In this eye-opening collection of essays, Dr. Geraldine K. Piorkowski shares what she learned working with people from different socioeconomic levels, races, sexual orientations, and walks of life. Besides reaffirming that all people are fundamentally the same, she discovered many psychological realities that run counter to popular culture. Among her insights is the observation that positive thinking does more harm than good at times, especially when it bypasses the normal processing of negative events and emotions. Another cultural misdirection is the overemphasis on romantic love as the be-all and end-all of existence, where unrealistic expectations lead to love's downfall. She also notes that unhealthy narcissism, which runs rampant in American culture, is quite different from the healthy variety that is the bedrock of self-love. These illuminating and provocative essays, titled 1) Positive Thinking Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be, 2) When Is Madness Better than Sadness? 3) Romantic Love Is Mostly an Illusion, 4) Vulnerable People Are More Likable than Super-Confident Ones, 5) You Can't Make Anybody Do Anything, 6) Luck or Chance Has Been Badly Underrated, 7) A Smidgen of Narcissism Adds Joy and Spice to Life, and 8) Empathy and Healthy Religion Go Hand in Hand, all provide a new understanding of psychological health and well-being.

In this eye-opening collection of essays, Dr. Geraldine K. Piorkowski shares what she learned working with people from different socioeconomic levels, races, sexual orientations, and walks of life. Besides reaffirming that all people are fundamentally the same, she discovered many psychological realities that run counter to popular culture. Among her insights is the observation that positive thinking does more harm than good at times, especially when it bypasses the normal processing of negative events and emotions. Another cultural misdirection is the overemphasis on romantic love as the be-all and end-all of existence, where unrealistic expectations lead to love's downfall. She also notes that unhealthy narcissism, which runs rampant in American culture, is quite different from the healthy variety that is the bedrock of self-love. These illuminating and provocative essays, titled 1) Positive Thinking Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be, 2) When Is Madness Better than Sadness? 3) Romantic Love Is Mostly an Illusion, 4) Vulnerable People Are More Likable than Super-Confident Ones, 5) You Can't Make Anybody Do Anything, 6) Luck or Chance Has Been Badly Underrated, 7) A Smidgen of Narcissism Adds Joy and Spice to Life, and 8) Empathy and Healthy Religion Go Hand in Hand, all provide a new understanding of psychological health and well-being.

'Dom opens people's eyes to show them that what's holding their life back might be hiding at the bottom of their glass...' - Chris Williamson - Modern Wisdom ‘I saw firsthand how Dominic transformed his relationship with alcohol. This enabled him to become the best version of himself and inspired him to achieve his personal and business goals.’ - Steven Bartlett, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Investor, Author and the host of the UK’s No.1 Podcast ‘The Diary of a CEO’ ‘Like any drug, if not taken in moderation, alcohol is a poison and impacts every part of your system. Dominic McGregor saw this clearly on his own journey to change his relationship with alcohol, and interweaves his own personal challenges with practical advice and wisdom.’ - Professor Steve Peters, Consultant Psychiatrist and Bestselling Author of The Chimp Paradox An insightful account into how changing your relationship with alcohol can change your life In I'm Never Drinking Again: How to stop drinking so much and change your relationship with alcohol, successful entrepreneur, investor, and mental health advocate Dominic McGregor, now seven years sober, explains how changing your relationship with alcohol can transform every aspect of your life. In the book, you'll explore the role alcohol plays in our society and how dangerous it can be when mixed with poor emotional wellbeing and challenges in life. You'll also discover the advantages of questioning your relationship with alcohol, whether sobriety or moderating alcohol can lead to success, and how, if unmanaged, alcohol can take over your life. The author explains: How to manage mental health problems, addictions to alcohol and other drugs, burnout, and other harmful phenomena associated with success How exploring a “sober-curious” lifestyle can aid success How your life can be positively impacted by questioning your relationship with alcohol I'm Never Drinking Again will prove invaluable for anyone who is "sober-curious" and wishes to understand the affect alcohol may play in their lives. Whether you are battling addiction, questioning your relationship with alcohol, or just intrigued by the prospect of challenging yourself to go alcohol free, I'm Never Drinking Again will empower you to strive for a better lifestyle.

High-quality higher education leadership is critical to student engagement, persistence, and graduation outcomes. With higher education institutions pushing for Black student enrollment and effective and innovative strategies to retain current students, leadership in institutions must reflect the Black academics they serve. In addition, there is a shortage of Black department heads, deans, and provosts to make important decisions about the matriculation of students toward graduation. Therefore, it is essential that higher education institutions take what they have learned from those who have been in academic leadership roles and develop new strategies to recruit, mentor, and retain high-quality Black academic leaders that reflect the student population. The Future of Black Leadership in Higher Education: Firsthand Experiences and Global Impact provides experiences, narratives, and best practices that are more inclusive of Black professionals by allowing them to seek advancement in these critical roles. This book presents crucial knowledge about academic leadership for Black professionals and familiarizes readers with policies, practices, and procedures that impact the experiences of Black leadership. Covering predominantly white institutions, second-career Black women, and Black professors, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for faculty and administrators of higher education, students of higher education, librarians, researchers, graduate students, and academicians.

From farmer, lawyer, and political activist John Klar comes a bold, solutions-based plan for Conservatives that gets beyond the fatuous pipe dreams and social-justice platitudes of the dominant, Liberal “Green” agenda—offering a healthy way forward for everyone. While many on the Left have taken up the mantle of creating a “green” future through climate alarmism, spurious new energy sources, and technocratic control, many on the Right continue to deny imminent environmental threats while pushing for unbridled deregulation of our most destructive industrial forces. Neither approach promises a bright future. In a time of soil degradation, runaway pollution, food insecurity, and declining human health, the stakes couldn’t be higher, and yet the dominant political voices too often overlook the last best hope for our planet—supporting small, regenerative farmers. In fact, politicians on all sides continue to sell out the interests of small farmers to the devastating power of Big Ag and failed “renewable energy” incentives. It’s time for a new vision. It’s time for bold new agriculture policies that restore both ecosystems and rural communities. In Small Farm Republic, John Klar, an agrarian conservative in the mold of Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin, offers an alternative that puts small farmers, regenerative agriculture, and personal liberty at the center of an environmental revival—a message that everyone on the political spectrum needs to hear.

In the tradition of You Are a Badass, women's empowerment coach Gina DeVee shares motivational steps for how to become the queen of your own life.​ In every woman lives a Queen who is confident, poised, and clear on her calling. She is bold and unapologetic. Drawing from her spiritual connection and feminine nature, she accesses the power to manifest her desires and fulfill her purpose. The era of invisible women is over. Your time to be Queen has arrived. In The Audacity to Be Queen, women's empowerment and success coach Gina DeVee invites modern-day women to embrace the endless possibilities that are rightfully ours. Permission granted to take ourselves off the back burner financially, romantically, physically, and socially-and step into our greatness. The days of dismissing ourselves and our desires end here. No longer must we pretend to be anything other than brilliant, capable, and fabulous. The world needs women like us to own our power, raise our standards, and contribute our talents like never before. When a woman chooses to be a Queen, everyone benefits. With spectacular flair, beautiful pearls of wisdom, and lifechanging stories of unexpected triumph, The Audacity to BeQueen takes you on a journey to empower the Queen within. Gina DeVee shares the steps, exercises, meditations, prayers, and journal prompts to release all forms of self-doubt and self-sabotage so you can discover the best version of you. Only from the position of Queen can you fulfill your calling, and in this pivotal moment, time is of the essence. The age of the Queen is now.

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.