Best Books to Read and Listen

LEONARDO DA VINCI THEE BIOGRAPHY  BY WALTER ISAACSON ' To read this magnificent biography of  Leonardo da Vinci  is to take a tour through the life and works of one of the most extraordinary human beings of all time in the company of the most engaging, informed, and insightful guide imaginable.  Walter Isaacson  is at once a true scholar and a spellbinding writer. And what a wealth of lessons there are to be learned in these pages. '  David McCullough Based on thousands of pages from  Leonardo’s  astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work,  Walter Isaacson  weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history,  The Last Supper  and  the  Mon...

BEYOND THE MESSY TRUTH : HOW WE CAME APART, HOW WE COME TOGETHER BY VAN JONES NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER • A passionate manifesto that exposes hypocrisy on both sides of the political divide and points a way out of the tribalism that is tearing America apart—from the CNN host hailed as “a star of the 2016 campaign” ( The New York Times ), now seen on  The Van Jones Show Van Jones burst into the American consciousness during the 2016 presidential campaign with an unscripted, truth-telling style and an already established history of   bridge-building across party lines. His election night commentary, during which he coined the term “whitelash,” became a viral sensation. A longtime progressive activist with deep roots in the conservative South, Jones has made it his mission to challenge voters and viewers to stand in one another’s shoes and disagree constructively. In  Beyond the Messy Truth , he offers a blueprint for transforming our collective anxiety into mean...

HEAD STRONG : THE BULLETPROOF PLAN TO ACTIVATE UNTAPPED BRAIN ENERGY TO WORK SMARTER AND THINK FASTER IN JUST TWO WEEKS BY DAVE ASPREY From the creator of Bulletproof Coffee and author of the bestselling  The Bulletproof Diet  comes a revolutionary plan to upgrade your brainpower—in two weeks or less. For the last decade, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dave Asprey has worked with world-renowned doctors and scientists to uncover the latest, most innovative methods for making humans perform better—a process known as "biohacking."  In his first book,  The Bulletproof Diet , he shared his biohacking tips for taking control of your own biology. Now, in  Head Strong , Asprey shows readers how to biohack their way to a sharper, smarter, faster, more resilient brain. Imagine feeling like your mind is operating at its clearest and sharpest, and being able—possibly for the first time in your life—to do more in less time? What it suddenly became easier to do the very hardest ...

THE PLANT PARADOX : THE HIDDEN DANGERS IN "HEALTHY" GOODS THAT CAUSE DISEASE AND WEIGHT GAIN BY DR STEVEN R GUNDRY Most of us have heard of gluten—a protein found in wheat that causes widespread inflammation in the body. Americans spend billions of dollars on gluten-free diets in an effort to protect their health. But what if we’ve been missing the root of the problem? In  The Plant Paradox , renowned cardiologist Dr. Steven Gundry reveals that gluten is just one variety of a common, and highly toxic, plant-based protein called lectin. Lectins are found not only in grains like wheat but also in the “gluten-free” foods most of us commonly regard as healthy, including many fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and conventional dairy products.  These proteins, which are found in the seeds, grains, skins, rinds, and leaves of plants, are designed by nature to protect them from predators (including humans). Once ingested, they incite a kind of chemical warfare in our bodies, causing in...

THE ENTREPRENEUR ROLLER COASTER: WHY NOW IS THE TIME TO #JOINTHERIDE BY DARREN HARDY I n  The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster  you will learn the best strategies Darren has ever collected from the most successful people on the planet, covering the four essential skills necessary for entrepreneurial success: sales, recruiting, leadership, and productivity. This essential guidebook will prepare you for the wild ride of entrepreneurship. It will warn you (of forthcoming fears, doubts, and the self-defeating conditioning of your upbringing and past), inoculate you (from the naysayers, dream-stealers, and pains of rejection and failure), and guide you (as you build those underdeveloped skills of independence, self-motivation, and self-accountability) safely past the landmines that blow up and cause the failure of 66 percent of all new businesses. Discover why NOW is the best time to #JOINTHERIDE. "This is loaded with practical, proven methods and techniques that you can use to save yo...

WHAT'S IN THE WAY IS THE WAY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR WAKING UP TO LIFE BY MARY O'MALLEY Imagine for a moment that you had no pressures in your life―no problems to fix, no deadlines to meet, no struggles to overcome. Do you feel that sense of spacious relief? It’s not an illusion, teaches Mary O’Malley.  It really is possible to live with that profound openness all the time, even while tending to your everyday tasks and obligations.  In  What’s in the Way Is the Way , Mary offers practical guidance for meeting all of your experience with an abiding sense of ease, trust, and peace of mind. This accessible book is divided into ten phases, featuring inspiring wisdom and step-by-step exercises to heal the core beliefs that keep you stuck. With each chapter, Mary invites you to come into the present and see yourself and your circumstances in a different way―unclouded by preconceptions, struggle, or fear. Join her on this illuminating journey to discover: • How fear controls our...

  BE OBSESSED OR BE AVERAGE BY GRANT CARDONE From the millionaire entrepreneur and  New York Times  bestselling author of  The 10X Rule  comes a bold and contrarian wake-up call for anyone truly ready for success. Before Grant Cardone built five successful companies (and counting), became a multimillionaire, and wrote bestselling books...he was broke, jobless, and drug-addicted. Grant had grown up with big dreams but friends and family told him to be more reasonable and less demanding. If he played by the rules, they said, he could enjoy everyone else’s version of middle class success. But when he tried it their way, he hit rock bottom. Then he tried the opposite approach. He said NO to the haters and naysayers and said YES to his burning, outrageous, animal obsession. He reclaimed his obsession with wanting to be a business rock star, a huge philanthropist, live in a mansion, even own an airplane. Obsession made all of his wildest dreams come true. And it can ...

THE TAPPING SOLUTION :  A REVOLUTIONARY SYSTEM FOR STRESS FREE LIVING BY NICK ORTNER Do you have things in your life that you wish were different...but you don’t know how to change?  The Tapping Solution  offers a new technique to deal with seemingly impossible situations. Tapping, also known as EFT, is a powerful tool for improving your life on multiple levels: mental, emotional, and physical.  It has been proven to effectively address a range of issues - from anxiety, chronic pain, addiction, and fear, to weight control, financial abundance, stress relief, and so much more. It’s also one of the easiest and fastest practices to learn. You can learn it in minutes, do it anywhere and on virtually any issue, and oftentimes experience immediate results. Based on the principles of both ancient acupressure and modern psychology, tapping concentrates on specific meridian endpoints while focusing on negative emotions or physical sensations. Combined with spoken word, tappi...

THE GENIE IN YOUR GENES: EPIGENETIC MEDICINE AND THE NEW BIOLOGY OF INTENTION BY DAWSON CHURCH Your genes respond to your thoughts, emotions and beliefs. The way you use your mind shapes your brain, turning genes on and off in ways that can dramatically affect your health and wellbeing. In this best-selling, award-winning book, researcher Dawson Church reveals the exciting applications of the new science of Epigenetics (epi=above, i.e. control above the level of the gene) to healing. Citing hundreds of scientific studies, and telling the stories of dozens of people who have used his ideas for their own healing, he shows how you can apply these discoveries in your own life. He explains how electromagnetic energy flows in your body and affects your cells, and how the new fields of energy medicine and energy psychology can help cases that are beyond the reach of conventional medicine. He shows how your hormonal, neurological, connective tissue, and neutrotransmitter systems all work in h...

PRINCIPLES : LIFE AND WORK BY RAY DALIO #1  New York Times  Bestseller “Significant...The book is both instructive and surprisingly moving.” — The New York Times Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he’s developed, refined, and used over the past forty years to create unique results in both life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals. In 1975, Ray Dalio founded an investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to  Fortune  magazine. Dalio himself has been named to  Time  magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way, Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that...

LOVE FOR NO REASON : 7 STEPS TO CREATING A LIFE OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE BY MARCI SHIMOFF, CAROL KLINE What if you could live in a state of unconditional love all the time? If you could love people, not because they fill your needs or because they love you, but because you’re connected to a state of pure love within yourself? What if you could bring the highest and best part of yourself to your family and friends, to your work, to your community, and even to the things that you find most challenging in your life? You can, when you learn to Love for No Reason. In this compelling and life-changing follow-up to her New York Times bestselling book Happy for No Reason, transformational expert Marci Shimoff now offers a breakthrough approach to experiencing unconditional love—the kind of love that doesn’t depend on another person, situation, or romantic partner. This is the deepest and truest form of love and is the key to lasting joy and fulfillment in life. Love for No Reason introduces a ne...

THE BALANCED SCORECARD : TRANSLATING STRATEGY INTO ACTION BY ROBERT KAPLAN AND DAVID P NORTON The Balanced Scorecard  translates a company's vision and strategy into a coherent set of performance measures.  The four perspectives of the scorecard--financial measures, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth--offer a balance between short-term and long-term objectives, between outcomes desired and performance drivers of those outcomes, and between hard objective measures and softer, more subjective measures.  In the first part, Kaplan and Norton provide the theoretical foundations for the Balanced Scorecard; in the second part, they describe the steps organizations must take to build their own Scorecards; and, finally, they discuss how the Balanced Scorecard can be used as a driver of change. The Balanced Scorecard is a framework to implement and manage strategy by linking a vision and mission to strategic priorities, objectives, measures, a...

THINKING FAST AND SLOW BY DANIEL KAHNEMANN In  Thinking, Fast and Slow , Kahneman takes us on a ground-breaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think and make choices.  One system is fast, intuitive and emotional; the other is slower, more deliberative and more logical.  Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities-and also the faults and biases-of fast thinking and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behaviour. The importance of properly framing risks, the effects of cognitive biases on how we view others, the dangers of prediction, the right ways to develop skills, the pros and cons of fear and optimism, the difference between our experience and memory of events, the real components of happiness-each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgements and decisions. Drawing on a lifetime's experimental experience, Kahneman reveals where we ca...

THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES : THE COLLECTED WORKS OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL Since its release in 1949,  The Hero with a Thousand Faces  has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology.  In this book, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world's mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction. As relevant today as when it was first published,  The Hero with a Thousand Faces  continues to find new audiences in fields ranging from religion and anthropology to literature and film studies.  The book has also profoundly influenced creative artists - including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers - and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories. Campb...

B K S IYENGAR : YOGA THE PATH TO HOLISTIC HEALTH : THE DEFINITIVE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE Everyone can enjoy the benefits of yoga on the mind, body, and spirit with this updated, illustrated guide from world-renowned yoga authority B.K.S Iyengar, globally respected for his holistic approach and technical accuracy. In  BKS Iyengar Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health , the guru himself guides you through over 55 yoga poses, each with step-by-step instructions illustrated in full colour. Iyengar even explains his philosophy throughout the book - it's like having yoga classes with your own personal instructor. A special, 20-week beginners' yoga course makes yoga accessible for those of all ages and abilities. 20 classic Iyengar yoga poses have a unique, 360-degree presentation so that you can see the correct form from all angles. Specially developed yoga sequences help you to alleviate more than 80 ailments, ranging from asthma and arthritis to varicose veins. Whether you are new to yoga...