At the Library: Cupcake ‘treets’ and stories at Dec. 20 holiday celebration
Happy Holidays! At 3 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Captiva Memorial Library, kids and families will enjoy holiday stories, poetry and make a holiday tree out of cupcake wrappers.
Feeling constructive? The Captiva Memorial Library’s self-help books will guide you to success:
“Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time”
by Rory Vaden
“New York Times bestselling author and sales-performance trainer Rory Vaden brings his high-energy approach and can-do spirit to the most nagging problem in our professional lives: stalled productivity. Millions are overworked, organizationally challenged, or have a motivation issue that’s holding them back. Vaden presents a simple yet powerful paradigm that will set readers free to do their best work-on time and without stress and anxiety.” *
“Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions”
by John C. Norcross, M.D.
“Is there a scientific formula you can follow to change your life? Change is hard. But not if you know the 5-step formula that works whether you’re trying to stop smoking or start recycling. Dr. John C. Norcross, an internationally recognized expert, has studied how people make transformative, permanent changes in their lives. Over the past thirty years, he and his research team have helped thousands of people overcome dozens of behavioral ailments. Now his cutting-edge, scientific approach to personal improvement is being made available in this indispensable guide. Unlike 95 percent of self-help books, the Changeology plan has a documented track record of success. Whether you want to quit overeating or drinking, or end depression, debt, and relationship distress, Dr. Norcross gives you the tools you need to change what you want within 90 days. Changeology shows you: How to define your goals and get started in a new direction; How to pump up your motivation and prepare for self-change; How to prevent relapses into old patterns; How to master the skills that will help you sustain change; How to personalize your journey with Check Yourself assessments and an inter- active website, www.ChangeologyBook.com; Whatever your goal or resolution, you can use Changeology to achieve a life filled with greater health and happiness.” *
“Super Brain: Unleashing the Explosive Power of Your Mind to Maximize Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Well-Being”
by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E.Tanzi PhD
“A manual for relating to the brain in a revolutionary new way, ‘Super Brain’ shows you how to use your brain as a gateway for achieving health, happiness, and spiritual growth. The authors are two pioneers: bestselling author and physician Deepak Chopra and Harvard Medical School professor Rudolph E. Tanzi, one of the world’s foremost experts on the causes of Alzheimer’s. They have merged their wisdom and expertise for a bold new understanding of the three-pound universe and its untapped potential. In contrast to the baseline brain that fulfills the tasks of everyday life, Chopra and Tanzi propose that, through a person’s increased self-awareness and conscious intention, the brain can be taught to reach far beyond its present limitations. We are living in a golden age for brain research, but is this a golden age for your brain? they ask. ‘Super Brain’ explains how it can be, by combining cutting-edge research and spiritual insights, demolishing the five most widespread myths about the brain that limit your potential, and then showing you methods to: Use your brain instead of letting it use you; Create the ideal lifestyle for a healthy brain; Reduce the risks of aging; Promote happiness and well-being through the mind-body connection; Access the enlightened brain, the gateway to freedom and bliss; Overcome the most common challenges, such as memory loss, depression, anxiety, and obesity. Your brain is capable of incredible healing and constant reshaping. Through a new relationship with your brain you can transform your life. In ‘Super Brain,’ Chopra and Tanzi guide you on a fascinating journey that envisions a leap in human evolution. The brain is not just the greatest gift that Nature has given us. It’s the gateway to an unlimited future that you can begin to live today.” *
“The Art of Asking: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help”
by Amanda Palmer
“Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world’s most successful music Kickstarter. Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for — as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife. She learns that she isn’t alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of ‘The Art of Asking.’ Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. ‘The Art of Asking’ will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.” *
“Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician’s Journey Through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More”
by Matt Parker
A book from the stand-up mathematician that makes math fun again! Math is boring, says the mathematician and comedian Matt Parker. Part of the problem may be the way the subject is taught, but it’s also true that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, find math difficult and counterintuitive. This counter intuitiveness is actually part of the point, argues Parker: the extraordinary thing about math is that it allows us to access logic and ideas beyond what our brains can instinctively do-through its logical tools we are able to reach beyond our innate abilities and grasp more and more abstract concepts. In the absorbing and exhilarating ‘Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension,’ Parker sets out to convince his readers to revisit the very math that put them off the subject as fourteen-year-olds. Starting with the foundations of math familiar from school (numbers, geometry, and algebra), he reveals how it is possible to climb all the way up to the topology and to four-dimensional shapes, and from there to infinity-and slightly beyond. Both playful and sophisticatedfilled with captivating games and puzzles, a buffet of optional hands-on activities that entices us to take pleasure in math that is normally only available to those studying at a university levelinvites us to re-learn much of what we missed in school and, this time, to be utterly enthralled by it.” *
* Book jacket/publisher description
-Senior Librarian Ann Bradley is branch manager Captiva Memorial Library