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MEDJUGORJE Wayne Weible (1989). Medjugorje: The Message. Weible has a bachelors degree in journalism and was a newspaper publisher and columnist before traveling to Medjugore in Yogoslavia in 1985...Weible was a Lutheran and eventually became a Catholic in 1991...he writes of his experiences in Medjugorje and his life in the US in the first person, eventually authoring several books and touring as an international speaker on Medjugore. According to Weible, the Blessed Mother appeared to 6 teenagers in 1981 in a village in Medjugore, and 3 of them continue to have daily apparitions (vision and auditory) of the Blessed Mother as of September 2026 (ongoing daily for 45 years!) while the others have yearly apparitions (some on their birthday, some at Christmas). The visionaries have been studied by a number of groups, including scientists and psychiatrists, testifying that they are not mentally ill, and in the early years, that they were "normal" healthy teenagers. The Vatican (...
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OPT OUT Erin Loechner (2024). The Opt-Out Family:  How to Give Your Kids                                                                                              What Technology Can't Loechner has an undergraduate degree from Ball State University, and public records don't indicate a field of study, nor any graduate degree. Writing online since 2001, 10 years later she had 1.4 million followers and a 6 figure influencer income...she gave it all up to start "opt out family.com"--this is her story. Loechner takes the tec principles she used as an online influencer and flips them on their head by applying them to tec free family living...each chapter starts with a succient tech playbook principle turned in...
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DIGITAL WELLNESS Caitlin Krause (2025). Digital Wellbeing. Krause has an MFA in Fine Arts and has presented/consulted/collaborated on digital wellbeing projects for over a decade. The book is a conversation about digital wellbeing that includes interviews with experts in the field, lots of questions for consideration, and novel ideas for exploring. Overall, the writing is short on practice and pragmatics...i kept writing "HOW?" in the margins...there is also an underlying assumption that people have access to the software and hardware for these new technologies like VR, AR, MR...there are many exaggerated claims that need qualification (the long term benefits of digital wellbeing remain to be tested)  parts were surprisingly hard for me to read, i kept asking, "SO WHAT?"...most/many of the digital wellbeing outcomes can be had for FREE without digital devices, e.g., noticing walk, actively notice new things to increase mindfulness--i don't need an app or virtual...
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PLAYING THE ODDS Nora Roberts (1985). Serena: Playing the Odds, &                                             Caine: Tempting Fate. Roberts is a high school graduate (having attended Catholic school with nuns prior to that) with no formal college education. She worked as a secretary and clerk before raising 2 sons. With this background, she became one of the most prolific and famous women novelists of all time.  These two novels are part of Robert's MacGregor series rooted in the war for Scottish freedom...these novels are set in modern day America. Justin Blake (casino owner) meets Serena MacGregor (from a wealthy family, working as a card dealer on a cruise ship)..."love, she realized, was the ultimate adventure"...poker, odds, betting, gambling are themes...in love, you risk it all. Diana Blade (Justin's younger sister--a Harvard lawyer) meet...
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PRAGMATIC William James (1907). Pragmatism. James earned an MD in 1869, yet he is most well known for his writtings in psychology, philosophy, and religion. The book is a compilation of 8 lectures on pragmatism which are highly philosophical and intellectual--ironically (given the title "pragmatism"), the lectures have little concrete practical advice for everyday living which i found disappointing...i was so frustrated part way through reading the book that i took to reading only topic sentences...his book, Principles of Psychology , may have been a better choice for finding something pragmatic...i was fooled by the title. i turned to ChatGPT to extract something practical from the lectures and came up with (edited from chat): if two different beliefs have no important/meaningful differences in the actions they imply, then cease debating about which belief is better! for any advice or belief, ask: what changes in how i would live if i would enact this advice/belief? if nothi...
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VOLUNTARY CONTROLS Jack Schwarz (1978). Voluntary Controls:                                               Exercises for Creative Meditation. Appears to have a Doctor of Naturalpathy associated with the Aletheia Foundation  (no public documents verifying his degree, no formal degrees), was involved in legitemate mind-body research experiments, especially with the Meninger Foundation. No teachers or formal dogma...he relies on his own experience and suggests that one must be active in experimenting with life, that we are the ultimate judge if an activity/practice/method is helpful for us...if the activity fits/aligns/benefits, fine, if not, change it to suit your particular needs, or drop it. practices projection screen...run your upcoming day as a movie on a screen from beginning to end (can also review at day's end in reverse to discover areas ...
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1 THING DIFFERENT Bill O'Hanlon (1999). Do One Thing Different. O'Hanlon has an MS in Family Studies and has written over 30 books at the time of this writing. This is a pragmatic book that provides principles and examples of how to apply them based on "solution-oriented" therapy. Some of the practices: *if what you're doing isn't working, do 1 thing different that moves you in the direction of the desired outcome, evaluate the results, if not working, try something else, if working, keep doing that and/or improving on that...experiment with doing something different right before the "problem" begins. in personal relationships, when experiencing a "problem," accept what is going on (doesn't mean you like or agree with it), do not blame the other person, ask for what you want using action language treat the behavior part of sexual relationships like back scratching, direct the other person to scratch the itch...risk telling them what fee...
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