s deadliest projects, you ll run into four women with colorful ski coats and designer jeans. And if you don t belong, you ll quickly find out what they have nestled inside the Marc Jacob or Louis Vuitton purses they keep closely to them. These females aren t just pretty faces. They were taken out of their beds and placed on the throne by the hustler s they loved. Their only request was that the Emerald City squad remain true. But when Thick, the self proclaimed leader of the clique decides to bring an outside chick into the picture, to floss using the money their girlfriends earned, the security of the operation is jeopardized, sides are chosen and all hell breaks loose. Immediately they decide to remove the gang-stresses from power to prevent their emotions from interfering with business. But it s easier said than done and their ungratefulness only insights their fury. Once they shared their beds together, now they fought a war against one another for the ownership of a million dollar empire. Four women against their ex men. Who will reign supreme? The men who taught them everything they knew about the game? Or the Pitbulls In A Skirt?

    In this magisterial opus, capping a lifetime of work and personal experience, Dr. Yalom helps us recognize that the fear of death is at the heart of much of our anxiety. Such recognition is often catalyzed by an "awakening experience"--a dream, or loss (the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job or home), illness, trauma, or aging. Once we confront our own mortality, Dr. Yalom writes, we are inspired to rearrange our priorities, communicate more deeply with those we love, appreciate more keenly the beauty of life, and increase our willingness to take the risks necessary for personal fulfillment.

    It begins with a knock at the door. “The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know,” said Major Steve Beck. Since the start of the war in Iraq, Marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines. Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead Marine’s name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark. In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

    I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead." Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists, and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukaemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer. "Ways To Live Forever" is the first novel from an extraordinarily talented young writer. Funny and honest, it is one of the most powerful and uplifting books you will ever read.

    A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, and waiting for the birth of her first child.This book is about what happened next. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she learned that her baby boy had died. How do you deal with and recover from this kind of loss? Of course you don't--but you go on. And if you have ever experienced loss or love someone who has, the company of this remarkable book will help you go on.

    Does true love really exist? For Koran, it did more than eight years ago when the love of his life left without an explanation. Once brokenhearted, time heals all things and being the big baller that he is, love for him now is riding around in his expensive cars, wearing the best jewelry money can buy and staying dipped in the latest fashions, while lying back in his beautiful crib. Whitney left Koran, the love of her life, so long ago. The pain she felt, knowing she would never see him again was so great that she was unable to express why she had to go. Leaving Koran was hard, but facing her problems was worse. Returning with a Bachelor's degree, a new lease on life and working on her Master's she suddenly comes face-to-face with the man of her past. Unfortunately, Koran is living a different life with his crew, than the one they talked about as teenagers. Will love return, and if it does will Koran give up his lifestyle of selling dope and chasing after more and more money or will he follow his heart back into the arms of his first love?

    With drawings, he can erase the things that don't turn out right. In real life, problems aren't so easily fixed.As Bird struggles to understand the death of his beloved grandfather and his older brother's drug addiction, he escapes into his art. Drawing is an outlet for Bird's emotions and imagination, and provides a path to making sense of his world. In time, with the help of his grandfather's friend, Bird finds his own special something and wings to fly.Told with spare grace, Bird is a touching look at a young boy coping with real-life troubles. Readers will be heartened by Bird's quiet resilience, and moved by the healing power of putting pencil to paper.Bird, the recipient of Lee & Low's New Voices Award Honor, is the first picture book of both Zetta Elliot and Shadra Strickland.

    Stunned and devastated, the family searched for comfort in a time when none seemed possible. Hood - an accomplished novelist - was unable to read or write. She could only reflect on her lost daughter. One day, a friend suggested she learn to knit. Knitting soothed her and gave her something to do. Eventually, she began to read and write again. A semblance of normalcy returned, but grief, in ever new and different forms, still held the family. What they could not know was that comfort would come, and in surprising ways. In Comfort, Hood traces her descent into grief and reveals the people and places where she found hope once again.

    Presenting itself as an investigation into the suicide of a close friend—perhaps real, perhaps fictional—more than twenty years earlier, Levé gives us, little by little, a striking portrait of a man, with all his talents and flaws, who chose to reject his life, and all the people who loved him, in favor of oblivion. Gradually, through Levé’s casually obsessive, pointillist, beautiful ruminations, we come to know a stoic, sensible, thoughtful man who bears more than a slight psychological resemblance to Levé himself. But Suicide is more than just a compendium of memories of an old friend; it is a near-exhaustive catalog of the ramifications and effects of the act of suicide, and a unique and melancholy farewell to life.

    Committing to a man? Not exactly on her agenda. But then a tragedy brings her closer to gorgeous attorney Griffin Rice and they have to share custody of their twin goddaughters.Griffin never saw himself as husband or father material. But suddenly family vacations and Sunday dinners with the girls are the highlight of his schedule--and getting closer to their smart, intriguing godmother is his number-one priority. Can he teach her that their partnership has turned into a loving relationship powerful enough to last?

    Little Cub and Papa spend the day wandering their beautiful, invigorating arctic world while she asks all about God’s home: How do we get to heaven? Will we eat there? Will I get to see you in heaven? Papa patiently answers each question, assuring her that…“Heaven will be full of everything good.”This gentle story provides satisfying answers for a young child’s most difficult questions about what happens after this life, inviting “little cubs” to find comfort in knowing that God Gave Us Heaven.Also available:God Gave Us YouGod Gave Us TwoGod Gave Us Christmas

    Instead, God graciously gives to us every spiritual gift that we need, beginning with the very gift of faith in Christ, our Savior. Because God has joined us to Christ, He continually comes to give us life.

    Through personal and candid journal entries they wrote as a remembrance for Elena's younger sister, Brooke and Keith Desserich share their emotional journey as a family, along with the private notes Elena hid around the house for them to discover after she was gone. Heartbreaking, moving, and inspiring, Elena's notes show us how, even during the darkest moments of life, it is possible to find hope and encouragement though selfless love.

    When Greg moves into town and finds out what she's doing, he thinks it's a great idea...so he starts doing it too! It's just one of the things that reserved, young David must tolerate as their friendship grows throughout the years. As they near adulthood, they grow not only closer to each other, but closer to God as well. David finds himself content in every way, but when tragedy occurs David must struggle to find his way back to God. Contemporary Christian Fiction: Top Rated... Best Selling... Award Winning! Don't let the fact that it's the first in a series scare you off - Chop, Chop is a complete, stand-alone novel that will NOT leave you hanging. Sequels are available, however, for those who wish to follow the characters further. Often pegged as a "Young Adult" novel, demographics show that most readers of the Chop, Chop series are actually between the ages of 25 and 55 (and the sequels are definitely geared toward that age group). Whether you're young or old, Chop, Chop is a true coming-of-age story about friendship, loss and forgiveness that is sure to touch your heart.

    During the war, approximately 620,000 soldiers lost their lives. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be six million. This Republic of Suffering explores the impact of this enormous death toll from every angle: material, political, intellectual, and spiritual. The eminent historian Drew Gilpin Faust delineates the ways death changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation and its understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. She describes how survivors mourned and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the slaughter with its belief in a benevolent God, pondered who should die and under what circumstances, and reconceived its understanding of life after death. Faust details the logistical challenges involved when thousands were left dead, many with their identities unknown, on the fields of places like Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. She chronicles the efforts to identify, reclaim, preserve, and bury battlefield dead, the resulting rise of undertaking as a profession, the first widespread use of embalming, the gradual emergence of military graves registration procedures, the development of a federal system of national cemeteries for Union dead, and the creation of private cemeteries in the South that contributed to the cult of the Lost Cause. She shows, too, how the war victimized civilians through violence that extended beyond battlefields-from disease, displacement, hardships, shortages, emotional wounds, and conflicts connected to the disintegration of slavery.

    The direct cause of the accident was cited as the depositing of a uranyl nitrate solution--containing about 16.6 kg of uranium, which exceeded the critical mass--into a precipitation tank. Three workers were exposed to extreme doses of radiation. Hiroshi Ouchi, one of these workers, was transferred to the University of Tokyo Hospital Emergency Room, three days after the accident. Dr. Maekawa and his staff initially thought that Ouchi looked relatively well for a person exposed to such radiation levels. He could talk, and only his right hand was a little swollen with redness. However, his condition gradually weakened as the radioactivity broke down the chromosomes in his cells. The doctors were at a loss as to what to do. There were very few precedents and proven medical treatments for the victims of radiation poisoning. Less than 20 nuclear accidents had occurred in the world to that point, and most of those happened 30 years ago. This book documents the following 83 days of treatment until his passing, with detailed descriptions and explanations of the radiation poisoning.

    When Siobhan was just three years old, her mother died, leaving Siobhan and her father alone in their house in Dublin. They never talk about her, and now, at ten years old, Siobhan no longer remembers her mother's face. One day, Siobhan meets a mysterious woman in the park who tells her that to remember her mother, she just needs to look in a mirror. As Siobhan grows older, she sees more and more of her mother's face in her own reflection. With time, she and her father and her own daughter are able to remember Siobhan's mother with joy and laughter instead of tears.

     A young burn victim remains in a coma until a ghost appears. A doctor discovers he can predict when a patient will die. A clinically dead patient later recounts extraordinary details about the private lives of her caregivers. A physician needs the help of a Navajo shaman to exorcise the spirit of his dead patient. These things really happened-and neurosurgeon Allan J. Hamilton was involved in every one of them, and many more. Based on thirty years of medical experience, The Scalpel and the Soul tells the unspoken stories behind remarkable patients and strange events, and shares the moral and spiritual lessons found in them. For physicians, supernatural inklings and intrusions are disturbing. Doctors cannot be candid with colleagues or patients because they are trained to disregard the inexplicable and unbelievable. They're taught to discount elusive, evanescent powers of the soul. Superstition, omens, and divine spirits smack of madness. But patients have the same experiences. Life-threatening illness or surgery frequently brings dormant spirituality to life. The soul often needs more than intensive care alone can give. The Scalpel and the Soul explores how premonition, superstition, hope, and faith not only become factors in how patients feel but can change outcomes; it validates the spiritual manifestations physicians see every day; it empowers patients to voice their spiritual needs when they seek medical help; and, finally, it addresses the mysterious, attractive powers the soul exerts during life-threatening events.

    In that remarkable letter, he wrote: "In more than one respect, I feel very lucky." He went on to promise that he would sum up his thoughts on the topics that had been so pervasive in his work-love and death-in a final book. Church has been justly celebrated as a writer of American history, but his works of spiritual guidance have been especially valued for their insight and inspiration. As a minister, Church defined religion as "our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die." The goal of life, he tells us "is to live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for." This last book in his impressive oeuvre is imbued with ideas and exemplars for achieving that goal. The stories he offers-drawn from his own experiences and from the lives of his friends, family, and parishioners-are both engrossing and enlightening. Forrest Church's final work may be his most lasting gift to his readers.

    He tries it in the style of Hitchcock, Tarantino, Eastwood, all of his favorite directors—but regardless of the style, he can't remember what happened that day in the shed. The day Jason died. And until he can, there is one question that keeps haunting Kyle: Did he kill his best friend on purpose? Debut novelist Heidi Ayarbe delves into the depths of the human psyche as Kyle wrestles with inner demons that make him wonder whether the world will ever be okay again—or if the best thing to do is find a way to join Jason.

    And yet, well over a century after his death, his story remains as fascinating as those he wove, largely because the shadow cast by Poe was not one of his own design.In Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories, Poe's biography comes to life through images and fascinating removable memorabilia, including:-A portion of his handwritten manuscript for the poem "A Dream Within a Dream."-Contentious letters he exchanged with his foster father, John Allan.-The bond indicating his intention to marry his cousin Virginia.-His controversial obituary as it appeared in the New York Daily Tribune.After touring his visual, interactive biography, fans of Poe will read "The Raven" and countless other classics with new appreciation.

    Through the eyes of former hospice nurse Trudy Harris, you'll experience more than forty true stories that paint a reassuring picture of life's end.You'll marvel at how patients received exactly what they needed to see or hear in order to die peacefully and well. And you'll find great hope and peace in knowing that God goes to great lengths to redeem, comfort, and prepare His children to come home.Whether you are facing the death of a loved one or confronting a terminal disease, Glimpses of Heaven will touch your heart and reassure you of the great love and peace God longs for you to receive.

    "Provocative."--Publishers Weekly.Collection: Religion and Postmodernism Series

    But nothing equals Noah’s incredibly beautiful, odd, and often humorous pieces: they’re made from an astounding variety of materials, from toothpaste to melted candle wax, from tea leaves to plastic straws. One is even carved into a watermelon! (Yes, it was eaten.)Each of the 150 skulls shown is accompanied by a brief description and fun anecdotal stories. As a bonus, there are four skull projects to make. Irresistibly merging pop, Internet, and craft culture, this fantastic collection provides an inspiring example of how to find creative potential in every aspect of daily life.

    A collection of Gris Grimley's seldom-seen personal and gallery art, 'Where Madness Reigns' delves far beneath the surface of Grimly's well-known macabre illustration work and uncovers a wealth of humorous, emotional, satirical and thought-provoking imagery.

    You're saying I'm gone and you can't even be sure who it is that's gone, because you never knew me. Sixteen years ago, Joan Wickersham's father shot himself in the head. The father she loved would never have killed himself, and yet he had. His death made a mystery of his entire life. Using an index, that most formal and orderly of structures, Wickersham explores this chaotic and incomprehensible reality. Every bit of family history - marriage, parents, business failures - and every encounter with friends, doctors, and other survivors exposes another facet of elusive truth. Dark, funny, sad, and gripping, at once a philosophical and deeply personal exploration, The Suicide Index is, finally, a daughter's anguished, loving elegy to her father.

    Full of grief, he locks himself in his house and ventures out again only when the smell of spring grass blows in through his window. He meets a wildcat and finally feels understood. As the cat plays his violin, Bear remembers all the fun he had with the little bird. Now he can say goodbye to his friend, because he knows he'll always have his memories.

    . . they go to the cemetery and stay all night, praying, singing, drinking, wailing. They tell the sad stories and the noble ones; they eat cookies shaped like skeletons. They celebrate and mourn at once.” Striking that balance, The Glen Rock Book of the Dead presents snapshot portraits of The Jeweler, The Driving Instructor, The Bad Influence, The Queen of New Jersey—and roughly fifty others who have touched Winik’s life, from her son’s second grade teacher to Keith Haring. Tied together by the inimitable, poignant voice of Winik, these losses form not only an autobiography but a story of our time, delivering a lyrical journey that ultimately raises the spirits.

    But the creature is real and it has a message for him - one that only an open-minded child can deliver to the rest of the world.

    The tragedy shocked the nation, tore apart a community with grief and anger, left many families physically and psychologically scarred for life, and prompted a mystery unresolved to this day. It also led to a complete overhaul of fire safety standards for American schools. The story of that fire was eloquently told ten years ago by John Kuenster and David Cowan in their best-selling book To Sleep with the Angels. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of the fire, John Kuenster returns to talk with firemen, parents, children, reporters, clergy, school administrators, and others who were in some way connected with the disaster. Together their thoughts and feelings about their experience, still vivid and tender after a half-century, make Remembrances of the Angels a moving and often tearful book.

    Eighteen-year-old Denny had died without warning from what was later explained as complications due to Mono. Sixteen years later, Dennis still struggles with living in a world without his son.Life After the Death of My Son shares a glimpse of the unspeakable pain, helplessness, frustration, and eventual healing that Dennis and his wife, Buelah, have experienced since losing their son. Using excerpts from his journal--which he began the day after Denny died--Dennis explores the dark, lonely road of grieving for a child. He discloses his anger and disappointment with God, discusses his frustrations with friends and family, and shares how he's dealt with the grief attacks, which continue to sneak up and surprise him. His painful, yet promising story offers comfort and connection to those walking similar paths. With understanding and compassion, Dennis offers grieving parents insight from 10 lessons he's learned--and continues to learn. His gentle words and honest understanding will guide those with grieving hearts on their difficult journey; giving them hope; helping them to discover ways in which God is able to continue the life of the child they loved.

    In this book, Darian Leader urges us to look beyond the catch-all concept of depression to explore the deeper, unconscious ways in which we respond to the experience of loss.

    Each stylishly written story and accompanying photograph surprises, entertains, and stimulates. The titled, wealthy, and powerful are here, of course, including Diana, Princess of Wales, Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, John Paul II, Norman Mailer, Mstislav Rostropovich, and General William Westmoreland, but so are others: a cookery teacher and spy, the inventor of instant noodles, a self-proclaimed gypsy king, a musical psychic, an American gangster, a patriotic crook, a philosopher of consumerism, a master of tabloid journalism, a protector of minorities, a veteran of Gallipoli, the greatest of second bananas, and so on.This book is as entertaining as it is edifying; it's a great gift for biography, history, and popular-culture fans, as well as for everyone who turns first to the obituary pages in the daily newspaper. As Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) put it: "I never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure."

    The story expands ever so subtly, with tightly hewn text and soft shadows on the pages that hint at the tree's changing surroundings as it grows.Rendered in pop-up form, the tree begins as a small seedling, barely noticeable amid the snow, and grows a little with each turn of the page. Soon it is a tall specimen in full leaf, changing color with the seasons. Years go by, and then it is gone. Somewhere a new seedling begins to grow. When something we expect always to be there disappears, we realize the significance of its presence. But even as it expresses this sense of loss, the book ends on a note that resonates with hope.The minimalist design by an internationally known artist draws readers in with its quiet power. Author Katsumi Komagata appeals to the senses in poetically spare language and with careful attention to every detail: the changing shape of the growing tree, its color, the shading of the background, even the weight and texture of the paper—such slight nuances shape our perceptions. The book was published simultaneously in Japan and France, and the text is provided in Japanese, French, and English.

    Troy and his father barely speak, communicating instead by writing notes on a legal pad by the phone. Troy spends most of his time with his closest friends: Tom Buller, brash and fearless, the son of a drunk; Gabe Benavidez, smart enough to know he’ll never take over the family ranch; and Gabe’s sister, Luz, whose family overprotects her, and who Troy has loved since they were children.           Troy and his friends don’t want trouble. They want this to be the summer of what Troy calls “ghost medicine,” when time seems to stop, so they won’t have to face the past or the future. But before the summer is over, their paths will cross in dangerous and fateful ways with people who will change their lives: Rose, a damaged derelict who lives with a flock of wild horses and goats; and Chase Rutledge, the arrogant sheriff’s son.           Troy and his friends want to disappear. Instead, they will become what they least expect —brothers, lovers, heroes, and ghosts.

    Through a series of thought experiments and literary allusions, Atreus explores the nature of freedom and the ethics of suicide.http://2arms1head.com(No information is available online regarding the author, who may have used a false name. If anyone has more information, you are welcome to edit this description.)

    The book is divided into four sections: crime scenes, police action, punishment, and executions. It is concentrated between 1890 and 1950, a time when criminals often admitted their crimes and were quickly punished. Until the late 1940s, the period from arrest to execution for a capital offense averaged 33 days. The change in police attitudes and of the punishment prescribed for criminal behavior is documented here in iconic photographs. Unlike many previous works on the subject, this compilation of crime scenes gives readers a forensic view, offering entire series of images used by detectives and criminologists. Other photographs reveal the evolving standards of the American criminal justice system, from water torture at Sing Sing prison, whipping posts, penitentiary life, and the notorious deadly work camps of the South, to executions: hanging, firing squads, and the electric chair. Only when all the evidence is presented can justice and humanity be properly served. This compilation of images, most published here for the first time, is a valuable new resource for historians and researchers.

    Popularly known as the grave of the Europeans, it was just as deadly for Africans and their descendants. Yet among the survivors, the dead remained both a vital presence and a social force.In this compelling and evocative story of a world in flux, Brown shows that death was as generative as it was destructive. From the eighteenth-century zenith of British colonial slavery to its demise in the 1830s, the Grim Reaper cultivated essential aspects of social life in Jamaica—belonging and status, dreams for the future, and commemorations of the past. Surveying a haunted landscape, Brown unfolds the letters of anxious colonists; listens in on wakes, eulogies, and solemn incantations; peers into crypts and coffins, and finds the very spirit of human struggle in slavery. Masters and enslaved, fortune seekers and spiritual healers, rebels and rulers, all summoned the dead to further their desires and ambitions. In this turbulent transatlantic world, Brown argues, “mortuary politics” played a consequential role in determining the course of history.Insightful and powerfully affecting, The Reaper’s Garden promises to enrich our understanding of the ways that death shaped political life in the world of Atlantic slavery and beyond.

    And though we are rewarded with more time with the people we love, we are also faced with new sets of complications—more diseases, more disability, more need for support and careful judgments. Yet while our health care system may help people live to an older age, it doesn't perform so well when decline eventually sets in. We want to do the best thing but are overwhelmed with the staggering choices we face.Geriatrician Dennis McCullough has spent his life helping families to cope with their parents' aging and eventual final passage, experiences he faced with his own mother. In this comforting and much-needed book, he recommends a new approach, which he terms "Slow Medicine."Shaped by common sense and kindness, grounded in traditional medicine yet receptive to alternative therapies, Slow Medicine advocates for careful anticipatory "attending" to an elder's changing needs rather than waiting for crises that force acute medical interventions—an approach that improves the quality of elders' extended late lives without bankrupting their families financially or emotionally. As Dr. McCullough argues, we need to learn that time and kindness are sometimes more important and humane at these late stages than state-of-the-art medical interventions.My Mother, Your Mother will help you learn how to:—form an early and strong partnership with your parents and siblings;—strategize on connecting with doctors and other care providers;—navigate medical crises;—create a committed Advocacy Team;—reach out with greater empathy and awareness; and—face the end-of-life time with confidence and skill.Although taking care of those who have always cared for us is not an easily navigated time of life, My Mother, Your Mother will help you and your family to prepare for this complex journey. This is not a plan for getting ready to die; it is a plan for understanding, for caring, and for helping those you love live well during their final years. And the time to start is now.

    Silent Night Sanctuary by Rita Herron released on Nov 11, 2008 is available now for purchase.

    With true stories and insights from people and their animals about dying, death, and beyond, readers will learn how to release feelings of loss and separation and instead stay connected to their animal friend in spirit.How do animals feel about crossing over? What do they communicate to us after they die? How can we contact animals in spirit? Losing an animal companion can be a painful experience, yet by examining their transition from a spiritual perspective, Animals in Spirit explores the process of dying from the viewpoints of animals and their people. Learn how animals choose their paths in each life, and the knowledge they leave behind for their humans. As animals make their way from the physical into the spiritual realm, Animals in Spirit can strengthen the union with our beloved friends by teaching us to accept and understand the full experience of life. With true stories, insights from animals and their human friends, as well as meditations to help communicate with animals in the spirit realm, Animals in Spirit will help heal the feelings of loss and separation by connecting you to your faithful companion in spirit.

    This powerful and simple system enables families, friends, and professional caregivers to understand and assist the dying on their journey. Fanslow-Brunjes shows the reader—both the living and the dying—how to use the power of hope to cope with the inevitable. Offering practical advice in a way readers will be able to use regardless of their beliefs, Using the Power of Hope to Cope with Dying addresses all levels of the experience—physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. Fanslow-Brunjes is an internationally acclaimed expert in the fields of death, dying, grief, and hospice care. Fanslow-Brunjes developed the “Standards of Care for the Dying Patient” program used throughout the United States Veterans Administration hospital system and the “Standards for Nursing Practice for the Care of the Dying” program used statewide in New York.

    Drawn from more then 180 interviews recorded between 1988 and 1998, these powerful true stories testify to the immeasurable strength of the human spirit in the face of disaster.

    In this probing investigation of the origins of suicidal terrorism, Abdal Hakim Murad finds not "Jihad versus MacWorld" but "MacJihad versus MacWorld." In this concise essay, the author contents that today's terrorist movements have their roots in a very western and very relativistic worldview, adopted by self-proclaimed Islamists whose mindset is as westernized as the societies they strike.

    This volume brings together the key chapters of his most important and accessible books, including the Journal of Researches on the Beagle voyage (1845), The Origin of Species (1859), and The Descent of Man (1871), along with the full text of his delightful autobiography. They are accompanied by generous selections of responses from Darwin's nineteenth-century readers from across the world. More than anything, they give a keen sense of the controversial nature of Darwin's ideas, and his position within Victorian debates about man's place in nature.The wide-ranging Introduction by James A. Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, explores the global impact and origins of Darwin's work and the reasons for its unparalleled significance today. To increase its usefulness for readers coming to Darwin for the first time, the selection also includes a map of the Beagle voyage, a detailed chronology of Darwin's life, and a biographical appendix identifying every individual mentioned in the text.

    In order to provide archaeologists and their students with a reliable understanding of these disciplines, this authoritative volume draws contributions from fifty experienced practitioners from around the world to offer a solid foundation in both the practical and ethical components of forensic work. Over 40 chapters weave together historical development, current field methods in analyzing crime, natural disasters and human atrocities, an array of laboratory techniques, key case studies, legal, professional, and ethical issues, and promising future directions, all from a global perspective. This volume will be the benchmark for the understanding of anthropological and archaeological forensics for years to come.

    Recent worldwide crises and events including the Iraq war; the September 11th attacks; numerous Columbine-like events; the Catholic Church child molestation scandal; and the Katrina tragedy in New Orleans, continue to present thousands more PTSD cases each year in all age groups. This book helps victims make sense of the events that led to their illness and teaches them how to create a new reality with specific advice and action plans that put them on the road to recovery and long-term healing.

    Become familiar with this intrinsic, yet denied, aspect of our lives as you contact your spirit companion, meditate on gravestone sculptures, create a necromantic medicine bag, and keep a personal book of the dead. Drawing on the wisdom of shamans, magicians, Tibetan Buddhists, and ancient Egyptians, Michelle Belanger illuminates death as a gateway to change and regeneration. On this life-affirming journey, you will visit the “Otherside,” reach out to spirits, and become a walker between worlds to experience healing and empowerment.     “Walking the Twilight Path shows us that life is a wonderful experience that can only be fully appreciated once we accept our physical mortality. An excellent beginners guide.” —Leilah Wendell, author of The Necromantic Ritual Book

    Unable to sleep, a young boy climbs into his father's arms. Feeling the warmth and closeness of his father, he begins to ask questions about the birds, the foxes, and whether his mom will ever wake up. They go outside under the starry sky. Loss and love are as present as the white spruces, while the father's clear answers and assurances calm his worried son. Here we feel the cycles of life and life's continuity, even in the face of absence and loss, so strongly and clearly that we know at the end that everything will, somehow, be all right.Born in 1953, Stein Erik Lunde has written sixteen books, mostly for children and young adults. His books have been published in many countries. This is his first book to be published in the United States. He also writes lyrics and has translated Bob Dylan into Norwegian. In 2009 My Father's Arms Are A Boat was awarded the Norwegian Ministry's Culture Prize for the Best Book for Children and Youth. The book was also nominated for the 2011 German Children's Literature Award.Born in 1972, Øyvind Torseter is an artist and one of Norway's most acclaimed illustrators. He employs both traditional and digital picture techniques. Torseter has received numerous prizes for many of his books. In 2011 he received the Norwegian Book Art Prize. For 2012 he has been nominated for the ALMA Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

    Six dead children. A garden of statues.With every step he takes around the carefully manicured grounds of Minerva Hall, Jim is haunted by the ghosts of children, long dead, whom no one else can see. Urging him to "find the Seventh," the children leave him cryptic clues pointing to a devastating ancient prophecy that only he can stop from being fulfilled.Jim befriends another boy--Einstein, who lives at the Hall. Einstein is autistic and very, very smart. If anyone can help Jim find the Seventh, perhaps he can--Einstein clearly knows more than he is saying. At the same time, the dead children seem to be leaving Jim some sort of macabre treasure trail.If Jim doesn't figure out the clues, innocent people will die. But how can Jim find the answers while the dangers of the Hall grow ever more threatening? And even if he can, the real question is--is Jim already too late?Linking ancient rites with modern mystery, Christine Morton-Shaw has crafted an eerie thriller that will keep readers guessing until its startling conclusion.

    They lead a very traditional way of life, the men are down the pub, the women are gossiping at the toddler group in the working men's club and the children stay out late in the long summer evenings, playing in the park and roaming the streets carefree. In the sweltering heat, Grace Ballantyne leaves her son Adam playing in his toy car in the garden. When she returns, she finds the door to the car open and her four-year-old son is nowhere in sight. As Grace frantically searches, panic creeps in and so the nightmare begins.A series of horrific assaults on young children spreads through the neighbourhood, each one more brutal; there is only so much this close community can take. As they cling to one another for hope and survival, the men beat up the school caretaker who they believe to be the perpetrator of this twisted abuse. But have they got the right man?Finally, it is the women who take control. In a battle to protect their families - and seek revenge - they make sure the attacker gets his just desserts.

    This book covers the literature of both Greek and Roman cultures over a period of more than a thousand years, through the advent of Christianity. Although classical culture was conservative, especially in regards to ghosts and witches which were strongly bound up in folklore, such tales preserve and conserve ideas about ghosts and witchcraft, and they survive to achieve this effect precisely because they are wonderfully engaging. Consequently, and also because they have directly and indirectly shaped our own culture's lore of magic and ghosts, these tales speak to us today still with a great directness and immediacy. In Night's Black Agents, Ogden uncovers the ancient foundations of the supernatural stories that have endured for generations.

    Emphasizing the physical and psychological aspects of sexuality itself, the book presents detailed comparisons of legal and medical definitions, historical aspects, current incidence, and geographical prevalence of these offenses. It also explores the potential causes, discussing etiological theories and reviewing psychopathology. Highlighting the cross-cultural nature of the forensic aspects of human sexuality, the book examines various case studies in the context of international legislation. It also covers minor aberrant behavior such as coprolalia and troilism.

    It describes, in detail, the changes in human bone and soft tissues as a body burns at both the chemical and gross levels and provides an overview of the current procedures in burned bone study. Case studies in forensic and archaeological settings aid those interested in the analysis of burned human bodies, from death scene investigators, to biological anthropologists looking at the recent or ancient dead.* Includes the diagnostic patterning of color changes that give insight to the severity of burning, the positioning of the body, and presence (or absence) of soft tissues during the burning event* Chapters on bones and teeth give step-by-step recommendations for how to study and recognize burned hard tissues

    Today, Mexico even boasts a Museum of Death (in Aguascalientes), filled with pre-Columbian sculpture and pottery, reproductions of ancient Indian codices depicting human sacrifices, colonial-era artworks, skeletons, artisan's toys and works by the countless Modern artists who have treated the theme. It is, of course, in Mexico's arts that the blend of respect and irreverence for death and the afterlife is made most clear. Here, Mercurio Lopez Casillas, expert on nineteenth-century Mexican graphic art and the author of studies of Jose Guadalupe Posada and Manuel Manilla, surveys the subject from pre-Hispanic times to the comic pages of contemporary Mexican newspapers. Lopez Casillas examines the long tradition of representing death and skeleton figures that leads up to Posada, and traces the influence of this great popular engraver in the work of many other twentieth-century artists, including those of the Taller de Grafica Popular workshop, like Leopoldo Mendez. Readers of this richly illustrated book will also be fascinated by early colonial examples of calaveras, or skeleton caricatures. Images of Death is a colorful and lively deterrent against our habitual inclination to take the Grim Reaper too seriously. For enthusiasts of Mexican folk art, underground comics, tattoo art, the occult and more.

    P. Lovecraft of Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951). The preeminent British supernaturalist of the twentieth century, Blackwood combined elements of philosophy and modern psychology to introduce a new sophistication to a genre formerly dominated by traditional ghost stories. His tales of terror, occult detective stories, fantasies, and other thrillers possess an unprecedented degree of subtlety and finesse.This trio of tales showcases Blackwood's best and most gripping work. An idyllic camping trip along the Danube goes horribly wrong in "The Willows," as supplies start to disappear, trees begin to move, and a hole inexplicably forms in the bottom of the canoe. The dark terror of "The Wendigo" unfolds in the remote Canadian wilderness, where a hunting party encounters a creature from Algonquin myth. "The Listener," a ghost yarn set in a rundown house in London, recounts a struggling writer's dawning realization of the chilling connection between his headaches, a mysterious sound of footsteps, and the sensation of being watched while he sleeps. All three of these stories feature Blackwood's characteristically high level of sustained suspense and offer readers a refined supernatural experience.