeden Vanderbilt, from her side. Heartbroken, she flees.

Deep in the forest, Serafina comes face-to-face with the evil infecting Biltmore—and discovers its reach is far greater than she’d ever imagined. All the humans and creatures of the Blue Ridge Mountains are in terrible danger. For Serafina to defeat this new evil before it engulfs her beloved home, she must search deep inside herself and embrace the destiny that has always awaited her.

Ages: 9-12

Read an Excerpt

Watch the trailer

Buy the book: Book Depository , Fishpond.com.au , Amazon , TheNile.com.au

Other Books in the Serafina Series

serafina_black

The Space Within : Finding Your Way Back Home

There is a space within you where you are already perfect, whole, and complete.

It is pure consciousness - the space inside of which all thoughts come and go.

When you rest in the feeling of this space, the warmth of it heals your mind and body.

When you operate from the infinite creative potential of this space, you produce high levels of performance and creative flow.

When you sit in the openness of this space with others, you experience a level of connection and intimacy that is breathtakingly enjoyable and filled with love.

And when you explore this space more deeply, you will find yourself growing closer and closer to the divine, even if you're not sure there is such a thing and wouldn't know how to talk about it if there was.

Every problem we have in life is the result of losing our bearings and getting caught up in the content of our own thinking; the solution to every one of those problems is to find our way back home.

This is both the invitation and the promise of this book.

One problem.

One solution.

Infinite possibilities.

Are you ready to begin?"

 

pivotal book club - space within

About the Author 

Michael Neill is an internationally renowned transformative coach and the bestselling author of four books. He has spent the past 25 years as a coach, mentor and creative spark plug to celebrities, CEOs, royalty and people who want to get more out of themselves and their lives. He is the also the founder of Supercoach Academy, an international coach training program with students and graduates from 22 countries. Michael's books have been translated into 16 languages, and his public talks, retreats and seminars have touched and transformed lives at the United Nations and on six continents around the world. www.supercoach.com

BUY THE BOOK  -  Book Depository,  Fishpond  ,  Amazon  

365 Tiny Love Challenges

Pivotal Books - Tiny Buddhas 365 tiny love challenges



From the founder of the popular online community Tiny Buddha.com comes a daily inspirational guide of simple and creative challenges to help you actively spread love to those around you.

Tiny Buddha's 365 Days of Tiny Love Challenges is a simple guide to help readers pursue happy, connected lives and bring greater love into the world. 

Each week begins with an inspirational message written by members of the TinyBuddha.com online community, followed by seven days of short challenges that focus on self-love, giving and receiving love in relationships and friendships, and spreading love in the world, such as: 

* Write a list of three things you appreciate about yourself and place it somewhere in your home where you'll frequently see it throughout the day 

* Compliment someone who serves you in some way (for example, a waiter, barista, or bus driver) on how well they do their job 

* Keep an eye out for someone who looks sad-a friend, coworker, or even stranger-and say something that might make them laugh or smile. 

By using the book each day throughout the year, readers will learn to develop closer bonds in relationships, let go of anger and bitterness, better understand themselves and their loved ones, and turn strangers into friends.

Lori Deschene is the founder of tinybuddha.com, a community of thousands of people interested in sharing wisdom for a happier life. She is a regular speaker at Wisdom2.0 and a freelance writer whose work has appeared in national magazines. This is her first book.

BUY THE BOOK ...Book Depository,  Amazon.

The Power of Habit : Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed.

Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year.

An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones.

What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives.
They succeeded by transforming habits.
In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Timesbusiness reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

About the Author

Charles Duhigg is an investigative reporter for "The" "New York Times." He is a winner of the National Academies of Sciences, National Journalism, and George Polk awards, and was part of a team of finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He is a frequent contributor to "This American Life," NPR, "PBS NewsHour, " and "Frontline." A graduate of Harvard Business School and Yale College, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids.

BUY THE BOOK  Book Depository,  Amazon

Avoiding the Enemies to Happiness

Did you know... there are enemies to your happiness, enemies waiting to trip you up and destroy your joy and meaning in life?


Some of them are obvious, but many are elusive and insidious. 

By learning about these enemies, their signs and symptoms, you can defeat and destroy them before they impact your day-to-day and long-term happiness. 

What's more, by learning how to build strengths and supportive patterns and habits in your life, you can transcend these enemies and create a life filled with deep joy, purpose and meaning - A life of happiness and the skills to enjoy and share it.

Avoiding the Enemies to HAPPINESS is a practical 'how to' guide for avoiding the enemies and causes of unhappiness. This book provides potent and life-changing strategies and techniques for generating happiness in your life. 

These strategies and techniques are drawn from the powerful fields of Positive Psychology, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), Cognitive Psychology and the latest neuroscience research from the newly burgeoning field of mBIT (multiple Brain Integration Techniques). 

Avoiding the Enemies to HAPPINESS coaches you in how to become aware of the obstacles and insidious enemies to happiness and how to interrupt dysfunctional patterns in your life. 

It facilitates you in the vitally important skills and behaviors necessary for increasing happiness, joy, meaning and success. 

Avoiding the Enemies to HAPPINESS is a simple and powerful guide to achieving happiness in a world of massive change.

About the Author

Grant Soosalu is an international leadership consultant, trainer and writer with backgrounds and expertise in Leadership, Coaching, Psychology, NLP, Behavioral Modeling and Applied Physics. He has advanced degrees and certifications in Psychology, Positive Psychology, Applied Physics and Systems Development. Grant is a qualified TQM Trainer and has achieved Master Practitioner Certification in the behavioral sciences of NLP & Advanced Behavioral Modeling. Grant has also been awarded a Graduate Coaching Diploma in the newly emerging field of Authentic Happiness Coaching


You can buy the book from Fishpond.com.au, Book Depository, Amazon

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Better PowerPoint with Universal Principles of Design

universal_principles

We all want our PowerPoint slides to be the best they can be, not detracting from an excellent presentation. And yet not all public speakers are trained in design.

Here is the answer.

It isn't a public speaking book.

It isn't a PowerPoint book.

It presents the principles of design.

There is little surprise then, that it is beautifully designed.

It pairs clear explanations of every design concept with visual examples of the concepts applied in practice. The left side is dedicated to theory, the right to visual examples of how this theory can be used.

From the "80/20" rule to chunking, from baby-face bias to Occam's razor, and from self-similarity to storytelling, every major design concept is defined and illustrated.

Every theory is pared down to these two concise pages.

And within the theory page are two more elements - some incredibly useful references to other resources for further exploration and reading and to other theories as well - research on motivators and perception, psychology and biology, and so many more.

As a reader, we are being encouraged to make connections - to other ideas about the principle and to other principles that intercept with it.

And making connections is certainly necessary - it is a great mindset by which to use the book, to apply the principles to one's own discipline - in our case, public speaking and PowerPoint.

The connections are not made within the book, and several reviewers have complained about that, and the lack of full information about each principle. I like making connections, exploring further, and the discipline of making creative use of rules. It is a stimulation of creativity that is necessary among the rather linear thinking involved in creating a storyboard, and a logical development of ideas.

And the concise treatment of the material makes the book an easy reference to use, and book that can be picked and read in small chunks.

About the Author

William Lidwell writes, speaks, and consults on topics of design and engineering. He is the Director of Design at Stuff Creators Design in Houston, Texas. He is author of the best-selling design book, Universal Principles of Design, which has been translated into 12+ languages; Deconstructing Product Design, a social deconstruction of 100 classic products; and lecturer of two video series on design: "How Colors Affect You: What Science Reveals" available from The Great Courses, and "The Science of Logo Design" available from Lynda.com.
He lives in Houston, TX.

You can buy the book from Amazon , The Book Depository , Fishpond.com.au

Why we do what we do – an alternative to current reward/punishment theory

 

  
 
 

In a book that challenges authoritarian thinking about motivation, a distinguished social psychologist offers an alternative to current reward/punishment theory, which, far from anarchy, espouses our ordered, internalized sense of freedom, responsibility, and commitment.

 
 
 
 

If you reward your children for doing their homework, they will usually respond by getting it done. 

But is this the most effective method of motivation? 

No, says psychologist Edward L. Deci, who challenges traditional thinking and shows that this method actually works against performance. 

The best way to motivate people--at school, at work, or at home--is to support their sense of autonomy. 

Explaining the reasons why a task is important and then allowing as much personal freedom as possible in carrying out the task will stimulate interest and commitment, and is a much more effective approach than the standard system of reward and punishment.

 We are all inherently interested in the world, argues Deci, so why not nurture that interest in each other? Instead of asking, "How can I motivate people?" we should be asking, "How can I create the conditions within which people will motivate themselves?"

”An insightful and provocative meditation on how people can become more genuinely engaged and succesful in pursuing their goals." —Publisher's Weekly

About Edward Deci

Edward L. Deci, Ph.D., professor of pyschology at the University of Rochester, is director of its human motivation program. Richard Flaste, former Science and Health Editor of The New York Times, led the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1987.

If you want to buy the book, best price for Australians is from The Book Depository.  You can also buy from Amazon

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A promise of success – The Official guide to TED Talks

ted_talksTED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking Hardcover
– May 3, 2016
by Chris Anderson

At long last - what promises to be the definitive guide to public speaking, well to TED talks anyway (and no, I haven't read it, and will wait for the Kindle edition, I think. It should be worth waiting for.)

Who wouldn't want to be a speaker for TED? The whole system provides wonderful exposure. The discipline of being limited to 18 minutes ensures a tight, well constructed speech. There is professional coaching for all speakers.

Since taking over TED in the early 2000s, Chris Anderson has shown how carefully crafted short talks can be the key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, spreading knowledge, and promoting a shared dream. Done right, a talk can electrify a room and transform an audience’s worldview. Done right, a talk is more powerful than anything in written form.

Many people have shared their understanding of the magic behind TED talks, Carmine Gallo especially.

And now we can all share in the secrets behind the speeches. I guess it will be disappointing to some that there is no formula, but heartening, nevertheless since we become inured of formulae. No two speeches should be the same.

As Sir Ken Robinson said,

Is there a single recipe for a great speech? Of course not. But there are some essential ingredients, which the TED team sets out here with concision, verve and wit (which are also some of the ingredients). An inspiring, contemporary guide to the venerable arts of oratory. Sir Ken Robinson

'Nobody in the world better understands the art and science of public speaking than Chris Anderson. He is absolutely the best person to have written this book' Elizabeth Gilbert.

He coached her, along with the other TED speakers who have inspired us the most, Sir Ken Robinson, Amy Cuddy, Bill Gates, Salman Khan, Dan Gilbert, Mary Roach, Matt Ridley, and so many more,and has shared tips from their presentations.

Anderson lists his five key techniques to presentation success: Connection, Narration, Explanation, Persuasion and Revelation (plus the three to avoid). He also answers the most frequently asked questions about giving a talk, from 'What should I wear?' to 'How do I handle my nerves?'.

The promise ...

For anyone who has ever been inspired by a TED talk…

...this is an insider’s guide to creating talks that are unforgettable.

I suspect that it very well might be and look forward to reading it.

You can buy the book from Amazon, The Book Depository , Fishpond

Guidance and inspiration for dealing with uncertainty

This book from Pema Chodron offers short, stand-alone readings designed to help us cultivate compassion and awareness amid the challenges of daily living.
More than just a collection of 'thoughts for the day', "Comfortable with Uncertainty" offers a progressive programme of spiritual study.
The book leads the reader through essential concepts, themes, and practices on the Buddhist path.
By the end of the cycle of readings, the reader will have completed the basic training for becoming a 'warrior-bodhisattva', one who courageously takes up the path of awakening compassion - both for oneself and others.
The book will be cherished by the many readers of "The Places That Scare You" and "When Things Fall Apart" since it offers pithy and stirring passages gleaned from Chodron's previous books.
The readings explore topics such as loving-kindness, meditation, mindfulness, 'nowness', letting go, and working with fear and other painful emotions.
Through the course of the book, readers will learn practical methods for heightening awareness and overcoming habitual patterns that block compassion. Readers will also develop a working knowledge of tonglen, an on-the-spot meditation practice for easing emotional suffering (both our own and others').
"Comfortable with Uncertainty", like a set of traditional Buddhist prayer beads, strings together 108 gems that will be cherished for their guidance and inspiration.

About the Author

Pema ChOdrOn is an American Buddhist nun in the lineage of ChOgyam Trungpa. She is resident teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery in North America established for Westerners. She is the author of many books and audiobooks, including the best-selling "When Things Fall Apart "and "Don't Bite the Hook."
You can buy the book:  Best price for Australians   OR  from Amazon
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What’s a Dog For?: The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Man’s Best Friend



As dogs take their place as coddled family members and their numbers balloon to over 77 million in the United States alone, it's no surprise that canine culture is undergoing a massive transformation. 

Now subject to many of the same questions of rights and ethics as people, the politics of dogs are more tumultuous and public than ever--with fierce moral battles raging over kill shelters, puppy mills, and breed standards. 

Incorporating interviews and research from scientists, activists, breeders, and trainers, "What's a Dog For? "investigates how dogs have reached this exalted status, and why they hold such fascination for us humans.

About the Author

John Homans has been the executive editor of "New York" magazine since 1994. This is his first book. He lives in New York City.







You can buy the book from The Book Depository , Fishpond ,  The Nile or Amazon .