Leaving Almost - The Journey of a Lifetime


Book Description

This is a grown-up fable about waking up, day in and day out, into an unfulfilled life. About facing reality, and recapturing your dreams with the wonderment of youth, but the maturity of an adult. It's about finding purpose again and moving forward in a positive way, making good decisions and moving away from that place which the book describes as Almost. If you are not growing, moving forward, then you will live your life in that debilitating place called Almost. This book is the story of how to start your journey from Almost to Fulfillment. This book tells the story of Alex Andrews, who starts his journey from Almost to Fulfillment one evening after meeting Oliver at a local park. From the very beginning, Alex is challenged in ways he had never experienced before and soon both and his wife Aimee are igniting fresh fires in their life. Through the conversations between Alex and Oliver, the reader has a front row seat to witness the journey to a John 10:10 life.




Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World


Book Description

“Mesmerizing, magical, deeply moving.” —Elif Shafak Expanding on the popular podcast of the same name from On Being Studios, Poetry Unbound offers immersive reflections on fifty powerful poems. In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama’s appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem’s artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives. Focusing mainly on poets writing today, Ó Tuama engages with a diverse array of voices that includes Ada Limón, Ilya Kaminsky, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong, Layli Long Soldier, and Reginald Dwayne Betts. Natasha Trethewey meditates on miscegenation and Mississippi; Raymond Antrobus makes poetry out of the questions shot at him by an immigration officer; Martín Espada mourns his father; Marie Howe remembers and blesses her mother’s body; Aimee Nezhukumatathil offers comfort to her child-self. Through these wide-ranging poems, Ó Tuama guides us on an inspiring journey to reckon with self-acceptance, history, independence, parenthood, identity, joy, and resilience. For anyone who has wanted to try their hand at a conversation with poetry but doesn’t know where to start, Poetry Unbound presents a window through which to celebrate the art of being alive.




180 Classics You Must Read In Your Lifetime (Vol.1)


Book Description

Invest your time in reading the true masterpieces of world literature, the great works of the greatest masters of their craft, the revolutionary works, the timeless classics and the eternally moving poetry of words and storylines every person should experience in their lifetime: Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) Middlemarch (George Eliot) The Madman (Kahlil Gibran) Ward No. 6 (Anton Chekhov) Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) The Overcoat (Gogol) Ulysses (James Joyce) Walden (Henry David Thoreau) Hamlet (Shakespeare) Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) Macbeth (Shakespeare) The Waste Land (T. S. Eliot) Odes (John Keats) The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë) Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) Vanity Fair (Thackeray) Swann's Way (Marcel Proust) Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy) Two Years in the Forbidden City (Princess Der Ling) Les Misérables (Victor Hugo) The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) Pepita Jimenez (Juan Valera) The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane) A Room with a View (E. M. Forster) Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser) The Jungle (Upton Sinclair) The Republic (Plato) Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) Art of War (Sun Tzu) Candide (Voltaire) Don Quixote (Cervantes) Decameron (Boccaccio) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Dream Psychology (Sigmund Freud) The Einstein Theory of Relativity The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie) A Study in Scarlet (Arthur Conan Doyle) Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) The Call of Cthulhu (H. P. Lovecraft) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) The War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells) The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Call of the Wild Alice in Wonderland The Fairytales of Brothers Grimm The Fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen




Nature and the Human Soul


Book Description

The depth psychologist and wilderness guide presents eight stages of human life that are modeled on the cycles and qualities of the natural world.




When Breath Becomes Air


Book Description

**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** 'Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful,' Atul Gawande, bestselling author of Being Mortal What makes life worth living in the face of death? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father. Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both. 'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living' Nigella Lawson




Spell Crossed 3-Book Bundle


Book Description

On the spell-crossed Phaer Isle, young Xemion and his friend Saheli just made one little mistake, but now they’re in a fight for their own lives and the future of all Phaer. Up against Thralls, Triplicants, dragons, rage-wraiths, will they find the key to victory in the Great Kone, the source of all magic? And what will it cost them? Includes: The Paper Sword – Spell Crossed #1 After shaking hands with a man with a red hand, Xemion and Saheni must flee their forest home and cross dangerous lands haunted by creatures caught in the forces of conflicting spells, while being pursued by a traitorous Examiner. They head for the city of Ulde, where a rebellion is brewing against the ruthless rulers of Phaer Isle, the Pathans. Second Kiss – Spell Crossed #2 Young Xemion is at a crossroads. War looms on the horizon, and his dream of becoming a swordfighter is finally a reality, but without his warrior beloved, Saheli, by his side, he’s incomplete. He must break the spell that separates them and find his way back to her. For one more kiss. Missing Piece – Spell Crossed #3 Xemion has great power as a mage and as a warrior, but none of that means anything to him if he cannot bring back his beloved Saheli. And with war looming, the evil Montither is set on taking care of Saheli once and for all. Can Xemion save her in time? And will she still remember him and their promise of long ago?




Spell Crossed 2-Book Bundle


Book Description

On the spell-crossed Phaer Isle, young Xemion and his friend Saheli just made one little mistake, but now they’re in a fight for their own lives and the future of all Phaer. Up against Thralls, Triplicants, dragons, rage-wraiths, will they find the key to victory in the Great Kone, the source of all magic? And what will it cost them? Includes: The Paper Sword – Spell Crossed #1 After shaking hands with a man with a red hand, Xemion and Saheni must flee their forest home and cross dangerous lands haunted by creatures caught in the forces of conflicting spells, while being pursued by a traitorous Examiner. They head for the city of Ulde, where a rebellion is brewing against the ruthless rulers of Phaer Isle, the Pathans. Second Kiss – Spell Crossed #2 Young Xemion is at a crossroads. War looms on the horizon, and his dream of becoming a swordfighter is finally a reality, but without his warrior beloved, Saheli, by his side, he’s incomplete. He must break the spell that separates them and find his way back to her. For one more kiss.




Paddling to Winter


Book Description

Julie Buckles and Charly Ray built a wood and canvas canoe, exchanged marriage vows, and paddled away from their front yard, planning to travel 2,700 miles to the Arctic Ocean and winter over in a tiny cabin. What a honeymoon! Told in Julie's page-turning style, their story is full of humor and humility, rapids and relationships, love and life. It's an adventure about a couple's wilderness journey from Lake Superior to the Canadian north.




China


Book Description

Discusses the history and culture of China, offers practical travel advice, and recommends accommodations, restaurants, transportation, and attractions.




The Mandolin Lesson


Book Description

The Mandolin Lesson is a unique, quirky story of commuting to another country for music lessons. Beautifully redolent of an Italy before emails and mobiles, low cost fares and the channel tunnel, it relates an inspirational story of following one’s passion against all the odds. It is a journey of the moment that happened ahead of its time. Frances Taylor plays an unusual instrument – the mandolin – and when she gets an unexpected opportunity to study her instrument in its native land, Italy, she feels compelled to do so. The only problem is that as a thirty-something with family and work commitments in England, she has to study part-time, commuting once a month. Travelling to Padua during the nineties, Frances stays in Brescia and Bologna. Seduced by the charms of the Italian way of life, she helps with the cherry harvest, learns to cook local dishes and finds out how to dress elegantly. Frances thinks at first she is finding out about her instrument and music, and then about another culture, but ultimately she is on a journey to find out about herself, an interior journey in which she learns to reconnect with her spirit... The Mandolin Lesson is an evocative memoir from the only female professional classical mandolinist in the country – and the only British person to have studied mandolin in Italy at Conservatoire level. The theme of the book is both timeless and universal, about a journey we are all on; a journey to find out about ourselves and to reconnect with who we really are. It will resonate with readers interested in inspirational self-development books, and will also appeal to fans of human interest stories, as well as those interested in Italy and its culture, music in general and the mandolin. ‘A fascinatingly detailed account of how a love affair with the mandolin became a love affair with Italy as well. It shows the lengths to which an excellent musician will go to become an even better one.’ Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin