Thirty-seven-year-old John Morgan's personal life is already in disarray when he receives a phone call that his brother and niece are dead. His relationship with his father is nearly nonexistent, he barely speaks to his sister, and he has no real friends to lean on. As the tragic news slowly begins to sink in, John realizes he is floating aimlessly in the middle of an unpredictable sea of emotions with no one to rescue him. Lost in his childhood memories, regrets, and grief, John begins to reevaluate his life, his relationships, and why he has trouble connecting with and even loving others. As he attempts to regain the happiness that was stolen from him when his father rejected him over his writing, John begins a painstaking journey to climb out of the depths of despair. But it is only a matter of time before his past catches up with him and forces him to face all of the realities in his life. In this compelling tale that movingly illustrates the devastating effects of a dysfunctional family, John must learn to change what he can, accept what he cannot, and make the difficult decision to leave some things behind.
Winner of the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction Finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction Finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction An incredible work of non-fiction that reads like a thriller, All We Leave Behind is the true story of a family fleeing the death sentence of a ruthless warlord, written by the journalist who broke all her own rules to get them to safety. In 2002, Carol Off and a CBC TV crew encountered an Afghan man with a story to tell. Asad Aryubwal became a key figure in their documentary on the terrible power of thuggish warlords who were working arm in arm with Americans and NATO troops. When Asad publicly exposed the deeds of one of the warlords, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, it set off a chain of events from which there was no turning back. Asad, his wife, Mobina, and their five children had to flee their home. The family faced an uncertain future. But their dilemma compelled a journalist to cross the lines of disinterested reporting and become deeply involved. Together, they navigated the Byzantine international bureaucracy and the decidedly unwelcoming policies of Stephen Harper's government until the family finally found a new home. Carol Off's powerful account traces not only one family's journey and fraught attempts to immigrate to a safe place, it also illustrates what happens when a journalist becomes irrevocably caught up in the lives of the people in her story and finds herself unable to leave them behind.
"Everything looked perfect. Sand - unique Baltic sand, the best in the world - and the calm sea. But wait. Something was amiss. Something was wrong" It starts with a day at the beach. A single white sock that somehow spoils everything. It's enough to send writer and ornithologist Stanislaw Lubienski on a quest to understand what we throw away, where it goes and whether it will be our legacy. By analysing items he unearths on his trips into nature - a plastic bottle, a tube of Russian penis-enlargement cream, a cigarette butt, an empty aerosol can - tracing their origins and explaining the harm they can do, he shows how consumer society has developed out of control, to the point of environmental catastrophe. He also looks with a birdwatcher's eye at how various animals have come to adapt to and even rely on our rubbish, and interrogates the cultural significance of waste and the origins of our throw-away lifestyles. Finally, he adds a personal touch by examining his own "environmental neurosis" and by going out with refuse crews to watch them work. While Lubienski never hectors his readers, nor shames them, his clear-eyed, persuasive and humble polemic reminds us what we, as individuals, can and cannot do to address an apocalyptic issue while there's still something worth saving. Translated from the Polish by Zosia Krasodomska-Jones
Imagine you get home one day… and waiting for you on your doorstep is a gift. It is wrapped beautifully, and inside is a notebook, its pages empty. There is no message. But its sender has a story to tell. About a secret. About the little girl you once were. About everything you know about your family. The gifts keep arriving. But when tragedy strikes – leaving your beloved only daughter fighting for her life – the person who has been sending the gifts will have no choice but to come forward. And to finally tell the truth… A heartbreakingly beautiful novel about motherhood, loss and family secrets, for fans of Kerry Fisher, Susan Lewis and Jodi Picoult. Readers are loving What Became of Us: ‘Heartfelt, beautifully written and left me sobbing. A truly remarkable read that I could not put down, I was hooked from the very first page.’ NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Anna Mansell is truly one of my favourite writers… She writes with such emotion and flair that it’s impossible not to fall head over heels for her books. With raw characters and secrets being slowly unravelled, I struggled to put this book down. A true page turner.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘OMG… Wowzers, I couldn't get enough of it… A stunning read… One to remember.’ Nicki’s Book Blog ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘What an absolute heart-wrenching and emotional read. I truly didn’t see where the author was going with the plot, and it truly snuck up on me… A great storyline, and totally unexpected. This book will capture every emotion that you have, and it captivated me from page one. This book is unforgettable.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Anna Mansell is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and this book was the icing on the cake. I absolutely loved it. This was an excellent and at times heart wrenching story that pulled me right into it from the first page.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I can't say how much I loved this story!! Such a feel-good book. Had me hooked from the very beginning.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I absolutely LOVE this wonderfully enthralling story about family, motherhood and friendship… An absolutely unmissable read for me… I am in awe of the talent this author has for writing such absorbing and captivating stories and I confess to being tearful on more than one occasion… I recommend this novel as truly excellent, a 5* read in every possible way.’ NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A really lovely read… Heartbreakingly emotive.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Another great read by Anna Mansell. She is fast becoming a favourite of mine… A heartfelt emotional page-turner.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This book really packs a punch. Lots of twists and turns.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved this story! The details are incredible and it flows smoothly from each character in this puzzle needed to be solved!… Truly had me reading until I learned the truth! Excellent!’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Fabulous. This book captures your heart… I got so engrossed in this story… Enjoy the ride: it’s a good one.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘My first book by Anna Mansell and will definitely not be my last. Beautifully written, emotional, moving and heart-wrenching. It totally captivated me.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A beautiful and emotion-filled book… The author never disappoints and always has me glued to my chair as well as to my box of tissues.’ B for Bookreview ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This book captures your heart and makes you feel all kinds of feelings. I finished this in just a few hours since I couldn't put it down. I just had to find out what happened.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This open access book focuses on a particular but significant topic in the social sciences: the concepts of “footprint” and “trace”. It associates these concepts with hotly debated topics such as surveillance capitalism and knowledge society. The editors and authors discuss the concept footprints and traces as unintended by-products of other (differently focused and oriented) actions that remain empirically imprinted in virtual and real spaces. The volume therefore opens new scenarios for social theory and applied social research in asking what the stakes, risks and potential of this approach are. It systematically raises and addresses these questions within a consistent framework, bringing together a heterogeneous group of international social scientists. Given the multifaceted objectives involved in exploring footprints and traces, the volume discusses heuristic aspects and ethical dimensions, scientific analyses and political considerations, empirical perspectives and theoretical foundations. At the same time, it brings together perspectives from cultural analysis and social theory, communication and Internet studies, big-data informed research and computational social science. This innovative volume is of interest to a broad interdisciplinary readership: sociologists, communication researchers, Internet scholars, anthropologists, cognitive and behavioral scientists, historians, and epistemologists, among others.
Ecclesiastes is a persuasive speech with a rhetoric so unique that it can be easily misunderstood. It speaks powerfully to believers as well as nonbelievers because it addresses the question of the meaning of life in the most satisfying way. The heart of this book is an expositional commentary that interprets Ecclesiastes as authoritative Scripture. It seeks to recover the rhetoric of the speech in terms of its comprehensive message on the meaning of life as well as its compelling force to get the message across. Preceding the expositional commentary is an introduction to Ecclesiastes that presents a new approach to outlining and reading Ecclesiastes as a coherent speech. It also presents an overview of the “forest”—the overall rhetorical flow of the speech from beginning to end. This is to prevent one from getting lost when immersed in the “trees” of the expositional commentary. Following the expositional commentary are two topical studies to give Ecclesiastes the breadth and depth of coverage it deserves. The first is an interdisciplinary exposition on the meaning of life. The second is an interpretive essay to defend exegetically the interpretation of Ecclesiastes as a coherent speech.
Allison Vesterfelt and her friend were just a few weeks into a 50-state road trip when their car broke down in Wyoming. Unsure of what to do, the two girls found themselves stranded in a small town and dependent on the help of strangers. Through the questions and uncertainty, they contemplated what it means to live life without regret and when it’s worth it to live with less baggage. Read this small section of their road trip story, or find the whole story in Packing Light: Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage. Moody Collective Portions are short pieces of content taken from our full-length books. Our goal is to introduce our readers to a complete idea in a brief, concise, and inexpensive format. Most portions will take about 20 minutes to read.
Anne Geraghty was a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist when her son, Tim Guest, author of My Life in Orange died suddenly. Her old life ended. She went on a search for her lost son. Where was he? What was he? Did he live on in some other realm? Or had he fallen into the darkness of oblivion? Her search for Tim became an exploration into the nature of death itself. We die as we have lived. Our lives are not like those of a C12th Tibetan, a C15th Cardinal or a Zen monk; we cannot, therefore, simply turn to old maps and myths of what happens when we die. We need a new narrative of death that embraces our modern understandings of our humanity and the workings of the universe. This book is the story of a grieving mother looking for her dead son, an investigation into death in our modern world, and an exploration of our struggles to live well in the ever-present shadow of death. It is not a book with answers; it is an invitation to look at death differently. This book offers fresh and original ideas about death and dying. And it will radically change your understanding of what death is.
From our earliest childhood we constantly and continuously process all around us. The people in our lives, what we see, what we feel, what we like or what we dislike. Our feelings are like waves of the ocean, rising and falling, with emotions of hurt or joy, expectation or regret and disappointment, then sometimes like a calm sea with bright sunshine. We all know a memory of a moment can last a lifetime. Sometimes an experience triggers a connection that is forever embedded in our mind. It is our thinking makes us who we are, but so often we just move on from the moment, the people in our lives, events, animals, nature. The lines of verse in this book are words expressing the thoughts, perceptions and feelings in relation to a few life experiences.
The first English translations of key works of this important German thinker and theologian (1533-1588), accompanied by an introduction to the context and sources of his thought.
In investigating ancient Greek concepts concerning the relationship between seeing and knowing, Roberto Peregalli presents an eloquent demonstration of the modernity of Ancient Greek wisdom. The Embroidered Armour examines the Greek Mysteries, mythology and legends that heralded a revolution in thinking between the times of Homer and Plato, which gave birth to the Western cultural tradition.
