Claire Diaz Ortiz

Author, Speaker and Business Person

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Book Recommendations:

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Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“@gettleman love love love this book 👆” (from X)

From Jeffrey Gettleman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, comes a passionate, revealing story about finding love and finding a calling, set against one of the most turbulent regions in the world. A seasoned war correspondent, Jeffrey Gettleman has covered every major conflict over the past twenty years, from Afghanistan to Iraq to the Congo. For the past decade, he has served as the East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, fulfilling a teenage dream. At nineteen, Gettleman fell in love, twice. On a do-it-yourself community service trip in college, he went to East Africa—a terrifying, exciting, dreamlike part of the world in the throes of change that imprinted itself on his imagination and on his heart. But around that same time he also fell in love with a fellow Cornell student—the brightest, classiest, most principled woman he’d ever met. To say they were opposites was an understatement. She became a criminal lawyer in America; he hungered to return to Africa. For the next decade he would be torn between these two abiding passions. A sensually rendered coming-of-age story in the tradition of Barbarian Days, Love, Africa is a tale of passion, violence, far-flung adventure, tortuous long-distance relationships, screwing up, forgiveness, parenthood, and happiness that explores the power of finding yourself in the most unexpected of places.

CD

Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“@sophiabendz AMAZING BOOK. also the most amazing part of writing the list was I did it on a Sunday and it was the first time I’ve achieved anything productive in my own home with my children underfoot;)))” (from X)

Read the New York Times bestseller everyone is talking about. This beautiful hardcover gift edition with ribbon bookmark features a new preface by author and spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer. This special deluxe edition makes the perfect gift for any occasion. If you’ve ever wondered what it would it be like to free yourself from limitations, soar beyond your boundaries, and discover true inner peace and serenity, The Untethered Soul can show you the way. Whether this is your first exploration of inner space, or you’ve devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization. Copublished with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) The Untethered Soul begins by walking you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping you uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It then delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness. Finally, with perfect clarity, this book opens the door to a life lived in the freedom of your innermost being. Visit www.untetheredsoul.com for more information.

CD

Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“@thedanward love your book!!” (from X)

Noted military technology expert Dan Ward's manifesto for creating great products and projects using the methods of rapid innovation. Why do some programs deliver their product under cost, while others bust their budget? Why do some deliver ahead of schedule, while others experience endless delays? Which products work better—the quick and thrifty or the slow and expensive? Which situation leads to superior equipment? With nearly two decades as an engineering officer in the U. S. Air Force, Dan Ward explored these questions during tours of duty at military research laboratories, the Air Force Institute of Technology, an intelligence agency, the Pentagon and Afghanistan. The pattern he noticed revealed that the most successful project leaders in both the public and private sectors delivered top-shelf products with a skeleton crew, a shoestring budget, and a cannonball schedule. Excessive investment of time, money, or complexity actually reduced innovation. He concluded the secret to innovation is to be fast, inexpensive, simple, and small. FIRE presents an entertaining and practical framework for pursuing rapid, frugal innovation. A story-filled blend of pop culture and engineering insight, FIRE has something for everyone: strategic concepts leaders can use as they cast a vision, actionable principles for managers as they make business decisions, and practical tools for workers as they design, build, assess and test new products.

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Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“@racheld great book” (from X)

My Year of Rest and Relaxation book cover

by Ottessa Moshfegh·You?

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Amazon,Vice, Bustle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, The AV Club, & Audible A New York Times Bestseller “One of the most compelling protagonists modern fiction has offered in years: a loopy, quietly furious pillhead whose Ambien ramblings and Xanaxed b*tcheries somehow wend their way through sad and funny and strange toward something genuinely profound.” — Entertainment Weekly “Darkly hilarious . . . [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.” —Vogue From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes. Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.

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Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“@RevJesKast i read a good little book on sisu ; got into it after reading “the finnish way” — great read from @KatjaPantzar” (from X)

Finding Sisu book cover

by Katja Pantzar·You?

Why Finnish people don't give up: harnessing the magic of sisu. Defined as a particular kind of resilience and bravery, sisu is the Finnish approach to well-being that is turning lives around. Raised in Canada with stints in New Zealand and the UK, writer Katja Pantzar returned to Finland, the place of her birth, where she discovered the key to living well was in living courageously and with integrity. Cultivating sisu through simple, functional exercise, a Nordic diet, and spending time outside in space, water, silence and nature, her physical and mental stamina grew; her anxieties, fatigue and pain left behind in the sea. In Finding Sisu discover the ways in which you too can integrate this age-old philosophy of hope and perseverance into your life, wherever you are in the world, whatever challenges you may face. Find your courage. Find your grit. Find your sisu.

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Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“@sarahthebarge hey sarah. five min. into your book and loving it! headed to togo next week and would love any ideas. ;)” (from X)

The Invisible Girls: A Memoir book cover

by Sarah Thebarge·You?

Twenty-seven-year-old Sarah The barge had it all - a loving boyfriend, an Ivy League degree, and a successful career - when her life was derailed by an unthinkable diagnosis: aggressive breast cancer. After surviving the grueling treatments - though just barely - Sarah moved to Portland, Oregon to start over. There, a chance encounter with an exhausted African mother and her daughters transformed her life again. A Somali refugee whose husband had left her, Hadhi was struggling to raise five young daughters, half a world a way from her war-torn homeland. Alone in a strange country, Hadhi and the girls were on the brink of starvation in their own home, "invisible" to their neighbors and to the world. As Sarah helped Hadhi and the girls navigate American life, her outreach to the family became a source of courage and a lifeline for herself. Poignant, at times shattering, Sarah The barge's riveting memoir invites readers to engage in her story of finding connection, love, and redemption in the most unexpected places.

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Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“@LoriGottlieb1 @nytimes your book was AMAZING!!!! my fave of year!!!” (from X)

OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD!INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!Now being developed as a television series!*An O, The Oprah Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2019*  *A People Magazine Book of the Week* *An Apple Best Books Pick for April* *An April IndieNext Pick* *A Book of the Month Club Selection* *A Publishers Marketplace Buzz Book* *A Newsday, Apple iBooks, Thrive Global, Refinery29, and Book Riot Most Anticipated Book of 2019* "An irresistibly addictive tour of the human condition."--Kirkus, starred review "Rarely have I read a book that challenged me to see myself in an entirely new light, and was at the same time laugh-out-loud funny and utterly absorbing."--Katie Couric "This is a daring, delightful, and transformative book."--Arianna Huffington, Founder, Huffington Post and Founder & CEO, Thrive Global "Wise, warm, smart, and funny. You must read this book."--Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world--where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she). One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose of­fice she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but. As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell. With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is rev­olutionary in its candor, offering a deeply per­sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly reveal­ing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

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Recommended by Claire Diaz Ortiz

“Pre-orders are NOW OPEN for the amazing new book from @missallyfallon! Get it now: https://t.co/UU10zsfdoA (I LOVED it!)” (from X)

Indestructible tells the shocking story of a marriage that didn’t go as planned, the truth that shattered everything, and the beautiful unfolding of a woman who decided that saving her marriage wasn’t worth losing herself. Like most people, Allison Fallon didn’t get married thinking she would get divorced. In fact, marrying a pastor felt like the surest way to guarantee a safe and happy marriage. So when she found out the man she married was not the man she thought he was, she had some choices to make. A wrestling with faith and love, romance and drama, truth and fiction, this story calls into question what it means to fall in love, stay in love, and become a force of love and change in the world. Although Indestructible is only one woman’s story, it serves as a powerful reminder to anyone who has been disillusioned by love that falling in love might be harder and easier than they ever imagined; and that “the one” they’re looking for is closer than they think.