The Misfortune of Marion Palm


Book Description

A wildly entertaining debut about a Brooklyn Heights wife and mother who has embezzled a small fortune from her children's private school and makes a run for it, leaving behind her trust fund poet husband, his maybe-secret lover, her two daughters, and a school board who will do anything to find her. Marion Palm prefers not to think of herself as a thief but rather "a woman who embezzles." Over the years she has managed to steal $180,000 from her daughters' private school, money that has paid for European vacations, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and perpetually unused state-of-the-art exercise equipment. But, now, when the school faces an audit, Marion pulls piles of rubber-banded cash from their basement hiding places and flees, leaving her family to grapple with the baffled detectives, the irate school board, and the mother-shaped hole in their house. Told from the points of view of Nathan, Marion's husband, heir to a long-diminished family fortune; Ginny, Marion's teenage daughter who falls helplessly in love at the slightest provocation; Jane, Marion's youngest who is obsessed with a missing person of her own; and Marion herself, on the lam--and hiding in plain sight.




Sweet Misfortune


Book Description

Sophie owns a chocolate shop where she sells Misfortune Cookies-dipped in bitter chocolate they contain messages she handwrites each day such as "Your car seems fine now, but just wait...it will eventually be a source of frustration and unexpected delay." What starts as a gimmick, turns into a surprise hit with customers. But when her ex-fiancée moves back to their small Washington town, he is surprised at how bitter and unhappy Sophie has become. He proposes a bet--she must place an ad in the paper that simply states "Wanted: Happiness." If at least 100 people respond, proving happiness isn't a myth, she agrees to a date with him. If not, he'll leave her alone forever. Sophie is convinced she'll win, but fate has other ideas when a reporter at the paper is intrigued by the ad as a story and posts it in newspapers across the country.




Maximizing Misfortune


Book Description

Maximizing Misfortune can help erase the pain of personal loss and disappointment. Readers can learn how to transform their misfortunes into fortunes, spiritually and materially, while climbing from the depths of rejection and failure to a place of acceptance and success.




Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes


Book Description

"Amongst the Top 50 Horror Books of All Time" - Cosmopolitan Three dark and disturbing horror stories from an astonishing new voice, including the viral-sensation tale of obsession, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. For fans of Kathe Koja, Clive Barker and Stephen Graham Jones. Winner of the Splatterpunk Award for Best Novella. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. A couple isolate themselves on a remote island in an attempt to recover from their teenage son’s death, when a mysterious young man knocks on their door during a storm… And a man confronts his neighbour when he discovers a strange object in his back yard, only to be drawn into an ever-more dangerous game. Three devastating, beautifully written horror stories from one of the genre’s most cutting-edge voices. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?




Military Misfortunes


Book Description

Why do competent armies fail? Eliot Cohen and John Gooch explore answers to this question throughout this extensive analysis of unsuccessful military operations. Since it was first published in 1990, Military Misfortunes has become the classic analysis of the unexpected catastrophes that befall competent militaries. Now with a new Afterword discussing America's missteps in Iraq, Somalia, and the War on Terror, Eliot A. Cohen and John Gooch's gripping battlefield narratives and groundbreaking explanations of the hidden factors that undermine armies are brought thoroughly up to date. As recent events prove, Military Misfortunes will be required reading for as long as armies go to war.




Fleurville Trilogy: Sophie's Misfortunes


Book Description

The first book in the delightful Fleurville Trilogy. Sophie is a naughty little girl, she delights in disobeying her mother and engaging in mischievous pranks. Why can't she be well behaved like her cousin Paul and her two delightfully sensible friends Camille and Madeleine?




The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez


Book Description

In 1690, a dramatic account of piracy was published in Mexico City. The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez described the incredible adventures of a poor Spanish American carpenter who was taken captive by British pirates near the Philippines and forced to work for them for two years. After circumnavigating the world, he was freed and managed to return to Mexico, where the Spanish viceroy commissioned the well-known Mexican scholar Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora to write down Ramírez's account as part of an imperial propaganda campaign against pirates. The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez has long been regarded as a work of fiction—in fact, as Latin America's first novel—but Fabio López Lázaro makes a convincing case that the book is a historical account of real events, albeit full of distortions and lies. Using contemporary published accounts, as well as newly discovered documents from Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, and Dutch archives, he proves that Ramírez voyaged with one of the most famous pirates of all time, William Dampier. López Lázaro's critical translation of The Misfortunes provides the only extensive Spanish eyewitness account of pirates during the period in world history (1650–1750) when they became key agents of the European powers jockeying for international political and economic dominance. An extensive introduction places The Misfortunes within the worldwide struggle that Spain, England, and Holland waged against the ambitious Louis XIV of France, which some historians consider to be the first world war.




Stoicism's Amor Fati


Book Description

Discover how to embrace your fate and love life's challenges with powerful Stoic wisdom. Are you searching for the best way to transform your mindsets and learn to see misfortune as a good thing? Do you want to draw on the ancient wisdom of Stoic philosophy to live your life to the fullest and be happy no matter where you are? Then this book is for you! Championed by the legendary Roman emperor and Stoic Marcus Aurelius, the concept of Amor Fati is an incredible way to achieve lasting happiness no matter your situation. Designed to help you free yourself from the worries and fears which are based on things you can't control, loving your fate helps you weather life's storms and not put all of your effort into one desired outcome. Now, this practical guide explores how you can implement the concept of Amor Fati into your life. With simple exercises and down-to-earth advice, you'll discover how you can find joy in hardship, use misfortune as a way to exercise your virtues, and become happy and cheerful no matter what life throws at you. Here's just a little of what you'll discover inside: Why Amor Fati Is The Key To Unending Happiness and Becoming Worry-Free Profound Methods For Overcoming Stress, Anxiety, and Fear of The Future Why Nothing Really Matters - Stoic Wisdom For Freeing Yourself From Things Outside Your Control Practical Ways To Implement Amor Fati Into Your Life How Misfortune Can Be Used as a Way To Exercise Your Virtues And Much More... So if you feel unhappy with your place in the world, or if you struggle with fear and anxiety about the future, then you've come to the right place. It's time for you to see how Stoic philosophy can change your life. Scroll up and buy now to embrace your fate and unlock the secret to happiness today.




Schadenfreude


Book Description

When someone suffers a mishap, a setback or a downfall, we sometimes find ourselves experiencing schadenfreude - an emotion defined as deriving pleasure from another's misfortune. Schadenfreude is a common experience and an emotion which is seemingly inherent to social being. This book offers a comprehensive summary of current theoretical and empirical work on schadenfreude from psychological, philosophical and other scientific perspectives. The chapters explore justice as an underlying motive for schadenfreude, and the role played by social comparison processes and envy in evoking pleasure at the misfortunes of others in interpersonal relations. Schadenfreude is also described as a common phenomenon in intergroup relations. This is a compelling volume on a fascinating subject matter that aims to increase our understanding of the nature of this emotion and the role it plays in social relations.




When Misfortune Becomes Injustice


Book Description

When Misfortune Becomes Injustice surveys the last thirty years of health, economic, and social rights advancement within the international human rights community. Alicia Ely Yamin reflects on her firsthand experience as an academic, practitioner, and advocate to explore the shift in how international human rights bodies approached issues of health and ill-health. Yamin argues the narrative has evolved to view health as a human right, encapsulating health crises as injustices, not simply misfortunes. Starting with debates in the 1970s, Yamin carefully surveys the points of intersection and friction between the fields of law, public health, and economics and development conversations to show how the general discourse evolved over time. When Misfortune Becomes Injustice tells a story of extraordinary progress with respect to the right to health over the last few decades, including how traditional forms of tyranny and discrimination were curbed, and how new discourses of equality were formed. However, Yamin shows that the possibilities and political space necessary to advance a robustly egalitarian health rights agenda are increasingly shrinking with growing inequality, and a greater attention to diverse strategies for resistance and social transformation is sorely needed.