Me Before You by JoJo Moyes - A 30-minute Instaread Summary


Instaread Summaries - 2014
    We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience. This is an Instaread Summary of 'Me Before You' by JoJo Moyes. Below is a preview of the earlier sections of the summary: Chapter 1 Louisa ‘Lou’ Clark, a member of a working class family in a small English village, has just lost her job. Although both Lou’s father, Bernard, and her sister, Treena, work, neither makes enough money to help the family make ends meet without Lou’s income. For this reason, it is decided that Lou should apply for a new job at the Job Centre as soon as possible. The next day Lou goes to the gym to see her boyfriend, Patrick. He sees Lou’s lost job as an opportunity for her to improve herself and find something better. The counselor at the Job Centre suggests Lou apply as a care assistant for a man in a wheelchair. She is not interested in this job, but she is running out of options. She agrees to go for the interview. Chapter 2 Lou usually wears odd, eccentric clothes. For the job interview, Josie, her mother, insists she wear a business suit. Lou goes to Granta House, an elegant and expensive home next to the local tourist attraction, Stortfold Castle. She is interviewed by Camilla Traynor. Camilla is Will Traynor’s mother. Will became a quadriplegic after being hit by a motorcycle. He already has a nurse named Nathan to take care of his personal and medical needs. Camilla wants to hire someone to be a companion for Will and to stay with him during the day when no one else can be there. Lou thinks the interview goes badly. Therefore, she is surprised when Camilla offers her the job with a six-month contract and generous pay. Chapter 3 Lou reports for work at Granta House the following morning. Camilla shows her around the annexe, a space that was once stables but was turned into guest quarters. This is where Will lives now that he is confined to a wheelchair. Camilla explains her duties to Lou. She makes it clear that Lou is not to leave Will alone and unattended for more than 15 minutes at any one time. Camilla introduces Lou to Will and Nathan, Will’s nurse. Nathan explains Will’s medications to Lou and tells her she is there to cheer Will. Nathan leaves, and Lou and Will are left to get to know each other. It does not go well. Will is sullen, quiet, and talks very little. She keeps herself busy with cleaning and household chores to fill in the time. Lou is unhappy about the first day at her new job. She talks to her sister Treena about it. Treena asks her to stick with the job because she has decided to quit her job and go back to college. She has received a grant to help pay her tuition, but will have to quit her job. Lou feels this puts more pressure on her to earn an income.

Mindfulness and Murder: A Father Ananda Mystery


Nick Wilgus - 2006
    He discovers that all is not well at this urban monastery in the heart of Bangkok. Together with his dogged assistant, an orphaned boy named Jak, Father Ananda uncovers a startling series of clues that eventually expose the motivation behind the crime and lead him to the murderers. "Mindfulness and Murder" is the first in the Father Ananda murder-mystery series.An award-winning movie based on Mindfulness and Murder was released in 2011 by DeWarenne Pictures in Bangkok and nominated for Best Screenplay by the Thailand National Films Awards 2012.

Buddha


Karen Armstrong - 2001
    In Buddha she turns to a figure whose thought is still reverberating throughout the world 2,500 years after his death.Many know the Buddha only from seeing countless serene, iconic images. But what of the man himself and the world he lived in? What did he actually do in his roughly eighty years on earth that spawned one of the greatest religions in world history? Armstrong tackles these questions and more by examining the life and times of the Buddha in this engrossing philosophical biography. Against the tumultuous cultural background of his world, she blends history, philosophy, mythology, and biography to create a compelling and illuminating portrait of a man whose awakening continues to inspire millions.

The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation


Lodro Rinzler - 2014
    . ., wisdom for Generation Next on how to make your work meaningful, satisfying, and of benefit to others. Does it ever seem that a lot of the people you work with are, well, jerks This book is about how not to let work turn you into one of them. Apply the simple Buddhist teachings and practices Lodro Rinzler provides here to whatever you do for a living, and youll not only avoid jerk-hood, but youll be setting out on the path toward making your livelihood an expression of your inherent wisdom, honesty, and compassion. Youll discover practical ways to bring mindfulness into administrative support, cabinet-making, financial management, nursing, truck-driving, or latte-brewing. In the process, youll discover genuine empathy for the folks you once found so difficult. Youll also learn leadership skills that apply compassion to management in a way that increases happiness along with efficiency. This is career advice of the profoundest kind, geared toward todays twenty- and thirty-something workers and job-seekers whose employment outlook is radically different from that of a generation ago. As Lodro shows, even if the path of work shifts beneath your feet, its possible to make your livelihood a source of satisfaction and of deep meaning.

ZEN: A Simple Path to More Happiness, More Tranquility, and Less Problems


Andrew Daley - 2012
    It provides a useful introduction to Zen for people that have never had any previous experience of the subject matter, and it will provide a little something here and there for experienced Zen practitioners too, even if they are already very happy and very tranquil. The author's aim is to help people glide through life with maximum joy, and minimum fuss. Three of the central aspects of the Zen way of life that the author has found most useful for increasing happiness and tranquility are explored in detail. These are mindfulness, lifestyle and meditating. Between each of the three main chapters in this book are 'Zen tips', much shorter chapters of just a few paragraphs, giving information on a particular topic that the author has found especially useful in helping to maintain Zen tranquility and happiness. From the author: "This book isn't intended as a complete guide to all aspects of Zen culture, history or philosophy, but as an honest and insightful Zen based contribution to people's well being. I hope you enjoy it, and, more importantly, I hope you find it useful!"

Cleopatra's Tomb: A Maggie Edwards Adventure (Maggie Edwards Adventures Book 1)


Nellie H. Steele - 2020
    At first, she couldn’t understand why he had sent her something so obviously valuable when he had never done so before. Then, she read the cryptic note hinting that he’s in trouble, and urging her to protect this vital artifact. Fearing for her uncle’s life, and wondering if someone would eventually come after her, Maggie begins researching the mysterious object her uncle sent her. As questions without simple answers pile up around her, Maggie is ambushed by Henry Taylor, who claims to be a close friend of her uncle’s. Handsome, educated, and always ready with a smile, Maggie can’t help but want to trust him. But she also can’t help but wonder if there is more than meets the eye? Henry had no idea where and how Oliver disappeared, but, wherever it is, he knows his friend is in trouble. He would do anything for him, and when Maggie insists on accompanying him around the globe, he’s more than happy to share his adventure with her. But when the truth surrounding the artifact leads them to someplace off-limits and completely dangerous, will Henry have what it takes to help save Oliver and keep himself and Maggie alive too? Discover the mystery surrounding the bejeweled golden scarab in Cleopatra’s Tomb! Book one in the new, page-turning A Maggie Edwards Adventure series by beloved author Nellie H. Steele.

My Master


Vivekananda - 2012
    In the lecture Vivekananda clearly told, if there was even a single word of truth, a single word of spirituality in his lectures he owed it to his Master — Ramakrishna, only the mistakes were his own. Swami Vivekananda (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendra Nath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk and chief disciple of the 19th-century saint Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India, and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is perhaps best known for his speech which began, "Sisters and brothers of America ...," in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893. Born into an aristocratic Bengali family of Calcutta, Vivekananda was inclined towards spirituality. He was influenced by his guru, Ramakrishna, from whom he learnt that all living beings were an embodiment of the divine self; therefore, service to God could be rendered by service to mankind. After Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda toured the Indian subcontinent extensively and acquired first-hand knowledge of the conditions prevailing in British India. He later travelled to the United States, representing India at the 1893 Parliament of the World Religions. Vivekananda conducted hundreds of public and private lectures and classes, disseminating tenets of Hindu philosophy in the United States, England and Europe. In India, Vivekananda is regarded as a patriotic saint and his birthday is celebrated there as National Youth Day.

Warfighting


U.S. Department of the Navy - 2012
    Every officer should read and reread this text, to understand it, and to take its message to heart. Warfighting has stimulated discussion and debate from classrooms to wardooms, training areas to combat zones. The philosophy contained in this publication has influenced our approach to every task we have undertaken.

The High Blue Arena


Jack Prendergast - 2012
    Can a couple of rural coppers and a demoralised ragbag of accountant soldiers intercept the two boys, before they blunder into an old firing range infested with unexploded ordnance?Moira can at least rely on two unlikely allies; her estranged African friend Dahlila, and Social Worker Mildred Pierce. Even so, the beast has picked up her trail; as the double pursuit races toward a terrifying climax, Hardcastle will have to tap every ounce of his wavering resolve in order to halt an unstoppable madman. Yet even murderers have mothers, and ultimately, it is love that must prevail; thanks in no small part to the inexhaustible optimism and humanity of four remarkable women...

The Saints of Lost Things


C.H. Lawler - 2014
    Now, as a powerful September hurricane bears down on the Louisiana coast, those worlds will come face to face.The choices they make will send them on an odyssey north and into the fall of 1965, as the brutal and envious sheriff Percy Parris pursues them. Along the way they meet an unusual and eclectic series of people who help them become more than what they were.As fall turns to winter, their lives will change forever in the wake of a storm named Betsy.The Saints of Lost Things is a story of love, hope, and perseverance, and envy and bitterness. And the remarkable power of kindness.

The Dude and the Zen Master


Jeff Bridges - 2012
    Zen master Bernie Glassman compares Jeff Bridges’s iconic role in The Big Lebowski to a Lamed-Vavnik: one of the men in Jewish mysticism who “are simple and unassuming, and so good that, on account of them, God lets the world go on.” His buddy Jeff puts it another way. The wonderful thing about the Dude, he says, is that he’d always rather hug it out than slug it out. For more than a decade, Academy Award–winning actor Jeff Bridges and his buddhist teacher, renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman, have been close friends. Inspiring and often hilarious, The Dude and the Zen Master captures their freewheeling dialogue about life, laughter, and the movies with a charm and bonhomie that never fail to enlighten and entertain. Throughout, their remarkable humanism reminds us of the importance of doing good in a difficult world.

A Mind At Home With Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around


Byron Katie - 2017
    When we learn to question the thoughts, they lose their power. And when this happens, our minds are free to turn towards others, and ourselves, with a spirit of generosity.Byron Katie gives approximately 25 hugely popular workshops every year, all over the world. In addition she speaks at such organisations as Facebook and Stanford University and is also involved with a programme for cancer patients. Charismatic and compassionate, there’s good reason why The Times has called her events ‘riveting’, and Time magazine has named her ‘a spiritual innovator for the new milennium’.

Rolling Pennies in the Dark: A Memoir with a Message


Douglas MacKinnon - 2012
    He shares poignant stories of his childhood, including one about rolling pennies by candlelight because the electricity had once again been cut off, and his little sister needed medication. At one point, his alcoholic parents abandoned him and his two siblings for five days, with no food, heat, or electricity in the middle of winter.But as Doug grew, his determination to survive grew with him. Despite being accepted to the Air Force Academy directly after high school, he stayed closer to home so he could look after his younger sister. And as various opportunities opened up to him, he discovered that his heart belonged in the political arena; for it was there, he believed, that he could work for real change and bring help to those who suffered as he did as a child.Rolling Pennies in the Dark reminds readers that it is possible to grow up in the most deplorable of conditions and still find success. More significantly, MacKinnon offers real solutions to our nation’s growing poverty problem. This is an important, essential book.

Bangkok 8


John Burdett - 2003
    Among the witnesses are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep—a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I.—is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner’s murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones and captures her heart in the process. In a city fueled by illicit drugs and infinite corruption, prostitution and priceless art, Sonchai’s quest for vengeance takes him into a world much more sinister than he could have ever imagined.

Open Heart, Clear Mind: An Introduction to the Buddha's Teachings


Thubten Chodron - 1990
    Thubten Chodron, an American Buddhist nun, presents the basic points of this path for understanding ourselves and improving the quality of our lives. In a straightforward style and with warmth and humor, Chodron gives us the fundamental points of the Buddha's teaching on transforming habitual attitudes and realizing our full human potential.