How Proust Can Change Your Life


Alain de Botton - 1998
    For, in this stylish, erudite and frequently hilarious book, de Botton dips deeply into Proust’s life and work—his fiction, letter, and conversations—and distills from them that rare self-help manual: one that is actually helpful.Here, tendered in prose almost as luminous as it’s subject’s, is advice on cultivating friendships, suffering successfully, recognizing love and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on the first date. And here, too, is a generously perceptive literary biography that suggests that the master is as relevant today as he was in fin de siècle Paris. At once slyly ironic and genuinely wise, How Proust Can Change Your Life is an unqualified delight.

We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace


Denise Kiernan - 2020
    Spanning centuries, We Gather Together is anchored amid the strife of the Civil War, and driven by the fascinating story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widowed mother with no formal schooling who became one of the 19th century's most influential tastemakers and who campaigned for decades to make real an annual day of thanks.Populated by an enthralling supporting cast of characters including Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, Walt Whitman, Norman Rockwell, and others, We Gather Together is ultimately a story of tenacity and dedication, an inspiring tale of how imperfect people in challenging times can create powerful legacies.Working at the helm of one of the most widely read magazines in the nation, Hale published Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others, while introducing American readers to such newfangled concepts as "domestic science," white wedding gowns, and the Christmas tree. A prolific writer, Hale penned novels, recipe books, essays and more, including the ubiquitous children's poem, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." And Hale herself never stopped pushing the leaders of her time, in pursuit of her goal.The man who finally granted her wish about a national "thanksgiving" was Lincoln, the president of the war-torn nation in which Hale would never have the right to vote.Illuminating, wildly discussable, part myth-busting, part call to action, We Gather Together is full of unexpected delights and uneasy truths. The stories of indigenous peoples, immigrant communities, women's rights activists, abolitionists, and more, will inspire readers to rethink and reclaim what it means to give thanks in this day and age. The book's message of gratitude--especially when embraced during the hardest of times--makes it one to read and share, over and over, at any time of year.

Django for Beginners: Learn web development with Django 2.0


William S. Vincent - 2018
    Proceed step-by-step through five progressively more complex web applications: from a "Hello World" app all the way to a robust Newspaper app with a custom user model, complete user authentication flow, foreign key relationships, and more. Learn current best practices around class-based views, templates, urls, user authentication, testing, and deployment. The material is up-to-date with the latest versions of both Django (2.0) and Python (3.6). TABLE OF CONTENTS: * Introduction * Chapter 1: Initial Setup * Chapter 2: Hello World app * Chapter 3: Pages app * Chapter 4: Message Board app * Chapter 5: Blog app * Chapter 6: Forms * Chapter 7: User Accounts * Chapter 8: Custom User Model * Chapter 9: User Authentication * Chapter 10: Bootstrap * Chapter 11: Password Change and Reset * Chapter 12: Email * Chapter 13: Newspaper app * Chapter 14: Permissions and Authorizations * Chapter 15: Comments * Conclusion

Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About


Donald Ervin Knuth - 2001
    Knuth, whose massive contributions to computing have led others to nickname him "The Father of Computer Science"—and whose religious faith led him to understand a fascinating analysis of the Bible called the 3:16 project. In this series of six spirited, informal lectures, Knuth explores the relationships between his vocation and his faith, revealing the unique perspective that his work with computing has lent to his understanding of God.His starting point is the 3:16 project, an application of mathematical "random sampling" to the books of the Bible. The first lectures tell the story of the project's conception and execution, exploring its many dimensions of language translation, aesthetics, and theological history. Along the way, Knuth explains the many insights he gained from such interdisciplinary work. These theological musings culminate in a surprising final lecture tackling the ideas of infinity, free will, and some of the other big questions that lie at the juncture of theology and computation.Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About, with its charming and user-friendly format—each lecture ends with a question and answer exchange, and the book itself contains more than 100 illustrations—is a readable and intriguing approach to a crucial topic, certain to edify both those who are serious and curious about their faiths and those who look at the science of computation and wonder what it might teach them about their spiritual world.Includes "Creativity, Spirituality, and Computer Science," a panel discussion featuring Harry Lewis, Guy L. Steele, Jr., Manuela Veloso, Donald E. Knuth, and Mitch Kapor.

The Sirtfood Diet


Aidan Goggins - 2016
    The science-based program will help you lose seven pounds in seven days while experiencing lasting energy and enjoying the foods you love including chocolate, red wine, strawberries, and more.Over the past few years, fasting has become a popular diet option. Studies show that fasting—whether through moderate calorie restriction every day or the more severe but less frequent intermittent fasting—can help people lose about thirteen to fourteen pounds in six months and reduce their risk of developing disease. When we fast, our body’s energy stores activate what is known as sirtuins, or the “skinny gene,” and many positive changes ensue. Fat storage is switched off, and our body stops its normal growth processes and goes into “survival” mode. Fat burning is stimulated and the genes involved in the repair and rejuvenation of our cells are turned on—which all results to weight loss and improved resistance to disease. But if not done correctly, fasting can lead to hunger, irritability, fatigue, and loss of muscle. Enter Sirtfoods: a newly discovered group of foods that is revolutionizing healthy eating. Ranging from chocolate and red wine to garlic and walnuts, sirtfoods are particularly rich in special nutrients that help us activate the same skinny genes in our bodies that fasting triggers. Nutritionists Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten have created The Sirtfood Diet to help you effectively lose weight and improve your resistance to disease, while still giving you incredible energy and glowing health.

Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces


Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau - 2012
    Topics are broken down into three major conceptual pieces: Virtualization, Concurrency, and Persistence. Includes all major components of modern systems including scheduling, virtual memory management, disk subsystems and I/O, file systems, and even a short introduction to distributed systems.

Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life


Trevor G. Blake - 2012
    A few years later, without ever hiring an employee or leaving his home office, he sold it for more than $100 million. As the economy slipped into another free fall, he did this again with a company in a different field. He accomplished this through no particular genius. Rather, he studied the habits of the many successful men and women who preceded him, and developed three simple rules that, if followed diligently, virtually ensure success. Using them first to escape poverty, then to achieve a life of adventures, he finally turned them toward financial independence.Written in a straightforward and no-nonsense style, Three Simple Steps shows you how to take back control of your destiny and reshape your mind for increased creativity, serenity and achievement. While building on the wisdom of great thinkers and accomplished individuals from East and West, Three Simple Steps isn't a new age text or guide to esoteric fulfillment. Rather, it's a practical guide to real-life achievement by a pragmatic businessman who attributes his incredible successes to these very simple ideas. Three Simple Steps, a 2013 Small Business Book Awards winner, is a must-read guide for everyone who wants to achieve more, live better and be happier.

Twenty-five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity


Thomas C. Foster - 2011
    Foster applies his much-loved combination of wit, know-how, and analysis to explain how each work has shaped our very existence as readers, students, teachers, and Americans.Foster illuminates how books such as The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, My Ántonia, The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon, Their Eyes Were Watching God, On the Road, The Crying of Lot 49, and others captured an American moment, how they influenced our perception of nationhood and citizenship, and what about them endures in the American character. Twenty-five Books That Shaped America is a fun and enriching guide to America through its literature.

The Philip K. Dick Anthology: 18 Classic Science Fiction Stories (Bybliotech Fiction)


Philip K. Dick - 2013
    Dick Anthology: 18 Classic Science Fiction Stories" contains a fantastic selection from the legendary master of the genre. The stories in this anthology excellently illustrate the Genius of Philip K. Dick's irrepressible imagination, and the intelligent prescience of his writing. As suggested by the title, there are 18 separate stories, as well as numerous illustrations in this Anthology - the stories are listed below.1. Beyond Lies the Wub2. The Gun3. The Skull4. The Defenders5. The Eyes Have it6. The Hanging Stranger7. Mr Spaceship8. Piper in The Woods9. Second Variety10. The Variable Man11. Tony and the Beetles12. Adjustment Bureau13. Beyond the Door14. Exhibit Piece15. The Crystal Crypt16. Strange Eden17. Upon the Dull Earth18. Of Withered Apples

Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For


Ella Risbridger - 2019
    Or, at least, you'll flick through these pages and find recipes so inviting that you'll head straight for the kitchen: roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon spaghetti, charred leek lasagne, squash skillet pie, spicy fish finger sandwiches or burnt-butter brownies. It's the kind of cooking you can do a little bit drunk. It's the kind of cooking that is probably better if you've got a bottle of wine open, and a hunk of bread to mop up the sauce.But if you sit down with this book and a cup of tea (or that glass of wine), you'll also discover that it's an annotated list of things worth living for: a manifesto of moments worth living for. Because there was a time when, for Ella Risbridger, the world had become overwhelming. Sounds were too loud, colours were too bright, everyone moved too fast. One night she found herself lying on her kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up - and it was the thought of a chicken, of roasting it, and of eating it, that got her to her feet, and made her want to be alive.This is a cookbook to make you fall in love with the world again

A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World


Nicholas A. Basbanes - 2003
    Basbanes continues the lively, richly anecdotal exploration of book people, places, and culture he began in 1995 with A Gentle Madness (a finalist that year for the National Book Critics Circle Award) and expanded in 2001 with Patience & Fortitude, a companion work that prompted the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer David McCullough to proclaim him "the leading authority of books about books." In this beautifully packaged edition, Basbanes brings to a close his wonderful trilogy on the remarkable world of books and bibliophiles.

The English Novel: An Introduction


Terry Eagleton - 2004
    Lawrence and James Joyce.Distils the essentials of the theory of the novel.Follows the model of Eagleton's hugely popular Literary Theory: An Introduction (Second Edition, 1996).

Adventures of a Computational Explorer


Stephen Wolfram - 2019
    In this lively book of essays, Stephen Wolfram takes the reader along on some of his most surprising and engaging intellectual adventures in science, technology, artificial intelligence and language design.

Education and the Social Order


Bertrand Russell - 1932
    Here Russell dissects the motives behind much educational theory and practice - and attacks the influence of chauvanism, snobbery and money. Energetically discussed and debated are discipline, natural ability, competition, class distinction, bureaucracy, finance, religion, sex education, state versus private schools, education in Russia, indoctrination, the home environment and many other topics. Described by reviewers as 'brilliant', 'provocative', 'sane', 'stimulating', 'practical', and 'original', this book contains the essence of Russell's thought on education and society.

Donna Tartt's The Secret History: A Reader's Guide


Tracy Hargreaves - 2001
    A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question. The books in the series will all follow the same structure:a biography of the novelist, including other works, influences, and, in some cases, an interview; a full-length study of the novel, drawing out the most important themes and ideas; a summary of how the novel was received upon publication; a summary of how the novel has performed since publication, including film or TV adaptations, literary prizes, etc.; a wide range of suggestions for further reading, including websites and discussion forums; and a list of questions for reading groups to discuss.