Magpies, he soon discovers, are as clever and mischievous as monkeys. They are also notorious thieves, and this one quickly steals his heart. By the time the creature develops shiny black feathers that inspire the name Benzene, Charlie and the bird have forged an unbreakable bond. While caring for Benzene, Charlie learns his biological father, an eccentric British poet named Heathcote Williams who vanished when Charlie was six months old, is ill. As he grapples with Heathcote’s abandonment, Charlie comes across one of his poems, in which Heathcote describes how an impish young jackdaw fell from its nest and captured his affection. Over time, Benzene helps Charlie unravel his fears about repeating the past—and embrace the role of father himself. A bird falls, a father dies, a child is born. Featherhood is the unforgettable story of a love affair between a man and a bird. It is also a beautiful and affecting memoir about childhood and parenthood, captivity and freedom, grief and love.

    During September Roman Catholics commemorate and honour the Seven Sorrows (or Dolours) of the Blessed Virgin Mary by prayers, other pious devotions and meditations.The first part of this book consists of prayers and miscellaneous devotions.The second part is a step-by-step guide to praying the popular Rosary (or Chaplet) of the Seven Sorrows with selections of text from the Gospels.The third part is a set of Reflections on the Seven Sorrows written by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri.The book is fully navigable by an active Table of Contents with hyperlinks.

     From brother and sister team Demian Lichtenstein and Shajen Joy Aziz comes an inspiring book that explores the basic but vital reality that we are each given a unique Gift, a purpose in our life that is always seeking to express itself. Find that Gift and you can experience joy, power, fulfillment, freedom and unconditional love in ways beyond your imagination. Discover the Gift presents a simple roadmap to a journey of self-discovery that will, undoubtedly, change your life forever. Sharing their own heartfelt, personal stories of tragedy and redemption, Demian and Shajen introduce us to eight fundamental steps that will help you discover the gift within you—and prepare you to share that gift with others. Along the way you will receive both direction and support from a wide range of the world’s most influential transformational leaders, people from all walks of life who not only live their Gift every day, but who have made it their purpose to help you do the same. Among them: His Holiness the Dalai Lama; His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar; Mark Victor Hansen; Dr. Sonia Powers; Mary Manin Morrissey; Dr. Barbara De Angelis, Jack Canfield, and Michael Bernard Beckwith, to name just a few.Inspiring as well as practical, Discover the Gift illuminates that place inside each of us where an extraordinary Gift awaits to come alive. Your Destiny Awaits. Discover the Gift. It’s Why You’re Here.

    This is a rare opportunity to hear two luminaries from the field of self-development together for the first time on an audio program.As you absorb the information on these four CDs, you’ll find that you can transform your challenges and concerns into spiritual triumphs; learn the keys to empowering yourself in the midst of change, chaos, and complexity by understanding and applying spiritual principles to your life; and discover the deeper meaning inherent in your daily experiences and see your life as a blueprint for growth and personal evolution.

    

    In Meditation in a New York Minute, Thornton demystifies meditation and makes it accessible to all. He presents his complete program for enjoying the many benefits of meditation--stress reduction, energy, intense mental clarity--in a New York minute.If your life is moving at warp speed, begins Thornton, more than ever you need to create calm quickly and profoundly. Meditation in a New York Minute will teach even the busiest readers:How to get an hour of refreshing meditation into your day--without adding a thing to your schedule- Nineteen powerful techniques from the world's wisdom traditions, distilled into micro-doses you can use between meetings, while commuting, in the shower--whenever you have a free moment- The Eight Laws of Super Calm and the Eight Golden Keys for flipping on compassion and insight in any situation- The 11 Thieves along the path of meditation, and how to dodge themYou can be super busy, super successful, and super calm at the same time, assures Mark Thornton. With Meditation in a New York Minute, the rewards of this centuries-old inner art are finally available to everyone on the go.

    They are first-hand accounts told by an old, tired physician who has survived three decades in this odd, but exciting world of life and death. They are heartwarming, heart-wrenching, hilarious or fascinating. This book is for anyone interested in the inner belly of the Human Being. There is much to be learned and felt here. Beware, this book is not for everyone, and you may begin laughing at inappropriate times—or even develop nightmares.

    In this book I will show you what happened and how it was. No matter if you are totally green when it comes to Buddha's teachings or maybe you have already heard something about them - this book will help you systematize your knowledge and will inspire you to learn more and to take steps to make your life positively better! I invite you to take this beatiful journey into the graceful and meaningful world of Buddhism with me today! In This Book I Will Tell You About: -Why Would You Want To Incorporate Buddha's Teachings Into Your Life? -What Buddhism Is And What it Definitely Is Not? -What is the Essence of Buddhism? -Three Main Branches of Buddhism -Buddha's Life and Teachings -Basics of Buddhism (Five Basic Buddha's Principles) -How to Cease Your Suffering -Karma, Rebirth and Reincarnation; Difference between Rebirth and Reincarnation -What Happens After Death According to Buddhism? -Where and How to Start? -The Art of Meditation -Benefits of practicing Buddhism in Everyday Life+ My Personal Experiences! -Further Resources to Continue Your Journey!

    Told with sparkling, flavourful and in-your-face humour, this book will advise you on how to:Find yourself (Because youre probably lost. Admit it.)Follow your heart (Because if you dont then youll die unhappy,you stupid f?@ker.)Achieve your goals (You know you want to.)Live life like you give a f?@k (Because....why not?)Candid and thoughtful, F?@k Knows will show you how to really live life on your own terms, to do what you want to do and not what you have to do just because your father said so!

    Most of the skillsets we use today will be irrelevant very soon. Several jobs that exist today will be extinct. AI-powered apps and robots will replace all of them. Corona Pandemic has fast-tracked most of these developments. COVID is rewriting the rules of the game, and AI is automating them. Acute talent deficiency is another pandemic all of us will face very soon. Ok. Let us park the pandemics for some time and talk about our eyesight. The average human eyesight is around 20 by 20. People with 20/30 vision don’t get a driving license in most countries. Anything around 20/1000 is considered blindness. What about our mindsight? Is it 20/20? Much lesser. This book teaches you how to improve your mind-sight. This book introduces four different lenses. These lenses improve the mind-sight significantly. Let's talk about hunger now. Whenever we are hungry, our tummy sends multiple signals to the whole body. Immediately, our eyes start the search operation, and our tongue joins the mission with the taste sensors. The nose filters out the smells, and the mouth begins to secrete the saliva. The whole body works in tandem until we finish a plate or two—most of the time, over-cooperation results in super binging.What about our brains? Is it endowed with all these facilities? How do you know when the brain is hungry? How do you sense if someone feeds it toxic food?All successful leaders in the world have a Mind Position System™ fitted to their brains. The mid positioning system helps them to navigate through any tough and uncomfortable situation. You can also get this if you want. This book teaches you how to install one. Three aspects define your personality:What you haveWhat you dropWhat you pickThe foundational qualities you need to have:High AmbitionA strong Belief systemClarity on goals and ambitionsUndeterred DisciplineABCDs™ in short.The thoughts you need to drop:Unrealistic ExpectationsUnfounded FearGreedHatredEFGH in short.You need to pick four quotients (or lenses):1. Consciousness Quotient 2. Environmental Quotient 3. Digital Quotient4. Number QuotientThat's not all. You will learn to apply the following time tested methods at your workplace:GRIT method to achieve your goalsOPEN method for better communication SIMPLE method to for effective communication and presentation PATH method to get customer delightHEAL method to heal the wounded clients and team membersSUIT method to resolve team conflictsCALM method to overcome fear★★★★★ Jose Cornelio for Readers' FavoriteThe author has the gift of communicating complex ideas in a clear and accessible manner. In a world filled with distractions, Suram teaches leaders how to thrive and successfully accomplish work that matters. This is a book that anyone who wants to be an effective leader should read.

    With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air.Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions.From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands.Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. With his sovereign prose and insatiable curiosity, Matthew Gavin Frank “reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look” (Toby Muse).

    Soft Skull Press proudly offers this tenth-anniversary edition of visionary essays exploring the glory and power of Black Cool, curated by thought leader and bestselling author Rebecca Walker, with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Originally published in 2012, this collection of illuminating essays exploring the ineffable and protean aesthetics of Black Cool has been widely cited for its contribution to much of the contemporary discussion of the influence of Black Cool on culture, politics, and power around the world.Curated by Rebecca Walker, and drawing on her lifelong study of the African roots of Black Cool and its expression within the African diaspora, this collection identifies ancestral elements often excluded from colloquial understandings of Black Cool: cultivated reserve, coded resistance, intentional audacity, transcendent intellectual and spiritual rigor, intentionally disruptive eccentricity, and more.With essays by some of America’s most innovative Black thinkers, including visual artist Hank Willis Thomas, writer and filmmaker dream hampton, MacArthur-winning photographer Dawoud Bey, fashion legend Michaela angela Davis, and critical theorist and cultural icon bell hooks, Black Cool offers an excavation of the African roots of Cool and its hitherto undefined legacy in American culture and beyond.This edition includes a new introduction from Rebecca Walker, a powerful meditation on the genesis, creation, completion, and subsequent impact of this landmark volume over the last decade.

    Jessica is an honor-student, track star, and all-around good kid. So how could that same teenager be responsible for the death of the high school’s beloved football coach? This is Texas, where high school football ranks right up there with God, so while the legal battle wages, the public deals its own verdict.Desperate for help, Liz turns to a lawyer whose affection she once rejected and attempts to play nice with her ex-husband. Jessica faces her angry peers and her own demons as she awaits a possible prison sentence for an accident she doesn’t remember."One of the few books in recent memory I was completely unable to put down, yet still wished I could read more slowly so it would never end. Achterberg writes with a seamless combination of aching sensitivity and a page-turning urgency. Easily one of the best books of any genre I’ve read this entire year." -C.H. Armstrong, Author

    It has helped millions of smokers from all over the world quit. Quit Smoking Without Willpower is the latest cutting edge presentation of the method.Set out in a clear, easy-to-read format, this book makes it simpler than ever before to get free. It eliminates the fears that keep you hooked and ensures you won't miss cigarettes. It works both for heavy and casual smokers, and regardless of how long you've been smoking. There are no gimmicks or scare tactics, you won't put on weight, and you can even smoke while you read.• A unique method that does not require willpower• Removes the desire to smoke• Stop easily, immediately, and painlessly• Regain control of your life What people say about Allen Carr's Easyway method: "The Allen Carr program was nothing short of a miracle." Anjelica Huston "It was such a revelation that instantly I was freed from my addiction." Sir Anthony Hopkins "His skill is in removing the psychological dependence." The Sunday Times

    With scene-stealing roles in Always Be My Maybe, First Wives Club, Someone Great, Russian Doll, and Tales of the City; a reality TV show and breakthrough stand-up specials, including her headlining show Welcome to Buteaupia on Netflix, and two podcasts (Late Night Whenever and Adulting), Michelle’s star is on the rise. You’d be forgiven for thinking the road to success—or adulthood or financial stability or self-acceptance or marriage or motherhood—has been easy; but you’d be wrong. Now, in Survival of the Thickest, Michelle reflects on growing up Caribbean, Catholic, and thick in New Jersey, going to college in Miami (where everyone smells like pineapple), her many friendship and dating disasters, working as a newsroom editor during 9/11, getting started in standup opening for male strippers, marrying into her husband’s Dutch family, IVF and surrogacy, motherhood, chosen family, and what it feels like to have a full heart, tight jeans, and stardom finally in her grasp.Jersey strong --Jersey wrong --Unlikely rom-com --Ya-Ya sistah hood of the traveling tank top --Friendship --Game of heauxs --9/11 chronicles --Fisher-Price my first road gig --Survival of the thickest --My holland tunnel --Say yes to the stress --Tooth be told --IVF --Surrogacy --Motherhood --Take me to church --A light load