What We Are Reading Today: ‘A New Earth’ - Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

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Updated 05 August 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘A New Earth’ - Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

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Author: Eckhart Tolle

“A New Earth” by German writer Eckhart Tolle is a transformative work published originally in 2005 before it was selected in 2008 for Oprah’s Book Club and was featured in a series of weekly webinars with Tolle and Winfrey.

Tolle, a spiritual teacher and bestselling author of several books such as “The Power of Now” and “Stillness Speaks,” writes that most of the struggle people go through is not an outcome of external factors but a result of what is happening inside the mind.

The self-help book invites readers to reflect on and understand their egos. By bringing awareness to human nature and ego’s impact on behavior, the author encourages readers to shift their thoughts from the negative thinking that might be clouding their experience of living in the present moment.

Tolle stresses the importance of recognizing ego, as opposed to the actual self, as a mental pattern constructed through habits rather than facts or realistic ideas of one’s true personality.

In doing so, people will be able to have a flexible mindset, allow growth, and start aligning their actions with core values and inner wisdom, Tolle notes.

The author also talks about the negative feelings that some people might experience during the process of personal development and challenges them to accept themselves regardless, even when faced with complicated emotions.

“A New Earth” is a great choice for readers who search for deep insights, wish to let go of old habits that do not serve them, and embrace a more fulfilling way of thinking.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Spike’ by Mark Humphries

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Spike’ by Mark Humphries
Updated 17 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Spike’ by Mark Humphries

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Spike’ by Mark Humphries

We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions.

Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In “The Spike,” Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Lost Souls’ by Sheila Fitzpatrick

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Lost Souls’ by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Updated 16 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Lost Souls’ by Sheila Fitzpatrick

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Lost Souls’ by Sheila Fitzpatrick

When World War II ended, about 1 million people whom the Soviet Union claimed as its citizens were outside the borders of the USSR, mostly in the Western-occupied zones of Germany and Austria.

These “displaced persons,” or DPs—Russians, prewar Soviet citizens, and people from West Ukraine and the Baltic states forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939—refused to repatriate to the Soviet Union despite its demands.

Thus began one of the first big conflicts of the Cold War. In “Lost Souls,” Sheila Fitzpatrick draws on new archival research, including Soviet interviews with hundreds of DPs, to offer a vivid account of this crisis, from the competitive maneuverings of politicians and diplomats to the everyday lives of DPs.


What We Are Reading Today: Leibniz in His World: The Making of a Savant

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Updated 15 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: Leibniz in His World: The Making of a Savant

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  • Drawing on extensive correspondence by Leibniz and many leading figures of the age, Audrey Borowski paints a nuanced portrait of Leibniz in the 1670s, during his “Paris sojourn” as a young diplomat

Author: Audrey Borowski

Described by Voltaire as “perhaps a man of the most universal learning in Europe,” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is often portrayed as a rationalist and philosopher who was wholly detached from the worldly concerns of his fellow men. Leibniz in His World provides a groundbreaking reassessment of Leibniz, telling the story of his trials and tribulations as an aspiring scientist and courtier navigating the learned and courtly circles of early modern Europe and the Republic of Letters.

Drawing on extensive correspondence by Leibniz and many leading figures of the age, Audrey Borowski paints a nuanced portrait of Leibniz in the 1670s, during his “Paris sojourn” as a young diplomat and in Germany at the court of Duke Johann Friedrich of Hanover. She challenges the image of Leibniz as an isolated genius, revealing instead a man of multiple identities whose thought was shaped by a deep engagement with the social and intellectual milieus of his time. Borowski shows us Leibniz as he was known to his contemporaries, enabling us to rediscover him as an enigmatic young man who was complex and all too human.

 

 


What We Are Reading Today: Henry V by Dan Jones

What We Are Reading Today: Henry V by Dan Jones
Updated 14 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: Henry V by Dan Jones

What We Are Reading Today: Henry V by Dan Jones
Dan Jones’ “Henry V” examines the life and leadership of England’s greatest medieval king.
In 1413, when Henry V ascended to the English throne, his kingdom was hopelessly torn apart by political faction but in less than ten years, he turns it all around. By common consensus in his day, and for hundreds of years afterward, Henry was the greatest medieval king that ever lived.
A historical titan, Henry V transcends the Middle Ages which produced him, and his life story has much to teach us today.

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Following the Bend’ by Ellen Wohl

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Following the Bend’ by Ellen Wohl
Updated 13 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Following the Bend’ by Ellen Wohl

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Following the Bend’ by Ellen Wohl

When we look at a river, either up close or while flying over a river valley, what are we really seeing?

“Following the Bend” takes readers on a majestic journey by water to find answers, along the way shedding light on the key concepts of modern river science, from hydrology and water chemistry to stream and wetland ecology.

In this accessible and uniquely personal book, Ellen Wohl explains how to “read” a river, blending the latest science with her own personal experiences as a geologist and naturalist who has worked on rivers for more than three decades.