Life Should Be Beautiful


Book Description

Davin’s job brought him to Summer Lake a few years ago. However, unlike so many of his friends, he hasn’t met the woman of his dreams and settled down. It’s not that he isn’t interested, it just hasn’t happened for him. His last ‘relationship’, if you could even call it that, has come to an abrupt end when he meets Alexis. She’s just moved to the lake after extricating herself from a not-so-great relationship of her own. Neither of them is particularly looking for love, but they’re smart enough to recognize it when it lands in their lap. He’s former Special Forces, she’s a former spook. They each think that they’re set to live out a solitary retirement, but life has other plans for them. With a little help from canine matchmaker, Echo, they’re about to embark on a journey that neither of them saw coming. Pick up your copy of this heartwarming romance today and enjoy the ride as these two strong individuals learn not only how to become a couple, but also how to build a family; Summer Lake Silver romances find happily ever afters for those who remember being thirty-something—vaguely. Just because a few decades—or more—have skipped by since you were in your twenties it doesn’t mean you can’t find love, does it? Featuring couples in their fifties and older SJ McCoy’s seasoned romance series proves you don’t have to pack your heart away with the old photos. Like Some Old Country Song - Clay and Marianne A Dream Too Far - Seymour and Chris A Little Rain Must Fall - Ted and Audrey Where the Rainbow Ends - Diego and Izzy Silhouettes Shadows and Sunsets – Manny and Nina More Than Sometimes – Cal and Teresa Like a Soft Sweet Breeze - Russ and Alexandria When Words Are Not Enough – Adam and Evelyn Can’t Fight the Moonlight – Dalton and Taryn Meet Me Where the Stars Fall – Lucky and Dee Walking on Sunshine - Damon and Jo Life Must Be Beautiful – Davin and Alexis




Beautiful World, Where Are You


Book Description

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Beautiful World, Where Are You is a new novel by Sally Rooney, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends. Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?




Perfect Me


Book Description

How looking beautiful has become a moral imperative in today's worldThe demand to be beautiful is increasingly important in today's visual and virtual culture. Rightly or wrongly, being perfect has become an ethical ideal to live by, and according to which we judge ourselves good or bad, a success or a failure. Perfect Me explores the changing nature of the beauty ideal, showing how it is more dominant, more demanding, and more global than ever before.Heather Widdows argues that our perception of the self is changing. More and more, we locate the self in the body--not just our actual, flawed bodies but our transforming and imagined ones. As this happens, we further embrace the beauty ideal. Nobody is firm enough, thin enough, smooth enough, or buff enough-not without significant effort and cosmetic intervention. And as more demanding practices become the norm, more will be required of us, and the beauty ideal will be harder and harder to resist.If you have ever felt the urge to "make the best of yourself" or worried that you were "letting yourself go," this book explains why. Perfect Me examines how the beauty ideal has come to define how we see ourselves and others and how we structure our daily practices-and how it enthralls us with promises of the good life that are dubious at best. Perfect Me demonstrates that we must first recognize the ethical nature of the beauty ideal if we are ever to address its harms.




A More Beautiful Question


Book Description

To get the best answer-in business, in life-you have to ask the best possible question. Innovation expert Warren Berger shows that ability is both an art and a science. It may be the most underappreciated tool at our disposal, one we learn to use well in infancy-and then abandon as we grow older. Critical to learning, innovation, success, even to happiness-yet often discouraged in our schools and workplaces-it can unlock new business opportunities and reinvent industries, spark creative insights at many levels, and provide a transformative new outlook on life. It is the ability to question-and to do so deeply, imaginatively, and “beautifully.” In this fascinating exploration of the surprising power of questioning, innovation expert Warren Berger reveals that powerhouse businesses like Google, Nike, and Netflix, as well as hot Silicon Valley startups like Pandora and Airbnb, are fueled by the ability to ask fundamental, game-changing questions. But Berger also shares human stories of people using questioning to solve everyday problems-from “How can I adapt my career in a time of constant change?” to “How can I step back from the daily rush and figure out what really makes me happy?” By showing how to approach questioning with an open, curious mind and a willingness to work through a series of “Why,” “What if,” and “How” queries, Berger offers an inspiring framework of how we can all arrive at better solutions, fresh possibilities, and greater success in business and life.




The Beauty Myth


Book Description

The bestselling classic that redefined our view of the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."




Beauty, Blissfulness & Tragedy: The Life of Oscar Wilde


Book Description

"Beauty, Blissfulness & Tragedy: The Life of Oscar Wilde" is a biography of the famous Irish writer, poet and dramatist, written by his friend Frank Harris. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, Wilde became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays and poetry, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. Wilde is a central figure in aesthetic writing. His controversial, open lifestyle was the reason he was charged and eventually convicted for the crime of sodomy.




Life Is...A Journey Worth Fighting For


Book Description

Life Is . . . A Journey Worth Fighting For Everyone has a story to tell. Whether we are young or old, our story began the moment we took our first breath. Every one of us chooses the life that we want to live and the story that we want to leave behind the moment we take our last breath. The story of our life is what we make it as we live and learn each day. Life is a journey of personal growth and learning experiences. It is about lessons learned and actions taken to improve the quality of life. This book will take you through a teenage girl's journey through life. Her struggles continued after she dropped out of school, got married at the age of fifteen going on sixteen, and becoming a young teenage mother who managed to finish high school and ultimately obtain a PhD. Both she and her husband were also struck with cancer, but no matter what obstacles came her way, she continued to trust in God and kept moving forward with many dreams for her future. Some facets of life such as life is an opportunity, beauty, a dream, a game, a promise, sorrow, a song, a struggle, a tragedy, an adventure, luck, too precious, life is life, fight for it are words that spoke to her as she came across a poem that inspired her to write this book. She immediately began reflecting on her life and making connections to the words and her interpretation of the message in the poem. A feeling overcame her as if the poem was telling her life story. She experienced the facets of life stated above at different stages in her life and in different situations. As a result, she came to the conclusion that life is a journey worth fighting for. Life is not perfect, and people should not pretend that it is. Some have to work harder than others in order to facilitate their journey through life. Challenges such as bullying, growing pains, dropping out of school, dealing with a failed relationship or marriage, loss of income or job, job reassignment, drug abuse, alcoholism, getting older, and disease are just a few of the struggles that we may experience at different points in life. At times, we may have to put up a good fight and not give up by overcoming obstacles that may interfere with the quality of life, the life God wants for us that will ultimately lead us to eternal life. No matter what age one may be or what obstacles come our way, we should never stop dreaming.




A Sweet Floral Life


Book Description

Learn how to create exquisite, lifelike sugar flowers and arrange them with fresh blooms in the floral arrangements of your dreams—regardless of season or availability. “A Sweet Floral Life is pure magic.”—Ariella Chezar, author of The Flower Workshop and Seasonal Flower Arranging Rising Instagram star Natasja Sadi’s floral arrangements have a sumptuous, old-world look straight out of a classical painting. But among the glorious profusion of fresh flowers, there is often a surprise twist: handmade sugar flowers (traditionally used in cake decorating) that are indistinguishable from real ones and last forever. In A Sweet Floral Life, Natasja guides you through her creative process of flower arranging and developing your personal style, along with tutorials for seasonal arrangements, living and entertaining with flowers, and how to photograph flowers. A former fashion designer, Natasja began making flowers out of sugar to honor her African and Indonesian ancestors who worked in the sugarcane fields of Suriname. In A Sweet Floral Life, Natasja provides steps for sculpting sugar flowers, a versatile medium with limitless possibilities—they can be used in fresh floral arrangements, displayed on their own as unique home décor, or used to adorn cakes. And whether it’s the middle of summer or the dead of winter, sugar flowers are always in season and always in perfect full bloom. Capture the romance, set the mood, and be swept away by gorgeous and inspiring floral art with A Sweet Floral Life.




Returning to Silence


Book Description

A renowned Zen teacher and contemporary of Shunryu Suzuki explores the many pillars of Zen spirituality, explaining how we can bring these practices into our daily lives For twenty-five hundred years Buddhism has taught that everyone is Buddha—already enlightened, lacking nothing. But still there is the question of how we can experience that truth in our lives. In this book, Dainin Katagiri points to the manifestation of enlightenment right here, right now, in our everyday routine. Genuineness of practice lies in “just living” our lives wholeheartedly. The Zen practice of sitting meditation (zazen) is not a means to an end but the activity of enlightenment itself. That is why Katagiri Roshi says, “Don't expect enlightenment—just sit down!” Based on the author's talks to his American students, Returning to Silence contains the basic teachings of the Buddha, with special emphasis on the meaning of faith and on meditation. It also offers a commentary on “The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance” from Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo, which speaks in depth about the appropriate actions of those who guide others in the practice of the Buddha Way. Throughout these pages, Katagiri Roshi energetically brings to life the message that “Buddha is your daily life.”




Divine Beauty


Book Description

Offers the first detailed explication of Charles Hartshorne's aesthetic theory and its place within his theocentric philosophy.