Other books that might interest you

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  Why Plant Medicine Is Not a...

  Elena Cross

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.   
  The rebranding was brilliant. Take psychoactive substances that would otherwise be classified alongside street drugs, wrap them in indigenous imagery and healing language, call them plant medicine instead of drugs. Create the impression that drinking ayahuasca or eating mushrooms is not drug use but spiritual practice, not intoxication but ceremony. Millions bought this rebranding, flying to retreats worldwide, drinking bitter brews, experiencing what felt like ego death and rebirth. Yet months later, most discover the transformation did not stick. The insights faded, patterns returned, and they found themselves planning the next ceremony, convinced they just needed to go deeper. This book exposes a truth the plant medicine culture has worked hard to obscure: plant medicine is drugs. Ayahuasca, psilocybin, peyote, DMT—these are psychoactive compounds that cross the blood-brain barrier and force consciousness into altered states. The word medicine changes nothing about the underlying pharmacology. The ceremonial context changes nothing about the chemical mechanism. A drug is a drug, regardless of cultural packaging. Ayahuasca is as much a drug as heroin. The spiritual vocabulary is marketing, not reality. Until you see through the seduction, you will keep mistaking stimulation for transformation.

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  The Leader's Guide to Speaking...

  John Baldoni

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  Whether in a meeting or a presentation, a watercooler conversation or a formal speech, a leader’s most important job is to. 
  Your idea may be groundbreaking. The potential profits might be exhilarating. The time to act may be right now, but if you’re not able to craft and deliver a clear message that doesn’t lead the audience to gain your perspective, that can be the difference between your pitch being transformational and becoming forgettable. 
  Executive coach and leadership expert John Baldoni provides this concise tool kit containing more than 100 practical tips for creating and communicating meaningful messages with presence and authority. 
  In The Leader's Guide to Speaking with Presence, you will discover how to:Present their ideas clearly and provide contextRadiate confidence and put the audience at easeRefine their deliveryUse stories to inform, involve, and inspireLeverage the energy of any roomConvey optimism tempered with reality to gain buy-inTurn PowerPoint presentations into performances 
  When a leader learns to own the room with an authentic and persuasive speech, the audience will become putty in their hands. The Leader's Guide to Speaking with Presence helps leaders achieve the kind of genuine presence that evolves into lasting trust and quantifiable influence.

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  Among the Forest People

  Clara Dillingham Pierson

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  Another delightful children's book by Clara Dillingham Pierson about various forest animals - what they do, and what they are like. Each one also giving subtle moral and life lessons to young children. - Summary by Claire Schreuder

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  The Heart of It - The Illiad and...

  Elizabeth McNamer

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  The Illiad & The Odyssey are two epic poems by Greek author Homer, works that have been entertaining— and perhaps exasperating— readers for centuries. In a series of lectures, literary scholar Elizabeth McNamer provides engaging insights into these two iconic works. McNamer first discusses how The Iliad portrays love, jealousy, pride, and the courage men and women display in war. McNamer then focuses on and The Odyssey in which the hero Odysseus endures strange adventures en route home to his faithful wife. While these lectures are grounded in scholarly research, they are also accessible for contemporary audiences, helping them appreciate more fully these two great works.

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  The Zelensky Effect

  Olga Onuch, Henry E. Hale

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  With Russian shells raining on Kyiv and tanks closing in, American forces prepared to evacuate Ukraine's leader. Just three years earlier, his apparent main qualification had been playing a president on TV. But Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly retorted, 'I need ammunition, not a ride.' Ukrainian forces won the battle for Kyiv, ensuring their country's independence even as a longer war began for the southeast. 
   
   
   
  You cannot understand the historic events of 2022 without understanding Zelensky. But the Zelensky effect is less about the man himself than about the civic nation he embodies: what makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian. 
   
   
   
  The Zelensky Effect explains this paradox, exploring Ukraine's national history to show how its now-iconic president reflects the hopes and frustrations of the country's first 'independence generation'. Interweaving social and political background with compelling episodes from Zelensky's life and career, this is the story of Ukraine told through the journey of one man who has come to symbolize his country.

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  The View From A Darkened Room -...

  Blair Erotica

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  Things can't go on like this. After losing her boyfriend, her job, and her confidence all at once, Kate needs to escape from her lonely apartment. In a rustic retreat she finds a welcoming group of hot people, and they involve her in hot, unprotected sex with men and women that pushes her boundaries. 
  ~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~ 
  Kate found her suitcase lying on the bed. She opened it, thinking that maybe unpacking would help her get relaxed. The small closet and dresser provided plenty of space for the little she had brought. The bathroom was tiny, and she sighed when she saw there was no tub. So much for the idea of spending relaxing hours in the tub with a good book. A lot of good it did that she had remembered to bring bubble bath and a number of good books with her; the dream had to adapt to the place. 
  She noted a sign on the wall titled Guest Services. A quick look told her that someone named Betty drove to town on Wednesday mornings. For a small fee, she would pick up groceries or things needed from the store, and take in and pick up laundry. That was helpful. She wouldn't need to go into town unless she wanted to. 
  Besides her clothing, she had brought a few other necessities. She found her box sitting on the counter of the tiny kitchen. She opened it and took out a coffee press, kettle, ground coffee, three bottles of wine, corkscrew and some cheese and crackers. Enough, she thought, to avoid the necessity of going out to eat the first night. With luck, she'd find a deli in town and be able to stock up on some other food and hunker down in her little mansion on Helen's Hill. 
  She opened a bottle of red wine and poured a big glass. "The first course of my nutritious meal," she laughed and took a close look at the place that would be home for month. The front porch occupied a corner of the house, with the bedroom taking the rest of the space in the front. The bedroom had two windows.

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