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Jung and the Alchemical Imagination
by Jeffrey RaffA study of Jung's theory of individuation and alchemy with some revisions and additions.
Just Give Me Jesus
by Anne Graham LotzAnne Graham Lotz encourages us to become closer to Jesus by learning who He is through eyewitness accounts.ts
Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives: Tales of Life and Death From the ER
by Pamela GrimAn account that will profoundly move you and, like Oliver Sacks's An Anthropologist on Mars, forever change the way you look at medicine, Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives introduces a passionate, eloquent new voice. Author and emergency room physician Pamela Grim not only takes you into her dramatic life-and-death world but, in unforgettable prose, shows us the almost unbearable decisions and the heartbreaking conflicts of a woman who just might someday save your life.Here is life on the front lines of medicine, from modern, well-stocked American ERs to third-world clinics devoid of even the most basic equipment. Here a newborn fights for his life, a would-be suicide arrives with a dozen prescription bottles, a teenager lies bleeding with gunshot wounds to the chest, a hundred needy children wait for treatment in a makeshift hospital in Bosnia, and a thousand more people, desperate and dying, hope for some relief in sub-Sahara Africa. Here sleep-deprived doctors perform heroic procedures only to see patients die ... yet they still manage to pull off miracles. As she opens the doors to this adrenaline-fueled environment, Dr. Grim also bares her soul and describes her own personal journey ... including her struggle with burnout and the crisis of faith that drove her to practice medicine in countries ravaged by infectious diseases, poverty, and war.More relentlessly compelling than any medical thriller, Just Here Trying to Save a few Lives has the power to leave you richer. It will lead you to appreciate the resilience of the human body and human spirit as never before, and will make you forever grateful that there are doctors like Pamela Grim. More relentlessly compelling than any medical thriller, Just Here Trying to Save a few Lives has the power to leave you richer. It will lead you to appreciate the resilience of the human body and human spirit as never before, and will make you forever grateful that there are doctors like Pamela Grim.
Kamikaze Lust
by Lauren SandersKamikaze Lust puts a crackling, rapid-fire spin on a traditional theme--young woman in search of herself--and stands it on its head. Kamikaze Lust by first-time novelist Lauren Sanders takes the reader on an electrifying ride through the spectacle of life and death in millennial America. Smart, hardboiled and humorous, the novel taps our obsession with sex and death, sex and popular culture, sex and the written word, sex and pornography, sex and green M&Ms, and, of course, the perennial sex and love. "Great courage must account for such complete disregard of political correctness, and great sensitivity for such sadness." —Amanda Filipacchi, author of Vapor and Nude Men
Kiss Your Fat Goodbye: The Ultimate Guide to Losing Weight and Building a Healthy Body for Life
by Gary NullLeading natural health expert Gary Null has devoted his life to helping people feel better about their bodies, and in this groundbreaking book he presents a surefire plan to help you lose weight--and keep it off. Based on Null's research with over a thousand volunteers and more than thirty-five years as a health educator,Kiss Your Fat Goodbye explores the science behind weight gain and provides an easy-to-follow weight-loss regimen based on all-natural nutrition, exercise, and holistic therapies. Complete with a thirty-one-day eating plan packed with delicious, low-fat recipes that can be tailored to your individual needs, Kiss Your Fat Goodbye shows you how to jump-start your metabolism and develop healthier, lifelong eating habits. You will learn how to: --Listen to your body and determine your unique dietary needs --Use detoxification as the key to weight-loss success--safely and effectively --Reduce with juice and blend a variety of slimming, health-enhancing beverages --Use the 125 recipes in the eating plan to prepare appetizing, slenderizing dishes--from breakfast to dessert --Choose vitamins and supplements that will boost your weight-loss efforts --Develop a personalized exercise regimen--and stick with it --Use stress management and self-actualization techniques to set personal goals, improve your body image, and stay positive and energized Best of all, with Kiss Your Fat Goodbye the inches and pounds you lose are secondary to what you gain: a lifetime of confidence, happiness, good eating, and good health.
Knowledge And Mind: A Philosophical Introduction
by Andrew Brook Robert J. StaintonThis is the only contemporary text to cover both epistemology and philosophy of the mind at an introductory level.
La Destrucción de la Atlántida: Convincente evidencia de la repentina caída de la legendaria civilización
by Frank JosephTodas culturas indígenas comparten el mito de un antiguo diluvio. En su libro La Destrucción de la Atlántida, autor Frank Joseph enlaza este fenómeno mundial con la historia de la civilización perdida de la Atlántida. Este cuento extenso com-bina 20 años de investigación con una imaginativa y pasmosa representación de un gran imperio corrompido por una gran codicia por la riqueza y el poder, ofreciendo una lección importante para nuestra civilización materialista.
La Perfección Del Alma
by Sylvia BrowneSylvia Browne brings you Book 2 of her exciting Journey of the Soul series. A great mystery is solved in this book—namely, what is the meaning of life? Every human being will wonder, at some point in time, Why am I here? We know that many teachers and great scholars have pondered this question, but with no truly definitive answer. This leaves most of us with a feeling of being incomplete in some way. Sylvia helps you go to that place of completeness in this intriguing book.
La cábala y el poder de soñar: Despertar a una vida visionaria
by Catherine ShainbergUna dinámica exposición de la antigua y arraigada tradición sefardí de soñar que nos legó el renombrado cabalista del siglo XIII Isaac el Ciego • Incluye ejercicios y prácticas para acceder por propia voluntad al estado onírico con la finalidad de relacionarse con la vida en un estado de conciencia potenciada • Escrito por la asidua discípula de la estimada cabalista Colette Aboulker-Muscat En La cábala y el poder de soñar, Catherine Shainberg expone prácticas esotéricas que nos permiten desbloquear los poderes transformativos e intuitivos de la mente cuando soñamos. Se trata de prácticas utilizadas por profetas, videntes y sabios de la antigüedad para controlar los sueños y las visiones. Shainberg se basa en la antigua tradición sefardí de la cábala, así como en relatos y mitos ilustrativos de toda la región mediterránea, para enseñar a los lectores a beneficiarse del poder intuitivo de sus sueños. Shainberg nos muestra que soñar no es un fenómeno que simplemente sucede mientras dormimos, sino que soñamos en todo momento. Al enseñar a la mente consciente a estar despierta durante el sueño, y a la mente ensoñadora a manifestarse en la conciencia diurna, seremos capaces de revolucionar nuestra conciencia. Los ejercicios de visión interior propuestos por la autora estimulan imágenes creativas y transformativas que van definiendo el sendero a la autorrealización.
La medicina de ayahuasca: El mundo chamánico de la sanación con plantas sagradas de la Amazonía
by Alan ShoemakerUn relato de primera mano sobre el camino para llegar a ser ayahuasquero, el chamán que cura con la vid de la clarividente ayahuasca• Describe el entrenamiento y la vida del autor como un curandero que usa la medicina de ayahuasca, el cactus de San Pedro, purgas de tabaco, hongos sicodélicos y otras plantas visionarias• Ofrece relatos de primera mano sobre sanaciones milagrosas en las que la ayahuasca reveló la causa de la enfermedad, e incluso cómo el autor le curó el cáncer de hígado a su madre• Muestra cómo el “turismo de la ayahuasca” simboliza la necesidad de un nuevo despertar en Occidente que le permita conectarse con la energía vital universalPor más de 20 años, Alan Shoemaker vivió como aprendiz de chamanes en Ecuador y Perú, donde conoció los métodos tradicionales para la preparación de la ayahuasca, las ceremonias rituales para su uso y cómo comunicarse con el espíritu sanador de plantas sagradas. Ahora, como un renombrado ayahuasquero, nos ofrece un recuento de primera mano de las costumbres de sus dos maestros y guías principales: Don Juan, un ayahuasquero de la Amazonía peruana, y Valentín, un chamán del cactus San Pedro, en Ecuador.
La mente inmortal: La ciencia y la continuidad de la conciencia más allá del cerebro
by Ervin Laszlo Anthony PeakePruebas científicas de la presencia continua de la conciencia, aunque no esté vinculada con un organismo vivo• Examina los descubrimientos acerca de la supervivencia de la conciencia más allá de la vida, incluidas las experiencias cercanas a la muerte, la comunicación después de la muerte y la reencarnación• Explica cómo ello se correlaciona con exactitud con novedosas teorías físicas sobre las supercuerdas, los campos de información y las matrices energéticas• Revela que la conciencia se manifiesta en los seres vivos para continuar su evoluciónLaszlo y Peake plantean que la conciencia está presente ininterrumpidamente en el cosmos y puede existir sin estar vinculada con un organismo vivo. Entre las pruebas científicas en que se basa ese punto de vista figuran las experiencias cercanas a la muerte, la comunicación después de la muerte y la información neurosensorial recibida en estados alterados. Dicha persistencia de la conciencia se correlaciona con exactitud con los últimos adelantos de la Física, que postula que las cosas en nuestro plano espacio-temporal no son intrínsecamente reales sino manifestaciones de una dimensión velada en la que existen en forma de supercuerdas, campos de información y matrices energéticas.
Land of the Fallen Star Gods: The Celestial Origins of Ancient Egypt
by J. S. GordonA radical reinterpretation of Egypt’s ancient origins and its esoteric philosophy • Explains how the “spontaneous” appearance of Egyptian civilization 5,000 years ago represents the remnants of an ancient worldwide advanced culture • Explores astrophysical, geophysical, and anthropological evidence of forgotten civilizations beneath the Mediterranean and along the coast of northwestern Africa • Examines the mystical traditions and initiatory rituals of the ancient Egyptians and their sophisticated understanding of precession, human evolution, and divine purpose Radically reinterpreting the time line of prehistory, J. S. Gordon shows that Egyptian civilization is 50,000 years older than acknowledged by Egyptology. He explores astrophysical, cosmological, geophysical, linguistic, and anthropological evidence to reveal forgotten civilizations hidden beneath the Mediterranean and along the coast of northwestern Africa. He explains how the “spontaneous” full-fledged appearance of Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations 5,000 years ago represents not the birth of civilization but the remnants of an immensely ancient and sophisticated worldwide culture ranging from Tibet and China to Atlantis and the vastly larger continent of which it once was part. Examining the mystical traditions and initiatory rituals of the ancient Egyptians, Gordon shows that they were not a culture obsessed with death and tombs but one structured around cosmic knowledge, with an astronomical competence that modern science has yet to attain. He reveals their sophisticated understanding of the precession of the equinoxes and its inextricable connection to human evolution and divine purpose--an understanding that could only have arisen from many millennia of high-level observation. Illustrating in detail the sacred geometry of the Great Pyramid and the Giza site, Gordon explains how the coherence of Egyptian mystico-scientific concepts and their art, architecture, and engineering reveals a mission to achieve a “reflection of Heaven on Earth” through the careful location, orientation, and stellar alignment of their temples. He shows the Egyptian Mystery School and its scientific knowledge and universal spiritual philosophy to be a legacy left to the ancient Egyptians by the “fallen star gods,” divine celestial beings who came to Earth long ago and founded the original now forgotten culture--and who will return again with the turning of the Great Year.
Las enseñanzas secretas de las plantas: La inteligencia del corazón en la percepción directa de la naturaleza
by Stephen Harrod BuhnerRevela el uso de la percepción directa en la comprensión de la naturaleza, las plantas medicinales, y la sanación de las enfermedades humanas • Explora las técnicas utilizadas por los pueblos aborígenes y occidentales para aprender directamente de las propias plantas, incluidas las técnicas de Henry David Thoreau, Goethe, y Masanobu Fukuoka, autor de The One Straw Revolution [La revolución de una brizna de paja] Todos los pueblos antiguos y aborígenes afirman que sus conocimientos sobre remedios botánicos provienen de las propias plantas y no de la experimentación a través de pruebas y errores. El autor Stephen Harrod Buhner explora minuciosamente esta modalidad de cognición holística basada en el corazón a través de la obra de Luther Burbank, quien cultivó la mayoría de las plantas alimenticias que ahora consumimos sin pensar en su procedencia, y del gran poeta y científico alemán Goethe. Los lectores obtendrán los medios necesarios para recopilar información directamente del corazón de la naturaleza, aprender los usos medicinales de las plantas diagnosticar enfermedades, y comprender el proceso de creación de alma que se engendra mediante esa profunda conexión con el mundo.
Las frecuencias de los chakras: El tantra del sonido
by Jonathan Goldman Andi GoldmanCómo utilizar la ciencia de la sanación con sonidos para alcanzar un estado superior de la conciencia, fortalecer las relaciones, promover la unidad planetaria y contribuir a la sanación física y emocional • Ofrece ejercicios de respiración, entonación, sonidos sagrados y cánticos de mantras de las bijas para activar y balancear los chakras a fin de mejorar la salud y la armonía • Muestra cómo practicar la sanación con sonidos por cuenta propia o con un acompañante, para mejorar la comunicación, reducir el estrés y crear equilibrio y paz interior En esta guía detallada, Jonathan y Andi Goldman demuestran cómo la voz humana puede hacer que entren en resonancia nuestros cuerpos físicos y sutiles, con poderosos ejercicios que van desde los mantras de las bijas hasta sonidos vocálicos sagrados que balancean y alinean los chakras. Con ejercicios de respiración, entonación, cánticos de mantras y sonidos simientes, los autores indican cómo practicar la sanación con el sonido individualmente o con una pareja. Se incluyen además ejercicios con diapasones pitagóricos, cuencos de cristal, cuencos cantores y campanillas tibetanas.
Las nuevas reglas de la postura: Cómo sentarse, pararse, y moverse en el mundo moderno
by Mary BondUn manual para entender la mejor forma de vivir dentro del cuerpo humano en un mundo sedentario • Contiene ejercicios de autoayuda e información de ergonomía para ayudarnos a corregir patrones de movimiento poco saludables • Nos enseña cómo identificar los componentes anatómicos y emocionales de la postura para poder sanar los dolores crónicos • Sirve como útil herramienta para quiroprácticos, terapeutas físicos, masajistas y sus pacientes Muchas personas se provocan sus propios dolores de espalda y del cuerpo debido a sus malos hábitos cotidianos de postura y movimiento. Muchos se dan cuenta de que su mala postura es probablemente la raíz del problema, pero no consiguen cambiar sus hábitos establecidos. En Las nuevas reglas de la postura, Mary Bond aborda el tema de los cambios de postura desde adentro hacia afuera. La autora explica que podemos aprender a percatarnos de un nuevo sentido que nos ayudará a mantener una postura saludable, en lugar de intentar hacerlo mediante el entrenamiento de los músculos hasta que adquieran una forma ideal. Basada en su experiencia de 35 años de ayudar a la gente a mejorar su estado físico, Mary Bond nos revela cómo los factores emocionales pueden hacernos asumir posturas poco saludables.
Las prácticas sexuales del Quodoushka: Enseñanzas de las tradiciones naguales
by Amara CharlesEjercicios prácticos para alcanzar niveles más elevados de orgasmo, renovar las relaciones y descubrir el poder sanador del sexo • Se ilustra cómo identificar y proporcionar la mayor satisfacción posible a los nueve tipos de anatomía genital masculina y femenina, como los del “hombre coyote” o la “mujer búfala” • Se presentan ejercicios para la obtención de mayor placer sexual e intensidad del orgasmo • Se explica cómo realizar una poderosa labor de sanación con energías sexuales, con los chacras y el cuerpo de luz La práctica del Quodoushka, que se basa en antiguas enseñanzas mayas, olmecas y toltecas, trasmitidas de generación en generación por los ancianos naguales del cabello torcido del sendero de la dulce medicina de la danza del sol, ofrece orientación práctica sobre el sexo, la intimidad y las relaciones y sobre cómo alcanzar niveles más elevados de orgasmo y éxtasis sexual. Al trabajar con el poder de sanación de la unión sexual y el orgasmo, esta práctica ofrece un sendero que permite reparar heridas emocionales e inseguridades sexuales, revivir relaciones monótonas y descubrir la dulce medicina del sexo. La instructora Amara Charles, iniciada en el Quodoushka, explica las cualidades físicas, energéticas y sexuales de los nueve tipos de anatomía genital masculina y femenina --como los del “hombre coyote” o la “mujer búfala”-- y cómo identificar y proporcionar la mayor satisfacción posible a cada tipo, además de enorgullecerse del carácter especial de su propia anatomía. La autora describe las nueve variaciones de la expresión orgásmica (desde la “avalancha” hasta el “incendio forestal”) y presenta ejercicios para la obtención de un mayor placer sexual e intensidad del orgasmo. La práctica del Quodoushka, que abarca el trabajo con energías sexuales con los chacras y el cuerpo de luz, así como ceremonias orientadas a incorporar lo sagrado en sus uniones amorosas, revela cómo podemos convertirnos en amantes más sensibles y creativos a través del placer.
Latina Beauty: A Get Gorgeous Guide for Every Mujer
by Belen Aranda-Alvarado Christy Haubegger"Latina" magazine presents the first total beauty guide exclusively for the rapidly expanding market of Hispanic women. Packed with information, inspiration, and celebrity insight, "Latina Beauty" celebrates what makes Hispanic women so distinct, so powerful, and so beautiful.
Laughter: A Scientific Investigation
by Robert R. ProvineWhy do we laugh? Laughter has surprisingly little to do with jokes and funny stories. It is an ancient, unconsciously controlled vocal relic that co-exists with our relatively modern speech - a social, psychological and biological act which predates humour and is sharedwith our primate cousins, the great apes. In this fascinating book Robert Provine uses laughter as a powerful probe into human social relationships, revealing that tickling is a form of tactilecommunication, not a reflex; that women laugh more at men than vice-versa; that speakers laugh more than their audiences; and that laughter is mostly about relationships, not jokes. Using the latest evidence, Provine describes laughter using sonic analysis and opera scores, evaluates whether you can 'laugh you way to health', considers what laughter shows about neuropathology, and suggests how to change environments to increase laughter. The first book to establish laughter as a topic of scientific worth, Laughter also includes such esoterica as the history of holy laughter, laughing gas, canned laughter, and a description of the Tanganyikan laughter epidemic that immobilized an entire school district in 1962.
Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life
by Philip SimmonsA &“reflective, eloquent [and] inspiringly written&” (The New York Times) collection of essays about learning to live richly in the face of loss &“Astonishing . . . sometimes heartbreaking . . . sometimes hilarious.&”—The Boston Globe WINNER OF THE BOOKS FOR A BETTER LIFE AWARD&’S BEST SPIRITUAL BOOKPhilip Simmons was just thirty-five years old in 1993 when he learned that he had ALS, or Lou Gehrig&’s disease, and was told he had less than five years to live. As a young husband and father, and at the start of a promising literary career, he suddenly had to learn the art of dying. Nine years later, he succeeded, against the odds, in learning the art of living. In this surprisingly joyous and spirit-renewing book, he chronicles his search for peace and his deepening relationship with the mystery of everyday life. From our first faltering steps, Simmons says, we may fall into disappointment or grief, fall into or out of love, fall from youth or health. And though we have little choice as to the timing or means of our descent, we may, as he affirms, &“fall with grace, to grace.&”With humor, hard-earned wisdom, and a keen eye for life&’s lessons—whether drawn from great poetry or visits to the town dump—Simmons shares his discovery that even at times of great sorrow we may find profound freedom. And by sharing the wonder of his daily life, he offers us the gift of connecting more deeply and joyously with our own.
Liberating Yourself from Lyme: An Integrative and Intuitive Guide to Healing Lyme Disease
by Vir McCoy Kara ZahlLearn to understand what your body is telling you and discover the optimum treatment path for your unique Lyme symptoms • Shares the authors&’ 10-year journeys to overcome chronic Lyme and details their successful healing protocol • Reveals how to increase your sensitivity to what your body is telling you to discover remedies and healing actions for your individual symptoms • Explores the antibiotics, herbs, diet, exercise, beliefs, immune health, and self-healing meditations that the authors used for a complete healing For some people, recovering from a Lyme disease infection can become an endless battle with physical, mental, and neurological symptoms, especially if it&’s not diagnosed early. After they both contracted Lyme in 2001, Vir McCoy and Kara Zahl embarked on standard antibiotic protocols. Soon they both began to have intuitive or sensory impressions about specific remedies their bodies needed, the nature of the disease, and why they were chronically ill. Backing up their intuitive impressions with scientific evidence, they developed a protocol that brought them each a full recovery after nearly 10 years battling chronic Lyme. In this medical intuitive approach to Lyme, the authors share their personal Lyme journeys and their integrative healing protocol that bridges the scientific and the spiritual. They explore the peculiarities of Lyme disease, including how Lyme is often misdiagnosed, giving it time to establish itself deep within the body&’s organs and nervous system, and examine in detail new and standard remedies, with thorough scientific references. They share the spiritual/psychological strategies they successfully employed against Lyme and its coinfections and explain how to increase your sensitivity to what your body is telling you to discover natural remedies and healing actions unique to your individual symptoms. Outlining a program of herbs, diet, and exercise that can work in tandem with traditional Lyme treatments, they also explore how to help the body get rid of this pathogen that possesses an incredible ability to adapt to various treatments and thwart their effectiveness. Expanding beyond Lyme, the authors offer self-help meditations to help you heal on a deeper level and explain how to access the &“holographic medicine chest&” to draw on for stronger immunity, energetic healing, and support at any time.
Life On The Other Side: A psychic's tour of the afterlife
by Sylvia BrowneIn Life on The Other Side, Sylvia Browne explains what happens when we die; what The Other Side looks like; who's waiting for us on The Other Side; how we spend out time on The Other Side; why and how we return from The Other Side. With her trademark warm and down-to-earth style, Sylvia Browne's insights into the afterlife are utterly compelling yet wonderfully reassuring. Sylvia looks over her lifelong career as a psychic, using past experiences, readings, hypnosis sessions and research to illustrate her findings about The Other Side. For the very first time, we are shown an unprecedented view of a peaceful place where our departed loved ones are patiently awaiting us - and where the next leg of our eternal journey will begin. This book is absolutely unforgettable!
Light: How We Can Use It to Heal Ourselves NOW
by Jacob LibermanLight: Medicine of the Future challenges the modern myth that the sun is dangerous to our well-being and claims that technological advancements, such as most fluorescent lighting, sunglasses, tanning lotions, and our indoor lifestyles, may be more harmful than helpful. Integrating scientific research, clinical experience, and his own insights, Dr. Jacob Liberman has worked effectively with more than 15,000 individuals, from the learning disabled and physically/emotionally traumatized to business executives and Olympic athletes. The book discusses the use of light in the treatment of various cancers, depression, stress, visual problems, PMS, sexual dysfunction, learning disabilities, and the human immune system.
Lighting the Path: The Dalai Lama teaches on wisdom and compassion
by The Dalai LamaIn this accessible and important follow up to The Art of Happiness His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches us how to live a happier and more spiritual life by fostering compassion and wisdom.Filled with his trademark honesty and warmth, this book explains how practically applying the values of Buddhism can help you find answers to both the everyday problems we face - relationships, health, work and happiness - and the major issues and changes facing humanity today including globalisation, technology and terrorism.Drawn from the Dalai Lama's teachings during his fourth visit to Australia and New Zealand, which focused on gaining strength through compassion, Lighting the Path reminds us that we each have the ability to change our own life for the better, and the power to improve the lives of others as well.Explaining the central tenets of Buddhism, including the Four Noble Truths, Atisha's Lamp for the Path of Enlightenment and the Eight Verses of Mind Training, this book will give you the practical guidance you need to deal with life's challenges and help you develop inner peace.
Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival
by T. S. Wiley Bent FormbyWhen it comes to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and depression, everything you believe is a lie. With research gleaned from the National Institutes of Health, T. S. Wiley and Bent Formby deliver staggering findings: Americans really are sick from being tired. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and depression are rising in our population. We're literally dying for a good night's sleep. Our lifestyle wasn't always this way. It began with the invention of the lightbulb. When we don't get enough sleep in sync with seasonal light exposure, we fundamentally alter a balance of nature that has been programmed into our physiology since Day One. This delicate biological rhythm rules the hormones and neurotransmitters that determine appetite, fertility, and mental and physical health. When we rely on artificial light to extend our day until 11 PM, midnight, and beyond, we fool our bodies into living in a perpetual state of summer. Anticipating the scarce food supply and forced inactivity of winter, our bodies begin storing fat and slowing metabolism to sustain us through the months of hibernation and hunger that never arrive. Our own survival instinct, honed over millennia, is now killing us. Wiley and Formby also reveal: That studies from our own government research prove the role of sleeplessness in diabetes, heart disease, cancer, infertility, mental illness, and premature aging; Why the carbohydrate-rich diets recommended by many health professionals are not only ridiculously ineffective but deadly; Why the lifesaving information that can turn things around is one of the best-kept secrets of our day. Lights Out is one wake-up call none of us can afford to miss.
Like Normal People
by Karen E. BenderFrom the book Jacket: A tour de force of emotional resonance, Like Normal People is a debut that has earned exceptional early attention. Portions of the novel have been published in The New Yorker, Granta, and Story magazine. An excerpt chosen for The Best American Short Stories by Annie Proulx was recorded by Joanne Woodward and aired on NPR's Selected Shorts. Like Normal People charts a family constellation that revolves around an off- kilter center: Lena, who is forty-eight but mentally locked in childhood. Moving deftly between present and past, the novel follows Lena's day-long escape from her residential home with her troubled twelve-year-old niece. While this odd couple takes refuge on a honky-tonk southern California beach, Lena's widowed mother, Ella, goes in search of them. In the process, Ella relives her own life's dreams and disappointments: her marriage to a sweet, loving shoe salesman; her discovery of Lena's handicap and her aching attempts to give her daughter a "normal" childhood. For so long, Lena has been the focus of Ella's world. When Lena at last finds approximate normalcy - by marrying a man much like herself - Ella must contend with letting her daughter go. Covering three entire lifetimes in the course of one day, Like Normal People is tender, hilarious, and heartbreaking. Bender brilliantly enters into the consciousness of three women at very different stages of life, each on a private search for love and acceptance. Like Normal People is a novel about desire, about what constitutes normality, and, most poignantly, about the ways in which a family finds its strength in the face of adversity. Portions of Karen E. Bender's Like Normal People appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1997 and in The New Yorker. Bender's fiction has also appeared in Granta, Story, the Iowa Review, and the Kenyon Review and has been -reprinted in Pushcart Prize XVIII and other anthologies. The recipient of the prestigious Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, Bender lives in New York City with her husband, the writer Robert Anthony Siegel, and their son.