It also fosters equanimity, helping us accept the changes and challenges life brings.In our frantic world, who better to guide readers through this transformative practice than a long-beloved bear who has perfected the art of simply being? "Just two things to do to truly be Pooh--just be present and kind," he says.And, not coincidentally, he lives in the woods. There is a growing acknowledgment of the benefits of deeply experiencing nature. The calming quality of sounds like running water and rustling leaves, the soothing properties of smells like lavender and chamomile, and the emotional comfort of beautiful natural vistas are well known.A Walk in the Wood is both inspiring and instructive. Simple stories with clearly stated goals and easy-to-follow exercises provide all the tools you'll need to take the first step, or continue on your journey, toward a quieter and calmer way of living.

    On May 25, 1841, the Massachusetts whaleship Sharon set out for the whaling ground of the northwestern Pacific. A year later, while most of the crew was out hunting, Captain Howes Norris was brutally murdered. When the men in the whaleboats returned, they found four crew members on board, three of whom were covered in blood, the other screaming from atop the mast. Single-handedly, the third officer launched a surprise attack to recapture the Sharon, killing two of the attackers and subduing the other. An American investigation into the murder was never conducted—even when the Sharon returned home three years later, with only four of the original twenty-nine crew on board.Joan Druett, a historian who's been called a female Patrick O'Brian by the Wall Street Journal, dramatically re-creates the mystery of the ill-fated whaleship and reveals a voyage filled with savagery under the command of one of the most ruthless captains to sail the high seas.

    Goodbar; the high school horrors committed by the costumed slasher in Scream. These and other cinematic crimes have become part of pop-culture history. And each found inspiration in true events that provided the raw material for our greatest blockbusters, indie art films, black comedies, Hollywood classics, and grindhouse horrors.So what’s the reality behind Psycho, Badlands, The Hills Have Eyes, A Place in the Sun, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Dirty Harry? How did such tabloid-ready killers as Bonnie and Clyde, body snatchers Burke and Hare, Texas sniper Charles Whitman, nurse-slayer Richard Speck, and Leopold and Loeb exert their power on the public imagination and become the stuff of movie lore?In this collection of revelatory essays, true-crime historian Harold Schechter takes a fascinating trip down the crossroads of fact and fiction to reveal the sensational real-life stories that are more shocking, taboo, and fantastic than even the most imaginative screenwriter can dream up.

    Here, too, are the stories of the extraordinary emperors and generals who brought the empire into being and ultimately presided over its demise. We witness the glittering city of Constantinople from its rise to greatness through its deadly conclusion. Though Byzantium has faded away, its everlasting contributions to our world today are revealed in this fascinating history.

    Over the next 12 months the collection of crochet animals expanded week on week until Edward's Menagerie was complete with 40 unique patterns.These cute animals with larger-than-life personalities are made using simple crochet techniques and the step-by-step instructions enable a complete beginner to get hooking straight away. Each animal also has a universal pattern where you can change your hook and yarn to create four different sizes, making 160 different possibilities.Be warned that these unlikely characters made using a supersoft yarn in a sumptuous natural colour palette will become your new best friends as you hook your way through the whole menagerie!

    Starved, mutilated, covered with cigarette burns, the victim had been imprisoned and tortured to death by a gang of teenagers led by a woman named Gertrude Baniszewski, in whose care Sylvia and her younger sister, Jenny, had been left while their parents went off to work the state fairs in the Midwest.Gertrude's band of tormentors included some of her own seven children and two neighborhood boys. On the abdomen of the young girl had been carved the words "I am a prostitute and proud of it."With mesmerizing detail, Millett re-creates this American tragedy. Shocking and poignant, "The Basement" rocks some of our most basic notions of family, morality, and the cultural repression of female sexuality."A poetic meditation upon the nature of pain and cruelty... A major contribution to psychojournalism."- Library Journal"Grimly compelling, not to be ignored."- The New York Times Book Review

    That is, you've certainly heard of them. But do you know enough about them to join a dinner party debate or dazzle the bar with your knowledge? 30-Second Philosophies takes a revolutionary approach to getting a grip on the 50 most significant schools of philosophy. The book challenges leading thinkers to quit fretting about the meaning of meaning for a while and explain the most complex philosophical ideas-using nothing more than two pages, 300 words, and a metaphorical image. Here, in one unique volume, you have the chance to pick the potted brains of our leading philosophers and understand complex concepts such as Kant's Categorical Imerpative without ending up in a darkened room with an ice pack on your head.

    Houle expertly retells stories of some of the most famous Greek gods and goddesses, including Prometheus, Demeter and Persephone, and Echo and Narcissus. Each chapter is followed by a Question and Answer section which covers characters, themes, and symbols. An Expert Commentary section enhances the myths with opinions by noted scholars. Wonderful original illustrations accompany the text.

    In order to decipher the true meaning of these symbols, the student must approach the Tarot with an open mind and an open spirit.This new approach to the study of the Tarot provides a clear but profound method of exploring and discovering your own inner depths, a necessary prerequisite to a thorough understanding of the ancient symbols. In addition, this handbook relates the Tarot to other occult sciences such as astrology, the cabala, and numerology. Here you will find basic lessons and exercises, procedures, and fundamental esoteric philosophy which will open up new dimensions to the inquiring mind, and allow you to fully comprehend the tarot and its powers of enlightenment and divination.

    This is the story of what happened next. . . . Alpert was taken by a carful of gun-toting thugs looking to use his ATM card, but when they learned his bank balance the plan changed. They took him, blindfolded with his own scarf, to a Brooklyn apartment, with the idea of going to a bank the next day and withdrawing most of his money. But the later it got, the more the plan changed again . . . and again . . . as his captors alternately held guns to his head, threatened his family, engaged him in discussions of "gangsta" philosophy, sought his legal advice, and, once they learned it was his birthday, offered him sexual favors from their prostitute girlfriends as a "birthday present." All the while, Alpert, still blindfolded, talked with them, played on their attitudes and fears, tried to figure out where their mood swings would take them next, and memorized every detail he could in the event that he ever managed to get out of there alive. In the meantime, his friends and law enforcement colleagues, worried that they hadn't heard from him, launched a major police and FBI investigation. It, too, would take many twists and turns before it was done-and some of them would be very strange indeed. Filled with immediacy, drama, and extraordinary characters, told not only from Alpert's memory and notes but from police reports, interviews with NYPD detectives, FBI agents, and witnesses, videotaped confessions, and court records, "The Birthday Party" reads like a thriller-but every word is true.

    It is one of the oldest activities of humankind—and one of the most impressive when done skillfully. Throughout history, many masters of metaphor have crafted observations that are so spectacular they have taken up a permanent residence in our minds.In I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like, quotation maven Dr. Mardy Grothe fixes his attention on the three superstars of figurative language—analogies, metaphors, and similes. The result is an extraordinary compilation of nearly 2,000 feats of association that will entertain, educate, and occasionally inspire quotation lovers everywhere.In this intellectual smorgasbord, the author of Oxymoronica and Viva la Repartee explains figurative language in a refreshingly down-to-earth way before taking readers on a tour of history's greatest word pictures. In chapters on wit, love, sex, stage and screen, insults, politics, sports, and more, you will find quotations from Aristotle and Maya Angelou to George Washington and Oprah Winfrey.

    Did you know that the peacock mantis shrimp has the most powerful punch on Earth? That vampire spiders are attracted to your smelly socks? That the lesser water boatman is the loudest animal in the world and its instrument is its own penis? Or that concave-eared frogs have a secret language that only males can hear? From the mother-eating black-lace weaver spiders to Texas horned lizards that can shoot jets of poisonous blood from their eyes, this book from fearless science blogger Becky Crew will introduce you to a menagerie of the world’s weirdest animals.

    Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers take the reader on a spiritual quest around the astrological galaxy that culminates in a sense of purpose and truth.In addition to the great inter-personal benefits, this book also contains thousands of tidbits of information regarding the astrological signs of actors, musicians, and world leaders.

    When Jenny visits her cousin, she is desperate to forget her traumatic past. Then Debra starts receiving the calls Jenny used to get - "I'm back. Company's coming..."