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February, 2017 l Working World l WorkingWorld.com 5 I Wish I Knew In High School is the kind of book that can help you avoid having to say that. Sarah E. Galimore maintains that getting an education and learning are two totally different things and are approached in different ways as well. The choices we make in high school and beyond have a drastic effect on how we define success, how we achieve that success, and how happy we are with where we end up. Sar- ah addresses ten essential areas where spending a little bit more time questioning your motivations and goals for the future might actually help you to make better choices. Those essential areas include how we choose our friends and for what reasons, taking control of our education and customizing it to fit our talents and interests, defining success and much more. With plenty of anecdotes from her own experience, Sarah provides some very thought provoking material to start a secondary student on their way to thinking a bit more clearly about where they are headed and, more importantly, why they are headed that way. Though my high school experience was more than 30 years ago, 10 Things I Wish I Knew In High School had an effect on the way that I look at my career as well. I can relate a great deal to much of what Sarah E. Galimore lays out and would likely counsel a high school student in much the same way. Too many of our youth and their parents simply accept the program that they are given without advocating for themselves and their own interests, and without even taking a moment to examine their goals and what motivates them. I was lucky enough to have advocated for my own education and in the process have reaped many of the rewards that Sarah mentions. All in all, though this is a book directed at high school students, 10 Things I Wish I Knew In High School is a must-read for parents whose children are just beginning high school as well. Well organized, easy to read and packed full of great advice. 30 DAYS, CHANGE YOUR HABITS, CHANGE YOUR LIFE A couple of small steps every day to create the life you want by Marc Reklau Reviewed by Ryan Jordan for Readers' Favorite Marc Reklau's 30 Days - Change Your Habits, Change Your Life is an excellent self-help book that offers a lot of concrete suggestions about how you might go about fixing things in your life. It has a long series of micro-chapters, each of which has a very solid and pronounced theme and idea it is trying to convey to the reader. Each chapter starts with a quote or two that signifies the idea, then explains what the author is trying to convey, and ends with a few activities the reader can try out. Some of the activities are 'fill in the blanks' to help set goals, or commitments being assigned to motivate the reader into following through. All of it revolves around the idea that if we change the way we act, everything else will fall into line. A lot of what is written here is common sense or the kinds of things people talk about in every self-help or motivational work. Eat better, drink more water, get more sleep, treat your body like a temple, surround yourself with good things. It all sounds incredibly simple when presented like this, and I like the fact that this book encourages the reader to follow through with the next step of actually committing to these changes. There is nothing revolutionary about this work, and it is only for a very specific audience, but that audience will enjoy it thoroughly, if for no other reason than the selection of quotes. Reading 30 Days - Change Your Habits, Change Your Life by Marc Reklau will help turn anyone into a real winner. BE Become Your True Self, and Inspire Those Around You by Bahriye Goren-Gulek Gratitude, intuition and surrender can bring us the completion that we need to be. Be: Become Your True Self, and Inspire Those Around You by Bahriye Goren-Gulek is a book of leadership and inspiration. Who we are and everything joined together creates what we were meant to be. Be provides various elements of character and actions that can be taken to become your truth. Your truth is who you really are when no one is looking. Your truth is that innate feeling that catapults your dreams and turns them into a reality. Bahriye Goren- Gulek provides interviews, quotes and stories of people that have taken the risk and overcome the challenges of being. As I journeyed through Be by Bahriye Goren-Gulek, I became not only inspired but intrigued and empowered as I read the interviews. The one that struck me the most was Bahriye Goren-Gulek's interview with Emile de Beer, founder of SilverRed, Dubai. It was Emile de Beer's need for balance, essence of freedom, and elements of risk taking that helped Emile de Beer birth SilverRed. His intuition and moments of silence helped to create his business model. Even though Emile de Beer had a business plan, it was his need to focus on customer service that was key to the success of SilverRed. It is people like Emile de Beer that Bahriye Goren-Gulek interviewed that speak and let us know that we can dream, we can believe, and we can do. 31 MONTHS IN JAPAN The Building of a Theme Park by Larry K. Collins and Lorna Collins Larry and Lorna Collins were offer the opportunity to participate in building Universal Studios Theme Park in Japan. It was a once in a life time opportunity. This is their story of coping with the vastly different culture and learning to adjust. The share many experiences that the reader may never have considered: such as learning to eat with chop sticks, attempting to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal, buying a car, and driving in Japan. They continue by sharing fashion, home furnishings, festivals, holidays, weather, maps, parking, communal bathing, golf, work ethic, and appropriate social behavior. I have a friend that spends much of the year working in Japan. I shared this book with him and watched as he shook his head yes to many of the events described in this book. He assures me the authors have accurately illustrated the experience of living and working in Japan. The attitude and personalities of the authors is what made their trip and this book a success. Few of us are offered the opportunity to work abroad. I may never travel to Japan but through the Collins I have enjoyed the experience. Their book reads much like a journal. 31 Months in Japan is well written and extremely interesting