“Right foot, red!” Bad hair day. “Left hand, yellow!” You’re caught in a traffic jam—or a tragedy. Once upon a time you had the game of life all planned. Your dreams would come true and everyone would live happily ever after. So when did life become a game of Twister? Someone else is spinning the dial, calling the shots ... and today, hassles and heartaches have you twisted like a pretzel physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Ouch! Take a time-out from all your running, working, caring, and trying to keep it all together, and sit down for a grin break that will help untwist you. Mary Pierce offers laughter and wisdom for women everywhere. God cares about all of us who are trapped in the Twister game of life. He cares about you. And he wants to give you a better outlook and new moves that will free you up inside and out. Includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

Many people think they know just how the game of life should go, so they are dismayed when daily pressures and the heartbreaks of life pull them in so many conflicting directions. Offering humor and hope, Pierce helps women gain perspective and strength amid all the stresses.

John Wood discovered his passion, his greatest success, and his life's work—not at business school or leading Microsoft's charge into Asia in the 1990s—but on a soul-searching trip to the Himalayas. Wood felt trapped between an all-consuming career and a desire to do something lasting and significant. Stressed from the demands of his job, he took a vacation trekking in Nepal because a friend had told him, "If you get high enough in the mountains, you can't hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you anymore." Instead of being the antidote to the rat race, that trip convinced John Wood to divert the boundless energy he was devoting to Microsoft into a cause that desperately needed to be addressed. While visiting a remote Nepalese school, Wood learned that the students had few books in their library. When he offered to run a book drive to provide the school with books, his idea was met with polite skepticism. After all, no matter how well-intentioned, why would a successful software executive take valuable time out of his life and gather books for an impoverished school? But John Wood did return to that school and with thousands of books bundled on the back of a yak. And at that moment, Wood made the decision to walk away from Microsoft and create Room to Read—an organization that has donated more than 1.2 million books, established more than 2,600 libraries and 200 schools, and sent 1,700 girls to school on scholarship—ultimately touching the lives of 875,000 children with the lifelong gift of education. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World chronicles John Wood's struggle to find a meaningful outlet for his managerial talents and entrepreneurial zeal. For every high-achiever who has ever wondered what life might be like giving back, Wood offers a vivid, emotional, and absorbing tale of how to take the lessons learned at a hard-charging company like Microsoft and apply them to one of the world's most pressing problems: the lack of basic literacy.

Imagine learning product design from the originator of NERF and TWISTER, toy and game brands that have generated over $8 billion in sales. Could you gain business insights from someone whose company stormed the cutthroat music industry as an outsider and who now has a Grammy award, two CMA Song of the Year awards, and forty-six charted singles on the country and pop music charts? How would you like to pick the brain of a rule breaker who put his dyslexia to good use and formed a learning company that has given the gift of literacy to over 500,000 students all over the world? Now what if all three of those people were the same man? Reyn Guyer is among the most successful creative professionals of our time. He creates products, learning systems, musicals, companies, children’s stories and songs, and more. In Right Brain Red, he shares seven ideas that have worked for him throughout his blockbuster career in multiple creative fields. Reyn provides more than mere advice, because Right Brain Red isn’t just another business book. It’s a way to create and recognize opportunity, inspiring readers who want to make their own ideas a reality.