Being Mortal by Atul Gawande - A 20-minute Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: • Overview of the entire book• Introduction to the important people in the book• Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book• Key Takeaways of the book• A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Chapter 1 Gawande grew up in Ohio. His parents were immigrants from India and both were doctors. His grandparents stayed in India, and there were few older people in his neighborhood, so he had little experience with aging or death until he met his wife’s grandmother, Alice Hobson. Hobson was seventy-seven and living on her own in Virginia. She was a spirited widow who fixed her own plumbing and volunteered with Meals On Wheels. However, Hobson was losing strength and height steadily each year as her arthritis worsened.Gawande’s father enthusiastically adopted the customs of his new country, but he could not understand the way in which seniors were treated in the US. In India, the elderly were treated with great respect and lived out their lives with family.In the United States, Sitaram Gawande, Gawande’s grandfather, likely would have been sent to a nursing home like most of the elderly who cannot handle the basics of daily living by themselves. However, in India, Sitaram Gawande was able to live in his own home and manage his own affairs, with family constantly around him. He died at the age of one hundred and ten when he fell off a bus during a business trip.Until recently, most elderly people stayed with their families. Even as the nuclear family unit became predominant, replacing the multi-generational family unit, people cared for their elderly relatives. Families were large and one child, usually a daughter, would not marry in order to take care of the parents.This has changed in much of the world, where elderly people end up struggling to live alone, like Hobson, rather than living with dignity amid family, like Sitaram Gawande.One cause of this change can be found in the nature of knowledge. When few people lived to be very old, elders were honored. Their store of knowledge was greatly useful. People often portrayed themselves as older to command respect. Modern society’s emphasis on youth is a complete reversal of this attitude. Technological advances are perceived as the territory of the young, and everyone wants to be younger. High-tech job opportunities are all over the world, and young people do not hesitate to leave their parents behind to pursue them.In developed countries, parents embrace the concept of a retirement filled with leisure activities. Parents are happy to begin living for themselves once children are grown. However, this system only works for young, healthy retirees, but not for those who cannot continue to be independent. Hobson, for example, was falling frequently and suffering memory lapses. Her doctor did tests and wrote prescriptions, but did not know what to do about her deteriorating condition. Neither did her family… About the Author With Instaread Summaries, you can get the summary of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience.

    R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, in four BBC Radio full-cast dramatizations available for the first time in the U.S. Tolkien's tales of myth, mystery, and rumbustious exploits have been specially adapted for radio by Brian Sibley, one of the dramatists of the highly acclaimed BBC radio production of The Lord of the Rings. In Farmer Giles of Ham, having accidentally shot a giant, Farmer Giles finds his brave reputation being tested by Chrysophylax the dragon. In Smith of Wootton Major, when young Smith eats a piece of cake containing a silver star, he is granted access to the magical land of Faerie. In Leaf by Niggle, a thought-provoking allegory on the theme of creativity, the painter Niggle embarks on a fateful search for perfection. In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, join Tom and the Hobbits in scenes from The Lord of the Rings which were not included in the BBC Radio 4 dramatization.Dramatized by Brian SibleyMusic by Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic WorkshopProduced by John Taylor

    A Scientology Publication.

    Dick award and was optioned by Hollywood. He followed this up with two further novels continuing the adventures of Takeshi Kovacs - BROKEN ANGELS and WOKEN FURIES. He also wrote two further standalone SF novels, MARKET FORCES and BLACK MAN (which won the Arthur C. Clarke award).All five of these novels are collected here as the perfect introduction to Richard's work, or a welcome reminder of his power as a writer. Richard has also written two computer games (CRYSIS 2 and SYNDICATE), comics for MARVEL and is currently working on a fantasy trilogy comprising OF THE STEEL REMAINS, THE COLD COMMANDS, THE DARK DEFILES.

    As Sydney braces itself for a Japanese invasion, Father Frank Darragh finds his pastoral duties becoming increasingly challenging. How should he counsel an AWOL black American soldier who may face death for his involvement with a white woman? And what should he say to another woman—the distressingly beguiling Kate Heggarty—who impresses him with her virtue even as she edges toward sin? When Kate is found murdered, Darragh falls under suspicion. And even if the police clear him, his superiors—and his own conscience—may not. Office of Innocence is a book that’s impossible to put down, dense with moral complexity and alive with period detail.

    The story “Knock Knock” is about a boy who grows up with his dad always telling these horrible jokes.

    The set includes #49 The Mystery of the Stolen Boxcar #50 Mystery in the Cave #51 The Mystery on the Train #52 The Mystery of the Lost Mine

    In this hilarious essay, originally published in the collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, he ventures to the Illinois State Fair, where he examines butter sculptures, munches on corndogs, and swaps stories with local exhibitors. As he wanders through this endlessly fascinating world, Wallace's one-of-a-kind blend of humor and insight is on full display. "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All" is an uproarious and ultimately unforgettable foray into a classic part of American life and culture.

    None of these adjectives, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in a close-focus sort of way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is also a compulsively readable book.William Blake saw the universe in a grain of sand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordion folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.Dubliners was completed in 1905, but British and Irish publishers and printers found it so offensive and immoral, it was suppressed. It finally came out in London in 1914, just as Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man began to appear in the journal Egoist under Ezra Pound's auspices. The first three stories might be incidents from a draft of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and many of the characters who figure in Ulysses first appear here, but this isn't a book of interest only because of its relationship to Joyce's life and mature work. It's one of the great story collections in the English language--a brilliant, unflinching, often tragic portrait of early 20th-century Dublin. The book, which begins and ends with a death, moves from "stories of my childhood" through tales of public life. Its larger purpose, Joyce said, was as a moral history of Ireland.

    The towering figure of Adam Trask dominates the story--a good man whose satanic wife revealed to him the shuddering ecstasies of lustful evilKate came into Adam's life unannounced, and left amidst the ringing echo of gunfire. Behind her were a shattered man and a shattered world, and two infant boys doomed to play out, once again, the tragic roles of another Adam's offspring. Ahead of her was a frenzied life of depravity and perversion, wealth..and terror.THE WAYWARD BUS traveled the back roads through lush California countryside. Its driver was a man of the land--lusty, hot-blooded, uninhibited. On the bus were a magnificent creature cursed with a heart of gold an an irresistible allure for men, a traveling salesman out strictly for laughs, a boy with the sweet sap of manhood urgent in him, a college girl pursuing a secret, passionate quest...In one climactic day--and night--the lives of these and all the other passengers on the wayward bus were changed. And the electricity that John Steinbeck creates in their relation ships provides both power and shock.--jacket description

    It is told from the viewpoint of a nameless mountaineer whose best friend's wife disappears on a trip to climb the peak. It is based on the actual colony of Monte Verità in Switzerland which preached a return to nature.

    The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What's known to everybody is that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve your time at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. Old Man’s War — John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army, with only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight is far more difficult than he can imagine—and what he will become is far stranger. The Ghost Brigades — At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as another man's memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reasons for their betrayal. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity's mere military defeat. The Last Colony — Retired from his fighting days, John Perry and his wife, Jane, are pulled back into the political arena, and into the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war.Zoe’s Tale — Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in an interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old.The Human Division — The CU's secrets are known to all. Other alien races have come on the scene and formed a new alliance—an alliance against the Colonial Union. And they've invited the people of Earth to join them. For a shaken and betrayed Earth, the choice isn't obvious or easy.The End of All Things — CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson and the Colonial Union diplomats he works with race against the clock to discover who is behind attacks on the Union and on alien races, to seek peace with a suspicious, angry Earth, and keep humanity's union intact...or else risk oblivion, and extinction—and the end of all things.Old Man's War Series#1 Old Man’s War#2 The Ghost Brigades#3 The Last Colony#4 Zoe’s Tale#5 The Human Division#6 The End of All Things Short fiction: “After the Coup” Other Tor Books The Android’s Dream Agent to the Stars Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded Fuzzy Nation Redshirts Loc

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Reinforced by the new Primaris Space Marines, Commander Dante has been made warden of Imperium Nihilus. But to save the shattered Imperium, he and his brothers must first defeat the darkness within themselves.READ IT BECAUSEAfter The Devastation of Baal comes the next great test for the Blood Angels – rebuilding their broken empire, even as their broken souls threaten to overwhelm them.THE STORYThe galaxy is in flames. Chaos is in the ascendant across the stars. The Great Rift has split the holdings of the Imperium in twain, isolating entire sectors from the light of Holy Terra.But all hope is not lost. The Primarch Roboute Guilliman has returned from deathless sleep, and appointed Commander Dante, lord of the Blood Angels, as Regent and Warden of the newly dubbed Imperium Nihilus.In the Baal system, the shattered holding of the Chapter is being rebuilt, and Dante plans the greatest campaign of his long life, to retake half an empire. And yet at this moment of rebirth there are dangers close to home that could overwhelm all those who carry the blood of Sanguinius in their veins, stopping Dante's noble endeavour before it has even begun.The Flaw in Sanguinius’ sons is growing. As the twin curses of the Red Thirst and the Black Rage threaten everything, the hardest ordeal will fall upon Mephiston, twice-born Lord of Death and Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels. Among the mighty lords of Baal, perhaps only he can save them all, by mastering the darkness in the blood…

    This is a serial miniseries and the second part of what will become the sequel novel of "Anything He Wants: Dominated By The Billionaire". You can order this and successive parts now or wait until summer to read the entire story in novel (both paperback and ebook) form.Tensions escalate in the second part of the new Anything He Wants: Castaway series!Reunited with Jeremiah, Lucy is forced to come to grips with the decisions she's made in his absence. The billionaire is as insufferable as ever, but just as determined to protect Lucy. From the Caribbean seas of Jamaica to the man-made islands of Dubai, they must travel halfway across the world to find out who is trying to bring down the Hamilton family.But it may be the woman who comes between them that tears the two brothers apart forever. And can Lucy bear to live with the consequences of her actions?