'A great Australian journalist on a deeply personal assignment: treading bravely, beautifully into the wonder of silence.' - TRENT DALTON 'I would never think of myself as a silent retreat person but I kind of felt like Jackman went in my place! She writes so thoughtfully and clearly about feelings that are hard to describe - it's very impressive. Writing a book about something essentially ungraspable is a very bold decision, but thanks to her journalistic method and assured style, Jackman has pulled it off. A counterintuitive modern odyssey in which the heroine sets out from a land of deafening overplenty in search of ... less. Beautifully researched.' - ANNABEL CRABB Author Christine Jackman knew her life looked successful - an executive position in Sydney, a house in a harbourside suburb, meetings with CEOs and phone calls with government ministers - but it didn't feel that way. Inside, she felt constantly off balance, her thoughts and internal compass - as well as her ability to care for the people she loved most - drowned out by the noise in her life. So Jackman embarked on a quest for a better way of being. Turning Down the Noise follows her journey as she explores what is happening to our brains, our lives and our communities as we navigate a never-ending assault on our senses and attention, whether from actual noise, exposure to media or the pings and alerts on our phones. More importantly, she reveals how we can reverse the damage through simple daily acts designed to strip out the stimuli and reclaim the silence. Seeking ways to channel and capture the clarity and peace of mind so often lacking in our lives, Jackman writes with a lightness of touch, sharing her own experiences and digging into her subject with the zeal of an investigative journalist and an enquiring mind.

From the Nobel Prize-winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow and the coauthor of Nudge, a revolutionary exploration of why people make bad judgments and how to make better ones—"a tour de force” (New York Times). Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients—or that two judges in the same courthouse give markedly different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Suppose that different interviewers at the same firm make different decisions about indistinguishable job applicants—or that when a company is handling customer complaints, the resolution depends on who happens to answer the phone. Now imagine that the same doctor, the same judge, the same interviewer, or the same customer service agent makes different decisions depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday. These are examples of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical. In Noise, Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein show the detrimental effects of noise in many fields, including medicine, law, economic forecasting, forensic science, bail, child protection, strategy, performance reviews, and personnel selection. Wherever there is judgment, there is noise. Yet, most of the time, individuals and organizations alike are unaware of it. They neglect noise. With a few simple remedies, people can reduce both noise and bias, and so make far better decisions. Packed with original ideas, and offering the same kinds of research-based insights that made Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge groundbreaking New York Times bestsellers, Noise explains how and why humans are so susceptible to noise in judgment—and what we can do about it.

There’s one voice that matters more than any other: the voice of the customer. Learn how to fully understand the number one source of your organization’s prosperity, profits, and productivity. These actionable insights will help you to better connect with your customers and gain an undeniable lead over your competition. Listen Up!: How to Tune In to Customers and Turn Down the Noise teaches readers how to create a customer experience that’s built on listening and designed for engagement. Author and Salesforce executive Karen Mangia has created a practical and comprehensive examination of how best-of-breed companies listen and respond to customer demands—creating a foundation of customer success, loyalty, and brand evolution. Listen Up! features discussions about: How to go beyond the survey: best practices associated with customer understanding, customer experience, and customer service How to move from deep listening to data-based insights into customer behavior The statistics and stories behind companies, organizations, and even city governments that have created a customer-centric culture How powerful new questions can offer a fresh perspective into any customer, anywhere: empowering your customer-facing teams, including sales teams, in the current market Winning greater mindshare, and market share, with a fresh look at the future of customer service, customer success, and customer satisfaction Perfect for anyone in a leadership or management role in a customer-facing organization, including sales teams, business development leaders and marketing professionals, Listen Up! belongs on the bookshelves of executives, customer service and success employees, and leaders who want to better engage with the one voice that matters most: the voice of the customer.

It's a time of change. While mankind is adjusting to its first encounter with an alien civilisation, black-ops soldier Jim Leyton has absconded from the agency that trained him, and allied himself with a mysterious faction in order to rescue the woman he loves. Since his death, scientist and businessman Philip Kaufman has realised that there is more to the virtual world than he'd suspected. Yet it soon becomes clear that all is not well in Virtuality. Both men begin to suspect that the much heralded 'First Contact' was anything but, and that a sinister con is being perpetrated on the whole of humankind. Now all they have to do is prove it.

From the author of the bestselling The Reason I Jump, an extraordinary self-portrait of a young adult with autism “Essential reading for parents and teachers of those with autism who remain nonverbal.”—Temple Grandin Naoki Higashida was only thirteen when he wrote The Reason I Jump, a revelatory account of autism from the inside by a nonverbal Japanese child, which became an international success. Now, in Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8, he shares his thoughts and experiences as a young man living each day with severe autism. In short, powerful chapters, Higashida explores school memories, family relationships, the exhilaration of travel, and the difficulties of speech. He also allows readers to experience profound moments we take for granted, like the thought-steps necessary for him to register that it’s raining outside. Acutely aware of how strange his behavior can appear to others, he aims throughout to foster a better understanding of autism and to encourage society to see people with disabilities as people, not as problems. With an introduction by the bestselling novelist David Mitchell, Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 also includes a dreamlike short story Higashida wrote especially for the U.S. edition. Both moving and of practical use, this book opens a window into the mind of an inspiring young man who meets every challenge with tenacity and good humor. However often he falls down, he always gets back up. Praise for Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 “[Naoki Higashida’s] success as a writer now transcends his diagnosis. . . . His relative isolation—with words as his primary connection to the outside world—has allowed him to fully develop the powers of observation that are necessary for good writing, and he has developed rich, deep perspectives on ideas that many take for granted. . . . The diversity of Higashida’s writing, in both subject and style, fits together like a jigsaw puzzle of life put in place with humor and thoughtfulness.”—The Japan Times “Profound insights about what the struggle of living with autism is really like . . . Once again, the invitation to step inside Higashida’s mind is irresistible.”—London Evening Standard “Naoki Higashida’s lyrical and heartfelt account of his condition is a gift to anyone involved with the same challenges. . . . Higashida shows a delicate regard for the difficulties his condition creates . . . and is adept at explaining his experiences in language that makes sense to neurotypicals.”—The Guardian

The New York Times bestselling author of No Time for Goodbye returns with a haunting psychological thriller that blends the twists and turns of Gillian Flynn with the driving suspense of Harlan Coben, in which a man is troubled by odd sounds for which there is no rational explanation. College professor Paul Davis is a normal guy with a normal life. Until, driving along a deserted road late one night, he surprises a murderer disposing of a couple of bodies. That’s when Paul’s "normal" existence is turned upside down. After nearly losing his own life in that encounter, he finds himself battling PTSD, depression, and severe problems at work. His wife, Charlotte, desperate to cheer him up, brings home a vintage typewriter—complete with ink ribbons and heavy round keys—to encourage him to get started on that novel he’s always intended to write. However, the typewriter itself is a problem. Paul swears it’s possessed and types by itself at night. But only Paul can hear the noise coming from downstairs; Charlotte doesn’t hear a thing. And she worries he’s going off the rails. Paul believes the typewriter is somehow connected to the murderer he discovered nearly a year ago. The killer had made his victims type apologies to him before ending their lives. Has another sick twist of fate entwined his life with the killer—could this be the same machine? Increasingly tormented but determined to discover the truth and confront his nightmare, Paul begins investigating the deaths himself. But that may not be the best thing to do. Maybe Paul should just take the typewriter back to where his wife found it. Maybe he should stop asking questions and simply walk away while he can. . . .

It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done—God wants a relationship with you. Social media, television, video games, drugs, pornography – there is so much noise distracting us from what is important in life that it is nearly impossible to hear God’s truth that He will take you as you are. When we finally kill the noise of the world, we’ll discover in the silence a loving Savior who is waiting to forgive us and offer us a purpose for our lives. Ryan Ries is living proof of this truth. Growing up in Los Angeles as the son of a mega-church pastor but surrounded by the music, skate, and snowboard industries, Ryan felt a tug-of-war between the church and the world. It was in the skate and music culture that he found his passion and his identity. As a result, he walked away from God and dove head first into the world, losing his way in alcohol, drugs, and sex, which led to anxiety, brokenness, and emptiness. Kill the Noise tells Ryan’s story about finding God in the messiness of life, and lets you know how you too can find peace, joy, and purpose in Jesus Christ. This book will be a tool to help you kill the noise of the world so you can hear God’s voice telling you that He loves you and that you belong to Him.