Self-Help

"The dream calls to us from the rainbow’s end, but the plan and the journey always begin in the here and now."

For anyone who has ever had a dream or longs to find one, Wheel of Wisdom will help put a great plan behind your dream.

In today's busy world, we may fail to realize that our need for friendship is as vital and important as our basic needs for food, air, and water. However, thanks to the high-stress environments people currently live in, they are now starting to realize how important friendship is to a healthy and full life.

This book shows readers how to open the flow of friendship in their lives by learning to be friends. It offers activities that have proven helpful to participants in the author's workshops, exercises that prompt readers to examine their personal beliefs about friendship and apply them in daily life. By following these activities, readers discover how to be friends with themselves, how to be friends with others, and how to strengthen existing friendships. Author David Hunt also describes his experiences with learning how to be a friend, including his successes and failures.

Where is reality to be found: at the surface of things or behind it?

Max Willem, a young art student in Montreal at the end of the 1960s, becomes obsessed with outward appearances - with makeup, costume, and masks of all kinds. For him, outward reality, and in particular that of the opposite sex, is composed of many veils of illusion and artifice through which he must see if he is to feel fully alive. At the same time, Max discovers his exceptional talent for art forgery. Moving to New York, he becomes a tool in the hands of a powerful international ring dealing in forged art, and suffers from the loss of his own artistic integrity. Himself seduced as much a seducer, how can Max escape and redeem his artistic soul?

In The Art of Deception, Sergio Kokis has written a novel about mystification and illusion. His exuberant narrative provides a caustic insight into the undersides of art and of love.

Small things can often mean a great deal. For the past five years readers of the Toronto Star's website have been telling each other that, as they shared their stories in a feature called "Acts of Kindness." The common thread is that a stranger helped when it was needed most, without thought of a reward and often without leaving a name.

Since its debut in December, 2004, "Acts of Kindness" has become a daily fixture at thestar.com. About four thousand stories have been submitted and two thousand have been published. Acts of Kindness, the book, represents the best of the best - a collection of 200 of the most memorable tales.

The stories are a reminder that goodness is non-denominational, non-political, and transferable across race and language. They also remind us that although our lives are full of hard realities, the smallest gesture can raise a spirit or lift a heart, and the time to do it is now.

You Can Say That Again is Bruce Rogers' light-hearted look at the the English language. It examines the origins, history, and peculiarities of the language, and provides instruction on how to speak effectively. It sets the record straight on how to pronounce some of the most troublesome words and names. It examines the standards of the electronic media and finds them wanting. And it offers tips on preparation and presentation for platform speakers and broadcasters.

You Can Say That Again has a language quiz in every chapter, along with lists of origins, political and business terms, sports and science bloopers, puns, limericks, and euphemisms. There's a pronunciation guide for major languages. And there is help for those who want to join the battle against jargon, slang, and cliches.

Vocal confidence is essential for personal success. You Can Say That Again can help you sound better when you open your mouth to speak.

Is impotence contagious? At what age should a senior be surgically separated from his automobile, or obligated to donate his sex toys to the Salvation Army?

These and other timely questions are among those not answered in Eric Nicol's latest cure for serious reading, Old Is In. This palsied opus responds to demographics warning that our Western society is about to be engulfed by a tidal wave of seniors.

How to cope? Is stoicism the answer? Hell, no! The best way to relieve the stiff upper lip is with a smile. And that prescription is filled, merrily, by Eric Nicol's Old Is In.