en-US Fri, 03 Mar 2023 04:56:17 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 58152063 FINALIST : Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2023 - Career
International Book Awards 2023 - Motivational

What do astronauts, Olympic champions, and Nobel laureates do differently that allows them to achieve at such a high level?

High achievers share the same four intrinsic motivation, perseverance, strong foundation, constantly learning through informal means. The key to their success is that they do all four of these things at the same time. Based on research and in-person interviews with astronauts, Nobel Prize winners, and Olympic champions, The Success Factor outlines the approach that individuals aspiring to improve their performance can adopt.

Using these four shared attributes as a guide, The Success Factor helps you reach your peak by applying the lessons of high achievers in your own identify your passion using a Passion Audit; learn how and where to find a mentor and how to build a mentoring team; develop your own community of practice; pursue your interests through informal learning; manage your time and energy. The Success Factor comes with online resources that feature a downloadable Passion Audit worksheet, Mentoring Team worksheet, and Goal Audit worksheet. The book offers scripts for approaching potential mentors and a list of uncommon places to find a mentor, such as webinars, airports, and social media.

The Success Factor features exclusive interviews with high achievers, including such people as Dr. Tony Fauci NIH/NIAID Institute Director; Dr Mike Brown, Nobel prize winner; Dr Peggy Whitson, Former NASA Chief Astronaut; Maxine Clark, founder and former CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop; and Steve Kerr, eight time NBA Champion and head coach of the Golden State Warriors.]]> 240 Ruth Gotian 1398602310 Matthew 5 4.24
author: Ruth Gotian
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/03/03
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review:
A well-written and truly thought-provoking book that dives deep into mindset, success, and habits, yet not in a way that feels overwhelming. A really great blend of stories and observations from the author, and is something I have taken a lot from. Definitely recommended, especially if you're looking to make strides in your life in the coming months.
]]> 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Matthew 0 3.96 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/05/04
date added: 2021/05/04
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review:

]]> 56187585 Ferdinand Foy is a mid-twenties Silicon Valley success story. Very successful, in fact. 'On the fast-track to becoming a billionaire' kind of successful. He assumes he knows what he wants and wakes up each day as an in-demand CEO everyone wants a piece of: girls, investors, the media... While appearing on a podcast, Ferdinand is forced to ask himself the question: Why do I want to become a billionaire? After which, he takes a sabbatical from his successful tech company to go and find himself. His journey takes him across the USA and further adrift to Spain, England, Cambodia, Bali and South America. Along the way, he meets fellow entrepreneurs, authors, and investors. On Ferdinand's return to America, he experiments with new ideas. From meditation to an ayahuasca retreat, he begins to build a new definition of what success and happiness means to him.

Beyond The Pale inspires readers to question their own pursuit of success. In a fast-paced world fueled by a hustle mentality, it forces them to reflect on their beliefs, goals, dreams, and purpose. Written for today's non-stop entrepreneur that comes up with excuses as to why they don't have the time to read a novel, Beyond The Pale offers them a story that empowers them to unhook, learn, and dive deeper while introducing them to aspects that not only help them grow their business, but also grow as a person.]]> 264 Matthew Turner 1631953842 Matthew 0 currently-reading 3.94
author: Matthew Turner
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/04
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 14802335 313 John Green 0141345632 Matthew 5 3.93 2012
author: John Green
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2013/09/21
date added: 2019/01/15
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
review:

]]> 34909086
In a modern day rendition of The Goal, you’ll follow the journey of Ralph Hill as he learns how to positively transform any business from loss to profit in 90 days. Along the way he learns that it’s more than just business. It’s also a journey of personal transformation.

Here’s just a fraction of what you’ll discover:
<> How to create an unfair advantage in your business.
<> What you need to know to separate yourself from your peers.
<> The quickest way to increase profits and efficiency improvements.
<> The step-by-step process of how to approach big change in business.
<> How to run a pilot program as a safe springboard to spectacular success.
<> How focusing on the P.R.O.F.I.T.S. System can have the welcomed side effect of personal transformation to your relationships, health and fitness.

Ralph’s is a story that you’ll relate to � shooting up through the ranks at his company only to have everything unravel in one quick afternoon. Ralph is left with no job, no prospects, and very little hope.

In reality, it was the best thing that happened to him. You’ll watch as Ralph goes from the lowest point of his life to the highest, guided by his mentor and chronicled in his weekly reflections.

Required reading by all: business owners, senior managers and consultants. This book will teach you how to turn around a struggling business and grow faster than ever before.]]> 268 Erland Bakke Matthew 0 currently-reading 4.15 2017
author: Erland Bakke
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/20
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Matthew 5 3.81 1951
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 5
read at: 2016/04/30
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 70401 307 Jack Kerouac 0140042598 Matthew 5 3.63 1957
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1957
rating: 5
read at: 2016/04/30
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 16056408 A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a sophomore year breakup. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Grief becomes nightmare when Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night.

But her attacker turns stalker, and Jacqueline has a choice to make: crumple in defeat or fight back. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to tell and who to trust is anything but easy.]]> 336 Tammara Webber 0425266745 Matthew 5 4.03 2012
author: Tammara Webber
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2016/04/30
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 16151178 I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.]]> 449 Katja Millay Matthew 5 4.26 2012
author: Katja Millay
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2016/04/30
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Matthew 5 3.88 1937
author: John Steinbeck
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Matthew 5 4.25 1960
author: Harper Lee
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 2012/01/15
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 107896 University Challenge—and now, finally, it seems the dream is about to become reality. He's made the school team, and they've completed the qualifying rounds and are limbering up for their first televised match. (And, what's more, he's fallen head over heels for one of his teammates, the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson.) Life seems perfect and triumph inevitable—but as his world opens up, Brian learns that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.]]> 338 David Nicholls 0345498127 Matthew 5 3.65 2003
author: David Nicholls
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2012/01/20
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 22628 offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see
what it looks like from the dance floor.

This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being A WALLFLOWER

This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

(back cover)]]> 213 Stephen Chbosky Matthew 5 4.24 1999
author: Stephen Chbosky
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2012/03/01
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 9361589
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.]]> 506 Erin Morgenstern Matthew 5 4.00 2011
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2012/07/05
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 11250053
This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place, things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.]]> 386 Eowyn Ivey 0316175676 Matthew 5 3.94 2012
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/08/23
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 10956 250 Jeffrey Eugenides 0747560595 Matthew 5 3.81 1993
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2012/11/02
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 13606072 512 Chad Harbach 0007374453 Matthew 5 3.92 2011
author: Chad Harbach
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2012/09/22
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 12580191
Set in Los Angeles, the novel follows Jake Reed, a world-weary recent college graduate struggling to find use for his liberal arts degree amidst a waning workforce. He eventually lands a job in real estate as a "Social Media Manager," a role that requires the mindless pursuit of likes, tweets, and hits.

After a death in the family and a surprise inheritance, Jake quits his job and meanders through lonely hotel rooms, quiet beach towns, and then, in a dramatic shift, stations himself in West Hollywood where disillusioned twenty-somethings lose themselves in the madness of drugs and sex. It is here that the only proof of memories is found in filtered photographs posted online from the night before.

Miller captures the angst, restlessness, and spirit of the Millennial Generation � a group mindlessly charging through the recession during a time when the line between existence in the physical and digital world is blurred. The novel provides a fascinating, grim, and often times humorous portrayal of the lifestyle that represents our contemporary youth.]]> 375 Nick Miller 0983896119 Matthew 5 3.75 2012
author: Nick Miller
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/10/07
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
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]]> 15717943
That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.]]> 410 Colleen Hoover 1301949825 Matthew 5 4.26 2012
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2013/02/05
date added: 2016/04/30
shelves: books-in-my-comingofage-prizedraw
review:

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