Welcome to Issue 86 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!
Happy Spring, Everyone!
In my last newsletter, I announced the publication of my new book Kawbawgam: The Chief, The Legend, The Man, a biography of Ojibwa Chief Charles Kawbawgam, who lived here in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula.
I am so thrilled to announce that Kawbawgam was recently named a U.P. Notable Book. (U.P. is Upper Peninsula of Michigan in case you didn’t know.) In addition, the book was so popular during the holiday shopping season that my local independent bookstore, Snowbound, said it was tied as their bestselling nonfiction book with Barack Obama’s A Promised Land. Whatever your politics, you have to admit that’s pretty cool.
And I’m also elated that two books I had the privilege of editing, Craig Brockman’s Dead of November and Jane Kopecky’s World War II Conscientious Objectors, also made the U.P. Notable Book list.
If you love the U.P. or just great books, you can check out the full list here: https://www.uppaa.org/2021/01/24/up-notable-book-list/
And below, as always, are some more wonderful books I’ve had the privilege of editing that have been released recently. Please check them out. I’m sure there’s a book listed there you’ll enjoy.
Tyler Tichelaar
This Month’s Great Book Quote:
“Rich people have small TVs and big libraries,
poor people have small libraries and big TVs.”
— Zig Ziglar
Amanda Heal’s new book Seeing by Vision, Not by Sight: How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose and Put It Into Action is a life-affirming journey through the process of determining what is your life’s purpose and then figuring out how to take steps to achieve and live it.
The title references the need to have a vision for your future, but it is also a clever play on words because Amanda is herself blind. Consequently, finding and living her purpose has offered more obstacles for her to overcome than many people. Readers will marvel at her stories of how she has done everything from becoming a lawyer to going on a trek through Nepal, despite her total blindness. They will walk away thinking, “If Amanda can do it, then nothing can stop me.”
Sometimes determining our purpose is easier said than done, however. Amanda realizes extenuating circumstances can make us feel trapped or scared about changing our present situation. That said, she makes the process as easy as possible, breaking it down into three steps and then showing how to put those steps into action. She discusses how to dismiss fear and find the courage to move forward, making the changes necessary to lead your own personal growth, master your mindset, and manage your finances.
To read more, visit Seeing by Vision, Not by Sight.
Anyone who loves to travel will not be surprised by Tom Leegstra’s belief that travel transforms us for the better. But few of us have taken the time to analyze that transformation. In The Transformative Power of Travel: How to Discover Yourself by Exploring the World, Tom shares just how travel changes us, teaching us to be more patient, more tolerant, and more open to new ideas, perspectives, and differences. Sometimes travel and the experiences it brings can also be a little uncomfortable, but in those situations, we are all the more likely to experience transformation.
The Transformative Power of Travel has all the basic advice you need about traveling, but beyond basic things like getting passports and remembering to pack toothpaste, the book explores how to go about setting goals for your travels—goals that are not just about seeing a sight, but perhaps about learning more about the special person you are traveling with, or just learning how to relax and have fun, or learning to appreciate history or art, and most importantly, learning about other cultures and realizing at the end of the day that people are basically all the same.
Tom begins by asking us to take off our clothes—not literally but metaphorically.
To read more, visit The Transformative Power of Travel.
Tiffani Patlán’s new book, Unlocking Your Ability to Heal: Reinvent Your World to Transform Mentally, Physically, and Spiritually, is more than just a personal memoir about overcoming obstacles. It’s a well-researched and easy-to-read look into all the topics that affect people’s mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, and it offers practical advice and strategies, based on research and Tiffani’s personal experiences, to move past whatever problems you may be facing.
I won’t go into detail about Tiffani’s story, as heart-wrenching and entertaining as it can be at times. But I will highlight some of the powerful information in these pages. I will also say that at times I was astonished by some of the bad decisions Tiffani made, especially in regards to her relationships with men, but her youth and a childhood filled with dysfunction, plus an inability to find her voice to speak up for herself, largely due to being raped by family members, makes her story understandable.
It would be easy today for Tiffani to see herself as a victim, and at times she was one, but she is not interested in playing the victim. She is interested in these pages in exploring her journey to provide meaning and guidance for others. She also deftly points out many of the underlying causes of the problems in her life.
To read more, visit Unlocking Your Ability to Heal.
Blue Stiley’s new book The Sum of 4: The Secret Equation to Accelerating Achievement lives up to its promise not only to inspire and motivate readers to achieve their goals but to share his secret equation for how to make that achievement happen as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Blue has himself used this equation many times, and in these pages, he shares numerous personal stories from his own life to achieve success. Those stories range from how he learned to deal with a bully as a child to his becoming a black belt in martial arts, followed by an international model, a fitness coach, an entrepreneur, and now an author. Blue’s stories entertain while also illustrating his points about how the different components of the secret equation can lead to success.
The secret equation is not meant to be a secret—readers just need to discover and apply it. Blue is upfront in explaining that the equation is really just simple math anyone can use. In the introduction, he states:
“The result of adding two or more numbers is the definition of a sum. The Sum of 4 is a concept that emphasizes the fact that there are multiple, if not infinite, ways to reach certain results, goals, dreams, or destinations.”
To read more, visit The Sum of 4.
Michael O’Brien’s Attitude: It Influences Everything is a concise and practical exploration of how readers can improve their attitudes through easy steps. Using the acronym of The A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E. C.O.D.E., Michael walks readers through all the different aspects of having a positive attitude and the benefits that can be reaped from that mindset.
Michael begins by discussing how he has always been intrigued by people who are nice and a pleasure to be around. He believes it all boils down to one thing: attitude. Consequently, improving our attitude is of supreme importance if we want to be happy, prosper in the world, and develop meaningful relationships.
In the introduction, Michael lays out the advantages of working on our attitudes. He states: “An improved attitude leads to being an improved student, as well as an improved teacher. An improved attitude leads to an improved employee and an effective boss.”
Michael then walks readers through twelve short chapters, each of which focuses on a different letter of the book’s acronym. Each chapter can be read in about five minutes, and it not only discusses that chapter’s topic, but it provides a simple exercise to help the reader persevere in improving their attitude.
To read more, visit Attitude: It Influences Everything.
Daniel Edds’ new book Leveraging the Genetics of Leadership: Cracking the Code of Sustainable Team Performance uses a DNA and genetics metaphor to describe how leadership can be a designed system. In these pages, he explores why systems thinking creates a wonderful opportunity for rethinking organizational leadership.
Edds feels more than enough books have been written on leadership. But most of those books focus on the importance of personal leadership and how the individual reader can become a better leader. Edds takes a different approach by showing how leadership can be a system that governs how the entire organization operates. He then looks at what the DNA of that system would be, how the system would be structured, and how it would affect productivity, profit, and most importantly, job satisfaction among employees.
While Edds did his research for this book on how leadership could work as a system, he came across examples of organizations where leadership systems already existed in such diverse places as the Mafia, the US Army, the Salvation Army, and school systems.
In Leveraging the Genetics of Leadership, Edds uses some very specific examples of organizations that have made leadership systematic, often without realizing it. He tells the stories of those organizations, analyzes how they operate, and shares his interviews with their leaders.
To read more, visit Leveraging the Genetics of Leadership.
