Personal Development Books

It amazes me what a market exists on personal growth and self management books. Not only does that amaze me, I also find it totally not appealing or useful for myself. I "can do" better than that I reckon. Then one October afternoon I got this book in CD-ROM format after visiting Ben Tiggelaar's "MBA in one day" seminar (most enlightening and ultra-compact - great!). Listening to it on my way home encouraged me to buy the book. This is not a methodology trick, not a recipe, no golden rules: this is all about listening to yourself, finding your true priorities and choice, and releasing the powers that your environment and yourself hold back. And then it hands you simple and practical tips to help you go your own way - towards your own targets. It's an easy read and an easy reference (I pick it back out of the bookcase every now and then "what was it again that made this trick easy"), but most importantly it lets you realise stuff you will probably have noticed or considered before, and makes that tangible and truly worth going for. Your way, not the highway.

Are you being heard? How are people reacting when you speak? Do they tune you out, cringe, or do they pay attention and appreciate your words? You can make yourself be heard, lead your life, career and relationships to success, and come away having left a positive impact on those around you.

Kate Peters can help you to find the strengths in your voice and fine-tune it to suit your needs. Her unique book, "Can You Hear Me Now?" is all about harnessing the power of your vocal impact. Why would you want to do that? How other people perceive our voices is the beginning of how they perceive us as people. If you sound harsh, you just might be that way...if you sound meek, chances are that you will treated as such. The way we speak affects our jobs, our lives and our personal relationships. If you've never even thought about it then this book is definitely for you.

Kate will guide you through several lessons and a 31-day program that you control. The book is designed to help the reader to understand the voice, the impact the voice makes and the choices we have to control it. The first part of the book concentrates on what you should be concentrating on: the purpose behind your words. Are you conversing or expressing? The second part of the book focuses on ways to make changes through posture, practice, exercises for your voice, and breathing. Knowing how to make the changes is the key. The third part of the book is all about you. It is a daily prompt of things to focus on and a short journaling experience to help you claim ownership of what you are learning. This month of daily entries will help you to utilize what you have learned from Kate Peters throughout the book.

"Can You Hear Me Now?" is a wonderful tool whether you are in the business world, concerned about your relationships, or even a kindergarten teacher. Your voice is your initial outreach to those around you...you want it to be representative of who you really are. I recommend this book to anyone seeking to positively speak his or her mind and be heard.
Review by Heather Froeschl

I had to write a resume for a business communication class at UTSA, but since I was interviewing for a job I read ahead and without instruction made a kick-butt resume that helped me land a great job.

It also has good tips for all aspects of building a career and the steps to take along the way whether you're a collge student, a homemaker re-entering the job force, or changing careers after a tenured position.

Thanks Ms. Johnston for the help.

What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem is when...
* You can't wait to get up in the morning
* You walk straight, look people in the eye and move with confidence
* You're handed a difficult assignment and dive into it enthusiastically
* You know it's safe to be honest in your relationships
* You feel exhilarated when you work hard

Think about it...
How you feel about yourself affects every single aspect of your life. When your self-esteem is high, you reach peak performance.

You can keep your self-esteem high - consistently - by using specific skills you'll learn in this inspiring program. They're deceptively simple, yet most people aren't even aware of them.

If you want to feel and be your best, this audio program is for you.
--- from back cover

Finch and Kirkwood have written a great and insightful book reviewing the premise that chance, operating during the fetal development of an organism, has a significant influence on all future physiological events during the postnatal life of the organism. These intrinsic developmental variations lead to seemingly subtle and, until now, thought to be insignificant, physiological differences between organisms. Finch and Kirkwood convincingly argue that these subtle physiological differences have a significant impact on later events during the life of the organism. For example, whether a given individual will get sporadic Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. Also, the same variations would have an impact on the severity of the disease (should a person get the disease). This book is a must for any biology scientist serious about having a complete library on her/his shelves.

If you are a person with disabilities or have some functional limitation, there are so many tools and resources available to help you achieve your potential. But where to start? Start with this book by the Alliance for Technology Access! From establishing a vision of how your life to be, to giving you step-by-step instructions for creating a plan, to educating you about technology tools that are available, to describing your legal rights, this book has it all. I know of dozens of people for whom this book has opened doors they barely had dreamed of.

Most time management books are long. If you have time to read the four hundred pages of long passages, why would you need a time management book? This book reads fast, but has all I've been looking for: some inspriation, some tips, some motivation to get started on a new time-management practice. I am not as impressed with the part 2 [personal development] as part 1 [time management] probably because I did not need the information in part 2. Overall, the book was helpful and to the point.

This book should appeal to the small group of Motor Behavior/Sport Psychology researchers, such as members of NASPSPA. I needed the chapter on Franklin Henry specifically, but the perspectives from the other big names in the field are interesting too.

I got hooked on the BBC TV series "Changing Rooms" when it began showing on BBCA.

This is a great book in that it takes the reader one step further than the show - it actually shows Handy Andy at work instead of in the background.

He shows how to do various projects such as wallpapering, putting up shelves and even unblocking drains (which I needed last weekend), with step-by-step illustrations. He also advises on the various tools you should own (or use) with instructions on using them, some pitfalls you might encounter on your DIY and even some dangers with DIY by showing what can happen if you do it wrong.

In all, I recommend this book to the American reader. Long live Handy Andy

This is a concise, thorough approach to an important subject. The author is knowledgable and can convey her expertise in an accessible format that should be useful to librarians seeking to have core collections that will meet the needs of their patrons. Designed for public librarians, "Developing an Outstanding Core Collection" will be a useful guide for high school and college librarians. A "must" for professionals responsible for book purchasing for public libraries. Rowena McDade, MSW, MLS