Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture


Johan Huizinga - 1938
    Like civilization, play requires structure and participants willing to create within limits. Starting with Plato, Huizinga traces the contribution of Homo Ludens, or "Man the player" through Medieval Times, the Renaissance, and into our modern civilization. Huizinga defines play against a rich theoretical background, using cross-cultural examples from the humanities, business, and politics. Homo Ludens defines play for generations to come."A happier age than ours once made bold to call our species by the name of Homo Sapiens. In the course of time we have come to realize that we are not so reasonable after all as the Eighteenth Century with its worship of reason and naive optimism, though us; "hence moder fashion inclines to designate our species asHomo Faber Man the Maker. But though faber may not be quite so dubious as sapiens it is, as a name specific of the human being, even less appropriate, seeing that many animals too are makers. There is a third function, howver, applicable to both human and animal life, and just as important as reasoning and making--namely, playing. it seems to me that next to Homo Faber, and perhaps on the same level as Homo Sapiens, Homo Ludens, Man the Player, deserves a place in our nomenclature. "--from the Foreward, by Johan Huizinga

Belonging: One Woman's Search for Truth and Justice for the Tuam Babies


Catherine Corless - 2021
    The lecturer encouraged the class to 'see history all around you', to 'dig deeper and ask why'.It was from these humble beginnings that Catherine began researching the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in County Galway, which she had passed every day as a child on her way to school. Slowly, she began to uncover a dark secret that had been kept for many years: the bodies of 796 babies had been buried in what she believed to be a sewage tank on the grounds. But who were these children, how did they get there and who had been responsible for looking after them?Determined to ask why, Catherine doggedly set about investigating further. Her quest for justice for the Tuam babies and those who went through that home would span over a decade as, often against fierce resistance, she brought to light a terrible truth that shocked the world, impacted the Vatican, and led to a Commission of Investigation in Ireland.Part memoir, part detective story, Belonging is both Catherine's account, and that of those 796 children for whom she came to care so deeply: one of the tender love of a mother and her child; of pain and trauma; of the unforgettable screams which echoed through the corridors as children were taken from their mothers; and of a mystery which continues to this very day, as so many are still left without answers, still searching to know where, and to whom they belong.

Mary: Spirit Woman of the Old West


Janis Hoffman - 2016
    There are many corrections and many notes stuck between the pages, and the ink and pencil are faded and often difficult to read. I have had to guess at the meaning a few times and hope I haven’t done too much harm to her intent. Many changes were made in punctuation, spelling, paragraphing and chapters, and I’ve updated a few words, like Black Feet to Blackfoot. She made a few mistakes I did not correct, like mixing up the locations of the Little Blue and Big Blue rivers. The name Mary Faraday Huntington does not appear in any of the old records. Whoever wrote the words was neither shy nor humble, has a very foul mouth, and shamelessly talks about things rarely mentioned in stories of the Wild West. Her story is the way it was long ago, not the sugar coated fairly tales of book and film. Her story reminds me of something Jamake Highwater wrote: “The outward rusticity of primal behavior makes Western people devise a self-serving ideal of themselves as civilized, which sets them widely apart from other peoples and from nature. Their withdrawal from an awareness of their place in nature is nearly complete…primal peoples live among animals and vegetation constantly in close contact with the sources of nourishment and death, understanding their environment and expressing their ideas and feelings in terms of the natural world. In contrast, people in the West have created an idealization of their relationship with nature which has neither life nor spirit.” ADVENTURES IN THE WILD WEST OF LONG AGO Mary Faraday Huntington I’ve led a wild life and had a hell of a good time. I still have my nose, all my fingers and my scalp thanks to my high intelligence, strength, quickness, excellent judgment, and a little help from all my many, many friends. I promise not to lie too bad. If you are a prissy little thing, best to pass on by. If you are a refined gentleman, pass on by. 1. You’re just a girrrrrrl 2. The Under Water People 3. Fort Childs 4. Rising Wolf 5. The second best whorehouse in town 1 YOU’RE JUST A GIRRRRRL “You can't race. You’re just a girrrrrrl!” I bounced him a good one and he shrieked and jumped up and down with blood spurting out of his big, ugly nose. Oh my, how he did carry on. I got on my pony and went to the line. The flag dropped and off we went. No problem, I promised Charlie 3 cobs if we win. He got his corn and I got a shiny silver dollar and a tin can full of chewing tobacco. I traded the can for a bunch of fancy ribbons at old man Bailey’s haberdashery. ____________________ My name is Mary Faraday Huntington and I was born in 1834 at Independence, Missouri. My mother died when I was 9 months old and an Indian woman working at a whorehouse was the only one Christian enough to take me in. Don’t know who my father was but he must have been big, strong, and sharp as a whip. Probably an army man having a little fun. Sure they call me a bastard, but they learned quick enough not to do that to my face. Jennie is a Blackfoot spirit woman and a real good mother who cooks and cleans at Polly’s Paradise. We have a little room in the basement. Her real name is Aokii’aki, Water Woman. She taught me sign and Blackfoot, how to live off the land, and how to fight with my hands and feet and knife. And she is teaching me the ways of a spirit woman.

Turning Point


Marion Kummerow - 2018
     Destined for deportation to a labor camp, she has nowhere to hide. When a bomb hits her building, she emerges from the rubble unscathed. But there's only one way to stay alive. She needs to switch identities with a dead Nazi girl. Will Margarete betray everything she ever believed in to survive? Attention: this short story has previously been part of the anthology Pearl Harbor and more. If you own the anthology, do not buy this book.

Daniels and Worthingham's Muscle Testing: Techniques of Manual Examination [With DVD]


Helen J. Hislop - 1995
    In addition to offering traditional methods for assessing and grading skeletal muscle function, the book provides a comprehensive section on muscle anatomy and innervations that rounds out the testing chapters by linking muscle topography and function. This edition includes a new DVD of tests and procedures video clips that supplement the tests explained in the book.

Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games


Matt Barton - 2008
    This genre includes classics such as Ultima and The Bard's Tale as well as more modern games such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. Written in an engaging style for both the computer game enthusiast and the more casual computer game player, this book explores the history of the genre by telling the stories of the developers, games, and gamers who created it.

A Saint and a Sinner: The Rise and Fall of a Beloved Catholic Priest


Stephen H. Donnelly - 2020
    

The Millionaire Morning


Lewis Howes - 2017
    The Morning Mindset, Habits, and Routines of Millionaires!

Breathing Machine: A Memoir of Computers


Leigh Alexander - 2014
    From the surrealism of early video games to raw connections made over primitive newsgroups, from sex bots to Sailor Moon, Alexander intimately captures a dark frontier age.Leigh Alexander writes about video games, interactive entertainment, and various other things. As longtime editor-at-large for game industry site Gamasutra, she contributes editorial, criticism, trend analysis and interviews with developers. Her monthly column in Edge magazine deals with cultural issues surrounding the business of games and the people who play them. Her column at Kotaku is weirder. In a good way, probably.Her features appear at Polygon and Boing Boing, and she likes to write about feelings and social media at Thought Catalog. She used to be NYLON Guys’ games editor, did a biweekly column at Vice’s Creators Project focused on neat trends in independent game development, and has contributed to Slate, The New Inquiry, Wired, The New Statesman, The Guardian, the Columbia Journalism Review, Paste, Rock Paper Shotgun, and numerous others.She frequently speaks at conferences with particular attention to games for social good, feminism and increased diversity in tech spaces, where she usually talks with an excess of speed. She swears it’s driven by enthusiasm. Back in the day she once led an entire conference summit on avatar-based interaction in virtual spaces.

Where Are You Really From?: Kola Kubes and Gelignite, Secrets and Lies - The True Story of an Extraordinary Family


Tim Brannigan - 2010
    Unwilling to have an abortion or to have the baby adopted, Peggy came up with an audacious plan to keep her child. When Tim was born, hospital staff smuggled him into St Joseph's Baby Home and told the rest of the Brannigan family that the baby had been stillborn. One year later, Peggy adopted Tim and brought him to live with her family in the Falls Road area of Belfast. It was 1967.Told here for the first time, this is Tim's extraordinary story, describing in vivid detail what it was like growing up black in Belfast during the Troubles in the 1970s and 80s, his five-year stint in jail for hiding weapons on behalf of the IRA, his coming to terms with the true circumstances surrounding his birth, and his desperate attempts to trace the father who abandoned him. Where Are You Really From? is a fascinating and powerful memoir about one man's struggle to establish his own identity and a moving tribute to the woman who risked everything to keep her son.

Ghosts of The Silent Hills


Anita Krishan - 2019
    You have arrived in the hills. In here, you are surrounded by dense, menacing forests, enveloped in a deadly silence... You never know what lurks here in the Cold, dark night. Do not walk alone after sunset in the hills. A beautiful woman in white haunts the Lonely pathways, looking to enchant and ensnare men... All the people who died in accidents here... They say you hear their screams at night. And the deserted lodges sitting amidst lush greenery and calm streams... Spirits lie in wait here, ready to prey on the living. There are sceptics who did not heed these warnings. They tried to rationalize what they saw, what they felt. But when they came face to face with the beings that they believed didn’t exist, they couldn’t run away anymore... Ghosts of the silent hills is a collection that will make your nights a little scarier, encompassing the very best spine-chilling stories based on true hauntings.About the AuthorBorn in Shimla in 1955, Anita Krishan spent the initial twenty-two years of her life in this pristine Himalayan town, earning her master’s degree in English literature from Himachal University, and moving on to a career of introducing delights of the language to her young learners. In her long tenure as an educator, she has enriched the lives of countless students with the mystery of the narrative. A versatile writer, each of her literary works appertains to a different genre... from the joys and travails of life, to terrorism that has brought the world to its tenterhooks, to now the paranormal. She has travelled extensively around the globe absorbing the diverse human ethos and cultures—the delectable food for her thoughts. Presently, she lives in Gurgaon with her family.

My Father's Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years in the NYPD


Brian McDonald - 2000
    His grandfather, Thomas Skelly, entered the department in 1893, when the NYPD was little more than a brutal gang of organized enforcers and Tammany Hall a corrupt political machine that could make or break an honest cop's career. His father Frank's career would span World War II through the 1960s, taking him from street cop to squad commander of the Forty-first Precinct. Better known as "Fort Apache", it was a place from which few cops emerged whole. His brother Frank McDonald, Jr., went on to become a decorated officer, waging an undercover war on drugs and crime.From turn-of-the-century Brooklyn to the South Bronx in the 1970s to the bedroom communities of upstate New York, My Father's Gun combines a rare and intimate family story with turbulent social history.

Live a Thousand Years: Have the Time of Your Life; Wisdom for All Ages


Giovanni Livera - 2004
    Most of us measure our time by clocks and calendars. Live A Thousand Years reveals the power of measuring your time and your success by moments and experiences.

Kindle Publishing Revolution - Amazon Kindle Publishing Guide


Ryan Deiss - 2012
    Amazon has created and entire new industry, a revolution in fact with Kindle.In this book publisher Ryan Deiss will show you the ropes and help you to get published or even start your own publishing company leveraging the Amazon Kindle.Ryan is a master marketer and his promotional strategies will defiantly give you an edge while operating inside Amazon Kindle TOS.Grab this book today and you could be on your way to Author fame with Amazon Kindle publishing.

There’s No Bones in Ice Cream: Sylvain Sylvain’s Story of the New York Dolls


Sylvain Sylvain - 2018
    A cross between the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols, the Dolls became the link in the chain between them, offering a crash course in mischief, cross-dressing and anarchy, but like unheralded prophets of Biblical times they were cast aside until the world finally caught up.“Other people turned the New York Dolls into legends. We just went along for the ride.”