Women of Silence: Reconnecting With the Emotional Healing of Breast Cancer by Grace Gawler

Women of Silence is the definitive book on cancer and how women and can help turn a serious health challenge into a positive turning point. In her insightful and uplifting book, Grace shares the emotional component of cancer, the power of relationships, the medical issues and role of careers, and the cause and prevention of cancer. Grace went through her own life-threatening condition, and her experience adds depth to her writing. While this book is directed to women, men can gain important insights into the healing paradigm and would be well advised to read this book with their wives or loved ones.

Grace Gawler (gracegawler.com) is a world-renowned and pioneering healer, health and wellness advocate, author, therapist, naturopathic philosopher, and speaker who has worked with more than 12,000 people helping to make their cancer healing journey less traumatic and even enlightening.

Life’s Missing Instruction Manual by Joe Vitale

Lots of books have titles that promise a lot and underdeliver. Joe Vitale is a practical visionary who walks his talk, and Life’s Missing Instruction Manual delivers its wisdom in highly usable bites. To have a mentor who has gone before you and who provides you with his useful tools for life is a true gift, and that’s what this book is.

A few gems:

Complaining about what is, keeps you from spotting or even creating new opportunities;

Circumstances don’t make you; you make you; this “bad time” might become the greatest period of prosperity for you; listen, act, and prosper. There are opportunities around you. Which will you see first and act on?

Most people think they need to fight and struggle. Not so. You can let life unfold. The secret is to focus on what you want, do what is before you to make it happen, and trust the process.

Getting in Touch with Your Cat by Linda Tellington-Jones

Cats, like dogs, can be wonderful companions, but sometimes they can present behavioral challenges that defy logic. There are cats that need lots of attention and the independent types. Linda Tellington has developed methods she teaches to certified Tellington Touch trainers and through her books to the general public. I cannot recommend her book too highly because I’ve seen the amazing results accomplished with Blue, a cat I brought home from a pet hotel. He had been abandoned and gotten a bit feral.  For the first three days he hid and nothing I did would bring him out.

In desperation, I called a Tellington Touch trainer who came and using the techniques shared in Linda’s book, was able to first touch Blue from a distance using a long stick with a feather attached, then wrap him in a towel and ultimately pet him and invite me to as well. Although in the end I decided to give the cat back to the person who had taken care of him before he went to the kennel (and he is now doing great), I am very impressed by the effectiveness and simplicity of the Tellington Touch Method, one that can easily be learned by anyone.

The book’s chapters include A Kitten Moves In, The First Hours in a New Home, Adopting Animal Shelter Cats, and Discouraging Unwanted Behavior. Linda has also written a book for dog owners: Getting in Touch with Your Dog.

The Trance of Scarcity by Victoria Castle

In life, it easy to become numbed out and live in a trance-like state in which we repeat dysfunctional behaviors over and over hoping for a better outcome.

The Trance of Scarcity focuses on our inability to see ourselves as anything other than what we have concluded we are and the resultant story we tell ourselves. That story can be that we’re not enough, smart enough, rich enough or don’t have enough time or money. Simply through repeating these statements many times a day, we soon find ourselves living with a dreaded sense of limitation-a kind of self-imposed prison. Victoria Castle calls this state “The Trance of Scarcity” in which we’re crippled by the pervasive assumption that lack, struggle and separation are our unavoidable fate. Her book is about embodying a new story for your life, developing well tested practices of the Cycle of Abundance, and discovering a new way of being based in ease and flow that is far more meaningful and fulfilling. It’s a movement from me to we and to our true interconnected nature. Stated simply, what we believe and embody becomes our reality. Learning to free ourselves of the cultural trance has become a personal and planetary imperative if we are to thrive. People who live from their greatness create a world in which all can thrive.

Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth by Peter Kelder

This short, classic tale of an encounter with a master from the Himalayas reveals five physical exercises that contain the secrets of lasting youth and rejuvenation. Readers have long reported great results.

Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World by Bill Plotkin

Bill Plotkin’s last book, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mystery of Nature and Psyche, a visionary opus and user’s manual of nature-based soul work, charted a course through the underworld pathways with shamanistic perception, mapping the powers of myth and psyche with all the soul and interpretive skill of Jung or Campbell.

In Nature and the Human Soul, Plotkin continues to explore the territory, providing an eight-stage evolutionary model of human development that will be appreciated by seekers, psychologists, and nature guides alike. As this book becomes more widely known and appreciated for its depth and relevance in these chaotic times, it may well provide one of the best strategies for the cultural transformation so many of us long for.

It answers the question of how we move from our collective adolescent stage to an authentic adulthood. Plotkin masterfully weaves personal stories and those from wise elders, including Joanna Macy and Thomas Berry, into a teaching that can help parents provide their children with a deep love of nature and of learning, helping teens to be socially successful and also authentic and imaginative. The book tells how we can grow into a fulfilled, soulful adulthood while contributing our unique gifts to the greater Earth community, and how to mature into a genuine elderhood of wisdom and cultural leadership. Plotkin offers us a compassionate way to progress from our current egocentric, aggressively competitive, consumer society to an eco-centric, soul-based one that is cooperative and sustainable. This is a perfect book, and it comes at a perfect time in our individual and collective lives.

Looking for God: Seeing the Whole in One by Chuck Hillig

Advaita is the study of nondualism. In this simple and profound book, Chuck Hillig presents the ideas of advaita in a totally accessible way. If you apply its teachings, you may find that your life is a lot more peaceful and you are bothered by less and less. I often think that the amount of psychic energy it takes to try and keep things separate is enormous, and wonder what the world would be like if we could embody oneness.

Looking for God is one way to enter the oneness realm.

To order Looking for God or any of Chuck’s other great books, visit his website, blackdotpubs.com. To learn more about advaita, visit www.advaita.org.

The Flow: 40 Days to Life Transformation by Tara Meyer-Robson

Reading The Flow is like having your own personal life coach right beside you in a book. Author Tara Meyer-Robson is a vibrant new voice in the field of life transformation and personal growth. As CEO and Creative Director of the company also known as The Flow, she helps individuals and organizations of all sizes (including healthcare organizations) achieve success and wellness with ease.

The book offers a Flow Factor Test that will identify the negative beliefs that challenge you, and you’ll then proceed to specific workbook sections designed to “retune” your life into the life of your dreams by calling upon your own unique strengths.

On the Integration of Nature: Post-9/11 Biopolitical Notes by Richard Grossinger

In this time of transition and transformation, cultural anthropologist Richard Grossinger addresses what it is to be human and in the world now, adding yet another profound work to the more than twenty books he has already written. The co-founder, with his wife, Lindy Hough, of North Atlantic Books, Dr. Grossinger has conducted a life-long study into the nature of physical reality. The fruits of his inquiry he once again make available in this newest treatise, in which, with lyrical erudition, he shares his thoughts on many timely subjects including politics and religion.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Spiritual Fable about Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny by Robin Sharma

This fascinating spiritual adventure, which has sold more than a million copies in the decade since it was first published, tells the story of a successful attorney whose heart attack in a packed courtroom forces him to examine his own unfulfilling life circumstances. The self-inquiry sets him on a path of discovery that leads him to India and the ancient and ever-new wisdom that is to be found there.

Author Robin Sharma is a leading expert on leadership, elite performance, and self-mastery. In this entertaining book, he provides readers with step-by-step directions for achieving a life of greater courage, balance, abundance, and happiness.

A Promise Kept: One Son’s Quest for the Cause and Cure of Dis-ease by Dr. James Chappell

There are many excellent books on health, but A Promise Kept is special. It is both a powerful story and a font of information that could well save your life. In it, Dr. James Chappell, a chiropractic physician, traditional naturopath, clinical nutritionist, and medical herbalist, shares his encyclopedic knowledge gained from over thirty years of research and work with more than 10,000 clients. In this book you’ll find disease-specific recommendations and protocols, and you’ll then need to be willing to carry through the ideas presented. If you’re willing to do so, you may heal yourself from many health challenges. I highly recommend this book.

Sex Is Not a Four Letter Word But Relationship Often Times Is by Gary M. Douglas and Dr. Dain C. Heer

This small book delivers big truths that you can immediately apply to your own life to create a more honest and fulfilling relationship—first with yourself and then with an existing or potential partner. Based on the popular Gary Douglas Access© Seminar course How to Have More Sex and Better Relationships with Clarity and Ease, Sex Is Not a Four Letter Word offers incisive, intelligent, and empowering writing for those who seek a better way of living and loving.

In a world where we too often meet with half-truths, generalities, and useless information, this book represents a quantum leap into the vast field of possibility. It is dangerous, subversive, and a refreshing joy to read. If you’re ready to change your life and point of view, the turning point begins on page one of this great little book.

Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons by Peter Barnes

Peter Barnes, the cofounder and former president of Working Assets Long Distance and an entrepreneur known for his socially responsibility, has led a remarkable and exemplary life. In this book, his third, Barnes concerns himself with the commons—those creations of nature and society that, together, we all inherit and must preserve for the generations to come. He makes a clear case for how today’s version of capitalism is fast squandering this shared heritage, and then offers a brilliant and workable alternative to our current flawed economic system.

Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute

The Arbinger Institute, an international group headquartered in Utah, is a management training and consulting firm and scholarly consortium made up of people trained in business, law, economics, philosophy, the family, education, and psychology. Arbinger’s members work with the leaders of major organizations to apply the far-reaching implications of self-deception (and the solutions for same) to organizational, community, and family life. This book, a team effort of Arbinger Institute, details how self-deception kills performance and tells us all just what to do about it.

Sustainable Masculinity: A Self-Help Toolkit for Men and Kicking a Goal for Masculinity by Pip Cornall

“Cultural norms that men feel they have to conform to, in modern times are no longer applicable,” says Australian author Pip Cornall, who has published the first two in his planned series of ten leadership books for boys and men. In his books, Pip explains how masculinity is culturally learned, and changes over time—unlike maleness, which is biological and fixed. In Sustainable Masculinity, he tells how and why men have been conditioned to serve a flawed model and gives concrete steps that they can take to become happier, healthier, safer, and more fun to be around. In Kicking a Goal for Masculinity, he addresses the masculinity crisis in sports, exploring how and why some great athletes succumb to the darker side of their character, and highlighting the urgent need for boys and men to adopt a healthier masculinity and a new kind of heroism.

Freedom from Mid-East Oil by Jerry B. Brown, Rinaldo S. Brutoco, and James A. Cusumano

In this important exposition of the mounting energy and climate-change crisis, the authors ask us to imagine a world in which the USA has already won its freedom from dependency on Mid-East petroleum. These three experts on energy policy and future trends then go on to detail just how we can all build that world, and within ten years . . . with existing technology and with no new taxes!

The book offers a clear roadmap for counteracting global warming while ending our dangerous dependency (as “a nation of petroholics”) on imported oil. It also tells how business can make money today using renewable energy sources and existing technologies; why “clean coal” is an illusion; why ethanol is only a transitional fuel as we progress to a hydrogen economy; why the use of nuclear power can only make a bad situation much worse; how we can revive Detroit by building 100-mpg cars today; and how we can create millions of jobs and strengthen our economy while making our nation safe.

Living Sanely In an Insane World: Philosophy for Real People by John F. Groom

This handy little book (a great one for opening at random to find a thought for the day) contains more than a hundred quotations from many of the best thinkers humanity has produced, organized into such useful categories as “The Purpose of Life” and “Sex and Materialism.” The author explains that he created this philosophical system “to answer questions that confronted me every day.” The result is a commonsense approach, in book form, to resolving most of life’s most pressing moral, ethical, spiritual, and practical dilemmas.

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David C. Korten

In his previous international bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World, the author exposed the destructive nature of the global corporate economy and helped spark a worldwide resistance movement. Now David Korten moves on to argue that the corporate consolidation of power is only one manifestation of what he calls “Empire”: the organization of society through hierarchy and violence that has prevailed for most of recorded history. The Great Turning traces the roots of Empire to ancient times and charts the long evolution of its chief instruments of control, from monarchies and bureaucracies to the transnational institutions of the global economy. Korten draws on evidence from many valid sources to make the case that “Earth Community”—a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable way of ordering human society based on democratic principles of partnership—is not only possible but imperative, and details a strategy for our turning toward a future of vast human potential.

Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution: How the Integral Worldview Is Transforming Politics, Culture and Spirituality by Steve McIntosh

In this brilliant explanation of the stages of consciousness and culture that humankind has followed throughout time, integral philosopher Steve McIntosh leads us through the stages preceding postmodern consciousness and into the extraordinary synthesis that we’re finding within the integral stage of consciousness now emerging. He details the manifestations of the rapid, broad-scale social awakening in which we find ourselves today, explaining that the changes we need will come to us in an evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) way, “in the form of a new values-based worldview forged through the interpenetration of increasing problems and newly perceived opportunities.”

The Translucent Revolution: How People Just Like You Are Waking Up and Changing the World by Arjuna Ardagh

In order to gain a sense of hope in times that for many seem hopeless, we need to access and ground another frequency of consciousness. We need a practical map of how others are living a deeper life, so that we might begin to apply some of their ways and insights for ourselves. In his brilliant exploration of the translucent realm of being, which includes a foreword by Ken Wilber, Arjuna Ardagh shares stories of practical visionaries in many fields. The result is a catalytic jolt that takes the reader into an emergent evolutionary reality that is full of possibility and creativity and fully alive alongside the insane world we see reflected in the media. By immersing ourselves in this field of the possible, we can emerge individually and collectively from the trance of limitation and fear into a world of possibility and hope. We get to choose. What will you choose?

God Without Religion: Questioning Centuries of Accepted Truths by Sankara Saranam

This book takes an unusual and refreshing approach to the understanding of religion and its place in human life. It describes the new trend that—in reaction to the increasingly apparent absence of God in so much of organized religion—favors spirituality over the traditional forms of religious practice. While avoiding the divisiveness of institutionalized religions, the author, an American monk and the founder of the Pranayama Institute, advocates a more mindful approach to spiritual life while affirming the unity of all humans with one another, with all of life, and with Creation’s ultimate Source.

Make the Impossible Possible: One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary by Bill Strickland with Vince Rause

Bill Strickland is the president and CEO of the nonprofit Manchester Bidwell Corporation, an organization that, through its nationwide centers, has created an effective model for arts, education, training, and—most importantly—hope. Strickland has made a career of getting disadvantaged adults and troubled young people out of trouble and off the streets to become productive and self-fulfilled professionals. In Making the Impossible Possible, he and coauthor Vince Rause make the case that “People are born into this world as assets, not liabilities”; that “The sand in the hourglass flows only one way”; and that “You don’t have to travel far to change the life you’re living.” Strickland believes that every one of us has the potential for remarkable achievement, and if you’re not already in accord with that thinking, you will be by the time you finish reading this book.

The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating A Caring Economics by Riane Eisler

Riane Eisler’s The Chalice and The Blade was a groundbreaking book on partnership. Her latest book, The Real Wealth of Nations, provides insights into the transition from old-paradigm economics that placed people and the planet behind profits to a system in which people and the planet occupy a primary place in the decision-making process. In making this simple but profound shift, the business world is moving toward a truly caring economics that can actively participate in the eradication of poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation rather than contributing to their proliferation. While there are no easy answers to economic evolution, Eisler provides valuable insights and practical examples that can be applied not only in the business world but by governments, by schools, and at home.

Consciousness in Action: The Power of Beauty, Love and Courage in a Violent Time by Andrew Beath

This inspiring book tells us how the current lamentable state of the planet is being ameliorated by an emergent state of consciousness in which our beautiful Earth is finally receiving the kind of love and care she so urgently needs. California author Andrew Beath is the founder of several nonprofit social justice and environmental organizations, and he has initiated projects to protect wilderness and help threatened communities throughout the Americas. In Consciousness in Action, a wake-up call to humanity, he offers ideas for personal and global transformation based on seven attributes of consciousness:
1.    nonviolence (kindness in the midst of passion)
2.    not knowing and spontaneity in the moment
3.    introspection for self-discovery
4.    Eros, the art of loving-kindness
5.    Cocreating a healthier world in which there is no enemy
6.    Vision, free of reaction
7.    Being Joyful without attachment to goals

In Beath’s wise and passionate overview of the challenges and opportunities of our times, you’ll find much to inspire you in taking your own actions.

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus

Bangladeshi banker Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, the bank he founded and for which he serves as managing director. He began to tell his story in Banker to the Poor, and now continues it in this visionary best seller about social business and the future of capitalism. Yunus pioneered microcredit, the innovative banking program that provides poor people—mainly women—with small loans that they use to launch businesses and lift their families out of poverty. Grameen Bank, which opened its door as an official bank in 1983, now has nearly 2,500 branches, and has seen 65 percent of its borrower’s families cross the poverty line, while the remaining families are moving steadily toward crossing it. Muhammad Yunus represents the best of this world’s enlightened capitalists.

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein

This is an updated edition of the book called “a Bible in the field” of social entrepreneurship by the New York Times. Journalist David Bornstein specializes in writing about social innovation, and in How to Change the World he compellingly details how men and women in many countries are finding innovative solutions to a wide variety of social and economic problems. Whether delivering solar energy to Brazilian villagers or bridging the college-access gap in the United States, social entrepreneurs are implementing problem-solving ideas that are reshaping the world we live in. Through all strata of society, the boundaries between business and social action are being increasingly blurred, and Bornstein reports on this progress from the front lines of the movement.

Let Love Find You: Seven Steps to Open Your Heart to Love by John Selby

If lasting love has eluded you, I recommend that you read this book. In it, psychologist and relationship expert John Selby, who has helped thousands of people to find their perfect partner, leads the reader through:
•    Seven Steps to Finding Each Other
•    Manifesting the Desired Encounter
•    Nurturing Your New Love Life, and
•    Keeping the Magic Alive
Selby teaches and leads seminars in both the United States and Europe, has written more than two dozen acclaimed books, and is himself in a happy and long-term marriage.

Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search For the Soul of Kindness by Marc Ian Barasch

In this thrilling exploration of  human kindness, the distinguished writer, editor, and documentary producer Marc Ian Barasch takes us with him on a healing odyssey of the heart. With him, we explore the role of compassion in today’s world and come away inspired. Speaking with candor and passion, Barasch gives us a reliable guide for finding our way through life’s journey with heart and courage.

Digital Dharma: A User’s Guide to Expanding Consciousness in the Infosphere by Steven Vedro

You needn’t know much about technology to benefit from reading this witty treatise on developing a “yoga of teleconsciousness” and staying centered in a frenetic world. According to Steven Vedro, the Infosphere not only affects consciousness but also reflects it, and can provide teachings for the next step on our journey to wholeness. Vedro uses the metaphor of the body’s chakra system, linking each of the first seven chakras to a form of communication as follows:

•    the lowest chakras, concerning safety and survival, relate to telegraphy and telephony
•    the middle chakras, concerning power, love, and discernment, relate to radio, TV, and the Internet
•    the highest chakras, concerning the most evolved consciousness, relate to the newest technologies of digital signal coding, smart devices, and the always-on intelligence of grid computing

Now, when the electronic web surrounding our planet seems so inescapable, we can at least resort to Digital Dharma to learn to use the Infosphere to our spiritual advantage!

The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth by Mark Anielski

This book represents an important discussion of one of the greatest challenges of our time: the achievement of a balanced and sustainable way of life. It provides an important look at wealth and economics and their changing meanings today. Mark Anielski is a self-described well-being economist, as well as an entrepreneur, a professor, and the president of Anielski Management, Inc., a Canadian company specializing in the measurement of human well-being. In The Economics of Happiness, he outlines a new and practical economic model that he calls Genuine Wealth, one that has been used with great success in communities, corporations, and countries all over the world. Anielski’s five capitals of Genuine Wealth are human, social, natural, built, and financial, and by reading The Economics of Happiness you will learn how to measure these in your own life and work.

The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die by John Izzo Ph.D.

Based on a PBS series, The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die presents golden advice gleaned from more than 200 interviews conducted with a diverse group of elders. Dr. Izzo explains that the book has two key elements: the idea that there are indeed “secrets” to life, discovered by all happy and wise people, and the reminder that there should rightly be some urgency connected to discovering what really matters in time to benefit from that knowledge. Near the end of the book, he shares some selected statements from interviewees in response to his asking them to state the secret to a fulfilling and happy life in one sentence or phrase, and those succinct statements are my favorite part of a very good book.

Oh—the five secrets? I could give them away here, for they’re well worth knowing. But I’d rather not deprive you of the satisfaction of reading about them in context, for yourself!

A Manifesto of Peace: Light on the Path of an Emissary of Peace by Michael Beckwith, D.D.

Dr. Michael Beckwith is the Founder and Spiritual Director of one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing spiritual communities: the Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, California. Agape, a pioneering organization in the New Thought-Ancient Wisdom tradition since its founding in 1986, is the result of Michael Beckwith’s own explorations in the emergence of consciousness. Thousands gather there for each week’s five services, to sing, learn, worship, and even dance in the aisles as Dr. Beckwith presides in his loving and down-to-earth manner. The little book A Manifesto of Peace was compiled from the Reverend Doctor’s services, interviews, correspondence, meditations and prayer, and personal conversations, and as such it is a distillation of Dr. Beckwith’s widely acknowledged wisdom and teachings.

Something to Live For: Finding Your Way in the Second Half of Life by Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro

A wonderful guide to living authentically in the second half of life, Something to Live For is packed with useful insights from ancient and contemporary wisdom that teaches readers how to make a meaningful contribution to the world while truly enjoy the “sageing” process.

The Flip: Turn Your World Around! by Jared Rosen and David Rippe

Would you rather live upside-down or right side up? This is the question posed by the authors of The Flip, and before you go very far into this book you’ll know for certain that you want to flip over into a right-side-up world of natural health, meaningful work, global prosperity, renewable natural resources, a feeling of connection to others, and emotional and spiritual well-being. In this witty and accessible book, Rosen and Rippe are cheering on a new rebellion against the materialist mindset—a revolution of the heart, an uprising of the soul, and an upheaval of the status quo. If you want to know how to transform your life, The Flip will tell you all you need to know.

Pronoia the Antidote for Paranoia by Rob Brezsny

If you know someone who is down on himself and the world, who spends most of his time complaining rather than creating (and who doesn’t know someone like that?) this is the perfect gift for him or her. Pronoia is filled with great uplifting information, and perhaps nothing says it better than the book’s tag line: “888 Tricks for Becoming a Wildly Disciplined, Fiercely Tender, Ironically Sincere, Scrupulously Curious, Aggressively Sensitive, Blasphemously Reverent, Lyrically Logical, Lustfully Compassionate Master of Rowdy Bliss.”

Prisoners of Our Thoughts: Viktor Frankl’s Principles for Discovering Meaning in Life and Work by Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.

Man’s Search for Meaning, by the world-renowned psychiatrist Victor Frankl, was a personal story about finding reason to live while confined to a Nazi concentration camp. Now out in paperback, Prisoners of Our Thoughts brings the late Dr. Frankl’s wisdom into the modern workplace with the detailing of seven principles for finding fulfillment in your life and work. Dr. Pattakos knew Dr. Frankl, and has dedicated the book to him. These principles will help readers gain increased capacity to deal with life challenges and achieve their highest potential, while finding new meaning in their daily lives.

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles by Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.

Bruce Lipton is an internationally recognized cellular biologist and a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop presenter. As the author of The Biology of Belief, he presents the startling premise, based on many years of valid research, that genes need not control our destiny, because we can control our DNA with our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. According to Joseph Chilton Pearce, Dr. Lipton’s book is “the definitive summary of the new biology and all that it implies.” The Biology of Belief is a groundbreaking work that bridges the gap between science and spirit, radically changes our understanding of life, and does all this in a delightfully readable style.

Fitter for Life: The Secrets of 25 Masters of Fitness by Ed Mayhew

Anyone interested in health and fitness will find Ed Mayhew’s book Fitter for Life a fascinating and informative read. In it, Mayhew, a professional educator who specialized in children’s fitness for 38 years, turns his attention to adult fitness. Besides being an avid runner, sports enthusiast, and Certified Fitness Trainer, the author is wise in the ways of challenging self-limiting, self-destructive beliefs about aging. In Fitter for Life he does indeed reveal, just as the subtitle promises, the secrets of those individuals he calls “the Masters of Fitness”—people who have succeeded in maintaining or recapturing much of the strength and energy of their youth long after their youthful years have gone by.

Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World by Michael Dowd

For the last six years, the Reverend Michael Dowd has traveled across North America with his wife in a van that displays an image of two fish kissing each other—one labeled Jesus, the other Darwin—explaining to conservative and liberal congregations alike why understanding and accepting evolution will bring them closer to spiritual fulfillment. This excellent book, in which the Reverend Michael explains his credo as an evolutionary Evangelist, deserves to be read by anyone who still sees any conflict between Christianity and the theory of evolution. (See Michael Dowd’s companion DVD to this book in my DVD section.)

The Origin of Minds: Evolution, Uniqueness, and the New Science of the Self by Peggy La Cerra and Roger Bingham

In this illuminating book on evolutionary psychology, authors La Cerra and Bingham declare that our ancestral inheritance is not a set of fixed cognitive tools but a living “brain/mind construction system” that changes our pliable brain tissue with each new experience. The Origin of Minds is a groundbreaking work that presents a provocative new model of the principles guiding the evolution of all life intelligence systems—from bacteria to plants to the human mind itself. Best of all, it’s written in an engaging style that carries one right along to its satisfying conclusion.

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken

If anyone could offer us hope for the future in these dire times and have us believe him, it would be Paul Hawken. And buoyant hope is just the feeling with which you’ll be left upon reading Hawken’s seventh book, Blessed Unrest. The visionary author, journalist, environmentalist, and entrepreneur has written, this time, about the unexpected and miraculous environmental and social justice movements now burgeoning all over the planet—with any luck, just in the nick of time. “Can myriad organizations work together to challenge deeper systemic issues?” Hawken inquires, and the answer put forth by this book is a resounding Yes. As he confesses early on: “In total, the book is inadvertently optimistic, an odd thing in these bleak times. I didn’t intend it; optimism discovered me.”

Guerrilla Marketing for Free: 100 No-Cost Tactics to Promote Your Business and Energize Your Profits by Jay Conrad Levinson

Are you an entrepreneur who’s functioning on a tight budget? (Is there any other kind?) Then you’re in for a happy discovery when you plunk down $14 for Jay Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing book. In fact, the $14 may end up as the sum total of your annual marketing budget! Through this book, Levinson, the guru of the Guerrilla Marketing series, which includes more than a million copies in print, will teach you how to aggressively market your product or service without spending one red cent. The book really does detail one hundred free ways to promote your business, and they’re all winning, workable ideas.

Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God by Paul O’Brien

Paul O’Brien is a very left-brain guy in a very right-brain business. He’s the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Visionary Networks in Portland, Oregon, which owns and operates the huge (and hugely successful) Tarot.com and I-Ching.com as well as providing astrology and divination content to many other worldwide websites. Now he has written the first definitive work on the subject of classical divination systems such as Tarot, the Runes, and the I-Ching—explaining how they work, what they’re good for, and how to benefit from them without being ripped off. As Paul says, troubled times call for wisdom. The intuitive decision-making that’s possible for each of us through the use of ancient sacred tools of divination is an asset I wouldn’t want to be without—in these or any other times.

Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright

The title of this book, Nonzero, refers to the concept of the “non-zero-sum,” which comes from game theory. Author and scholar Robert Wright, who also wrote The Moral Animal, says that looking at human history—and, for that matter, the whole history of life on Earth—through the lenses of game theory can change one’s view of life, and that is a premise of this book on which Wright delivers. He takes readers on a whirlwind tour of human history, showing us the patterns and meaning in it all. Nonzero is a fascinating read not only for history buffs, but for all the rest of us who care about the human race, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. Wright’s dazzling erudition is all delivered in a cheerfully conversational tone, and though he notes our current state of near-catastrophe, he also offers substantial hope for globally win-win solutions.

Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle by David Wann

David Wann, coauthor of the bestseller Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, has produced another winner in Simple Prosperity, which he dedicates “to all who are ready and able to open their hearts and minds to a new era.” He leads readers through a comprehensive assessment of personal assets, then public and cultural ones, and before very long we begin to realize “the abundance of enough and the poverty of more,” as Vicki Robin has put it. Simple Prosperity is a complete and friendly guidebook for a saner, healthier, and happier lifestyle, and one that is more balanced and connected. Voluntary simplicity never sounded more appealing, or more achievable.