Author

David Vandver

Inspirational, Personal Development, Self-help

Sep 11: Big Love & Two Minute Mornings

August 30, 2017

Scott Stabile parents were murdered when he was 14 years old. His brother died of a heroin overdose when he was 23. Rudderless, Scott found temporary refuge in a cult that dominated his life for 13 years, until he knew he had to escape.

Scott shares his journey in Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart.  A frequent Huffington Post contributor, Scott has a huge social media following for his inspirational posts and videos, and conducts personal empowerment workshops around the globe.  Scott will be appearing at Third Place Book in Lake Forest on October 4, at 7PM.

Can you “win” your day, overcoming adversity before it even begins, in just two minutes every morning

NYT bestseller Neil Pasricha lays out the strategy to jump starting each day with a positive impact in Two Minute Mornings: A Journal to Win Your Day Every Day.  Neil is a Harvard MBA and is the Director of the Institute for Global Happiness, and has one of the most watched Ted Talks of all time.

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Biography, Fiction, Writers on Writing

Sep 04: Her Again: Becoming Meryl Steep & This is the Part Where You Laugh

August 25, 2017

Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep is the first thoroughly researched biography of the actress, providing an intimate look into the years that shaped her into the icon she is today.

Michael Schulman paints an indelible portrait of the artist as a young actress, leaving no stone unturned.  Michael has contributed to The New Yorker since 2006, currently serving as the arts editor.

From returning guest Peter Brown Hoffmeister comes an unforgettable account of growing up, making mistakes, and growing out of the shadow of drug abuse.  

This is the Part Where You Laugh chronicles his expulsion from three high schools, being homeless for parts of his sophomore and senior year,  and even living in a Greyhound Bus Station for a short while.  Peter is an author, rock climber, public speaker, outdoor expert, and athlete gear-tester for Ridgemont Outfitters.

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Fiction, Writers on Writing

Aug 28: Story Sparks & The Doll Funeral

August 24, 2017

Whether you have a treasure chest of ideas and a thimbleful of creativity, or the talent to compose riveting stories but the muse is absent, returning guest Denise Jaden can help!

Story Sparks: Finding Your Best Story Ideas and Turning Them Into Compelling Fiction is her guide to transforming your potential tales into captivating fiction, or getting “unstuck” if you have the dreaded writer’s block.  Denise is an award-winning author of young adult novels and has also penned several nonfiction books for those looking to explore writing.

Imagine a mystical world where ghosts of the past and the present, the living and lost, haunt the land of the living.  The Doll Funeral, Kate Hamer’s highly anticipated follow-up to The Girl in the Red Coat, uses her mastery of atmosphere and language to explore intense family relationships while drawing you into a world of paranormal specters.

In addition to her novels, Kate is a prolific and award-winning writer of short stories and has written articles for The New York Times, The Independent, and The Sunday Mail.

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Personal Development

Aug 21: ABC’s Dan Harris & Live An Authentic Life

August 17, 2017

Award-winning ABC anchor Dan Harris has covered wars and presidential campaigns, investigated human traffickers, and even been chased by wild elephants. But those professional challenges paled in comparison to a personal challenge: taming the voice in his head.

He explores his journey in his book 10% Happier:How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works—A True Story.  

Meriweather Group CEO and founder David Howitt demonstrates the power of ‘And’ in  Heed Your Call: Integrating Myth, Science, Spirituality and Business, proving life does not have to be an either/or affair, encouraging us to integrate our inner musician and computer programmer, our inner poet and scientist.

David is an accomplished entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience providing business strategy and brand counsel to startups and Fortune 100 companies.

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Inspirational, Personal Development, Writers on Writing

Aug 14: Insight Into Self-Awareness & Our Story Begins

August 5, 2017

Ninety-five percent of people believe they are self-aware, but approximately 10-15% actually are.  INSIGHT: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and In Life  explores the most common misconceptions about how to become more self-aware and focuses on how to make better career, love, and life choices through understanding our own values, aspirations, and impact on others.

Author Dr. Tascha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times best-selling author.

Each of our stories finds its foundation in the honest and vulnerable years of our childhood.  Many of our thoughts and inspirations from those times are long since lost or forgotten, but for some, they remain a cherished look back at the shaping of our current and future selves.

In Our Story Begins: Your Favorite Authors and Illustrators Share Fun, Inspiring, and Occasionally Ridiculous Things They Wrote and Drew as Kids, compiled by award-winning author Elissa Brent Weissman, we get a firsthand glimpse at the quirky and smart early drawings and writings of some of today’s  foremost children’s authors, revealing the evidence of their nascent talent in their most formative years.

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Fiction, Writers on Writing

Aug 07: Award Winning Summer Reads

August 5, 2017

The dog days of summer are upon us, and the cool evening breezes bring about the perfect time to settle on the back porch with a glass of wine and a good book.

Our first guest today delivers a compelling exploration of family, politics, and the fight for racial equality in her debut novel, The Talented Ribkins.  Author Ladee Hubbard won both the 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition in the Short Story category.

Glen Erik Hamilton’s debut novel, Past Crimes, was wildly successful, and he returns today to discuss the third novel in the lauded Van Shaw series, Every Day Above Ground.

Glen will also share his approach to living up to the lofty expectations set by his first two books, and what it takes to develop a realistic character who grows with the series.

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Fiction, Writers on Writing

Jul 31: The Essex Serpent & Tropic of Kansas

July 27, 2017

Today’s guest authors both created believable fictional universes — one gothic, one of a dystopian future. We’ll discuss what it takes to bring realism into fiction to help readers suspend their disbelief.

Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent delivers us into 1893 London, where an intrepid amateur naturalist sets out to prove a mythical, murderous beast, is actually an undiscovered species.  Sarah has turned her PhD in creative writing into a burgeoning career as a novelist, with The Essex Serpent, her second novel, winning the British Book Awards Book of the Year. 

Our second author, Christopher Brown, takes us into a haunting future where the United States has broken into warring territories and the center of the landmass is a ravaged wasteland known as the Tropic of Kansas.  Christopher is a lawyer and renowned short story writer whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.

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Health & Wellness, Personal Development, Self-help

Jul 24: The Trauma Heart & The Fearless Path

July 23, 2017

The power of healing is one of the greatest forces in overcoming traumatic experiences.  Trauma therapist and author Judy Crane blends scientific research, case studies, and her own insights into a The Trauma Heart:  We Are Not Bad People Trying to Be Good, We Are Wounded People Trying to Heal – Stories of Survival, Hope, and Healing, a book designed to help you focus on your own healing while empowering those around you.

Let it go.  Stock advice that is so prevalent it was even made into a smash hit song, so it can’t be wrong, can it?  Healer and inspiration speaker Leah Guy says it is.  In The Fearless Path: A Radical Awakening To Emotional Healing and Inner Peace, she contends attachment, not detachment, is the better path and that there is no healing in separation.

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Health & Wellness, Inspirational

July 17: Reclaiming Your Body & Fierce Kindness

July 9, 2017

An insult at the age of 11 can stay with you forever, much as a scar from a car wreck, or other tragedy that marks you physically.  Suzanne Scurlock-Durana has discovered a way reconnect to your body’s intrinsic wisdom and begin the healing process from within in Reclaiming Your Body: Healing from Trauma and Awakening to Your Body’s Wisdom.

After decades of perfecting her methods of awakening the body’s innate wisdom, Suzanne created the comprehensive Healing From the Core training curriculum in 1994. Today it includes a robust selection of international workshops, webinars, speaking engagements and audio programs.

When was the last time you shone a little light in the world while simultaneously making your own life better?  In Fierce Kindness: Be A Positive Force for Change, Melanie Salvatore-August provides an easy to follow recipe to combine compassion and courage into an elixir of uplifting action.

Melanie is an experienced life coach, yoga teacher, and Reiki healer who travels the country, speaking about creating a movement of positivity.

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Fiction, Personal Development, Writers on Writing

Jul 10: Lies and Other Acts of Love & Smarter Faster Better

July 8, 2017

Returning guest Kristy Woodson Harvey’s new book Lies and Other Acts of Love is a moving examination of the lies we tell to protect our loved ones — and the life-altering consequences of a hidden truth revealed.

It’s not about doing more — it’s about understanding human behavior and creating space to enjoy more. Pulitzer-Prize Winner, New York Times investigative journalist, and author Charles Duhigg joins us for the 3rd time — this time with his new book: Smarter, Faster, Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business.

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