The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves


J.B. MacKinnon - 2021
    B. MacKinnon investigates how we may achieve a world without shopping.We can’t stop shopping. And yet we must. This is the consumer dilemma.The economy says we must always consume more: even the slightest drop in spending leads to widespread unemployment, bankruptcy, and home foreclosure.The planet says we consume too much: in America, we burn the earth’s resources at a rate five times faster than it can regenerate. And despite efforts to “green” our consumption—by recycling, increasing energy efficiency, or using solar power—we have yet to see a decline in global carbon emissions.Addressing this paradox head-on, acclaimed journalist J. B. MacKinnon asks, What would really happen if we simply stopped shopping? Is there a way to reduce our consumption to earth-saving levels without triggering economic collapse? At first this question took him around the world, seeking answers from America’s big-box stores to the hunter-gatherer cultures of Namibia to communities in Ecuador that consume at an exactly sustainable rate. Then the thought experiment came shockingly true: the coronavirus brought shopping to a halt, and MacKinnon’s ideas were tested in real time.Drawing from experts in fields ranging from climate change to economics, MacKinnon investigates how living with less would change our planet, our society, and ourselves. Along the way, he reveals just how much we stand to gain: An investment in our physical and emotional wellness. The pleasure of caring for our possessions. Closer relationships with our natural world and one another. Imaginative and inspiring, The Day the World Stops Shopping will embolden you to envision another way.

Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living


Linnea Dunne - 2017
     The Swedish concept of Lagom (pronounced "lah-gom") roughly translates to "not too little, not too much, just right." This charming book introduces readers to a new way of balanced living that promises happiness and sustainability in work and in life. Lagom provides simple solutions to juggle everyday priorities, reduce stress, eat well, and save money, with lessons on the importance of downtime, being outdoors, and Sweden's coffee break culture. Tips on removing clutter and creating a capsule wardrobe help readers achieve Sweden's famously clean and functional design aesthetic, while advice on going green and growing food gets their hands dirty. With seemingly endless financial, emotional, and environmental benefits, Lagom presents an accessible and all-encompassing lifestyle that is sure to inspire mindfulness, wellbeing, and contentment.

Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly


Evy Poumpouras - 2020
    Becoming Bulletproof means transforming yourself into a stronger, more confident, and more powerful person. Evy Poumpouras—former Secret Service agent to three presidents and one of only five women to receive the Medal of Valor—demonstrates how we can overcome our everyday fears, have difficult conversations, know who to trust and who might not have our best interests at heart, influence situations, and prepare for the unexpected. When you have become bulletproof, you are your best, most courageous, and most powerful version of you. Poumpouras shows us that ultimately true strength is found in the mind, not the body. Courage involves facing our fears, but it is also about resilience, grit, and having a built-in BS detector and knowing how to use it. In Becoming Bulletproof, Poumpouras demonstrates how to heighten our natural instincts to employ all these qualities and move from fear to fearlessness.

Self-Reliance and Other Essays


Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1844
    The six essays and one address included in this volume, selected from Essays, First Series (1841) and Essays, Second Series (1844), offer a representative sampling of his views outlining that moral idealism as well as a hint of the later skepticism that colored his thought. In addition to the celebrated title essay, the others included here are "History," "Friendship," "The Over-Soul," "The Poet," and "Experience," plus the well-known and frequently read Harvard Divinity School Address.

The 4-Hour Workweek


Timothy Ferriss - 2007
    Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer: "I race motorcycles in Europe." "I ski in the Andes." "I scuba dive in Panama." "I dance tango in Buenos Aires." He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the "deferred-life plan" and instead mastered the new currencies-time and mobility-to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now. Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world.Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:- How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want?- How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs?- How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist?- How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements"?- What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income?- How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair?- What automated cash-flow "muses" are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks?- How to cultivate selective ignorance-and create time-with a low-information diet?- What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are?- How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off?- How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office

Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey: Save BIG Money & Make the Grocery Aisle Your Catwalk!


Joanie Demer - 2009
    Authors Joanie Demer and Heather Wheeler share their expertise along with hundreds of tried and true coupon tips in a fun, user-friendly format that will have you high-fiving the grocery store cashier in no time.

The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering Your Personal Style and Building Your Dream Wardrobe


Anuschka Rees - 2016
    Style and minimalism blogger Anuschka Rees presents a fascinatingly strategic, prescriptive approach to identifying, refining, and expressing personal style and building the ideal wardrobe to match it, with style and shopping strategies that women can use every day. Including beautiful full-color fashion photography, infographics, and activities, The Curated Closet is a useful guide covering everything women need to know to fully realize their individual style and create their perfect functional and beautiful wardrobe.

The Little Book of Self-Care for Pisces: Simple Ways to Refresh and Restore—According to the Stars


Constance Stellas - 2019
    While Pisces may value community, this book truly puts you first. Let the stars be your guide as you learn just how important astrology is to your self-care routine. Discover more about your sign and your ruling element, water, and then find the perfect set of self-care ideas and activities for you. From savoring a home-cooked meal to creating a personal altar, you will find more than one hundred ways to heal your mind, body, and active spirit. It’s stellar self-care especially for you, Pisces!

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


Thomas J. Stanley - 1995
    You'll be surprised at what you find out....

The Way of the SEAL: Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed


Mark Divine - 2013
    Along the way you’ll reaffirm your ultimate purpose, define your most important goals, and take concrete steps to make them happen. A practical guide for businesspeople or anyone who wants to be an elite operator in life, this book will teach you how to:• Lead from the front, so that others will want to work for you• Practice front-sight focus, the radical ability to focus on one thing until victory is achieved • Think offense, all the time, to eradicate fear and indecisiveness• Smash the box and be an unconventional thinker so you’re never thrown off-guard by chaotic conditions• Access your intuition so you can make “hard right” decisions• Achieve twenty times more than you think you canBlending the tactics he learned from America’s elite force with lessons from the Spartans, samurai, Apache scouts, and other great warrior traditions, Mark Divine has distilled the fundamentals of success into eight powerful principles that will transform you into the leader you always knew you could be. Learn to think like a SEAL and take charge of your destiny at work, at home, and in life.

If You Feel Too Much: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped For


Jamie Tworkowski - 2015
    The piece was so hauntingly beautiful that it quickly went viral, giving birth to a non-profit organization of the same name. Now, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is an internationally recognized leader in suicide prevention and a source of hope, encouragement, and support for people worldwide.If You Feel Too Much is a celebration of hope, wonder, and what it means to be human. From personal stories of struggling on days most people celebrate to words of strength and encouragement in moments of loss, the essays in this book invite readers to believe that it’s okay to admit to pain and okay to ask for help. If You Feel Too Much is an important book from one of this generation’s most important voices.

The Bank On Yourself Revolution: Fire Your Banker, Bypass Wall Street, and Take Control of Your Own Financial Future


Pamela Yellen - 2014
    Wall Street lost more than 49% of the typical investor's money—twice—since the year 2000. And studies show that because they followed the conventional wisdom, almost half of all Boomers won't have enough money to cover even basic living expenses during their retirement years. Now the financial gurus whose advice got you into this mess in the first place are telling you to "take more risk," "work till you drop," and "plan on spending less in retirement." Don't let them fool you again!In The Bank On Yourself Revolution, financial security expert Pamela Yellen details how hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and incomes have bucked the system to secure their families' financial futures without gambling in the Wall Street Casino or taking any unnecessary risks. You'll discover a proven step-by-step plan for growing your wealth safely, predictably, and guaranteed every single year—even when the markets are tumbling. And you'll learn how to bypass banks, credit card and financing companies to become your own source of financing for cars, vacations, a college education, business expenses and other major purchases.The Bank On Yourself Revolution isn't a "get-rich-quick" scheme; it's about having real wealth and financial security for as long as you live. You can finally know how much money you'll have next year, in 10, 20 or 30 years—and at every point along the way. Join the Revolution and take control of your own financial future!

Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream


Scott Trench - 2017
    By layering philosophy with practical knowledge, Set for Life gives young professionals the fiscal confidence they need to conquer financial goals early in life. Accumulating a lifetime of wealth in a short period of time involves working harder and smarter than the average person, and Set for Life demonstrates how to do just that―from zero savings to five figures, then to six figures, and finally to the ultimate goal of financial freedom. Wealth isn’t just about a nest egg, setting aside money for a “rainy day,” or accumulating an emergency fund. True wealth is about building out a Financial Runway―creating enough readily accessible wealth that you can survive without work for a year. Then five years. Then for life. Readers will learn how to: • Save more income―50+ percent of it, while still having fun • Double or triple your income in three to five years • Secure “real” assets and avoid “false” ones that destroy wealth

100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask: 4th Edition


Ilyce R. Glink - 2018
    It will be the place where you plant your roots, come home after a long day, raise a family, or make a successful investment. But how, with everything from student loans and an uncertain marketplace stacked against you, do you get to that idyllic future? In 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask, Ilyce Glink, one of the most trusted names in real estate, answers all of your questions about home buying--and some you didn't know you had--and takes you on a personal journey from open houses to moving day. Weaving together advice from top brokers around the country with illustrative stories and her own unparalleled expertise, 100 Questions is a one-stop shop to getting the home of your dreams.

The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks


Ben Cohen - 2020
    After all, a substantial number of decisions that we make in our everyday lives are quietly rooted in this one question: If something happened before, will it happen again? Is there such a thing as being in the zone? Can someone have a “hot hand”? Or is it simply a case of seeing patterns in randomness? Or, if streaks are possible, where can they be found?In The Hot Hand, Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen offers an unfailingly entertaining and provocative investigation into these questions. He begins with how a $35,000 fine and a wild night in New York revived a debate about the existence of streaks that was several generations in the making. We learn how the ability to recognize and then bet against streaks turned a business school dropout named David Booth into a billionaire, and how the subconscious nature of streak-related bias can make the difference between life and death for asylum seekers. We see how previously unrecognized streaks hidden amidst archival data helped solve one of the most haunting mysteries of the twentieth century, the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg. Cohen also exposes how streak-related incentives can be manipulated, from the five-syllable word that helped break arcade profit records to an arc of black paint that allowed Stephen Curry to transform from future junior high coach into the greatest three-point shooter in NBA history. Crucially, Cohen also explores why false recognition of nonexistent streaks can have cataclysmic results, particularly if you are a sugar beet farmer or the sort of gambler who likes to switch to black on the ninth spin of the roulette wheel.A brilliant investigation into when streaks exist and how they can be taken advantage of, The Hot Hand is essential reading for anyone who thinks they’ve got a shot.