Where do writers learn their best moves? They use a technique that Roy Peter Clark calls X-ray reading, a form of reading that lets you penetrate beyond the surface of a text to see how meaning is actually being made. In The Art of X-Ray Reading, Clark invites you to don your X-ray reading glasses and join him on a guided tour through some of the most exquisite and masterful literary works of all time, from The Great Gatsby to Lolita to The Bluest Eye and many more.

He has spent his life helping other people to realize their dreams and experience maximum success. Now comes Zig Ziglar's high-impact work that calls you to the passion, purpose, and practical tools that can ignite the peak performance you long for. In the real-life stories Zig shares, drawn from nearly 50 years as a world-class motivational author, speaker, and businessman, you'll discover how others have risen above fear and failure to embrace the quality of life they were meant to have.

One-third of our lives - that's 3,000 hours a year - is spent trying to sleep. The time we spend in bed shapes our moods, motivation, alertness, decision-making skills, reaction time, creativity...in short, our ability to perform, whether at work, at home, or at play. But most of us have disturbed, restless nights, relying on over-stimulation from caffeine and sugar to drag us through the day. The old eight-hour rule just doesn't work, and it's time for a new approach. Endorsed by leading professionals in sports and business, Sleep shares a new program to be your personal best.

As high achievers, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough. But lately, working hard is more exhausting than ever. And the more depleted we get, the more effort it takes to make progress. Stuck in an endless loop of “Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat”, we’re often working twice as hard to achieve half as much.

For many of us, listening is simply something we do on autopilot. We hear just enough of what others say to get our work done, maintain friendships, and be polite with our neighbors. But we miss crucial opportunities to go deeper - to give and receive honest feedback, to make connections that will endure for the long haul, and to discover who people truly are at their core. Fortunately, listening can be improved - and Ximena Vengoechea can show you how.

Times have changed. With so much information coming at us, you don’t have a lot of time to spend on outdated techniques that require a lot of time to learn and use. That's why traditional memory books and techniques fail.

Cheese puffs. Coffee. Sunscreen. Vapes. George Zaidan reveals what will kill you, what won’t, and why - explained with high-octane hilarity, hysterical hijinks, and other things that don’t begin with the letter H. Ingredients offers the perspective of a chemist on the stuff we eat, drink, inhale, and smear on ourselves. Apart from the burning question of whether you should eat that Cheeto, Zaidan explores a range of topics.

You do not need to be in a courtroom to advocate for others. You do not need to be in Congress to champion a cause. From the boardroom to the kitchen table, opportunities to make your case abound, and Doesn't Hurt to Ask shows you how to seize them. By blending gripping case studies from nearly two decades in a courtroom and four terms in national politics with personal stories and practical advice, Trey Gowdy walks you through the tools and the mindset needed to effectively communicate your message.

Joe Navarro spent a quarter century with the FBI, pursuing spies and other dangerous criminals across the globe. In his line of work, successful leadership was quite literally a matter of life or death. Now he brings his hard-earned lessons to you. Be Exceptional distills a lifetime of experience into five principles that outstanding individuals live by.

Badass Habits is a eureka-sparking, easy-to-digest look at how our habits make us who we are, from the measly moments that happen in private to the resolutions we loudly broadcast (and, erm, often don't keep) on social media. Habit busting and building goes way beyond becoming a dedicated flosser or never showing up late again - our habits reveal our unmet desires, the gaps in our boundaries, our level of self-awareness, and our unconscious beliefs and fears.

Have you ever walked into a room and couldn't remember what you went there for? Have you ever grasped the hand of a potential client and then when the handshake broke, the name seemed to disappear from your memory? Or have you ever left a prospect or an important meeting and as you drove away remembered a key point that you should have shared with them? The problem is NOT with your memory. The problem is with the "Filing System" your brain currently uses to store and retrieve memory items.

The power of an effective speech is undeniable. It has the capacity to engage, inform, motivate, and create change in an audience - and in the world. In this compelling 24-lesson course, How to Speak Effectively in Any Setting, taught by Molly Bishop Shadel, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, learn the fine art of speaking clearly, effectively, and persuasively in contexts across the spectrum, from the board room to the bar room and everywhere in between.

Do you ever feel like you're too busy, too stressed, or just too distracted to concentrate and get work done? In Unlimited Memory you'll learn how the world's best memory masters get themselves to concentrate at will, anytime they want. When you can easily focus and concentrate on the task at hand and store and recall useful information, you can easily double your productivity and eliminate wasted time, stress, and mistakes at work. In this book you'll find all the tools, strategies, and techniques you need to improve your memory.

Is it possible to feel better - and make it last? Renowned physician, psychiatrist, brain-imaging researcher, and founder of Amen Clinics Dr. Daniel Amen understands how critical it is for you to know what will help you feel better fast, now and later. In Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, you'll discover new, powerful brain-based strategies to quickly gain control over anxiety, worry, sadness, stress, and anger, strengthening your resilience and giving you joy and purpose for a lifetime.

Medical doctor and researcher Dr. Kris Verburgh is quickly emerging as one of the world's leading research authorities on the science of aging. The Longevity Code is his authoritative guide on why and how we age and on the four most crucial areas we have control over in order to slow down - and even reverse - the aging process. We learn why some animal species hardly age at all while others age and die very quickly and about the mechanisms at work that slowly but definitely cause our bodies to age, making us susceptible to heart attack, stroke, cancer, pneumonia, and dementia.

Brain imaging research demonstrates that memory loss actually starts in the brain decades before you have any symptoms. Learn the actions you can take to help not just prevent memory loss later in life...but to begin restoring the memory you may have already lost. Expert physician Dr. Amen reveals how a multipronged strategy - including dietary changes, physical and mental exercises, and spiritual practices - can improve your brain health, enhance your memory, and reduce the likelihood that you'll develop Alzheimer's and other memory loss-related conditions.

Whether you are looking to position yourself as an industry expert, extend your sphere of influence, or gain the support and backing of vital constituencies, The 7 Principles of Public Speaking will give you the tools you need to achieve your goal.

Groundbreaking anthropologist and memory champion Lynne Kelly reveals how we can use ancient and traditional mnemonic methods to enhance and expand our memory.

As we age, our memory naturally declines - but there are scientifically proven ways to enhance brain and memory function. This book, grounded in cutting-edge neuroscience, will help you get started. The Neuroscience of Memory offers a seven-step memory-improvement program based on the latest research. You'll find powerful tools to optimize your brain and memory function, increase neural connections, and stay mentally sharp both now and in the long run.

Critical thinking is regularly cited as an essential 21st century skill, the key to success in school and work. Given our propensity to believe fake news, draw incorrect conclusions, and make decisions based on emotion rather than reason, it might even be said that critical thinking is vital to the survival of a democratic society. But what, exactly, is critical thinking? Haber describes the term's origins in such disciplines as philosophy, psychology, and science.

From presidents to state capitals, from math equations to the periodic table, kids have so much to remember for school—luckily, listeners have Dellis’s incredibly helpful guide! The book is structured as an entertaining and fantastical narrative in which the author guides the listener as they attempt to defeat the Memory Thief, a villain plotting to steal everyone’s memories. To accomplish that mission, readers must climb Mt. Foreverest. On the journey up the mountain, readers will encounter pirates, elves, and mummies, all while flexing their memory muscles.

How to Win an Election is an ancient Roman guide for campaigning that is as up-to-date as tomorrow's headlines. In 64 BC when idealist Marcus Cicero, Rome's greatest orator, ran for consul (the highest office in the Republic), his practical brother Quintus decided he needed some no-nonsense advice on running a successful campaign.

John Ratey, best-selling author and clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, lucidly explains the human brain's workings, and paves the way for a better understanding of how the brain affects who we are. Ratey provides insight into the basic structure and chemistry of the brain, and demonstrates how its systems shape our perceptions, emotions, and behavior. By giving us a greater understanding of how the brain responds to the guidance of its user, he provides us with knowledge that can enable us to improve our lives.

This fascinating book draws on Dr. Jandial's broad-spectrum expertise and brings together the best of various fields - surgery, science, brain structure, the conscious mind - all to explain the bigger picture of brain health and rejuvenation. It is a journey into his operating room, around the world on his surgical missions, inside his laboratory, and to the outer edges of neuroscience to reveal the latest brain breakthroughs that are turning science fiction into reality, translating their implications for everyday life.

Is it possible to feel better - and make it last? Renowned physician, psychiatrist, brain-imaging researcher, and founder of Amen Clinics Dr. Daniel Amen understands how critical it is for you to know what will help you feel better fast, now and later. In Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, you'll discover new, powerful brain-based strategies to quickly gain control over anxiety, worry, sadness, stress, and anger, strengthening your resilience and giving you joy and purpose for a lifetime.

Ever been embarrassed to forget someone’s name? Mislaid your keys or flummoxed as to why you’ve gone upstairs? In this Audible Original Podcast Derren Brown and a whole bevvy of experts unravel the mysteries of memory to help you better understand how it functions and to improve your powers of recall. Over the course of eight episodes they combine cutting edge scientific research with powerful real-life stories and entertaining memory tests. And Derren unveils a variety of simple techniques to help you build a better memory.

With this program, you'll have the tools, the techniques, and, just as importantly, the unflinching confidence to influence your readers and listeners decisively - both at work and at home.

Everything you thought you knew was wrong! Long before Snopes.com and Wikipedia, The Book of Common Fallacies set out to debunk popular beliefs and set the record straight. By tracking down the facts and citing experts in a multitude of fields, Philip Ward points out the senseless ideas that we have come to accept as fact. Newly updated with today’s common misconceptions, The Book of Common Fallacies exposes the truth behind hundreds of commonly held false beliefs.

No Calculator? No Problem! Mastering Mental Math , award-winning professor of mathematics and celebrated “mathemagician” Arthur T. Benjamin delivers 10 fun-filled lessons on how to do math in your head with confidence, accuracy, and speed - sometimes faster than a calculator. By the end of Professor Benjamin’s lessons, you’ll be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers faster than ever before. And with your newfound skills, you’ll soon find yourself amazing other people and, perhaps more important, yourself.

The legendary college football coach and analyst, Lou Holtz once said: "When all is said and done, more is said than done." These few, yet extremely profound words explain one of the biggest predicaments that individuals face today. Many of us as individuals say we want to be successful, happy, and influential. Yet, very, very few of us follow up what we say - whether said to others or ourselves - with specific actions that move us directly toward those goals.