Showing results by author "Instaread" in All Categories

There is no such thing as a natural prodigy. Even children who display seemingly advanced abilities owe their skills to many hours of practice and effort. Mozart, for example, the quintessential child prodigy, was likely the product of a very early, immersive education in music as prescribed by his father, who was also a musician. This type of purposeful effort aimed at developing expert ability is called "deliberate practice."

When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir about Paul Kalanithi's experiences as a doctor and as a terminally ill patient. The book discusses Kalanithi's lifelong fascination with questions of human biology, mortality, and meaning. It then examines how these questions are intensified by the author's own confrontation with lung cancer, sickness, and death.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson explores several crucial years in Berlin through the eyes of the US ambassador and his family. Their experiences serve as both a cautionary tale about the insidiousness of evil and a harbinger of the hard realization that the rest of America was forced to make in a few short years.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown is a nonfiction account of the remarkable life story of Joe Rantz. Rantz was a determined young man who overcame personal tragedy and hardship to win a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics as a member of the US rowing team. Please note: This product includes an analysis of the audiobook, not the original audiobook.

This product includes key takeaways and analysis of Going Clear by Lawrence Wright, not the original audiobook. Going Clear is an in-depth examination of the founding, principles, and scandals of Scientology. It includes eyewitness interviews and original document research. The Church of Scientology was founded with the publication of the book Dianetics in 1950 by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. His unique approach to mental health attracted a following.

A group of old school friends meet to catch up. They end up discussing the unexpected, unforeseen changes to their lives, and one friend offers to tell a story about adapting to change. The story he tells involves four characters, two mice named Sniff and Scurry, and two "Littlepeople" named Hem and Haw. All of them are in a maze, looking for cheese, which they need to survive. For the "Littlepeople", cheese also has a larger, metaphysical connotation in the sense that it also makes them happy - their Cheese is thus spelled with a capital C....

Robert B. Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion examines the compliance methods by which marketers, salespeople, and others, such as cult leaders, pressure people into doing things they would not otherwise do. There are six basic compliance tools: reciprocity, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. Listeners can learn specific techniques to resist each.

Strong Looks Better Naked is a hybrid memoir-lifestyle book in which reality TV star Khloé Kardashian shares hard-won and heartfelt lessons about taking care of her body, mind, and heart. She shares tips about healthy living, including recipes, her favorite forms of exercise, her musical playlists, and the daily routine that keeps her grounded even as she manages the pressures of continually being in the media glare.

Please note: This product includes key takeaways and analysis of The Emperor of All Maladies, not the original audiobook. The recording includes overviews of research work, historical accounts, and scientific and medical communities' understanding of the disease.

The repressed bitterness, anger, and disappointment simmering for years inside the Lee family finally erupt in Everything I Never Told You after daughter Lydia, her parents' favorite, disappears on May 3, 1977. It is a fine spring day in northern Ohio, where the family lives in Middlewood, a town an hour outside Toledo.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert is a book of motivational passages, anecdotes, and quotes meant to inspire others to embrace creativity in whatever form is most natural for them. By exploring creativity through real-life experiences and words of encouragement, they learn to face what holds them back from embracing inspiration and activating their creative nature, also known as finding big magic....

Inner Engineering by yogi and mystic Sadhguru is a nonfiction book that explores the path to spiritual enlightenment, a state in which joy is constant. Human consciousness is like a machine. When people learn how to master their own minds and bodies as they do machines, they will have the ability to experience profound and sustained joy. Therefore, a person's path to lasting joy begins with mastering their inner experience.

In his memoir Into the Magic Shop, Dr. James R. Doty describes how simple meditative techniques have had a profound effect on both his personal and professional paths. His account traces his evolution from troubled child to struggling student to distinguished neurosurgeon, including his tenure as the CEO of a billion-dollar company. From the vantage of his current role as the founding director of a compassion-research center at Stanford University, he reflects on the ups and downs of his life so far.

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder is a unique story that blends biography, entrepreneurial business narrative, history, true crime, and a human rights crusade all into one book.

Please note: This is summary and analysis of the book and not the original book. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a novel in stories about the Atlantic slave trade and its aftermath. The novel begins with the stories of two African half-sisters of the Fante and Asante tribes: Effia and Esi. Effia is born in the late 18th century in Fanteland on Africa's Gold Coast, on the night of a devastating fire near her father's compound. Her adoptive mother, Baaba, immediately resents her, because Effia is the daughter of her father Cobbe's house girl.

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a philosophical treatment of Taleb's research on highly improbable, high-impact events. These events, which Taleb calls "Black Swans", are so improbable that they are unpredictable. However, pundits and scholars are often inclined to fit such extreme events into a causal narrative after the fact, in order to make history appear more organized.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo helps people discard unnecessary items, reorganize their possessions, and properly store items in a home. The procedures Kondo developed for organization and decluttering are called the KonMari Method. Those who follow these Japanese methods of organization can experience the magic of tidying and the ways it can transform a person’s life.

Peter Schweizer's Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich is an exposé of the business dealings of Bill and Hillary Clinton between 2001 and 2015. The Clintons and their foundation have both been enriched by money from dubious sources. The payments the Clintons received as speaking fees and the funds they accepted as donations to the Clinton Foundation may have led Hillary to alter US policy when she served as senator and secretary of state.

Lights Out by Ted Koppel is a journalistic report on the potential consequences of a cyberattack on the United States. Koppel emphasizes the likelihood that a cyberattack against US power grids will cause widespread, long-lasting, catastrophic power outages.

Platforms connect two types of users in order to exchange something of value. This is different from the traditional pipeline model of business where something of value is created by transferring it from producer to producer with the consumer receiving it at the last step. Platforms are dominating production processes particularly because they reduce the costs of value creation, consumption, and quality control.