Oliver James

As a result of childhood learning disabilities and educational neglect, Oliver James graduated from high school and became one of over eight million functionally illiterate Americans. However, at age 34, with big dreams and few tools to actualize them, he dedicated himself to learning the key skill that had evaded him his entire life: reading. Oliver become a TikTok/BookTok sensation for the way he's candidly documented his decision to learn to read as an adult, and his struggles and triumphs along the way. Here, he tells the full story behind his journey for the first time through the 21 key books that shaped and informed his experience. His story reveals the ways in which reading can teach each of us how to be better, more empathetic people. In just 365 days, Oliver went from barely being able to read a restaurant menu to closing in on his goal of finishing 100 books in a year. This Book Saved My Life is a moving reminder to all of us that words and stories have power, and that, no matter our past, it's never too late to grow.

For developers, programmers, and DevOps engineers venturing into the hard world of API development, the "Postman Cookbook" becomes a must-read. This short solutions book offers recipes and troubleshooting approaches to address typical API lifecycle management challenges. Using Postman's rich features, readers of all skill levels will learn how to create APIs that will improve workflows, increase productivity, and lead to operational success.The book covers a wide range of topics, from the fundamentals of web-based communication to more complex topics including protocol stacks, secure communication protocols, and the dynamics of WebSockets interactions. The following sections cover advanced subjects such as custom protocol handling, network troubleshooting, and proxy management, allowing readers to confidently solve complex networking challenges. This book covers more than simply the technical aspects of Kubernetes. It discusses the influence of security measures, maximizing performance, and successful scaling solutions. These features are critical for microservice architectures and cloud-native apps. This book teaches early developers and programmers the foundations of API testing and development, including networking and protocols.Key LearningsEnable real-time API connectivity for dynamic apps using WebSockets capability.Protect API endpoints from security flaws by configuring SSL/TLS in Postman.Define, implement, and debug bespoke protocols to connect proprietary systems to Postman.Master the art of network optimization and troubleshooting using Postman to ensure your API runs smoothly.Use Postman's proxy management to safely access APIs in a variety of network settings.Test APIs in Kubernetes and improve the deployment and development of microservices.Exploit Postman's features for thorough API tracking, logging, and analysis of performance.Secure API access with Postman's advanced authentication flows-OAuth, JWT, and more.Table of ContentUp and Running with PostmanDesigning Simple to Complex APIsAdvanced API Requests and WorkflowsTesting and Securing APIsManaging GraphQL and gRPC with PostmanContinuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD)API Scalability and PerformanceIntegration with Third-Party ServicesWorking with Kubernetes and MicroservicesAPI Networking and Protocols

“Whether you are an experienced birder or just learning natural history, this book will deepen your sense of place and open insights to beauty, wonder, and connection to the natural world.”—John Muir Laws, author of The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra NevadaNow in paperback! This charming, full-color field guide to 25 birds easily found in Berkeley proves that even the city’s avian residents are a little quirky. Meticulously detailed illustrations capture each bird’s distinctive physicality and temperament. A Burrowing Owl faces you in a full head-on shot, perhaps having just raised its raspy, chattering alarm call as you trespass on its last remaining Bay Area foothold at the Marina. The Anna’s Hummingbird gives you a coy backward glance to assess if you’ve properly admired its flashing throat feathers, maybe having just performed its signature J-shaped courtship dive. While descriptions of identification and vocalizations are straightforward, author-illustrator Oliver James takes a delightfully creative approach to his write-ups of each species. A joy to read and pore over, Birds of Berkeley will enchant readers far beyond the city limits with its findings gleaned from painstaking and patient wildlife observation.

Build, test, debug, document and publish APIs faster throughout the entire lifecycle"Mastering Postman" is the ultimate guide for anyone looking to streamline their API development process. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting, this book will take you through every step of the API lifecycle and equip you with the knowledge and tools to create better APIs faster. Starting with API design, the book covers the best practices for creating intuitive, easy-to-use, and scalable APIs. Before deploying, you'll learn how to use Postman to test your APIs thoroughly and ensure they're working as intended. The book then delves into API documentation and mocking, showing you how to create comprehensive documentation that's easy to understand and use. You'll also learn how to use Postman to mock your APIs, allowing you to test your code in a safe environment before deploying it to production. Focusing on Python, Flask, and JavaScript coding, "Mastering Postman" teaches you how to build powerful, efficient, and easy-to-use APIs. You'll also learn about implementing API governance, integration, publishing, and the Postman CLI in detail. Throughout the book, you'll find practical examples, real-world scenarios, and tips and tricks to help you become more productive and efficient as you work on your APIs. Whether you're a developer, a product manager, or a technical writer, "Mastering Postman" will give you the skills and knowledge you need to create APIs that are robust, reliable, and easy to use. With this book as your guide, you'll be able to streamline your API development process and deliver better APIs faster than ever before.Key LearningsStreamline API development process with Postman for faster delivery.Learn API design, testing, documentation, and mocking with real-world examples.Build APIs using Python, Flask, and JavaScript for better performance.Master API governance, integration, and publishing with Postman.Leverage Postman CLI for advanced API testing and automation.Collaborate efficiently using Postman collections, environments, and workspaces.Table of ContentAPI LifeCycle and PostmanAPI DesignAPI DevelopmentAPI TestingAPI SecurityUsing Postman CLIAPI Documentation & PublishingAPI IntegrationAPI PerformanceAPI GovernanceAdvanced API Developer SkillsAudienceMastering Postman is ideal for developers and software engineers who want to build end-to-end APIs efficiently and effectively. It is suitable for both beginners new to API development and experienced developers who want to master their API development, testing, debugging and integration skills.Before reading this book, you should understand web development, HTTP protocol, and API concepts.

This book is perfect for anyone looking at business and entrepreneurship. It is ideal for anyone with an interest in business and anyone who has aspirations to start their own business–outlining key principles of the entrepreneurial adventure and the business world, bringing it to life using case studies.Within this text you will find useful and practical information about business and entrepreneurship. The author provides a robust understanding of the theory and real-world implications of running a successful business. James also describes and explains the whole process from understanding the implications and risks, the start-up stage through to future expansion.He clearly demonstrates that if you consistently follow the good business habits and practices that are described in this book, you really can achieve entrepreneurial success and the opportunities that come with it.

Who knew there was a breath for everything? Oliver James, a body-led therapist and growing presence in the world of breath and Breathwork, introduces us to twenty-one simple but extraordinarily effective breathing techniques that will, quite literally, change your life. Are you desperate for a good night’s sleep; do you require powerful pain relief or perhaps you wish to supercharge your fitness and self-care? 21 Breaths offers a means to look after yourself naturally, using the wisdom of your body and the extraordinary power of breath. Easy-to-follow instructions accompany beautiful sketches to help you experience the remarkable potential that has always been there, under your nose. This is a little book with huge potential and the perfect companion for 21st-Century living. Every copy of the book includes a FREE online Breathwork class with Oliver James worldofbreath.com (Ts&Cs apply).

A revolution in the measurement and reporting of government performance through the use of published metrics, rankings and reports has swept the globe at all levels of government. Performance metrics now inform important decisions by politicians, public managers and citizens. However, this performance movement has neglected a second revolution in behavioral science that has revealed cognitive limitations and biases in people's identification, perception, understanding and use of information. This Element introduces a new approach - behavioral public performance - that connects these two revolutions. Drawing especially on evidence from experiments, this approach examines the influence of characteristics of numbers, subtle framing of information, choice of benchmarks or comparisons, human motivation and information sources. These factors combine with the characteristics of information users and the political context to shape perceptions, judgment and decisions. Behavioral public performance suggests lessons to improve design and use of performance metrics in public management and democratic accountability.

The Entrepreneurial Adventure is perfect for anyone with an interest in business or with aspirations to start their own business.The author outlines key principles of the entrepreneurial adventure and the business world, bringing it to life using case studies. This book contains useful and practical information about business and entrepreneurship gives a robust understanding of the theory and real-world implications of running a successful business. It describes and explains the whole process from understanding the implications and risks, the start-up stage through to future expansion. The authors clearly demonstrate that if the good business habits and practices described in this book are followed consistently, you really will achieve entrepreneurial success and the opportunities that come with it.

"Love Bombing" is a radical new method for resetting the emotional thermostats of troubled children and their parents, setting them on a much happier trajectory. It is simple to do, easily explained and works for both severe and mild problems from aged three to early teenage. Many, if not most, parents feel that their children may have missed out in some way during the early years. Offering a simple, relatively trouble-free self-help method for putting that right is what parents are waiting for. "This book is written in highly accessible language", assures Oliver James. "The method is explained as simply as possible, illustrated with cases". "Love Bombing is a very simple technique which helps most children from aged three to early teenage. Because so many parents are, or have had, periods of living very busy or miserable or complicated lives, most of us need to reconnect with our children from time to time. Love Bombing does the job," explains James.

This charming, full-color field guide to 25 birds easily found in Berkeley proves that even the city's avian residents are a little quirky.Meticulously detailed illustrations capture each bird's distinctive physicality and temperament. A Burrowing Owl faces you in a full-on head shot, perhaps having just raised its raspy, chattering alarm call as you trespass on its last remaining Bay Area foothold at the Marina. The Anna's Hummingbird gives you a coy backward glance to assess if you've properly admired its flashy throat feathers, maybe having just performed its signature J-shaped courtship dive. Even in composition, each bird is strikingly individual, whether depicted in mid-dive or creeping into frame. While descriptions of identification and vocalizations are straightforward, author-illustrator Oliver James takes a delightfully creative approach to his write-ups of each species. He invites you to imagine that a Cooper's Hawk, for example, is Steve McQueen in a '68 Mustang, and you, “a pigeon in a rental car with a poor turning radius,” are fleeing through traffic: “It's all over in a matter of seconds.” A joy to read and pore over, Birds of Berkeley will enchant readers far beyond the city limits with its findings gleaned from painstaking and patient wildlife observation.

Professor Robert Plomin, the world’s leading geneticist, said in 2014 of his search for genes that explain differences in our psychology: ‘I have been looking for these genes for fifteen years. I don’t have any’.Using a mixture of famous and ordinary people, Oliver James drills deep down into the childhood causes of our individuality, revealing why our upbringing, not our genes, plays such an important role in our wellbeing and success. The implications are huge: as adults we can change, we can clutch our fates from predetermined destiny, as parents we can radically alter the trajectory of our childrens’ lives, and as a society we could largely eradicate criminality and poverty.Not in Your Genes will not only change the way you think about yourself and the people around you, but give you the fuel to change your personality and your life for the better.

Happiness is a loaded term that means different things to different people. To some, it might mean life satisfaction, to others, a fleeting moment of joy. Rather than seeking to be happy, Oliver James encourages us to cultivate our emotional health. Outlining the five elements of good emotional health - insightfulness, a strong sense of self, fluid relationships, authenticity and playfulness in our approach to life - he offers strategies for optimizing each characteristic to live more fulfilling lives. Helping us to understand the impact our emotional baggage has on our daily interactions, he reveals how to overcome unhelpful patterns and become more self-aware - revitalizing our approach to life. One in the new series of books from The School of Life, launched January 2014: How to Age by Anne Karpf How to Develop Emotional Health by Oliver James How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland How to Deal with Adversity by Christopher Hamilton How to Think About Exercise by Damon Young How to Connect with Nature by Tristan Gooley

A fascinating exposé of office culture, in the style of the bestselling Affluenza, from popular psychologist Oliver JamesThe modern working world is a dangerous place, where game-playing, duplicity and sheer malevolence are rife. Do talent and hard work count for nothing? Is politics everything?In this fascinating exposé, Oliver James reveals the murky underside of modern office life. With cutting-edge research and eye-opening interviews, he highlights the nasty practices that propel people to the top and shows how industries and cultures are fostering this behaviour.He then divulges strategies and techniques for not only surviving but thriving in these difficult environments. With the right mindset, you can distinguish and deal with toxic and overpromoted colleagues, charm your way through interviews and use office politics to your advantage.Office Politics will overthrow your perceptions of office life and set you on a new path to success.Oliver James trained and practised as a child clinical psychologist and, since 1988, has worked as a writer, journalist and television documentary producer and presenter. His books include Juvenile Violence in a Winner-Loser Culture, the bestselling They F*** You Up, Affluenza and Contented Dementia. He is a trustee of two children's charities: the National Family and Parenting Institute and Homestart.

As a mother, are you comfortable in your skin? Want to know how best to be a working or stay-at-home mum? Babies have very simple needs, yet many parents are overwhelmed with elaborate advice on how to meet them. Drawing on interviews and the clinical research, this book identifies three types of mum: the Hugger, the Organiser and the Fleximum.

States that modern life makes us feel like losers, even if we are winners. Showing that the way we live, rather than our genes, induces in our bodies low levels of the 'happiness brain chemical' serotonin, this title analyses the deep-seated emotional malaise that has afflicted Britons since the 1990s.

Dementia is a little understood and currently incurable illness, but much can be done to maximise the quality of life for people with the condition. Contented Dementia - by clinical psychologist and bestselling author Oliver James - outlines a groundbreaking and practical method for managing dementia that will allow both sufferer and carer to maintain the highest possible quality of life, throughout every stage of the illness.A person with dementia will experience random and increasingly frequent memory blanks relating to recent events. Feelings, however, remain intact, as do memories of past events and both can be used in a special way to substitute for more recent information that has been lost. The SPECAL method (Specialized Early Care for Alzheimer's) outlined in this book works by creating links between past memories and the routine activities of daily life in the present. Drawing on real-life examples and user-friendly tried-and-tested methods, Contented Dementia provides essential information and guidance for carers, relatives and professionals.

In the bestselling Affluenza, world-renowned psychologist Oliver James introduced us to a modern-day virus sweeping through the English-speaking world.

There is currently an epidemic of 'affluenza' throughout the world - an obsessive, envious, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses - that has resulted in huge increases in depression and anxiety among millions. Over a nine-month period, bestselling author Oliver James travelled around the world to try and find out why. He discovered how, despite very different cultures and levels of wealth, affluenza is spreading. Cities he visited include Sydney, Singapore, Moscow, Copenhagen, New York and Shanghai, and in each place he interviewed several groups of people in the hope of finding out not only why this is happening, but also how one can increase the strength of one's emotional immune system. He asks: why do so many more people want what they haven't got and want to be someone they're not, despite being richer and freer from traditional restraints? And, in so doing, uncovers the answer to how to reconnect with what really matters and learn to value what you've already got. In other words, how to be successful and stay sane.