Seth Godin interview by Rise to the Top

Small-Mart Revolution by Michael Shuman

In Michael Shuman's new book, "Small-Mart Revolution," he explains why local businesses create a vibrant local economy with more local jobs and wealth. This is true and should be something practiced by us all.

See more of Michael and his thoughts on YouTube.

Book of the Week: Wild at Heart

If Christian men are going to change from a pitiful, wimpy bunch of "really nice guys" to men who are made in the image of God, they must reexamine their preconceptions about who God is and recover their true "wild" hearts, writes bestselling author John Eldredge in Wild at Heart: Discovering a Life of Passion, Freedom, and Adventure. Eldredge throws down the gauntlet--men are bored; they fear risk, they refuse to pay attention to their deepest desires. He challenges Christian men to return to authentic masculinity without resorting to a "macho man" mentality.



Men often seek validation in venues such as work, or in the conquest of women, Eldredge observes. He urges men to take time out and come to grips with the "secret longings" of their hearts. Although the book succeeds best in its slant toward a male audience, it also strives to help women understand the implications of authentic masculinity in their relationships with men. Eldredge frames the book around his outdoor experiences and appealing anecdotes about his family, sprinkling the text with touches of humor and overlying everything with heartfelt passion. Even as he mixes eclectic ideas about masculinity from popular movies such as Braveheart with classic words from Oswald Chambers, and lyrics from the Dixie Chicks with stories from the Bible, he points to only one answer for men searching for their true wildness of heart.

Writes Eldredge, "The only way to live in this adventure ... with all its danger and unpredictability and immensely high stakes ... is in an ongoing, intimate relationship with God."

--Review by Cindy Crosby

Order the book HERE.

25 Best Adventure Authors by Men's Journal

25. Maurice Herzog
24. Sir Richard Burton
23. Joe Kane
22. Wilfred Thesiger
21. Peter Beard
20. Ryszard Kapuscinski
19. Thor Heyerdahl
18. Joe Simpson
17. Heinrich Harrer
16. Tim Cahill
15. Richmond P. Hobson Jr.
14. Peter Matthiessen
13. F.A. Worsley
12. Lewis and Clark
11. Cormac McCarthy
10. Joseph Conrad
9. Zane Grey
8. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
7. Jack London
6. Jon Krakauer
5. Joshua Slocum
4. Apsley Cherry-Garrard
3. Redmond O'Hanlon
2. Ernest Hemingway


1. Theodore Roosevelt

This comes from the Men's Journal: May 2006.

Book of the Week: New Day Revolution

New Day Revolution shows you how small changes in your daily routine can make a big difference. Next time you throw out the juice carton, take five seconds to compact it and save space in the landfill, or grab an extra box of crayons for your local school when you buy a box for your child. For people who feel they have little time, this first book from the duo that launched CoolPeopleCare.org gives helpful hints, practical tips, and step by step instructions on how to make a big difference in the local community and the world at-large with whatever time you have. We can't all be Jack Bauer, running down bad guys and defusing bombs - but we can all make an impact where we are with what we've got.

Visit New Day Revolution to find out more.

Book of the Week: The Year of Living Biblically

One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
by A.J. Jacobs

Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also, to obey the hundreds of less-publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers. To grow his beard. To stone adulterers.

The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal. Jacobs also embeds himself in a cross-section of communities that take the Bible literally, including the Amish and the Hasidim. He discovers ancient Biblical wisdom of startling relevance. And he wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the 21st-century brain.

Jacobs's extraordinary undertaking yields unexpected epiphanies and challenges. Sure to charm listeners both secular and religious, The Year of Living Biblically is part Cliffs-Notes to the Bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to stop listening.



Visit Simon Says to learn more and order this book.

On the Road to Jack Kerouac's House in Orlando, Florida

Jack Kerouac lived in this home at the time On the Road made him a national sensation. And it was in this home that Kerouac wrote his follow-up, The Dharma Bums, during eleven frenetic days and nights. The Kerouac House, as it has come to be known, is now a living, literary tribute to one of the great American writers of the twentieth century.

Like all the other places in Kerouac’s nomadic journey, he didn’t live here long. But the home represents a critical juncture in Kerouac’s life, when he made the transition from a 35-year-old nobody writer, to the bard of the Beat Generation.



Visit the Kerouac Project to learn more.