Edgy, complicated, and often dark, they reflect a conflicted world, and their astonishing diversity and innovative language earned Chaucer renown as the father of English literature. Marion Turner, however, reveals him as a great European writer and thinker. To understand his accomplishment, she reconstructs in unprecedented detail the cosmopolitan world of Chaucer’s adventurous life, focusing on the places and spaces that fired his imagination.Uncovering important new information about Chaucer’s travels, private life, and the early circulation of his writings, this innovative biography documents a series of vivid episodes, moving from the commercial wharves of London to the frescoed chapels of Florence and the kingdom of Navarre, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side by side. The narrative recounts Chaucer’s experiences as a prisoner of war in France, as a father visiting his daughter’s nunnery, as a member of a chaotic Parliament, and as a diplomat in Milan, where he encountered the writings of Dante and Boccaccio. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of Chaucer’s writings, taking the reader to the Troy of Troilus and Criseyde, the gardens of the dream visions, and the peripheries and thresholds of The Canterbury Tales.By exploring the places Chaucer visited, the buildings he inhabited, the books he read, and the art and objects he saw, this landmark biography tells the extraordinary story of how a wine merchant’s son became the poet of The Canterbury Tales.

    

    Imperial Valley’s biggest crime is detailed through volumes of official records and interviews with witnesses, relatives and investigators.Serial killer Robert Eugene Pennington not only murdered Sayers, but was a suspect in killing Dorothy Minor-Hindman in Fresno and possibly fifteen other innocent victims from coast to coast including one victim attributed to the Boston Strangler.Extensive research provides the reader with details of Pennington’s life before and after his encounter with Brenda.

    From families wishing to contact departed loved ones to police forces trying to solve murder cases, the uncanny accuracy of her psychic powers were universally acclaimed, while her readings and performances in Australia, America, and at home in Britain were received with adulation. This unique collection includes the two best–selling books in which Doris Stokes shared her remarkable experiences with readers throughout the world. In Voices in My Ear, she reflects on discovering her extraordinary gift. Officially informed that her husband had been killed during the Second World War, she was visited at the height of her grief by her long–dead father. He told Doris that her husband was, in fact, alive and would return, but joy turned to grief when her father re–appeared to warn of the impending death of her baby son. Both predictions came true.

    The Worst Loss will help families who have experienced this to know what they are facing, understand what they are feeling, and appreciate their own needs and timetables.

    May you never experience what I have experienced.'In April 1993, Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a group of young white men on a street in south-east London. From the first police investigation onwards, the case was badly mishandled. In the end, long after the case against the five suspects had been dropped, the government had to give in to mounting pressure and hold a public inquiry, which became the most explosive in British legal history.These facts leave the reader unprepared for Doreen Lawrence's own story of her son's murder. In this raw, honest book, she writes frankly about her childhood, about her struggle for a decent life for herself and her children and her hopes for her bright, motivated son. Her account of the murder and the botched and insensitive investigation by the Metropolitan Police is deeply moving. She recreates the pain, frustration and bafflement she experienced as she realised that there might never be a moment when she could say to herself that justice had been done.A cold case review led to the discovery of DNA evidence in 2009. In November 2011, two of the alleged members of the gang that killed Stephen were finally brought to trial at the Old Bailey. A guilty verdict was pronounced on 3 January 2012.'To be put alongside Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom or the works of Maya Angelou.' Andrew Billen, The Times

    I wanted to write a collection of stories, poems and vignettes about things like my toaster oven and my relationships with plumbers, mailmen and delivery people. But life dealt me a much more complicated story..." Gilda Radner died on May 20, 1989, shortly before publication of her book It's Always Something. A month before her death, Gilda entered a Los Angeles recording studio to deliver what would be her final performance -- this remarkable audio autobiography, in which she reveals the inspirational story of her struggles with cancer...a private, personal battle in which the humor and humanity that has touched millions became her most powerful weapon.

    Use it to gather those vital details about your contacts, legal matters, health, financial affairs, instructions, and more. Enter the information in this guided planner, and keep it in a secure location. Valuable and practical, it is a tremendous gift for your family and personal representatives. The I'm Dead, Now What? Planner covers: My Personal InformationMy Medical InformationKey Contact InformationAt the Time of My PassingMy DependentsImportant DocumentsFinancial InformationCommercial/Business InformationWhat Beneficiaries Can ExpectPersonal PropertyInsuranceMy PetsWhat to Pay, Close, and CancelEmail and Social MediaMiscellaneous InformationMy Personal WishesLast WordsNote: This planner is not a legal document and does not replace a valid will.

    

    Chapters focus on the supernatural elements of the work, as well as the author´s treatment of the physical self.

    Two months later, Max's body would be found in the lake. There’d been no note or obvious indication that Max wanted to harm himself; he’d signed up for a year-long subscription to a dating service; he’d spent the day he disappeared doing photography work for school. And this uncertainty became part of his father’s grief. I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye explores with grace, depth, and refinement the tragically transformative reality of losing a child. But it also tells the deeply human and deeply empathetic story of a father’s relationship with his son, of its complications, and of Max and Ivan’s struggle—as is the case for so many parents and their children—to connect.I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye is a stunning, poignant exploration of the father and son relationship, of how our tendency to overlook men’s mental health can have devastating consequences, and how ultimately letting those who grieve do so openly and freely can lead to greater healing.

    S.L. Price, award-winning writer for Sports Illustrated and author of Pitching Around Fidel, gives a tragic but ultimately uplifting account of the death of minor league baseball coach Mike Coolbaugh, and in doing so, illustrates the many reasons and myriad ways in which baseball still has a hold on America. A Friday Night Lights for baseball fans, Heart of the Game reveals the classic heart of small-town America.

    ‘Help for the helpless in the storms of the Sierra Nevada Mountains!’" – Eliza P. Donner Houghton, The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate The westward movement of Americans in the 19th century was one of the largest and most consequential migrations in history, and for countless people back east, the West represented opportunities for adventure, independence, and fortune. Even in the 21st century, Americans look back on the era fondly, even romantically, and millions are familiar with the popular game that reignited interest in the Oregon Trail Of course, it’s easy for people with modern transportation to comfortably reminisce about the West, because many pioneers discovered that the traveling was fraught with various kinds of obstacles and danger, including bitter weather, potentially deadly illnesses, and hostile Native Americans, not to mention an unforgiving landscape that famous American explorer Stephen Long deemed “unfit for human habitation.” 19th century Americans were all too happy and eager for the transcontinental railroad to help speed their passage west and render overland paths obsolete. One of the main reasons people yearned for new forms of transportation is because of the most notorious and tragic disasters in the history of westward travel. While people still romanticize the Wild West, many Americans are still all too familiar with the fate of the Donner Party, a group of 87-90 people that met with disaster in the Sierra Nevada mountain range during the winter of 1846-1847. The party knew the journey would take months, but early snowfalls in the mountains left dozens of people trapped in snow drifts that measured several feet, stranding them in a manner that made it virtually impossible for them to go any further for several weeks. Inevitably, as the Donner Party’s supplies began to run low, there was little hope of acquiring new provisions high up in the mountains, and even worse, their location and the technology of the time also made it virtually impossible for relief expeditions to reach them. Due to exposure and lack of food, the health of many in the party began to deteriorate quickly in the tough winter conditions, and the animals brought along with the group died at alarming rates. Most of the men who set out to try to get help died en route, while the families back in camp tried to cope with dozens of deaths suffered by young and old alike. As a few able-bodied people went for help, the people who remained back in their wagons resorted to the most desperate of measures in attempts to either stay alive or keep their children alive. Some members of the Donner Party fought with each other, occasionally fatally, and the journey is perhaps best known today for accounts of cannibalism. One member of the group noted in his diary in February 1847, "Mrs Murphy said here yesterday that thought she would Commence on Milt. & eat him. I dont that she has done so yet, it is distressing.” All the while, the plight of the Donner Party made news across the nation, even before the surviving members were rescued and brought to safety, and by the time the doomed expedition was over, less than 50 of them made it to California.

    Despite the many challenges, both internal and external, the country was able to register a 6 per cent average annual growth rate during the first forty years of its existence. The country was ahead of India and Bangladesh in all economic and social indicators. Since 1990, the country has fallen behind its neighbouring countries and has had a decline in the growth rate.This book attempts to examine the reasons behind this slowdown, the volatile and inequitable growth of the last twenty-five years, and through a process of theoretical and empirical evidence argues that the most powerful explanatory hypothesis lies in the decay of institutions of governance. It also suggests a selective and incremental approach of restructuring some key public institutions that pertain to accountability, transparency, security, economic growth, and equity.

    Play with me for a moment: if you were to consider the mind a machine, say, a telegraph in service to the heart, then the heart gives the first dictation. The mind then translates vital information in the form of language to the speaker system of voice, which will hopefully transmit the communications as the heart intended, if that is the priority. It is a good time to ask yourself what your priorities of communication are. What is motivating you?A short journey from heart to mind and back down to the throat takes mere seconds, but a mighty many detours are taken en route. This may be because the fear residing in the mind is like a highwayman, waylaying our genuine matters of the heart and causing havoc as it tries to make its simple way out of the human body. There are other desperados who lure the vulnerable traveler off-path: insecurity, anxiety, self-consciousness, the fragile ego-but nearly all are unmasked first cousins to fear when flushed out of the shadows. Some fears are linked to primal traumas which may yet be unearthed. These deserve special attention when working with voice.I think the greatest of all distractions between heart and throat might be faithlessness, because reigning religious institutions have effectively redirected the focus from faith to matters of righteousness, wrongness and "policies". Faith in love, and what it can do, has taken a particularly destructive back seat to the priorities of massive organizations with other things in mind than loving kindness, peaceful communication, fair resolutions, wellness and the expressive voices of living, breathing people.For today's spiritually traumatized, broken-hearted and soul-wounded, the process of revealing what rests on the heart can be a paralyzing challenge. To clear the path of negative imprint, one must declare the intention to speak to what matters most and set about the task of discerning what that is. One can make a choice now to stand up to the fears that mangle the truth into expressions more palatable for others, cause explosions of rage, freezing up, or cut-and-run behavior.To love the truth more than anything else is a tall order.