Showing results by author "Os Swift" in All Categories

Lost Connections explores the physical, psychological, and cultural factors that lead to depression, as well as the tactics communities can employ to overcome it. British journalist Johann Hari argues that while depression can have a biological cause, it’s largely an involuntary reaction to the social ills that plague modern society. Purchase this in-depth summary to learn more.

Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success (2011), by Napoleon Hill, describes the circumstances surrounding the self-help author’s rise to fame and fortune. After overcoming many personal and professional trials, including financial ruin, Hill had the opportunity to question the Devil about the ways in which he ensnares humanity.... (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)

Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon (2017) by Joe Dispenza guides listeners through the steps of developing their full potential, which is far beyond what most believe is possible. Bridging science and spirituality, Dispenza outlines principles and practices that can help ordinary people harness the power inside themselves to achieve remarkable outcomes in their daily lives, including drastic improvements in health, mood, finances, and relationships....

This is a summary of The 33 Strategies of War (2006), which teaches different approaches to conflict. Robert Greene examines ways to defeat an enemy in contexts ranging from violent battlefields to the sets of famous Hollywood films....

A wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. Gulliver's Travels describes the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature; towering over the people and their city, he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of a god. However, in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation, exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs.

In Leading Change (2012), long-time Harvard business professor John P. Kotter outlines his influential process to establish and secure permanent changes that will make any organization more efficient, successful, and competitive. Bringing change to an organization often entails high stakes. Success can revitalize a business and unlock new potential, but failure can doom a firm to years of stagnation. Purchase this in-depth summary to learn more.

No-Drama Discipline by psychotherapists Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson explains how parents can diminish disorder while strengthening their child’s brain. The authors’ approach to discipline, based on the latest in neuroscience at the time of publication, enables parents to turn meltdowns, temper tantrums, and everyday frustrations into teachable moments that strengthen the parent-child relationship. Purchase this in-depth summary to learn more.

When the Russians invade Lithuania, Zofia and her brother Jacek fear for their lives. As a journalist, Jacek is targeted by the new communist regime, which despises intellectuals and condemns them to hard labor in the gulags, where few survive. Hearing rumors that the Japanese consul Sugihara might offer them exit visas, Zofia knows she must seize this chance for freedom. In return, Sugihara asks them to deliver a parcel to Tokyo—an innocuous request, until they discover it contains intelligence about Nazi atrocities that the Nazis are desperate to retrieve.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (2001) explains how humans routinely underestimate the role luck plays in determining outcomes. This failure to account for uncertainty can lead someone to attribute meaning to a result where none exists, or to overlook the probability of a rare but cataclysmic event....

Peggy the pug is going on holiday to the seaside! Her special friend Chloe is excited, too, and hopes that she'll see a mermaid. But even though Chloe and Peggy search the beach, they can't find a mermaid anywhere. Not wanting her friend to be disappointed, Peggy decides that she'll just have to become a mermaid herself! But that means that she's going to have to learn how to doggy paddle.

The weather outside is cold and snowy, but Fuzzy and Coco are as warm as toast in the house, enjoying their favourite TV shows. Fuzzy loves the cookery programmes, while Coco is a huge fan of The Ice Factor, a celebrity skating competition. But some of their furry friends are not so lucky - it's freezing out in the copse, and someone has been stealing the animals' food! Fuzzy and Coco have to do something - can they use the skills they've learnt from their favourite TV shows to help their friends?

In Becoming (2018), Michelle Obama recounts the familial, educational, romantic, and political experiences that culminated in her tenure as first lady of the United States. Purchase this in-depth summary to learn more.

Nell’s going back to school... but now she’s learning lessons of the heart. An uplifting and hilarious romantic comedy that will delight fans of Milly Johnson, Holly Martin and Heidi Swain Reception class teacher Nell Shackleton has a plan. At least, she did until she arrived at her new home of Humblebee Farm, a dilapidated farmhouse on the Yorkshire moors. The roof’s full of holes, the back door’s hanging off and there’s a sheep in the front room...

Prentis, employed in the police archives, is becoming confused. His obsession with the plight of his father, a wartime hero, now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, is alienating him from his wife and children, while at work, he feels under scrutiny from his intimidating boss, Quinn. Gradually, Prentis suspects that his father’s breakdown and Quinn’s menacing behaviour are related and that the connection is to be found in his father’s memoir: 'Shuttlecock'.

"Gulliver's Travels" (1726, amended 1735), officially "Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World", is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is widely considered Swift's magnum opus and is his most celebrated work, as well as one of the indisputable classics of English literature.

What evil lurks in the depths of the Dark Mountain? In the West Highlands of Scotland, few years after the end of World War One, Brenda and her friends are preparing for an expedition of a lifetime: Climbing An Cailleach, also known as The Witch. But even before they reach the base of the mountain, they realize that something is wrong. Strange apparitions, even stranger locals and ancient superstitions are all signs that they are on a dangerous path. When things take a turn for the worse, will friendship be more important than survival?

Gulliver's Travels describes the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature; towering over the people and their city, he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of a god. However, in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation, exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs.

In 1729, Swift published A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick known today as A Modest Proposal. In this satire, Swift grotesquely suggests how the poor could solve the problem of their numerous families which they are struggling to feed.

These 25 new stories mark Graham Swift's return to the short form after seven acclaimed novels and confirm him as a master storyteller. They unite into a richly peopled vision of a country that is both a crucible of history and a maze of contemporary confusions.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), by Harper Lee, is a coming-of-age novel that traces young Scout Finch’s growing awareness of racism in her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama. Watching her father, a lawyer, represent a Black man who has been falsely accused of rape, Scout comes to understand some difficult truths about her neighbors and, by extension, about the world. (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)