In the Land of Pain


Book Description

A “startling [and] splendid” book (The New York Times Book Review) from one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century on his years of enduring severe illness—a classic in the literary annals of human suffering. • Edited and translated by the bestselling, Booker Prize winning author of The Sense of an Ending. “Pain, you must be everything for me. Let me find in you all those foreign lands you will not let me visit.” —Alphonse Daudet Daudet (1840–1897) was a greatly admired writer during his lifetime, praised by Dickens and Henry James. In the prime of his life, he developed an agonizing nerve disease caused by syphilis and began taking notes about his experience, published posthumously as In the Land of Pain. Daudet wrote in powerful, unflinching images about his excruciating symptoms, his fears, his desperate attempts at treatment, and the effects of the morphine he came to depend on. His novelist’s eye and sense of humor did not desert him as he observed the bizarre society of his fellow patients at curative spas, nor did his generosity and compassion for them and for his friends and family. In Julian Barnes’s crystalline translation, Daudet’s notes comprise a record—at once shattering, haunting, and beguiling—of both the banal and the transformative realities of physical suffering.




Of Land and Pain: A Little Red Riding Hood Retelling


Book Description

The rules to stay alive are simple. Don’t go into the Darkgrove Forest. Keep your head down. Don’t talk to strangers. When Grandmother falls sick, I throw these rules to the side and dare to enter the forest. I encounter a devilishly handsome man, Cian, who offers to guide me. I accept. I shouldn’t have. A single bite is all it took to turn me into a werewolf. Our worlds collide, leaving mine in ruins. Now, my existence gives rise to an ancient enemy, who intends to destroy all werewolves in Arcanoria. If I want to defeat him, I have to stop running from who I am and who I’m destined to be with. If I don’t, the darkness will engulf us all. Of Land and Pain is book two of the Five Queens Prophecy. It is a New Adult retelling of Red Riding Hood, with werewolves and fantasy elements.




Pain Studies


Book Description

“A fascinating, totally seductive read!” —Eula Biss, author of Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays and On Immunity: An Inoculation “A book built of brain and nerve and blood and heart. . . . Irreverent and astute. . . . Pain Studies will change how you think about living with a body.” —Elizabeth McCracken, author of Thunderstruck and Bowlaway “A thrilling investigation into pain, language, and Olstein’s own exile from what Woolf called ‘the army of the upright.’ On a search path through art, science, poetry, and prime-time television, Olstein aims her knife-bright compassion at the very thing we’re all running from. Pain Studies is a masterpiece.” —Leni Zumas, author of The Listeners and Red Clocks In this extended lyric essay, a poet mines her lifelong experience with migraine to deliver a marvelously idiosyncratic cultural history of pain—how we experience, express, treat, and mistreat it. Her sources range from the trial of Joan of Arc to the essays of Virginia Woolf and Elaine Scarry to Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of Gregory House on House M.D. As she engages with science, philosophy, visual art, rock lyrics, and field notes from her own medical adventures (both mainstream and alternative), she finds a way to express the often-indescribable experience of living with pain. Eschewing simple epiphanies, Olstein instead gives us a new language to contemplate and empathize with a fundamental aspect of the human condition. Lisa Olstein teaches at the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of four poetry collections published by Copper Canyon Press. Pain Studies is her first book of creative nonfiction.




Pain


Book Description

The world's foremost expert draws on the latest research to present an accessible look at the causes and consequences of pain, both mental and physical. Patrick Wall shows that pain is a matter of behavioral manifestation and differs among individuals, situations, and cultures. Wall provides a wealth of fascinating and sometimes disturbing historical detail, such as famous characters who derived pleasure from pain, the unexpected reactions of injured people, the role of endorphins, and the power of placebo. He covers cures of pain, ranging from drugs and surgery, through relaxation techniques and exercise, to acupuncture, electrical nerve stimulation, and herbalism.




The Brain and Pain


Book Description

Pain is an inevitable part of existence, but severe debilitating or chronic pain is a pathological condition that diminishes the quality of life. The Brain and Pain explores the present and future of pain management, providing a comprehensive understanding based on the latest discoveries from many branches of neuroscience. Richard Ambron—the former director of a neuroscience lab that conducted leading research in this field—explains the science of how and why we feel pain. He describes how the nervous system and brain process information that leads to the experience of pain, detailing the cellular and molecular functions that are responsible for the initial perceptions of an injury. He discusses how pharmacological agents such as opiates affect the duration and intensity of pain. Ambron examines new evidence showing that discrete circuits in the brain modulate the experience of pain in response to a placebo, fear, anxiety, belief, or other circumstances, as well as how pain can be relieved by activating these circuits using mindfulness training and other nonpharmacological treatments. The book also evaluates the prospects of procedures such as deep brain stimulation and optogenetics. Current and thorough, The Brain and Pain will be invaluable for a range of people seeking to understand their options for treatment as well as students in neuroscience and medicine.




Blame It on the Pain


Book Description

Pain. It hurts us. It pushes us. It punishes us. Or, for the few poor souls out there like me...it defines us. I'm not a good person. There are no redeeming qualities about me...not anymore. Any that I had, I'd given to the devil on the night that changed everything. The night my baby sister died. The night I murdered her killer. Yes, I've taken a life...and I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I would never, ever, have an ounce of regret for being who I am. Until her. My name is Jackson Reid. There are two things you need to know about me. The first-is that I'm in love with Alyssa Tanner. The second-is that I'm a murderer. My name is Alyssa Tanner, but you probably know me as the whore who caused her step-father to lose the election for New York City Mayor. And you would be right- because the day the world branded me a slut I decided to become one. You think you know all there is to know about me because you've seen what I look like naked. Believe me, you haven't even cracked the surface. What you don't know-is my past, because I've been forced to keep it a secret to ensure my safety. What you don't know is my pain. Because if you did-you'd be dead. I bet you think you know how this story will unfold...but trust me, you really have no idea. Warning: Due to strong language, some violence, explicit sexual content, and some dark elements, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18. This is a full-length, novel. (100,000+ words.)




The Culture of Pain


Book Description

This is a book about the meanings we make out of pain. The greatest surprise I encountered in discussing this topic over the past ten years was the consistency with which I was asked a single unvarying question: Are you writing about physical pain or mental pain? The overwhelming consistency of this response convinces me that modern culture rests upon and underlying belief so strong that it grips us with the force of a founding myth. Call it the Myth of Two Pains. We live in an era when many people believe--as a basic, unexamined foundation of thought--that pain comes divided into separate types: physical and mental. These two types of pain, so the myth goes, are as different as land and sea. You feel physical pain if your arm breaks, and you feel mental pain if your heart breaks. Between these two different events we seem to imagine a gulf so wide and deep that it might as well be filled by a sea that is impossible to navigate.




No Grain, No Pain


Book Description

“A must-read book for anyone suffering from chronic pain” (Sara Gottfried, MD), No Grain, No Pain demonstrates the proven link between a gluten-heavy diet and chronic pain and discomfort—and offers a groundbreaking, 30-day, grain-free diet to help you heal yourself from the inside out. More than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, according to an Institute of Medicine report released in 2011. For many, chronic pain is part of an autoimmune disease, but all too often doctors turn to the same solution: painkilling drugs. But all of this medication simply isn’t helping, and as Dr. Peter Osborne, the leading authority on gluten sensitivity and food allergies has found, the real solution often lies in what you eat. In No Grain, No Pain, Dr. Osborne shows how grains wreak havoc on the body by causing tissue inflammation, creating vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and triggering an autoimmune response that causes the body to attack itself. But he also offers practical steps to find relief. Using his drug-free, easy-to-implement plan, you will be able to eliminate all sources of gluten and gluten-like substances, experience significant improvement in fifteen days, and eliminate pain within thirty days. The first book to identify diet—specifically, grain—as a leading cause of chronic suffering, No Grain, No Pain provides you with the knowledge you need to improve your health. Based on extensive research and examples culled from thousands of his satisfied patients, Dr. Osborne recommends changing your diet to achieve the relief that millions of Americans have been seeking once and for all, leading to a healthier, happier life.




Maid


Book Description

"A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide (Barack Obama)," this New York Times bestselling memoir is the inspiration for the Netflix limited series, hailed by Rolling Stone as "a great one." At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper middle class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets. Driven to carve out a better life for her family, she cleaned by day and took online classes by night, writing relentlessly as she worked toward earning a college degree. She wrote of the true stories that weren't being told: of living on food stamps and WIC coupons, of government programs that barely provided housing, of aloof government employees who shamed her for receiving what little assistance she did. Above all else, she wrote about pursuing the myth of the American Dream from the poverty line, all the while slashing through deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not hers alone. It is an inspiring testament to the courage, determination, and ultimate strength of the human spirit. "A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work." -PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, Obama's Summer Reading List




Penguin: Pain and Prejudice


Book Description

Bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz examines the painful and dark past of one of Batman's most devious foes. How did young Oswald Cobblepot go from being the apple of his mother's eye to the leader of underworld gangs and adversary of the Caped Crusader?