LOVE EVERY DAY de Rick Hanson

Rick Hanson brings his trademark warmth and clarity to offer the fundamental tools and skills that foster lasting and fulfilling relationships of all kinds: at home and at work, with family and friends, and with people who are challenging.

LOVE EVERY DAY:
52 Practices for Happier, Healthier Relationships
by Rick Hanson
‎Harmony, January 2023

Grounded in brain science and clinical psychology, and informed by contemplative wisdom, LOVE EVERY DAY offers 52 simple yet powerful practices for building healthy relationships, including how to feel that you truly deserve good treatment from others; how to let go of toxic self-criticism; how to feel less anxious in groups; how to tap into the neural circuitry of calm strength and self-worth; how to set and keep healthy boundaries; and how to express your wants with others in ways that make them more likely to be respected and fulfilled.

Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist, senior fellow of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times bestselling author. His books have been published in twenty-nine languages and include Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture, with 900,000 copies in English alone. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, NPR, and other major media.

THE SIX PHASE MEDITATION METHOD de Vishen Lakhiani

The New York Times bestselling author of The Buddha and the Badass and The Code of the Extraordinary Mind hacks meditation with his signature hyper-efficient 6 Phase Meditation Program that anyone can make time for.

THE SIX PHASE MEDITATION METHOD:
The Proven Technique to Supercharge Your Mind, Smash Your Goals, and Make Magic in Minutes a Day
by Vishen Lakhiani
Rodale, September 2022

There are hundreds of types of meditation out there. But entrepreneur Vishen Lakhiani credits his success to a condensed, magic-making, joy-creating, productivity-inducing, goal-smashing mega meditation: The 6 Phase Meditation. He pulled from thousands of years of psycho-spiritual wisdom, cherry-picked the best bits, translated it all into plain English, and put it into a logical, 15-minute practice that anyone can master. The 6 phases are centered on Connection, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Envisioning Your Future, Daily Intention, and Blessing, and only demand 15 minutes of your day. One of the side effects of this particular meditation is increased focus and reduced anxiety as you shift from overwhelm to overwellness—Vishen’s word for an optimum level of balance in all aspects of your life.
No matter what you’ve got going on, you can thrive because you’ve trained for all of life’s insanity on your meditation cushion.

Vishen Lakhiani is the founder and CEO of Mindvalley, a personal growth education empire with more than two million students, which teaches revolutionary success systems for mastering life via online learning platforms, storytelling and filmmaking, and live events. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers The Buddha and the Badass and The Code of the Extraordinary Mind.

IF NIETZCHE WERE A NARWHAL de Justin Gregg

Funny and counter-intuitive, IF NIETZSCHE WERE A NARWHAL reveals how human intelligence may actually be more of a liability than a gift, and how the animal kingdom, in all its diversity, gets by just fine without it.

IF NIETZCHE WERE A NARWHAL:
What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity
by Justin Gregg
Little, Brown, August 2022
(via Writers House)

At first glance, human history is full of remarkable feats of intelligence. We invented writing. Produced incredible achievements in music, the arts, and the sciences. We’ve built sprawling cities and traveled across oceans—and space—and expanded to every part of the globe.
Yet, human exceptionalism can be a double-edged sword. With our unique cognitive prowess comes severe consequences, including existential angst, violence, discrimination, and the creation of a world teetering towards climate catastrophe. Understood side-by-side, human exceptionalism begins to look more like a curse.
As scientist Justin Gregg persuasively argues, there’s an evolutionary reason why human intelligence isn’t more prevalent in the animal kingdom. Simply put, non-human animals don’t need it to be successful. And, miraculously, their success arrives without the added baggage of destroying themselves and the planet in the process.
In seven mind-bending and hilarious chapters, Gregg highlights one feature seemingly unique to humans—our use of language, our rationality, our moral systems, our so-called sophisticated consciousness—and compares it to our animal brethren. What emerges is both demystifying and remarkable, and will change how you look at animals, humans, and the meaning of life itself.
Destined to become a classic, IF NIETZSCHE WERE A NARWHAL asks whether we are in fact the superior species. It turns out, the truth is stranger—and far more interesting—than we have been led to believe.

Justin Gregg is a Senior Research Associate with the Dolphin Communication Project and an Adjunct Professor at St. Francis Xavier University where he lectures on animal behavior and cognition. Originally from Vermont, Justin studied the echolocation abilities of wild dolphins in Japan and The Bahamas. He currently lives in rural Nova Scotia where he writes about science and contemplates the inner lives of the crows that live near his home.

BEST MEN de Sid Karger

A romcom that puts a gay spin on classic favorites like Bridesmaids or My Best Friend’s Wedding.

BEST MEN
by Sid Karger
Berkley, Spring 2023
(via Writers House)

Max Moody is in his 30s and thinks he has everything figured out, not the least of which is the best-of-best-friends a gay guy could ask for: Paige. She grew up with Max. She can light up any party. She finishes his sentences. She is always a reliable splunch (NOT brunch) partner. But then everything in Max’s life is turned upside down when Paige announces some big news: she’s engaged! And it turns out there’s not just one new man in Paige’s life… There are two. The groom, who’s a perfectly nice guy. And his charming, younger, and…really (really) hot gay brother, Chasten. As Paige’s wedding draws closer, Max and Chasten realize they’re like oil and water, yet they still have to figure out how to co-exist in Paige’s life while not making her wedding all about them. But can the tiny spark between them elevate their best man roles in a wedding to the best man in each other’s lives?

Sid Karger has been a contributing writer for SNL and Billy on the Street, and has also written and directed for Comedy Central, MTV, IFC, FX, NBC, CBS, SyFy, Sundance, BET, AMC and truTV. BEST MEN is his debut novel.

SNAKE OIL de Kelsey Rae Dimberg

From the author of Girl in the Rearview Window comes a stunning novel set in the high-stakes world of Silicon Valley.

SNAKE OIL
by Kelsey Rae Dimberg
William Morrow, Summer 2023
(via Writers House)

Radical is a fast-growing wellness startup, rumored to be approaching “unicorn” status. But on the night of a booze-fueled bacchanal celebrating another round of venture capital investment, a woman’s body is found outside the company’s San Francisco HQ. Did she fall from the roof? Did she jump? Or was she pushed?
Rhoda West, Radical’s luminous founder-CEO, has attracted both avid followers and vocal detractors in the building of her wellness company. Her Instagram page exhorts followers to #bebetter, showcasing intimate glimpses of Rhoda’s glamorous personal life alongside promotions for the mysterious, cult-status products created in Radical’s secretive Lab.
Dani is her enthusiastic employee—a “radigal”—who has fully immersed herself in the Radical lifestyle, eagerly testing products while covering up a pregnancy she’s not sure she’s ready for. When @Radicalidiocy, a twitter account devoted to lambasting the company online, starts to expose company secrets, Dani suspects her colleague and on-the-rocks friend Cecilia, a disgruntled customer service rep, might be running the account. As Rhoda engages in a cat-and-mouse chase with the Twitter author and struggles to maintain her power against mounting pressure, the women’s ambitions and beliefs will clash—with deadly results.
A page-turning literary thriller, Dimberg’s new book is an incisive examination of the high-stakes startup world, where the reputation of a leader carries outsize influence on the value of a brand, and the barbed double-standards applied to female CEOs.

Kelsey Rae Dimberg is the author of Girl in the Rearview Mirror. She received an MFA from the University of San Francisco and studied at Barrett Honors College of Arizona State University, where she was editor-in-chief of the literary magazine, Lux, and received the Swarthout Award in Fiction.