Self Study

A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture - and a whole new way of thinking - turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true.

New York Times best-selling author Deepak Chopra joins forces with leading physicist Menas Kafatos to explore some of the most important and baffling questions about our place in the world.

Frame is the first in a series, descripting the work of thousands of men over a decade who have learned how to create a positive male identity in a world that not only lacks it, but punishes it. This first volume describes the tetrahedron of frame, and how to use it to calm the chaos in a suboptimal life, and drive towards something better: self actualization.

Thanks to her blog, Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex. For this book, she spoke to more than 30 African women across the globe while chronicling her own journey toward sexual freedom.

With reference to the ideas of a Yale professor who first identified the theory and to the writings of George Orwell from whose ‘newspeak’ the word was adapted, Booker sheds new light on the remarkable – and worrying – effects of ‘groupthink’ and its influence on our society. Booker defines the three rules of groupthink: the adoption of a common view or belief not based on objective reality; the establishment of a consensus of right-minded people, an ‘in group’; and the need to treat the views of anyone who questions the belief as wholly unacceptable.

Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. He argues that our disconnection from one another and the natural world has mislaid the foundations of science, religion, money, technology, economics, medicine, and education as we know them. It has fired our near-pathological pursuit of technological Utopias even as we push ourselves and our planet to the brink of collapse.

Learning to Pray explains what prayer is, what to expect from praying, how to do it, and how it can transform us when we make it a regular practice in our lives. A trusted guide walking beside us as we navigate our unique spiritual paths, Martin lays out the different styles and traditions of prayer throughout Christian history and invites us to experiment and discover which works best to feed our soul and build intimacy with our creator.

The best news on the planet is that your mother doesn't have to change in order for you to be happy. In fact, author Karen C.L. Anderson will take it a step further and say your mother doesn't have to change in order for you to be free, peaceful, contented, and joyful. You can emotionally separate without guilt: Inspired by her own journey, Anderson's Difficult Mothers, Adult Daughters shows women how to emotionally separate from their mothers without guilt and anxiety so they can finally create a life based on their own values, desires, needs, and preferences.

Taking everything they know from more than a decade of working with the queer and trans community, their personal journey of gender exploration, and clinical best practices, licensed therapist, coach, and speaker Rae McDaniel created the Gender Freedom Model. A uniquely supportive narrative for gender exploration and transition grounded in queer joy, their nine-pillar model has helped thousands of transgender and nonbinary individuals explore gender through play, pleasure, and freedom. And now, it can help you too.

This is a summary, analysis, and review of the book and not the original book. Codependent No More speaks to a demographic who was largely ignored before this book was published, and there is little doubt that Melody Beattie's listeners find incredible value in her words. This SUMOREADS Summary & Analysis offers supplementary material to Codependent No More to help you distill the key takeaways, review the book's content, and further understand the writing style and overall themes from an editorial perspective.

Book summary of The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown.

Alo Johnston has been where you are. From watching every transition story on YouTube and navigating online message boards for answers to finally starting testosterone and transitioning himself, he now walks alongside you every step of the way to guide you towards acceptance of who you truly are. Born out of thousands of hours of research and conversations with hundreds of trans people, Am I Trans Enough? digs deep into internalized transphobia and the historical narratives that fuel it. It unveils what happens after you come out, or begin questioning living as a trans person.

From simple practices such as walking, working, and getting lost to deep meditations on topics like prayer and pronouncing blessings, Taylor reveals concrete ways to discover the sacred in the small things we do and see. Something as ordinary as hanging clothes on a clothesline becomes an act of devotion if we pay attention to what we are doing and take time to attend to the sights, smells, and sounds around us. Making eye contact with the cashier at the grocery store becomes a moment of true human connection.

Offering straightforward and highly effective techniques to those seeking personal healing, this manual provides ways in which the power of people's voices can improve and enhance their lives. Identifying sound as the center of creation and an individual’s unique signature note - the song of the soul - that unifies the mind, body, and spirit, this important tome urges listeners to rediscover this inner sound and move onto the path of healing and the hope of creative fulfillment.

After years of standard education, you may think that you could acquire or hone skills the way you did there. Unfortunately, you may be mistaken. That’s because standard education taught you how to pass tests. But it didn’t teach you how to think. It didn’t teach you the tips and tricks to actually retain what you’ve read or written in all those years.

Listen to the key words and phrases in French, then repeat, practise and refine! A relaxing way to pick up the language. All essential words and phrases for modern life in France are here, with topics covering home life, work and school environments, shopping, food and drink, sport and leisure, transport, technology and the environment. Great care has been given to represent modern French culture and enhance your experience of France and its people, including food and drink, customs, celebrations and festivals.

From the New York Times best-selling author of An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor’s Learning to Walk in the Dark provides a way to find spirituality in those times when we don’t have all the answers. Taylor has become increasingly uncomfortable with our tendency to associate all that is good with lightness and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness. Taylor asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us “in the dark.”

Harrison Mooney was born to a West African mother and adopted as an infant by a white evangelical family. Growing up as a Black child, Harry’s racial identity is mocked and derided, while at the same time he is made to participate in the fervour of his family’s revivalist church. Confused and crushed by fundamentalist dogma and consistently abused for his colour, Harry must transition from child to young adult while navigating and surviving zealotry, paranoia and prejudice.

The Abundance Project is about having more than enough in every area of your life - more than enough money, time, love, creativity, happiness - regardless of the circumstances you’ve been through or are currently facing. This may sound like wishful thinking, but once you understand what you’re really made of, and what the source of real abundance is, you will increase your capacity and unleash your divine inheritance.

Learn to navigate the harshness of life with soft power. In her debut book, Lotte Jeffs, weaves powerful life experience with practical advice and a psychological deep-dive into what truly constitutes an emotionally rich and meaningful existence. She speaks to everyone, from agony aunts and archaeologists to pop stars and novelists, to explore a diverse picture of what it is to truly live life well.