Category: Book Reviews

The Values-Driven Organization. Cultural Health and Employee Wellbeing as a Pathway to Sustainable Performance. by Richard Barrett We’ve all worked in organisations where we wish that management would do a better job: treating workers fairly, appreciating us more and generally trusting us to do our job well. Even better is a workplace where we can […]

by Hugh van Cuylenberg In this heartwarming book, author Hugh van Cuylenburg tells how he went from a typical Australian kid with no understanding of his sister’s struggles with an eating disorder, to a man with a passion to help young people become happier and more mentally well. His own reflections and his experiences teaching […]

by Marci Shimoff, with Carol Kline Being truly happy means: having a sense of lightness or buoyancy; feeling alive, vital, energetic; having a sense of flow, openness; feeling love and compassion for yourself and others; having passion about your life purpose; feeling gratitude, forgiveness; being at peace with life and being fully present in the […]

The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life by Lisa Miller, PhD Imagine there was a secret ingredient guaranteed to make you happier and to protect you from depression at a rate far greater than any other known factor! Lisa Miller and her colleagues have discovered that secret […]

Audiobook by Thomas Hübl. Thomas Hübl meditated in retreat for many years, gaining deep insights, before returning to mainstream society and founding the annual Collective Trauma Summit and the Pocket Project. This audiobook is a series of gently paced teachings, spoken by Hübl himself in an unrehearsed, personally inviting manner. The focus is on using […]

Proof of Heaven; A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into the Afterlife by Dr Eben Alexander Near-death experiences are fascinating to read about, and this one especially so. What makes Eben Alexander’s experience so unique are 4 things: 1) He was a neurosurgeon who, prior to his experience, “knew” that NDEs were impossible; 2) His sudden onset of […]

The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times       by Dr Anita L. Sanchez In this simply written, but deeply meaningful book, Dr Anita Sanchez weaves her personal story with the Native American prophecy of a world where humans from all parts of the Earth can live harmoniously together. To do so, though, we […]

How we got Happy: Stories of health, hope and happiness from 20 young Kiwis who beat depression. By Jonathan Nabbs & Eve Macfarlane. Photography: Mark Hamilton. This beautifully presented, almost magazine-style book features interviews with young people about the practices they use to maintain their happiness. The focus is on the positive, with little mention […]

Active Hope: How to Face the Mess we’re in Without Going Crazy by Joanna R Macy and Chris Johnstone Climate change and other problems faced by the world need to be addressed urgently, yet our most common responses – either panic, or trying not to think about it – are unhelpful. This book gives practical […]

Hardwiring Happiness: The new brain science of contentment, calm and confidence. By Rick Hanson, PhD. Using a warm, readable style, Rick Hanson uses neuroscience to explain how our needs for safety, satisfaction and connection have evolved to have us focussing on the negative, a trait less than healthy in modern society. By ‘taking in the […]