Pawn Power in Chess


Hans Kmoch - 1959
    The proper use of pawns — of paramount importance in chess strategy — sometimes even puzzles experienced players. This profoundly original and stimulating book by an International Master and prolific chess writer offers superb instruction in pawn play by isolating its elements and elaborating on various aspects. After a lucid exposition of the fundamentals and the basic formations of one or two pawns that virtually constitute the keys to winning chess strategy, the reader is shown a multitude of examples demonstrating the paramount significance of elements of pawn manipulation. The author’s masterly explanation makes it perfectly clear to the beginner as well as the advanced player how the fate of a game depends on pawn formation and how pawn power holds the proceedings under its remote control. Over 180 games and diagrams illustrate the author’s theory and make it easy to follow the points made in the text.Hans Kmoch played with distinction in several international tournaments and is the author of a number of books and columns on chess and chess tournaments.“We consider it the best publication on chess strategy since the end of World War II.” — Die Welt.

The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully


Frank Ostaseski - 2017
    Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most in life.Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining and ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. As a renowned teacher of compassionate care-giving and the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. In The Five Invitations, he distills the lessons gleaned over the course of his career, offering an evocative and stirring guide that points a radical path to transformation.The Five Invitations:-Don’t Wait-Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing-Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience-Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things-Cultivate Don’t Know MindThese invitations show us how to wake up fully to our lives. They can be understood as best practices for anyone coping with death or navigating any sort of transition or crisis; they guide us toward appreciating life’s preciousness. Death can be a valuable companion on the road to living well, forging a rich and meaningful life, and letting go of regret. The Five Invitations is a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom dying has to impart to all of us.

The Art of Self Muscle Testing: For Health, Life and Enlightenment


Michael Hetherington - 2013
    Self muscle testing is a technique similar to that of applied kinesiology, a technique that people use to gain insight into their own body and mind's healing process. The aim of this book is to empower the reader so that they can begin conducting accurate and reliable self muscle testing as soon as possible.Not all humans have the capacity to accurately self muscle test and this book goes into how to set up the ideal conditions so that this valuable tool can be accessed on a regular and consistent basis. The more people that can successfully self muscle test, the better it is for all beings because muscle testing has the potential to rapidly enhance ones ability to “know thy self.”In this book you will learn about:- The pre-requisites for self muscle testing- How to "Switch on" for accurate testing- How to test without bias- How to test health products, supplements and foods- Some more advanced techniques- and more...

Archimedes' Revenge: The Joys and Perils of Mathematics


Paul Hoffman - 1988
    An extremely clever account.--The New Yorker.

Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains


Matt Johnson - 2020
    These days, brands know more about you than you know about yourself. Blindsight is here to change that.With eye-opening science, engaging stories, and fascinating real-world examples, neuroscientist Matt Johnson and marketer Prince Ghuman dive deep into the surprising relationship between brains and brands. In Blindsight, they showcase how marketing taps every aspect of our mental lives, covering the neuroscience of pain and pleasure, emotion and logic, fear and safety, attention and addiction, and much more.We like to think of ourselves as independent actors in control of our decisions, but the truth is far more complicated. Blindsight will give you the ability to see the unseeable when it comes to marketing, so that you can consume on your own terms. On the surface, you will learn how the brain works and how brands design for it. But peel back a layer, and you’ll find a sharper image of your psychology, reflected in your consumer behavior.This book will change the way you view not just branding, but yourself, too.

Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy


Patrick Bet-David - 2020
    In this book, Patrick Bet-David “helps entrepreneurs understand exactly what they need to do next” (Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!) by translating this skill into a valuable methodology. Whether you feel like you’ve hit a wall, lost your fire, or are looking for innovative strategies to take your business to the next level, Your Next Five Moves has the answers. You will gain: CLARITY on what you want and who you want to be. STRATEGY to help you reason in the war room and the board room. GROWTH TACTICS for good times and bad. SKILLS for building the right team based on strong values. INSIGHT on power plays and the art of applying leverage. Combining these principles and revelations drawn from Patrick’s own rise to successful CEO, Your Next Five Moves is a must-read for any serious executive, strategist, or entrepreneur.

I Wrote This for You and Only You


Iain S. Thomas - 2018
    I wrote this for you. I wrote this for you and only you. Everyone else who reads it, doesn't get it."The follow-up to the international #1 bestselling collection of prose and photography, I Wrote This For You And Only You is the third book in the I Wrote This For You series and gathers together the very best entries in the project from 2011 to 2015. Started in 2007, I Wrote This For You is an internationally acclaimed exploration of hauntingly beautiful words, photography and emotion that's unique to each person that reads it.

Simple Thinking: How to remove complexity from life and work


Richard Gerver - 2016
    You'll learn how to expand your mind and understand your true potential through the power of thinking simply, while stripping back the jargon and digging to the core of any obstacle in your way. Let's be honest, life is full of unnecessary complexity and it's left most of us confused, angry and disenfranchised. This book will help you to remove the baggage, cut through the clutter and begin your smooth path to success. Learn how to: Live and act with resiliency, authenticity and passion Learn to trust your instincts again and see the world through new eyes Recalibrate your thoughts, behaviours and actions Declutter your mind, streamline your day and be successful at life Simple wisdom, simply shared, is personal development unplugged – and when you begin peeling back the layers to expose the heart of the problem, you become well-equipped to devise a simpler, yet more effective solution. Simple Thinking will help you in achieving this state of clarity and confidence.

9 Ways to a Resilient Child


Justin Coulson - 2019
    Even our home environment and the way that we parent can impact our children's potential to recover from difficulty.Dr Coulson explains the factors that help or hinder resilience and why common advice such as 'Toughen up, princess' just doesn't work. Learn the psychological secrets that will build your child's capacity to bounce back, stronger and more resilient than ever, including the ability to think flexibly, exercise self-control, and make safe and healthy choices. Discover the powerful impact of family, relationships, school and community, and the most effective ways to support your child.Dr Coulson aims to bolster resilience - not just in our children, but also in ourselves. Because it takes resilient parents to raise a resilient child.

The Practice: Simple Tools for Managing Stress, Finding Inner Peace, and Uncovering Happiness


Barbara Schmidt - 2014
    Getting in touch with one's inner source of peace and following its guidance over the mind's often-unfounded concerns requires training and discipline. Knowing this truth intimately, Peaceful Mind Peaceful Life Founder Barb Schmidt developed a three-part spiritual discipline called The Practice. The Practice is a toolkit to be used throughout the day to guide people who are looking for confidence, less stress, and deeper meaning along life's path. These tools are a compilation of the great Truths taught by authentic teachers and masters throughout the centuries from various religious and spiritual traditions.In the first three chapters of The Practice, readers are guided through the daily routine: Waking Up, Living Present, and Letting Go. Beginning with a morning meditation, a thread of peace is followed over the course of the day through the repetition of a sacred mantra, practicing focused attention, reading for inspiration, and reflecting on the day. In the concluding chapter, readers are provided with an opportunity to deepen their experience of The Practice with engaging exercises

Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit


Mary-Frances Winters - 2020
    It is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining to continue to experience inequities and even atrocities, day after day, when justice is a God-given and legislated right. And it is exhausting to have to constantly explain this to white people, even--and especially--well-meaning white people, who fall prey to white fragility and too often are unwittingly complicit in upholding the very systems they say they want dismantled.This book, designed to illuminate the myriad dire consequences of living while Black, came at the urging of Winters's Black friends and colleagues. Winters describes how in every aspect of life--from economics to education, work, criminal justice, and, very importantly, health outcomes--for the most part, the trajectory for Black people is not improving. It is paradoxical that, with all the attention focused over the last fifty years on social justice and diversity and inclusion, little progress has been made in actualizing the vision of an equitable society.Black people are quite literally sick and tired of being sick and tired. Winters writes that my hope for this book is that it will provide a comprehensive summary of the consequences of Black fatigue, and awaken activism in those who care about equity and justice--those who care that intergenerational fatigue is tearing at the very core of a whole race of people who are simply asking for what they deserve.Reading group discussion guide available.

Terrapin: Poems by Wendell Berry


Wendell Berry - 2014
    Over the past several years a dialogue has evolved in which the poet has come to advise the illustrator on the natural history of the animals and plants seen so intimately in the poems. Then came the august book designer Dave Bullen, who has been designing the books of Wendell Berry for more than thirty years.The resulting volume of 21 poems includes dozens of the sketches, drawings and watercolors in what amounts to a visual meditation on the poem they work to illustrate and is simply staggering in both its beauty and its meaning to those of us who remain lovers of the book as physical object.In the full-color Terrapin we have not only a volume of staggering beauty but a consummate example of the collaborative effort that is fine bookmaking, the perfect gift for children, grandchildren or anyone who remains a lover of the book as physical object.

Slave to her Desires


Jill Myles - 2011
    Turned into a succubus against her will, Olivia Rhodes has lived the past 120 years as a slave to her cruel and vindictive vampire master. She's escaped him, but he's closing in fast. Her only hope? The fallen angel that abandoned her when she was turned, David Thornton.But David's not the cold-hearted monster she's always thought he was...nor did he abandon her. And when Olivia's hatred of David turns to desire, will her need for revenge against her vampire master destroy the one beautiful thing in her life, or will she find a way to make David love her despite the creature she's become?This novella (34,000 words), features a succubus enslaved to her needs, a sleeping beauty, and some explosive sex on a monastery floor.EXCERPT:"I didn't know that he was cursed," I said softly, then looked up at Noah. "So how would I lift this curse if I wanted to?"Noah gave me a wry look. "You could try the old fashioned way."A kiss to wake up a sleeping prince, like in the fairy tales. My stomach churned at the thought. I'd known that I'd have to sleep with David to survive - my succubus instincts had accepted that part of the bargain - but for some reason, a kiss was...personal. Romantic. Tied to emotions that I couldn't possibly feel. I didn't want to kiss the man I'd just spent the last century hating. To make matters worse, I wasn't even sure that my hate was justified. I brushed my fingertips over his cool face again, thinking hard. Did I want to wake David up? What would I say to him? I wanted to hold onto my anger, but what...what if he woke up and it was totally unfounded?Who was I if I wasn't bitter with hatred for both of my masters?I shook my head. This was stupid. It was just a damn kiss. I leaned in and slid my hands under his neck, pulling his face toward mine and pressing my mouth against his. His lips were cool, unyielding against mine, but the feel of them evoked a strong surge of emotion in me that I didn't like. I stroked my tongue into his mouth, parting his lips with my questing. Like it or not, I needed David, and his being cursed was a damn nuisance and an even bigger pain in the ass than I'd anticipated.And he tasted better than I remembered, too. That was galling. Perhaps it was just my succubus curse, which was due to drive me insane within hours. Perhaps it was something to do with the Serim themselves, but his mouth was sweet under my own, and as I brushed my tongue against his, I felt a spike of desire.I had to kiss the bastard. I hadn't expected to like it. Disgusted with myself, I dropped his head. It thunked back against the pallet and made a hard noise that my disgruntled psyche found oddly pleasing. And I watched him, waiting.Sure enough, David's jaw moved slightly, then flexed in a yawn, and as I watched, his eyes fluttered open.God, he was beautiful.God, I hated him.God, I was so, so confused.

Invasion of the Space Invaders


Martin Amis - 1982
    Delving into the electric atmosphere of the arcades where he misspent his youth, he asks: Why did Space Invaders invade our hearts and minds? How much time, loose change and sex appeal did they cost us? And most importantly, which secret cheats and tactics must we master to reach the next level?Part cautionary tale, part celebration of a lifelong addiction, this is an essential manual for many a self-confessed cyber geek, computer nerd and joystick junkie.

Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy


Mark Regnerus - 2017
    Coupled sexual activity has become more widely available than ever. Cheap sex has been made possible by two technologies that have little to do with each other - the Pill and high-quality pornography - and its distribution made more efficient by a third technological innovation, online dating. Together, they drive down the cost of real sex, and in turn slow the development of love, make fidelity more challenging, sexual malleability more common, and have even taken a toll on men's marriageability.Cheap Sex takes readers on an extended tour inside the American mating market, and highlights key patterns that characterize young adults' experience today, including the timing of first sex in relationships, overlapping partners, frustrating returns on their relational investments, and a failure tolink future goals like marriage with how they navigate their current relationships. Drawing upon several large nationally-representative surveys, in-person interviews with 100 men and women, and the assertions of scholars ranging from evolutionary psychologists to gender theorists, what emerges is astory about social change, technological breakthroughs, and unintended consequences. Men and women have not fundamentally changed, but their unions have. No longer playing a supporting role in relationships, sex has emerged as a central priority in relationship development and continuation. Butunravel the layers, and it is obvious that the emergence of industrial sex is far more a reflection of men's interests than women's.