Artist Descending a Staircase


Tom Stoppard - 1973
    To reveal why, successive scenes flashback toward the 1920s and then progress back to 1972. Each of the three was infatuated with Sophie. Before she tragically went blind she fell in love with one of them after viewing his picture in a gallery. Which artist Sophie loved has been a bone of contention all their lives. This full length play in one act was a radio play before it was staged to acclaim in London.

Being the Soham Psychic


Dennis McKenzie - 2009
    'I am really sorry but both the girls are dead'. Dennis McKenzie was brought to the world's attention following his involvement in the tragic Soham murder case. Making stunningly accurate predictions about the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, he was dubbed the 'Soham Psychic'. Since then, Dennis's expertise has continually been drawn on to help solve many horrific crimes, including the case of the 'BTK' Killer - a serial killer who bound, tortured and killed women in Wichita, Kansas and evaded the police for over 30 years. An ordinary boy from a working-class background, Dennis never imagined his life would follow such an extraordinary path. From his first psychic sighting at the age of four to his traumatic prediction of a family friend's death, Dennis shares the experiences that have defined his remarkable life in his typically frank and down-to-earth way. This is the fascinating story of how Dennis discovered his gift and how, with the help of his spirit guides, he has shared his psychic wisdom with the world.

Den of Wolves: Complete Trilogy


Harper Maguire - 2019
    The residents of this sleepy little town are none the wiser, but everyone sure knows about Oregon Investigations. Cousins Jack and Liam, and their longtime friend, Brodie aren’t just the private investigators of the firm, they’re also shifters belonging to the very same dwindling den of wolves. PART ONE Charlotte Gold has followed in her father’s legendary, country-singing footsteps, though her success hasn’t spanned beyond Cottage Grove. She’s just fine with that and singing with her band at Home on the Range feels like a little slice of heaven and a whole lot of fun whenever she gets on stage. But when her drummer keels over, dead, one night while playing, Charlotte’s quiet corner of paradise turns dark. No one suspects foul play except for Charlotte and she will stop at nothing to expose the killer who took her friend’s life, even if the residents of Cottage Grove think she’s crazy. One man doesn’t think she’s lost her mind, however, and Jack has all the skills and resources to crack this overlooked case wide open. PART TWO Eve Picoult hasn’t set foot in her hometown of Cottage Grove since she graduated high school ten years ago, but her dear friend twists her arm into agreeing to return for their ten-year reunion. It’s been forever, but how could she say no to her favorite Skype friend who has always been there for her, through thick and thin? For Eve, well, one reason comes to mind… or person. Brodie Shea. When Eve arrives at Cottage Grove, however, she discovers her friend mysteriously vanished. How could that be? Eve fears the worst, knowing her friend wouldn’t miss her high school reunion for the world. And it will be Brodie and his private investigation firm who will help Eve find out why her old friend has suddenly disappeared. PART THREE One dark, foggy night, as Wendy Cunningham kicks and fights her way up from the bottom of Silver Lake, she fears that life as she knows it is about to come to a violent end. But a man pulls her out, saving her life at the last minute. She doesn’t recognize him, but Liam knows exactly who she is. Come to think about it, not only does Wendy not recognize Liam, but she doesn’t recognize Cottage Grove, the town where she apparently grew up in, or remember anything about her life for that matter. Amnesia. Wendy’s memory will come back, but no one knows when or how or why, and until she remembers who knocked her out and tossed her into Silver Lake for dead, she will have no choice but to rely on the one man she trusts didn’t do it—Liam Doren. But Liam has secrets of his own. He’s a wolf shifter, after all, and the closer these two get, the harder it becomes for him to hide it from her.

You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself


David McRaney - 2011
    Whether you’re deciding which smart phone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic, but here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us--but that’s okay, because being deluded is part of being human. Growing out of David McRaney’s popular blog, You Are Not So Smart reveals that every decision we make, every thought we contemplate, and every emotion we feel comes with a story we tell ourselves to explain them, but often these stories aren’t true. Each short chapter--covering topics such as Learned Helplessness, Selling Out, and the Illusion of Transparency--is like a psychology course with all the boring parts taken out.Bringing together popular science and psychology with humor and wit, You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of our irrational, thoroughly human behavior.

The Book of General Ignorance


John Lloyd - 2006
    It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again. You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know! Check out THE BOOK OF GENERAL IGNORANCE for more fun entries and complete answers to the following:How long can a chicken live without its head?About two years.What do chameleons do?They don’t change color to match the background. Never have; never will. Complete myth. Utter fabrication. Total Lie. They change color as a result of different emotional states.How many legs does a centipede have?Not a hundred.How many toes has a two-toed sloth?It’s either six or eight.Who was the first American president?Peyton Randolph.What were George Washington’s false teeth made from?Mostly hippopotamus.What was James Bond’s favorite drink?Not the vodka martini.

Even More Notes From the Universe: Dancing Life's Dance


Mike Dooley - 2008
    Even More Notes from the Universe combines Mike Dooley's pithy and inspiring messages, direct from the Universe, to help you start living the life of your dreams -- today. Focusing on the desired results joyfully and with gratitude is infinitely more engaging than struggling and stressing about them. Relax, laugh, and enjoy the footwork the Universe has to share. Whether your dance is the tango, hula, or one of your own creation, dancing life's dance begins with that first brave step. The music has always been playing your favorite tune, yet hearing it requires action. And right on cue, your unfailing partner, the Universe, begins choreographing players and events in a waltz of miracles, moving heaven and earth to align the future of your dreams with your present circumstances. Nothing is impractical, impossible, or out of reach. Your thoughts create worlds, your words shape the future, and the steps you take unleash the magic behind creation. In this third book in the Notes from the Universe trilogy, Mike Dooley brings a fresh perspective from your most loyal friend.

Who Is My Self?: A Guide to Buddhist Meditation


Ayya Khema - 1997
    Ayya Khema, author of the best-selling Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, uses one of the earliest Buddhist suttas to guide us along the path of the oldest Buddhist meditative practice for understanding the nature of "self." By following the Buddha's explanation with clear, insightful examples from her years of teaching meditation, she guides us back and forth between the relative understanding and higher realizations of the Buddhist concept of "self." Her thoughtful contemplation of the Buddha's radical understanding of "self" and her practical advice for achieving insight offer the reader a profound understanding of the "self." Both beginning and advanced practitioners will greatly benefit from Ayya Khema's warm and down-to-earth exposition of the Buddha's meditation on "self."

The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning


Maggie Nelson - 2011
    The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the twentieth-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn away?Genre-busting author Maggie Nelson brilliantly navigates this contemporary predicament, with an eye to the question of whether or not focusing on representations of cruelty makes us cruel. In a journey through high and low culture (Kafka to reality TV), the visual to the verbal (Paul McCarthy to Brian Evenson), and the apolitical to the political (Francis Bacon to Kara Walker), Nelson offers a model of how one might balance strong ethical convictions with an equally strong appreciation for work that tests the limits of taste, taboo, and permissibility.

Crappy Children's Art


Maddox - 2012
    If you cherish every piece of art, every book report, every letter to Santa your child gives you, then this book is not for you. If your refrigerator is adorned with mementos from your kid's childhood, then you are a sucker. Maddox, who has been writing hilarious essays for his popular site, TheBestPageInTheUniverse.com since 1996, can spell, do math, and run faster than your kids, and he is here to show you just how inferior your kids are. Marvel as Maddox deconstructs an eight-year-old's crayon-drawn family portrait! Laugh uproariously as he judges sub-par Valentines, homemade "gifts" and other areas of elementary-aged underperformance!Why reward weakness and mediocrity with gold stars? You are in Maddox's world now, and no child is safe from the scrutiny and critical gaze of the world's foremost authority on children's crappy artwork.

Stay Away from my ER and other fun bits of wisdom: Wobbling between humor and heartbreak


Rada Jones - 2020
    You can’t fathom the weirdness– unless you’re one of the ER aliens. If you are, buy a dozen copies to give away: to your family, your neighbors, and the PTA. They’ll learn things you never had the heart to tell them, but they should know, like how it's like to work in the ER, the deviousness of shampoo bottles and the dangers of frying bacon naked.

On Screen B2+ - Teacher's Book


Jenny Dooley
    Key Features An integrated approach to the development of all four language skills. Notions and functions. Vocabulary presentation and practice. Variety of reading, listening and speaking tasks. Grammar presentation in context. Activities encouraging critical thinking as well as web research. Writing sections containing models and development of writing skills & Writing bank. Realistic pairwork and groupwork activities. Pronunciation and Intonation sections. Study Skills to help students become autonomous learners. Practical English sections preparing students to use the language in real-life situations. Culture sections & CLIL sections for each module. Language Review. Grammar Reference section. Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) Software. Interactive eBook. Writing Books that help students practise and improve their writing skills. Public Speaking / Presentation Skills booklets to help learners become effective communicators and competent public speakers.

Why We Never Repeat Jokes?


Ramzy Sweis - 2017
    Late great comedians Robin Williams, Charlie Murphy, Joan Rivers, Greg Giraldo, Don Rickles are turning over in their graves with a thorn in their side. Take my word: Share & salvage the little wit being reserved by the only true /real comedian to have ever graced the stage. Otherwise you ought'a be ashamed of yourselves!

The Church of 80% Sincerity


David Roche - 2008
    Born with a severe facial deformity, David's life has been anything but easy. Still, over time, he's learned to accept his gifts as well as his flaws, and to see that, sometimes, they are one and the same. In this compelling book, he shares his hard-earned lessons, providing an irresistible and unforgettable glimpse of his (and everyone's) inner beauty and offering profound encouragement in dealing with whatever life brings.

The Hungry Cyclist: Pedalling The Americas In Search Of The Perfect Meal


Tom Kevill Davies - 2009
    Revealing the diverse cultures of the Americas, Tom’s journey from over the Rockies to Baja California, through Central America down all the way to Brazil via Colombia, gives the real flavour of this truly extraordinary landmass.This is a tale of death-battles with squadrons of mosquitoes, malodorous public toilets, of galloping dysentery one day, to drowning your sorrows with cowboys and dining with beauty queens the next. But above all it is an ambitious story of getting to where you want to be - even if you have to endure cactus-induced punctures, unforgiving desert heat, uphill struggles through never-ending cocaine plantations, or artfully dodge hungry bears, neurotic RV-driving Americans, angry rabid dogs and run-ins with local law authorities in the process.An amazing tale of what can happen when you get on your bike and go.

Evelyn Waugh: A Biography


Selina Shirley Hastings - 1994
    Selina Hastings, who was granted unrestricted access to his personal papers by Waugh's family, has uncovered a wealth of new material in her eight years of research for this volume. Letters, diaries, and family photographs shed new light on Waugh's childhood, his affairs at Oxford, his ill-fated first marriage and subsequent romantic adventures, his World War II military service, and his enduring but thorny friendships with such notable figures as Diana Cooper, Ann Fleming, and Nancy Mitford. Perceptive, fascinating, by turns hilarious and tragic, Hastings's portrait gives us Waugh's glittering social life at Oxford, where he was a friend of Harold Acton, Cyril Connolly, Anthony Powell, and Alastair Graham, the inspiration for Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. Waugh then followed a diverse career as schoolmaster, world traveler, war co