Blink

You can look at Lottie Tomlinson's life in two ways. Some people see a nightmare, some see a fairytale. She's just always thought that, despite it all, she is lucky. 'You can look at my life in two ways. Some people see a nightmare, some see a fairytale. I've just always thought I was lucky...People often ask me how I did it, this book is my answer. This is my story, everything I've learned along the way, I hope it can help you find your own luck. ' Lottie Tomlinson has gone through a huge amount in her 23 years on this planet. Touring with her brother Louis as a make-up artist with One Direction at the age of 16, you'd think her life was a fairytale. But this only masked the tragedy happening at home, when her mother became ill with leukaemia and died when Lottie was just 18. Leaving behind five smaller siblings, Lottie came home and tried to find a way to hold the family together. But sadly, tragedy struck again when the family lost Lottie's little sister Felicite, at just 18. Despite all this, incredibly Lottie has built a successful business empire, has a loving stable partner and now is the mother to a beautiful baby boy, called Lucky. Lucky Girl is Lottie's story of resilience and the lessons she's learned along the way. Going behind the beauty and the fame, Lottie's beautiful memoir explores the rollercoaster of her life, from the darkest days and loneliest nights to the success she found despite it all, and how all the challenges and setbacks have led her to where she is today. Heartbreaking yet inspirational, Lottie hopes that in telling her story and how she has navigated the pain and grief in her life that she will provide hope for others going through their darkest times.

The early promise of a free Internet is long gone. Now, rather than allowing us a meaningful relationship with a range of content of our choosing, algorithms have not only removed genuine choice but de-texturized the world around us: smoothed its edges, planed down friction, and flattened differences. So coffee shops from Brooklyn to Beijing are inflected with a similar, 'Instagrammable' aesthetic. Airbnb rentals are decked out for their swipability factor as much as for their comfort. Spotify builds playlists that echo a category, looping back to music we've already heard before so as not to disrupt the flow. Netflix doesn't just make suggestions based on viewing histories but it actively changes the thumbnails to increase the chances we click on it. As Filterworld masterfully shows, culture itself has become algorithmic: a set of principles, a data rule, a line of code. And we interact with it in ever more passive ways. The result is not isolated echo chambers or a filter bubbles, but an all-encompassing Filterworld of the title. Kyle Chayka deliciously deconstructs this Filterworld: it shows us how technology has led us to this place and its effects on society and the individual, as well as how we might be able to remove the filter to gain liberation.

Unstuck is a landmark new smart-thinking title that will help anyone optimise their mind to overcome the obstacles holding them back. It does for self-development what Atomic Habits did for with behavioural hacking and Thinking Fast and Slow did for understanding ourselves. Everyone, at some time, will go through episodes of simply being stuck; whether it's in our careers or relationships, our personal, professional or artistic lives. We call this things like 'being stuck in a rut', 'having writer's block' or 'being frozen in place'. This is not just harmful in the short-term, but is often chronic, dangerous to our mental health and well-being, and with severe consequences to our success and development. Unstuck is the remedy to identifying and overcooking the 'friction points' holding us back. Adam Alter offers an brilliantly applicable new framework for not only getting 'unstuck' but also going on to thrive. Critically, he introduces us to the Friction Audit: a test to work out where our sticking points lie, categorises them as existing in our Head, Heart or Habits. Unstuck then takes us through a 5-step process to strive for more and to thrive. Unstuck is the key for overcoming friction points and reaching our full potential.