Central Skagit Library District

An inspirational primer based on the author's 2006 commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College discusses how to manage life's crossroads, recounts times of struggle from her own life, and celebrates the benefits of not knowing what is to come.

"A Wisconsin family grapples with the power and limitations of faith when one of their own falls under the influence of a radical church"-- Lyle Hovde lives a mostly content life in rural Wisconsin with his wife, Peg, daughter, Shiloh, and six-year old grandson, Isaac. After a troubled adolescence, Shiloh has become deeply involved with an extremist church, and the devout pastor courting her is convinced Isaac has the spiritual ability to heal the...

Think about the last time you tried to change someone's mind about something important: a voter's political beliefs; a customer's favorite brand; a spouse's decorating taste. Chances are you weren't successful in shifting that person's beliefs in any way. In his book, Changing Minds, Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner explains what happens during the course of changing a mind - and offers ways to influence that process. Remember that we don't change...

"After her mother became bedridden and her father bailed on the family, Sophie found herself serving as a second mother to her twin brother, Seth, and younger sister, Jenna. Sophie supported her siblings through their college years, putting aside her own dream of opening a bookshop in Piper’s Cove—the quaint North Carolina beach town they frequented as children. Now it’s finally time for Sophie to follow her own pursuits. Seth has a new job,...

All change and loss involve grief. In this difficult season of the coronavirus pandemic, understanding how to grieve, and help others grieve, is more essential than ever. The Grief Club is Melody Beattie's profoundly personal, powerfully healing book to help listeners through life's most difficult times. Part memoir, part self-help book, part journalism, The Grief Club is a book of stories bound together by the human experience of loss in its many...

"Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town--Little Wing--and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. One of them never left, still farming the family's land that's been tilled for generations. Others did leave, went farther afield to make good, with varying degrees of success; as a rock star, commodities trader, rodeo stud. And seamlessly woven into their patchwork is Beth, whose presence...

"Transitioning is an alignment of the invisible and the physical. It is truth rising to the surface. It is one of the most fundamental aspects of the human condition--a part of our experience as a conscious being, no matter who we are. As time goes on, we all develop as people. None of us ever becomes someone else entirely--regardless of how we identify--but nor do we stay the same forever. We all transition. It's what binds us, not what separates...

Business leaders say they want creativity and need real innovation in order to thrive in a competitive world, yet chronically reject creative solutions and often embrace the familiar. Could it be that people love but also hate creative ideas? Could the "best practices" that organizations employ to manage innovation inadvertently kill innovation? Mueller provides a four-step process to help you disrupt your current mindset and recognize creative opportunity,...

Founder of the lifestyle website TheChicSite.com and CEO of her own media company, Rachel Hollis has created an online fan base by sharing tips for living a better life while fearlessly revealing the messiness of her own. Each chapter begins with a specific lie Hollis once believed that left her feeling overwhelmed, unworthy, or ready to give up. As a working mother, a former foster parent, and a woman who has dealt with insecurities about her body...