Color, Money and Flu Outbreaks Are Tackled On Our List

What happens when Christina shops her wonderful novel about how she (a black woman) met her Jewish husband? She learns after more than 20 rejections that no one wants to publish it. So, Christina on a drunken and depression-laden dare decides to switch things up. She reinvents herself as a white writer and writes her novel from a totally white perspective, written as classic chick lit. To her great surprise, her white alter ego lands a two-book deal with a major publishing house. But what will she do about the book and publicity tours? How can she hide her race from her publisher and the readers? Perhaps she could back out before the anxiety consumes her, but she’s reluctant to walk away from the small fortune she has been given for the books. What will she do? This is Wendy Coakley-Thompson’s first e-book original. She is also author of Back To Life and a writer for Examiner.com

Why do we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than developing our strengths? The answer is not clear but it is rote, we work hard to improve the areas we are weak in. Our parents, teachers and society have made this the way to improve oneself, it is the beaten path to “success.”  In Strengths Finder 2.0 Tom Rath explains that this pattern of self development creates the average discontent worker. This person will do something that they have been trained to do at an average or below-average level. They will never be dynamic because it is not there strength. Most people work for thirty years, bringing only a small fraction of ourselves to the job. Rath says we no longer have to live this way. Strengths Finder 2.0 will help you find your natural strengths so can operate from a place where you are dynamic, confident and energized.

The talented Marie Lu is the art director for an online gaming company and in her spare time she is the author of a successful new book series of which the movie rights have already been picked up. Legend, book one in her dystopian trilogy, is set in a flooded Los Angeles, plagued by disease, divided by wealth and run by the military. The conditions in Los Angeles are duplicated throughout this new nation. The United States is now a Republic perpetually at war with surrounding nations. Things take off in this novel when June, a member of the wealthiest district, crosses paths with Day, the most wanted criminal from a poor district. Things are not as they seem for Day nor June when people they love start to die. They stumble on the sinister nature of the Republic and with their lives on the line they have to find out how deep the corruption really is. If you are a fan after the first book, you will not have to wait for the second installment in the series. Prodigy was released last week.

Coyotes in New York, deer in the mall parking lot of middle America, and bears in the back yard of a Florida gated community. Animals, wild animals are turning up everywhere in civilized society. In the United States it is because we demand our homes to sit on bigger and bigger lots, taking up more land that was once the home of these wild animals. Overseas the clearing of forest and the need for food forces humans to come in contact with animals that carry diseases and viruses that are harmful and fatal to humans. Once we cross paths with the wild and the insects that bite them (that are now biting us), a virus incubates in a person that can get on a plane and…well, you’ve seen how this plays out in the movie. From SARS to ebola, AIDS to now Hendra, a disease that is carried from horses that kills humans and is spreading in Australia. (rampid in Australlia), there are new diseases cropping up everyday. These deadly diseases are the result of what David Quammen calls the Spillover. How can we protect ourselves in the event of a pandemic? Quammen has some answers.

Have you ever said to someone, “Stop lying!” or said to yourself, “I think that person is a liar”? This book will give you all of the tools and skills to detect a lie or a liar on the spot. It will turn you into a walking lie-detector test. According to author, Pamela Meyer, the average person encounters more than 200 hundred lies a day by family, friends, co-workers and strangers. In addition to giving you the verbal signs often used by liars, it will also show you the single most dangerous facial expression to watch out for in business and personal relationships. And if you happen to be a habitual liar, this book will also help you avoid getting caught in a lie so easily.

From the mind of money-guru and bestselling author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad franchise comes Unfair Advantage, Robert Kiyosaki’s new book that explores the unfair advantages that “the haves” in society seem to have. According to Kiyosaki, the wealth gap will continue to widen until the hole is so big that we may all fall in. Until that happens, he wants to share with you some of the secrets that gives the rich their advantages. Knowledge is power and Kiyosaki once again like Robin Hood is determined to pass that power from the rich to the poor. You’ve read the stories about the parking attendant worth millions or the old lady who worked in the school cafeteria never making more than $20,000 a year but retired a millionaire. Those are extreme cases, but what these stories demonstrate is that you don’t have to make a lot of money to be rich. You can make better choices and educate yourself and give yourself an advantage.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs Serenity 3.0 and came across this book. Originally released in 1993, it was revised and re-released this week to include the global phenomena of skin-lightening and complexion discrimination. In the last 20 years, the problem seems to be growing as places like China, India, and Africa are promoting skin-lightening and other cosmetic and plastic surgery techniques are practiced for people to fit into a societal standard of beauty. I hadn’t thought about color on a deep level in a really long time. When I was about 4 years old, a schoolmate told me that my mother was not my mother because she was so dark skinned and I was not. It was the first time that I took notice of my own skin color and the myriad complexions in my family. My grandmother used to warn me to stay out of the sun and put cocoa butter on my knees and elbows to keep them light. What are the color issues today and how deep are they? This book explores all of this and more. And it answers the question: Is there still a complexion hierarchy in the black community?