Helen Plum Library

For decades, we've been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "Fuck positivity," blogger Mark Manson says. "Let's be honest, shit is fucked and we have to live with it." This book is his antidote to the coddling, let's-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up. Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed...

Forging a powerful bond in the mid-1970s that lasts throughout subsequent decades, six individuals pursue challenges into their midlife years, including an aspiring actress who harbors jealousy toward friends who achieve successful creative careers

"With her mega-bestseller Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now, she employs the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and the surprising lessons these states of mind teach us about creativity, compassion, leadership, spirituality, mortality and love. Bittersweetness...

"Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey combine their decades of experience studying happiness from every angle to show readers how to improve their lives right now, instead of waiting for the outside world to change. They offer a research-based work plan that shows the reader how to manage their emotions so they no longer control their outlook and behavior; turn life's inevitable difficulties and challenges into opportunities for growth; strengthen their...

"What happens when best friends with nothing in common come together, fall apart, and fall in love? The Vacationers meets When Harry Met Sally..., from the author of Beach Read When Poppy met Alex, there was no spark, no chemistry, and no reason to think they'd ever talk again. Alex is quiet, studious, and destined for a future in academia. Poppy is a wild child who only came to U of Chicago to escape small-town life. But after sharing a ride home...

Centering her life on the successful Walker family, into which she plans to marry, Shea struggles to end her affair with a less-than-stellar boyfriend only to have her entire existence placed in question by the death of the family's mother

"[A] tale of a man's journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, [stealing] its shape from the business self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over 'rising Asia'"--Dust jacket flap From impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, our nameless hero amasses an empire built on that most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else: the pretty girl whose star rises along with his,...

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes a deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis. Diana O'Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She's an associate specialist at Sotheby's...

This is the story about why you are here on planet Earth. There is something special about you. There is something you were born to be and do that not one of the other seven billion of us was. There is a life you are meant to live; there is a journey you are meant to take. This book is about that journey. In this book twelve of the most successful people living in the world share their seemingly impossible stories, and reveal that you were born with...

"In Untapped Magic, life coach and entrepreneur Chloe Panta shares her personal journey from growing up in poverty in Detroit to creating a successful career and life. She offers readers practical advice on how to tap into their own inner magic and create the life they desire"-- Provided by publisher