Strangers By Belle Burden

 

Credit: Strangers By Belle Burden

 

Overview

It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn't.

In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha's Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together-building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume.

In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was-someone nicknamed "Belle the Good"-gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice. Read more here. Credit: Strangers; Blackwell's UK.

Sasha Presents Writing Lessons & Tips

 

Credit: Sasha Talks; Author Sasha Laghonh, Writing

#ComingSoon

Sasha Talks Presents ... 

Writing Lessons & Tips 

Talk and Commentary Coming Soon

Complete the form here to learn more about the event.

Interested in sharing your love for writing and the arts?

Submit your pitch here.

Writers Series - Recapture the Moments!

 

Credit: Writers Series, By Sasha Talks

Capture the Latest Episodes ...

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Meet Helen Glanville: Author, "A Second Chance: A Disgraced Lawyer's Journey to Redemption"

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Meet Paul Rushworth-Brown: Australian Historical Fiction Author & Educator

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Meet Daniel C. Munson: Chemical Engineer, Freelance Writer and Author of Fiscal Follies

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Meet Sora Vernikoff: Educator, Speaker & Author of "Eat What You Want! Stop When You Want!"

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Meet Lauren Gibbons Paul: Seasoned Freelance Journalist and Author of "The Steps Between Us"

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

 

Credit: the Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Overview

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that served only to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.

Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India. She fears that she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world. Read more here. Credit: Kiran Desai.

"The Steps Between Us" By Lauren Gibbons Paul

 

Credit: Writers Series, Guest Lauren Gibbons Paul

 

Meet Lauren Gibbons Paul

Lauren Gibbons Paul is a Boston-area writer. She worked as a freelance business/technology journalist for more than 30 years. Her pivot to fiction coincided with taking up ballroom dance lessons seven years ago. Lauren was immediately fascinated by the glamorous world -especially the instructors - most of whom come here from other countries. This world is a perfect backdrop within which to explore themes of wanting to belong, wanting to be seen, making one's way in America. Credits: Lauren Gibbons Paul; Clippings.Me.

Lauren's Writer Series appearance is also available @ ❤️iHeartRadio.  

 

Credit: The Steps Between Us By Lauren Gibbons Paul

BLINDSPOTTING By Martin Dubin

Credit: BLINDSPOTTING By Martin Dubin

 

Overview

 Blindspotting: How To See What's Holding You Back as a Leader

What you don't see about yourself can hold you back as a leader. As leaders, we all hit a point when things stop going well. A problem emerges that we think we can handle but discover we can't. The tools that got us this far somehow stop working. We don't understand; what are we missing?

What we don't see is what we can't see: we have blindspots. It's a known fact that we're often not great judges of ourselves, even when we think we are. Sometimes we're simply unaware of a behavior or trait that's causing problems. Other times, where we see normal, effective behavior, others see tremendous deficits. Bottom line: until we uncover these blindspots, we can’t move forward or deliver on our goals as leaders.

The good news is that you can learn to do your own blindspotting. Clinical-psychologist-turned-entrepreneur-turned-business-coach Martin Dubin has spent years learning when and how leaders get in their own way, and he has turned that experience into a deeply practical blueprint to help you identify your professional blindspots and work to overcome them. Blindspotting provides a framework for understanding six types of blindspots, then takes you inside coaching sessions with profoundly relatable leaders going through the process of learning to recognize their own blindspots. Along the way, you get the practical guidance you need to identify and manage those same blindspots in yourself, unlocking high performance and great leadership. Credit: BLINDSPOTTING by Martin Dubin. 

"The Defiant Crusade" By Julian Morris-Haaker

Credit: Writers Series By Sasha Talks; Julian Morris-Haaker

 Meet Julian Morris-Haaker

Julian Morris-Haaker is a self-published author who has been in the business of telling tales regarding war and conflict on a fantastical scale for nearly 10 years. He primarily writes fiction, a hybrid of science fiction and fantasy ,where he challenges peoples' perceptions of conflict to reveal there is so much more that goes on beneath the surface. Telling stories and writing poetry has been a coping mechanism since Julian's parents passed away. He applied his personal experience of pain and grief to begin his journey of becoming an author. This outlet has granted him an opportunity to tell fantastical tales exhibiting defiant hope and rage against the inevitable. The four books of the series are as follows - Airborne: The Defiant Crusade, Landfall, Vigilance, and Galvanic Eruption. Credit:  Julian Morris-Haaker.

 Julian's Writer Series appearance is available @ ❤️iHeartRadio.

We Can Do Hard Things

 

Credit: We Can Do Hard Things

Every day, Glennon Doyle spirals around the same questions: Why am I like this? How do I figure out what I want? How do I know what to do? Why can’t I be happy? Am I doing this right? The harder life gets, the less likely she is to remember the answers she’s spent her life learning. She wonders: I’m almost fifty years old. I’ve overcome a hell of a lot. Why do I wake up every day having forgotten everything I know?

Glennon’s compasses are her sister, Amanda, and her wife, Abby. Recently, in the span of a single year, Glennon was diagnosed with anorexia, Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Abby’s beloved brother died. For the first time, they were all lost at the same time. So they turned toward the only thing that’s ever helped them find their way: deep, honest conversations with other brave, kind, wise people. They asked each other, their dearest friends, and 118 of the world’s most brilliant wayfinders: As you’ve traveled these roads—marriage, parenting, work, recovery, heartbreak, aging, new beginnings—have you collected any wisdom that might help us find our way? Read more here. Credit: Penguin Random House.

"Think This, Not That" By Dr. Josh Axe

 

Credit: Think This, Not That By Dr. Josh Axe

Brief Overview

The key to a more meaningful life? It's right there in your mind. That's where it all begins. If you've been living with false narratives in your head, they've been keeping you locked up in a prison of unfulfilled dreams and untapped potential. But here's the game-changer: you can cultivate a brand new mindset, one based on what's actually true. Dr. Josh Axe, in Think This, Not That, is your guide to this amazing journey. He’ll help you unpack those top twelve mental barriers that have been holding you back from becoming the person you're meant to be. For each barrier, Dr. Axe presents a brand new empowering mindset. Credit: Dr. Josh Axe.

Four Thousand Weeks By Olive Burkeman

 

Credit: Four Thousand Weeks

 

The paperback edition of the liberating Sunday Times bestseller is set to enhance readers' lives even further with extra content on how we can all spend our four thousand weeks. The average human lifespan is absurdly, outrageously, insultingly brief- if you live to 80, you have about four thousand weeks on earth. How should we use them best? Of course, nobody needs telling that there isn't enough time. We're obsessed by our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction, and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Yet we rarely make the conscious connection that these problems only trouble us in the first place thanks to the ultimate time-management problem- the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of this problem that draws on philosophy, literature and psychology to cover the past, present and future of our battles with time. It goes far beyond practical tips, and its many revelations will transform the reader's worldview. Drawing on the insights of ancient philosophers, Benedictine monks, artists and authors, Scandinavian social reformers, renegade Buddhist technologists and many others, Oliver Burkeman sets out to realign our relationship with time - and in doing so, to liberate us from its grasp. Credit: Four Thousand Weeks; Oliver Burkeman.

Salt Sugar Fat By Michael Moss

Credit: Salt Sugar Fat, Michael Moss

Thirty-eight million Americans have diabetes. One in three adults and one in five kids is clinically obese. Why? Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese and seventy pounds of sugar. Every day, we ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt, double the recommended amount, almost none of which comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food, an industry that hauls in $2 trillion in annual sales. In Salt Sugar Fat, Michael Moss shows how we ended up here. Featuring examples from Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Frito-Lay, Nestlé, Oreos, Capri Sun, and many more, Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, eye-opening research. He takes us into labs where scientists calculate the “bliss point” of sugary beverages or enhance the “mouthfeel” of fat by manipulating its chemical structure, unearths marketing techniques taken straight from tobacco company playbooks, and talks to concerned insiders who make startling confessions. Credit: Salt Sugar Fat; Michael Moss (Moss Books).

Get The Picture By Bianca Bosker

Credit: Get The Picture, Bianca Bosker

Overview

An award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker’s existence was upended when she wandered into the art world—and couldn’t look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who max out credit cards to show hunks of metal they think can change the world, Bosker grew fixated on understanding why art matters and how she—or any of us—could engage with it more deeply.  In Get the Picture, Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves—the kind who work multiple jobs to afford their studios while scrabbling to get eyes on their art. As she stretches canvases until her fingers blister, talks her way into A-list parties full of billionaire collectors, has her face sat on by a nearly-naked performance artist, and forces herself to stare at a single sculpture for hours on end while working as a museum security guard, she discovers not only the inner workings of the art-canonization machine but also a more expansive way of living. Credit: Get The Picture, Amazon; Bianca Bosker.

The Talent Code By Daniel Coyle

Credit: The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle

 

Overview

What is the secret of talent? How do we unlock it? In this groundbreaking work, journalist and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle provides parents, teachers, coaches, business people—and everyone else—with tools they can use to maximize potential in themselves and others. Whether you’re coaching soccer or teaching a child to play the piano, writing a novel or trying to improve your golf swing, this revolutionary book shows you how to grow talent by tapping into a newly discovered brain mechanism. 

Drawing on cutting-edge neurology and firsthand research gathered on journeys to nine of the world’s talent hotbeds—from the baseball fields of the Caribbean to a classical-music academy in upstate New York—Coyle identifies the three key elements that will allow you to develop your gifts and optimize your performance in sports, art, music, math, or just about anything. Credit: The Talent Code; Daniel Coyle.

The Shack

 

 

 

Credit: The Shack by William Paul Young

 

Overview

Mackenzie Allen Phillips’s youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever. Credit: Hachette Book Group.

Date With Destiny

Credit: Date With Destiny

Date With Destiny is Sasha’s latest work which recognizes everyone in life holds a higher purpose to fulfill their life destiny. The text touches upon wisdom derived from different genres of life which can be applied by anyone seeking to amplify their growth. Favor and resources aren't reserved for the chosen few. Everyone is born with the secret key to tap within their best potential to ascend to new heights. Date With Destiny welcomes ready minds to channel their ambition on designing their best futures starting today. Those interested in receiving an excerpt of this message are welcome to contact here.  Submit your appropriate credentials to ensure proper processing of your request. Sasha Talks Terms of Service & Disclaimers Apply.

'Is God Real?' By Lee Strobel

Credit: Is God Real by Lee Strobel

Overview

When life feels overwhelming, we want to know if there really is a deity who loves us, knows us, and cares about what happens to us. Join investigative journalist and former atheist Lee Strobel on a quest to determine whether we can know with confidence that God is real.

In this rational exploration of the proof of God's existence, Lee investigates:

If God is real, why is there so much suffering?

How do we know which God is real?

If God is real, why does he seem so hidden?

How do recent scientific findings support the claim that God is real?

If God is real, what difference does it make?

Learn more about the book 'Is God Real' here.  Author website of Lee Strobel.

 

Spirit Guided Writing by Author Sonia Palleck

Credit: Writers Series | Guest Sonia Palleck

Meet Sonia Palleck,  born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. One of five children, she was an avid athlete and excelled in school. She studied at Western University in London, Ontario and graduated from Dentistry in '93 and Orthodontics in '99. She became a clinical instructor and taught residents for ten years at the Graduate Department of Orthodontics.  After marrying her dental school sweetheart, Sonia moved to Dorchester and welcomed her child, Djuka, to the world. In 2018, following her divorce and the death of her parents, Sonia searched for healing to bring meaning and peace to her life. In 2020, Sonia wrote a series of four books called “Leave the Little Light On,” a fictional memoir based on her life, with each volume named after the four cities where she has lived and worked. The series is her contribution to the world; a new modern love story for humanity to heal. Sonia designed and painted each cover of the books. She is an advocate for love. Credit: Sonia Palleck.

The Forest is the Tree by Michael Marvosh

 

Credit: Writers Series, Guest Michael Marvosh

Meet Michael Marvosh, a new author and aspiring speaker and thought-leader. He is working to make real his vision of a world no longer divided by religion--a vision which grew out of his upbringing and ongoing inner struggle with what to believe about the truth, along with a keen awareness of the myriad ways the modern world seems to be tearing itself apart. His first book, The Forest is the Tree, is the result of a nascent version of this vision. He is starting a 21st-century conversation about what it means to be human--about what brings us together and what pulls us apart. Credit: Michael Marvosh.

AWE by Dacher Keltner

Credit: Awe by Dacher Keltner

In Awe, Dacher Keltner presents a radical investigation and deeply personal inquiry into this elusive emotion. Revealing new research into how awe transforms our brains and bodies, alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life during a period of grief, Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our everyday life leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. And during a moment in which our world feels more divided than ever before, and more imperiled by crises of different kinds, we are greatly in need of awe. If we open our minds, it is awe that sharpens our reasoning and orients us toward big ideas and new insights, that cools our immune system’s inflammation response and strengthens our bodies. It is awe that activates our inclination to share and create strong networks, to take actions that are good for the natural and social world around us. It is awe that transforms who we are, that inspires the creation of art, music, and religion. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights, Awe is our field guide, from not only one of the leading voices on the subject but a fellow seeker of awe in his own right, for how to place awe as a vital force within our lives. Credit: AWE

Ask for the MOON - And Get It!

Credit: Ask For the Moon - And Get It!

Overview

Are you looking for answers on how to be successful? Have you ever considered that the way to success lies not in knowing all the answers, but in asking the right questions? As a young man from humble beginnings, Percy Ross vowed that if ever he became successful he would use his knowledge to help others. In fact, he became a multi-millionaire and for the past 20 years has been giving away money to those who need it - and who have asked him for it. Full of personal anecdotes and tried and tested advice, this book reveals the secrets of his success, including: the ten basic rules of the art of asking; how to prepare a good case before you ask; making sure you ask the right person; how to encourage others to contribute to your success; and how to help other people achieve success. Credit: Ask for the MOON.