Book Reviews

FOREVER SKILLS By Kieran Flanagan & Dan Gregory RRP $29.95 Available from www.amazon.com.au and all good bookstores In a changing world with growing reliance on Artificial Intelligence, algorithms hacking our lives and whole industries being disrupted overnight, what skills will matter most for work, business and life in the future? How can you future proof yourself, your organisation and your kids? Best-selling authors Kieran Flanagan and Dan Gregory have written a practical, research-based guide on the 12 ‘forever skills’ you need to get ahead in business and life regardless of what’s changing around us. Interviewing hundreds of successful business people, educators, futurists, economist and historians, Kieran and Dan reveal the key skills we need to develop in ourselves, our workplaces and our children that will always be critical to success in business and in life. Readers learn the key 12 skills: • Creativity: Insight, Conversion, Problem Solving & Agility • Communication: Influence, Team Building, Trust & Translation • Control: Self-control, Resource management, Order & Implementation It’s time to look beyond the things changing around us and focus on the things that won’t change within us. Practical and accessibly written, Forever Skills empowers you with the knowledge needed to future proof yourself and those around you for a successful future. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Book Reviews

SIMPLE SOULFUL SACRED By Megan Dalla-Camina RRP $ $22.99 Available from www.amazon.com.au and where all good books are sold Let’s face it, we live in a time where a busy, fast paced existence has become the new normal. Many of us are struggling to find the balance between our personal and professional lives and often lose track of our dreams and the things that matter to us. We’re striving for a definition of success that isn’t necessarily our own, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Renowned women’s mentor and bestselling author Megan Dalla-Camina draws upon decades of experience helping modern women rise to provide a guidebook for those wanting to learn how to lead a more meaningful, purposeful and soul aligned life. Megan shows readers how to get clear on what you truly want, own your feminine power and claim what’s sacred. Written with the time-poor reader in mind, the book includes 200 short-form chapters which explore themes of simplicity, livelihood, wellbeing, comfort, soulfulness, consciousness, courage, sacredness, womanhood and sovereignty – all too often lost in the busyness and distractions of daily life.

BEING YOU By Maggie Eyre $32.99 Available from www.exislepublishing.com and wherever good books are sold In this social media obsessed age, there has never been a time when there are so many opportunities to get your personal branding just right – or horribly and very publicly wrong. Maggie Eyre has been helping people navigate the treacherous terrain of managing the way the world perceives them since Mark Zuckerberg was a gleam in his mother’s eye. In her new book, Being You, Maggie shows you how to communicate your business and increase your brand awareness, both face to face and on digital platforms, including a comprehensive social media strategy. It provides practical tips to reach your target audience and land your message, while sharing the secrets of some of the world’s biggest personal brands — from Oprah Winfrey to Roger Federer — on how they grew their audiences and achieved success. It’s practical, authoritative, inspirational and illustrated with stories and case studies based on Maggie’s own international work and experience.

THE UNHAPPY SMILE By Tracey Horton RRP $24.95 Available from www.traceyhorton.com First-time Australian author, Tracey Horton has taken out the highly-prestigious Exceptional Woman of Excellence Award at the Women Economic Forum in New Delhi, India. The book is a confronting, yet inspiring and uplifting account of how Ms Horton overcame childhood abuse and hurt, emerging gracefully and lovingly on to calm waters after navigating unimaginable turbulence early on in life. Tracey has packed the book with deep insights into understanding one's self and others, with unashamed references to her own experiences with abuse and brokenness. Not one to wallow in self-pity, Ms Horton has always had an unshakable compassion for others, and helping and inspiring people has long been a passion for this gifted communicator. The Unhappy Smile is the first of three books to be released, and contains a strong thread guiding its readers toward becoming the very best versions of their authentic selves.

DEAR LINDY By Alana Valentine

RRP $39.99 Available from www.booktopia.com.au The Azaria Chamberlain case was one of the most followed and documented murder trials in Australia’s history. As Lindy Chamberlain mourned the death of her baby daughter Azaria, taken by a dingo from a campsite at Uluru in 1980, she was tried and convicted in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. The nation responded with grief, rage, prejudice and remorse to Lindy directly, through thousands of letters. In the book Dear Lindy author and playwright Alana Valentine provides a selection of letters sent to Lindy throughout her ordeal, as shared in Alana’s play, Letters to Lindy. The public made their own ruling in the case that divided Australia, shown in the hurtful, supportive, accusatory or sympathetic letters received by Lindy. Some of the letters are full of vitriol; some include bizarre theories. More are compassionate, sent by mothers, by people of faith or by those who had suffered similar tragedies. We hear directly from Lindy too, in candid conversations with the author, her foreword and a letter she wrote to her 16-year-old self. Dear Lindy is a fascinating time capsule of 1980s and 1990s Australia, reflecting our changing attitudes to Lindy Chamberlain and how far we've come as a nation.

THE 100K PROPERTY PLAN By Andrew Crossley RRP $24.95 Available from www.amazon.com.au and where all good books are sold If you’re looking to invest in commercial property, or thinking of subdividing and building, Andrew provides readers the ins and outs of investing in commercial property and property development and covers the steps of signing a purchase contract, development, construction and renovations, and shows how to make the whole process as stress- free as possible. Author Andrew Crossley is an award-winning property advisor with over two decades of experience. He was the 2017 national winner at the MFAA awards and is a finalist in over half a dozen industry awards. His company, The Australian Property Advisory Group, was a finalist in the Australian Small Business Awards of 2016, highly recommended at the Investor Choice Awards of 2015 and was national runner up in the prestigious Reader’s Choice Awards of 2015. Andrew’s first book, Property Investing Made Simple, was a best-seller and crowned best real estate book at the 2015 International Book Awards. Book Reviews

GET INVESTED By Bushy Martin RRP $ 13.95 Available from www.bushymartin.com.au Is it time to make your money work harder for you? We want to work to live, not the other way around. Despite the current media attention around falling house prices, property investment will continue to be the best wealth creation tool if you play the long game. Award-winning property investment specialist and podcast host, Bushy Martin, draws decades of experience helping over 1700 Australians amass over $600m in property, to provide a guide on understanding your why, when and what when it comes to investing for long term financial security. Get Invested gives you the inspiration to start investing with the confidence so you can focus on your life and career whilst your income is replaced through safe and affordable investment. After reading the book you will: • Realise that relying on your super and just paying off your home loan will keep you poor • Understand the need to invest now in a way that won’t limit your lifestyle • Know why, when and what to invest in to achieve your goals • Think about your future and what you want it to look like

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY AND DEVELOPMENT MADE SIMPLE By Andrew Crossley

RRP $24.95 Available from www.amazon.com.au and where all good books are sold If you’re looking to invest in commercial property, or thinking of subdividing and building, Andrew provides readers the ins and outs of investing in commercial property and property development and covers the steps of signing a purchase contract, development, construction and renovations, and shows how to make the whole process as stress- free as possible. Author Andrew Crossley is an award-winning property advisor with over two decades of experience. He was the 2017 national winner at the MFAA awards and is a finalist in over half a dozen industry awards. His company, The Australian Property Advisory Group, was a finalist in the Australian Small Business Awards of 2016, highly recommended at the Investor Choice Awards of 2015 and was national runner up in the prestigious Reader’s Choice Awards of 2015. Andrew’s first book, Property Investing Made Simple, was a best-seller and crowned best real estate book at the 2015 International Book Awards.

HAPPINESS IS A BIG RED TEAPOT By Anouska Jones RRP $29.99 Available from www.exislepublishing.com It’s no surprise that so many of us switch the kettle on at the first sign of trouble — keep calm and drink tea! In fact, that’s how this book came about. After a particularly stressful week, editor Anouska Jones was sitting at home with her husband complaining about everything that had gone wrong. As he put their teapot and two mugs down on the table, her husband commented, ‘Cheer up! You can’t be miserable when you’ve got a bright red teapot in front of you!’ The very next morning, Anouska started researching quotes about tea and before long she had a collection of memorable quotations from rock stars (Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart), Buddhist monks (Thich Nat Hahn), politicians (Abraham Lincoln, William Gladstone), actors (Audrey Hepburn, Billy Connolly), adventurers (Bear Grylls) and more. It seems tea’s appeal is truly universal! It’s hoped that the resulting book of quotes and accompanying photographs brings you the same pleasure as a perfectly brewed cup of your own particular favourite.

THINGS NOBODY KNOWS BUT ME

By Amra Pajalic RRP $29.99 Available from www.transitlounge.com.au When she is four years old Amra Pajalic realises that her mother is different. Fatima is loving but sometimes hears strange voices that tell her to do bizarre things. She is frequently sent to hospital and Amra and her brother are passed around to family friends and foster homes, and for a time live with their grandparents in Bosnia. At sixteen Amra ends up in the school counsellor’s office for wagging school. She finally learns the name for the malady that has dogged her mother and affected her own life: bipolar disorder. Amra becomes her mother’s confidante and learns the extraordinary story of her life: when she was fifteen years old Fatima visited family friends only to find herself in an arranged marriage. At sixteen she was a migrant, a mother, and mental patient. Surprisingly funny, Things Nobody Knows But Me is a tender portrait of family and migration, beautifully told. It captures a wonderful sense of bicultural place and life as it weaves between St Albans in suburban Australia and Bosanska Gradiška in Bosnia. Ultimately it is the heartrending story of a mother and daughter bond fractured and forged by illness and experience. Fatima emerges as a remarkable but wounded woman who learns that her daughter really loves her.