How to Own the Room

Do you work and live with people who are hard to convince? Who dismiss ideas before even thinking about them? Do you want to know how to influence people, without being manipulative? Want to find out how people get motivated, make decisions, how to be more persuasive with everyone? Shelle Rose Charvet, best-selling author, shows you how to match your language to people around you (in your work, with your colleagues, your boss and your clients, and at home, with your partner, family and other relationships).

What would happen if a shy introvert lived like a gregarious extrovert for one year? If she knowingly and willingly put herself in perilous social situations that she’d normally avoid at all costs? Jessica Pan is going to find out. When she found herself jobless and friendless, sitting in the familiar Jess-shaped crease on her sofa, she couldn't help but wonder what life might have looked like if she had been a little more open to new experiences and new people, a little less attached to going home instead of going to the pub. 

By most people’s standards I would say I’ve had a pretty good career. I’ve reached the top of the ‘ladder’ and been lucky enough to have had a damned good life. But at what cost? At the cost of who I truly was. I played the business game for years, where the rules were set by men for men. I was tough and aggressive. I put in long hours, was competitive and resilient. But I suppressed my natural energy, sensitivity and instinct. I worked like this until I couldn’t any more. And then I changed....

Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto flies in the face of conventional wisdom by suggesting that it should be a person's talent and skill - and not necessarily their passion - that determines their career path. Newport, who graduated from Dartmouth College (Phi Beta Kappa) and earned a PhD from MIT, contends that trying to find what drives us, instead of focusing on areas in which we naturally excel, is ultimately harmful and frustrating to job seekers.

On a cold December afternoon in 2013, Hazel Gale was declared the English ABA Boxing Champion. On paper, this wasn't her greatest success in sport, nor was it even her best-fought bout. But as her hand was raised that day, Hazel felt a surge of alien emotion. She wasn't sure whether it was happiness, pride or just a good old-fashioned sense of achievement. But it was new. Looking back, she can tell you that what she'd felt upon winning up until that day had been shame. This time, she owned the triumph.     

For the last 20 years, Melinda Gates has been on a mission. Her goal, as cochair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: if you want to lift a society up, invest in women. In this candid and inspiring book, Gates traces her awakening to the link between women’s empowerment and the health of societies. She shows some of the tremendous opportunities that exist right now to 'turbo charge' change. 

Random House presents the audiobook edition of How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, read by the authors and Suzanne Toren. By the best-selling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Do you hesitate about putting forward ideas? Are you reluctant to claim credit for your achievements? Do you find it difficult to get the support you need from your boss or the recognition you deserve from your colleagues?

In this live lecture, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer explores intention as an all-pervading force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place. Intention, he explains, is not something you do, but an energy you're a part of. Not only do you emanate from the field of intention, but if you align yourself to it, your desires become fulfilled and you find yourself at peace.

As creators of Google Ventures' renowned 'design sprint', Jake and John have helped hundreds of teams solve important problems by changing how they work. Building on the success of these sprints and their experience designing ubiquitous tech products like Gmail and YouTube, they spent years experimenting with their own personal habits and routines, looking for ways to help individuals optimise their energy, focus and time. Now they've packaged the most effective tactics into a four-step daily framework that anyone can use to systematically design their days.

You might think laziness, lack of willpower, and/or low motivation are to blame for the fact that you aren't achieving your goals. But fascinating research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology has revealed another, far more likely possibility. One with the potential to transform your life in a dramatic way.

With straight-talking advice from renowned psychotherapist Philippa Perry, this is the definitive guide for any parent looking to navigate their past, avoid repeating their own parents' mistakes and ensure they don't land their own kids in therapy. Through the combination of case studies, her own experiences as a parent, and therapeutic insight gained from a career spanning over 20 years, Perry tackles the wider issues of what it actually means to be a parent rather than getting bogged down in the little details.

From infancy we are taught to edit ourselves, trimming out the darker, weirder, less acceptable parts in order to please others. But this addiction to approval is holding us back. What if we begin to be ourselves, honestly and fully? Insanely Gifted shows how to transform our thinking and turn our inner demons into allies. How to reframe disappointment (because not getting what we want can be as interesting and useful as getting what we want).

Within each chapter, you’ll find an un-airbrushed selection of advice, comment and opinion. These are intimate stories from bad sex to bad boys, from workplace inequality to the sheer joy of learning something new, that will spark hope, triumph and occasionally outrage. In Life Honestly you will find fresh perspectives on everything from age milestones to friendship, motherhood and weddings, and why you should always, always, tell someone when you like their earrings.

Stories mould who we are, from our character to our cultural identity. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions, and shape our politics and beliefs. We use them to construct our relationships, to keep order in our law courts, to interpret events in our newspapers and social media. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human.

In her new audiobook, Invisible Women, award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. She exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.