Book Review

Jane Strunk Anderson’s book, 30 Days of Character Strengths: A Guided Practice to Ignite Your Best lays out a month-long series of practices to help people intentionally develop their own character strengths. I did the 30-day practice with a group of friends. We realized that the book also allowed each of us to customize strengths practices to our own personalities.

There was much in this book that caused me to be more reflective and introspective. When you’re in a life-long relationship with someone else, that’s probably a good practice. Since it takes two to tango, couples may want to buy two copies of this book, one for each to read, make notes in, and reflect on. Then they might want to do a few date book club nights to share their ideas and move forward together.

Conversations worth having are those that add value through appreciative questions and dialogue. They are meaningful and engaging. They increase the mutual pie of knowledge and understanding. They are strengths-based and productive. They are conversations that increase our energy, enhance our connections with others, improve collaboration and problem-solving, and make us feel valued, even loved.

Mud and Dreams is a book to be savored completely and often. In this day and age, it is a welcome reminder that not only are we “hybrid creatures, both mud and dreams,” but also that our dual nature is something to celebrate and rejoice in, as it is our very gift of humanity that lets us fall deeply in love with life and all it has to offer.

Dr Roffey believes it’s high time that teachers stop managing student behavior with a behaviorist model based on sanctions and rewards that has proven ineffective in practice. In its place, she recommends that teachers adopt a relationship-based approach to behavior management. She encourages teachers to be enthusiastic about their teaching, to stay calm and quiet in a crisis, and to have a laugh with their students.

Reading this book gives you the opportunity to hang out with two radiant, loving master teachers who will connect you to your inner wisdom and joy.

Dan Tomasulo is a master storyteller with a purpose. After reading this book, you’ll face the world a little bit differently.

As an organizational development consultant and a leadership coach, I learned a lot from Brafford’s book about how professional organizations can directly apply the research of positive psychology to create better places to work for all employees. These businesses can do well financially by doing well at increasing well-being for their people.

In her book, The Strength Switch Dr. Lea Waters makes distinctions among different kinds of strengths, learned behaviors, and weaknesses. People can become very proficient at learned behaviors, but without the energy and enjoyment associated with strengths. To understand the differences, let’s look at three dimensions for evaluating possible strengths.

Reading the book, The Strengths Switch by Dr. Lea Waters, can help you see what is right about your children and then nurture their innate strengths and talents.

Today I want to highlight two compelling concepts from Happy Together that can help you cultivate stronger and happier relationships.

As the calendar bends towards Valentine’s Day, Happy Together is a wonderful book for you and the important people in your life. It provides a dazzling array of easy-to-implement exercises to keep your relationships strong and energetic. The Pawelskis demonstrate that relationships can get better with age, like fine bottles of wine.

Seligman is the lead author of the 2016 book, Homo Prospectus, a work of interdisciplinary collaboration about the human ability to assess what we face in the future. Authorship is shared with philosopher Peter Railton, leading willpower researcher Roy Baumeister, and brain mechanism scientist Chandra Sripada. Together, they identify four distinct ways of thinking that guide us to purposeful choice.

What do you get when you mix together a compelling idea, numerous engaging stories, a clear structure, and a firm research grounding? You get a book that is made to stick and useful from the moment you read it. This is a book I’ll keep close by to help me plan for moments that matter. I’ve thought of at least 3 opportunities to use the ideas this week.

In her abundant, practical, and well-researched book about confidence, Louisa Jewell weaves together the science of positive psychology, self-efficacy, self-determination theory, and neuropsychology in an engaging and accessible manner.

Getting Grit is like getting a coach between book covers. It is a clear, application-oriented book full of reflection questions, activities, and exercises for people who want to build authentic grit that will make a difference not just for themselves, but also for the communities around them.

I wasn’t sure about reading this book, but I’m ever so glad that I did. I want to read it again with my highlighter firmly in hand and note all the wisdom again. this book This book has definitely equipped me to be more compassionate when someone close to me is suffering from a tragic loss. I feel that I know better what to say, what to do, and how to be a meaningful support with less fear and trepidation, and more confidence.

Andy Molinsky lays out a comprehensive system of problems and corresponding solutions clearly and smoothly. Many people will find in his book the means to make the hard climb into a better, wider world.

Joanna Thompson recently published A to Z: Your Navigator to Success, a clear, readable guide to actions leading to greater well-being and career success. For each letter of the alphabet, there is a topic that she has seen work either in her successful career working in financial markets or in her work with people in talent development and coaching. As she told me in our interview, “My book is essentially a distillation of tips I wish I had known earlier. In this sense it offers some short cuts to the top.”

It’s time to break the silence about suffering at work. Suffering happens everywhere. From page 11 in this book, “Without compassion, workplaces can become powerful amplifiers of human suffering.” Read on to explore the alternative, where organizations and the people in them awaken compassion at work.