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A Letter to My Grandchildren
by David SuzukiAn exclusive excerpt of one letter from David Suzuki's forthcoming book Letters to My Grandchildren. In the book, Suzuki offers grandfatherly advice to his five grandchildren, recounts stories from his own childhood, and explores what makes life meaningful. As he ponders life's deepest questions and offers up a lifetime of wisdom, Suzuki inspires us all to live with courage, conviction, and passion.All proceeds from the sale of this exclusive advance will be donated to the David Suzuki Foundation.
A Library for Juana
by Pat Mora Beatriz VidalFrom the author of Tomás and the Library Lady, an amazing, true story about the quest for knowledge that inspired one of Mexico's most famous and beloved poets, Sor Juana Inés. Juana Inés was just a little girl in a village in Mexico when she decided that the thing she wanted most in the world was her very own collection of books, just like in her grandfather's library. When she found out that she could learn to read in school, she begged to go. And when she later discovered that only boys could attend university, she dressed like a boy to show her determination to attend. Word of her great intelligence soon spread, and eventually, Juana Inés was considered one of the best scholars in the Americas-something unheard of for a woman in the 17th century.Today, this important poet is revered throughout the world and her verse is memorized by schoolchildren all over Mexico.
A Library for Juana: The World of Sor Juana Inés
by Pat MoraA biography of the seventeenth-century Mexican poet, learned in many subjects, who became a nun later in life.
A Life Almost Wasted
by David WardA story of a successful chiropractor as a young man debating if his life was worth living. He found God while climbing a tower. God guided his life and was a good partner.
A Life Among the Dead: Stories from an Irish Funeral Director
by David McGowanWhen death is a way of life . . .In A Life Among the Dead, David McGowan, Ireland's best known Funeral Director, and subject of the Award-winning Netflix documentary The Funeral Director, guides us through the business, the science and the unexplained elements of death.Alongside exploring the unique approach of Irish culture when it comes to grief and death, David seeks to demystify the process of dying and what happens to the body afterward.The only certainty when we come into this life is that we are going to leave it, and yet it's something most people are reluctant to discuss or allow themselves to think about. David's mission is to open up conversations and encourage people to have an understanding of their loved ones wishes as well as their own.Poignant, humorous and educational, this is an account of a life lived with purpose in the service of the dead.
A Life Among the Dead: Stories from an Irish Funeral Director
by David McGowanWhen death is a way of life . . .In A Life Among the Dead, David McGowan, Ireland's best known Funeral Director, and subject of the Award-winning Netflix documentary The Funeral Director, guides us through the business, the science and the unexplained elements of death.Alongside exploring the unique approach of Irish culture when it comes to grief and death, David seeks to demystify the process of dying and what happens to the body afterward.The only certainty when we come into this life is that we are going to leave it, and yet it's something most people are reluctant to discuss or allow themselves to think about. David's mission is to open up conversations and encourage people to have an understanding of their loved ones wishes as well as their own.Poignant, humorous and educational, this is an account of a life lived with purpose in the service of the dead.
A Life Beyond Boundaries: A Memoir
by Benedict AndersonAn intellectual memoir by the author of the acclaimed Imagined Communities Born in China, Benedict Anderson spent his childhood in California and Ireland, was educated in England and finally found a home at Cornell University, where he immersed himself in the growing field of Southeast Asian studies. He was expelled from Suharto's Indonesia after revealing the military to be behind the attempted coup of 1965, an event which prompted reprisals that killed up to a million communists and their supporters. Banned from the country for thirty-five years, he continued his research in Thailand and the Philippines, producing a very fine study of the Filipino novelist and patriot José Rizal in The Age of Globalization. In A Life Beyond Boundaries, Anderson recounts a life spent open to the world. Here he reveals the joys of learning languages, the importance of fieldwork, the pleasures of translation, the influence of the New Left on global thinking, the satisfactions of teaching, and a love of world literature. He discusses the ideas and inspirations behind his best-known work, Imagined Communities (1983), whose complexities changed the study of nationalism. Benedict Anderson died in Java in December 2015, soon after he had finished correcting the proofs of this book. The tributes that poured in from Asia alone suggest that his work will continue to inspire and stimulate minds young and old.From the Hardcover edition.
A Life Beyond Reason: A Father's Memoir
by Chris GabbardAn unflinching and luminous memoir that explores a father's philosophical transformation when he must reconsider the questions what makes us human? and whose life is worth living?Before becoming a father, Chris Gabbard was a fast-track academic finishing his doctoral dissertation at Stanford. A disciple of Enlightenment thinkers, he was a devotee of reason, believed in the reliability of science, and lived by the dictum that an unexamined life is not worth living. That is, until his son August was born. Despite his faith that modern medicine would not fail him, August was born with a severe traumatic brain injury as a likely result of medical error and lived as a spastic quadriplegic who was cortically blind, profoundly cognitively impaired, and nonverbal. While Gabbard tried to uncover what went wrong during the birth and adjusted to his new role raising a child with multiple disabilities, he began to rethink his commitment to Enlightenment thinkers--who would have concluded that his son was doomed to a life of suffering. But August was a happy child who brought joy to just about everyone he met in his 14 years of life--and opened up Gabbard's capacity to love. Ultimately, he comes to understand that his son is undeniably a person deserving of life. A Life Beyond Reason will challenge readers to reexamine their beliefs about who is deserving of humanity.
A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life
by J. Craig VenterThe triumphant memoir of the man behind one of the greatest feats in scientific historyOf all the scientific achievements of the past century, perhaps none can match the deciphering of the human genetic code, both for its technical brilliance and for its implications for our future. In A Life Decoded, J. Craig Venter traces his rise from an uninspired student to one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in science today. Here, Venter relates the unparalleled drama of the quest to decode the human genome-a goal he predicted he could achieve years earlier and more cheaply than the government-sponsored Human Genome Project, and one that he fulfilled in 2001. A thrilling story of detection, A Life Decoded is also a revealing, and often troubling, look at how science is practiced today.
A Life Dedicated to the Republic
by Josette BaerJosette Baer retraces the eventful life of Slovak politician Vavro ?robár, the principal figure in the implementation of Czechoslovak democracy in Slovakia. From his student days and fight for Slovak civil rights in Upper Hungary to his active resistance to German fascism, ?robár shaped Czechoslovakia's turbulent history in the first half of the twentieth century. Baer's comprehensive biography makes archived materials available to English-speaking audiences for the first time and offers unique insight into Czechoslovakia's underresearched political history.
A Life Dedicated to the Republic: Vavro Srobár's Slovak Czechoslovakism
by Josette BaerJosette Baer retraces the eventful life of Slovak politician Vavro Šrobár, the principal figure in the implementation of Czechoslovak democracy in Slovakia. From his student days and fight for Slovak civil rights in Upper Hungary to his active resistance to German fascism, Šrobár shaped Czechoslovakia's turbulent history in the first half of the twentieth century. Baer's comprehensive biography makes archived materials available to English-speaking audiences for the first time and offers unique insight into Czechoslovakia's underresearched political history.
A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in the Trash
by Alexander MastersAlexander Masters, the bestselling author of Stuart: A Life Backwards, asks you to join him in celebrating an unknown and important life left on the scrap heapIn 2001, 148 tattered and mold-covered notebooks were discovered lying among broken bricks in a skip on a building site in Cambridge. Tens of thousands of pages were filled to the edges with urgent handwriting. They were a small part of an intimate, anonymous diary, starting in 1952 and ending half a century later, a few weeks before the books were thrown out. Over five years, the award-winning biographer Alexander Masters uncovers the identity and real history of their author, with an astounding final revelation. A Life Discarded is a true, shocking, poignant, often hilarious story of an ordinary life. The author of the diaries, known only as 'I,' is the tragicomic patron saint of everyone who feels their life should have been more successful. Part thriller, part love story, part social history, A Life Discarded is a biographical detective story that unfolds with the suspense of a mystery but has all the warmth, respect, humor, and dazzling originality that made Masters's Stuart: A Life Backwards such a beloved book.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
by Azadeh WestergaardA lyrical biography of the eccentric engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla &“An elegant and enlightening look at a man who brightened the whole world.&” –Booklist, starred reviewBorn at the stroke of midnight during a lightning storm, Nikola Tesla grew up to become one of the most important electrical inventors in the world. But before working with electricity, he was a child who loved playing with the animals on his family's farm in Serbia. An inventor since childhood, Tesla's patents encompassed everything from radar and remote-control technology to wireless communications. But his greatest invention was the AC induction motor, which used alternating currents ( AC) to distribute electricity and which remains the standard for electric distribution today. Tesla's love of animals also remained constant throughout his life and led to his anointment as the Pigeon Charmer of New York for his devotion to nature's original wireless messengers.Exploring his groundbreaking inventions against the backdrop of his private life, A Life Electric introduces Nikola Tesla to young readers unlike ever before. Azadeh Westergaard's lyrical debut brings compassion and humanity to the legacy of the brilliant inventor, while the esteemed illustrator Júlia Sardà deftly brings him to life.
A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy's Gift to Medical Science
by Sarah GrayA donor mother’s powerful memoir of grief and rebirth that is also a fascinating medical science whodunit, taking us inside the world of organ, eye, tissue, and blood donation and cutting-edge scientific research.When Sarah Gray received the devastating news that her unborn son Thomas was diagnosed with anencephaly, a terminal condition, she decided she wanted his death—and life—to have meaning. In the weeks before she gave birth to her twin sons in 2010, she arranged to donate Thomas’s organs. Due to his low birth weight, they would go to research rather than transplant. As transplant donors have the opportunity to meet recipients, Sarah wanted to know how Thomas's donation would be used.That curiosity fueled a scientific odyssey that leads Sarah to some of the most prestigious scientific facilities in the country, including Harvard, Duke, and the University of Pennsylvania. Pulling back the curtain of protocol and confidentiality, she introduces the researchers who received Thomas’s donations, held his liver in their hands, studied his cells under the microscope. Sarah’s journey to find solace and understanding takes her beyond her son’s donations—offering a breathtaking overview of the world of medical research and the valiant scientists on the horizon of discovery. She goes behind the scenes at organ procurement organizations, introducing skilled technicians for whom death means saving lives, empathetic counselors, and the brilliant minds who are finding surprising and inventive ways to treat and cure disease through these donations. She also shares the moving stories of other donor families.A Life Everlasting is an unforgettable testament to hope, a tribute to life and discovery, and a portrait of unsung heroes pushing the boundaries of medical science for the benefit of all humanity.
A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence
by Jeff Duncan Steve GleasonFrom NFL player Steve Gleason, a powerful, inspiring memoir of love, heartbreak, resilience, family, and remarkable triumph in the face of ALS"Gleason is a symbol of resilience, hope and optimism.&” —The New York Times • "Steve Gleason has changed the world." –Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner • "An extraordinary book...A Life Impossible will change the way people cope, think, and live." –Mike Lupica, co-author with James Patterson of 12 Months to LiveIn 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that takes away the ability to move, talk, and breathe. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-three years old. As Steve says, he is now ten years past his expiration date.His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced. Writing using eye-tracking technology, Gleason covers his pre-ALS life through the highs and lows of his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, where he made one of the most memorable plays in Saints history, leading to a victory in the first post-Katrina home game, uplifting the city, making him a hero, and reflected in a nine-foot bronze statue outside the Superdome. Then came his heartbreaking diagnosis. Gleason lost all muscle function, he now uses Stephen Hawking-like technology to communicate, and breathes with the help of a ventilator. This book captures Gleason and his wife Michel&’s unmatched resilience as they reinvent their lives, refuse to succumb to despair, and face his disease realistically and existentially.This unsparing portrait argues that a person's true strength does not reside solely in one&’s body but also in the ability to face unfathomable adversity and still be able to love and treasure life.
A Life In School: What The Teacher Learned
by Jane TompkinsIn this text, one of America's leading literary scholars looks back on her own life in the classroom, and discovers how much of what she learned there needs to be unlearned. Jane Tompkins's memoir shows how her education shaped her in the mold of a high achiever who could read five languages but had little knowledge of herself. As she slowly awakens to the needs of her body, heart, and spirit, she discards the conventions of classroom teaching and learns what her students' lives are like. A story of spiritual awakening, Tompkins' book critiques our educational system while also paying tribute to it.
A Life In Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE
by Sarah HelmDuring World War Two the Special Operation Executive's French Section sent more than 400 agents into Occupied France -- at least 100 never returned and were reported 'Missing Believed Dead' after the war. Twelve of these were women who died in German concentration camps -- some were tortured, some were shot, and some died in the gas chambers. Vera Atkins had helped prepare these women for their missions, and when the war was over she went out to Germany to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines. But while the woman who carried out this extraordinary mission appeared quintessentially English, she was nothing of the sort. Vera Atkins, who never married, covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past. In A LIFE IN SECRETS Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera's many veils and -- with unprecedented access to official and private papers, and the cooperation of Vera's relatives -- vividly reconstructed an extraordinary life.
A Life In Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE
by Sarah HelmDuring World War Two the Special Operation Executive's French Section sent more than 400 agents into Occupied France -- at least 100 never returned and were reported 'Missing Believed Dead' after the war. Twelve of these were women who died in German concentration camps -- some were tortured, some were shot, and some died in the gas chambers. Vera Atkins had helped prepare these women for their missions, and when the war was over she went out to Germany to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines. But while the woman who carried out this extraordinary mission appeared quintessentially English, she was nothing of the sort. Vera Atkins, who never married, covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past. In A LIFE IN SECRETS Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera's many veils and -- with unprecedented access to official and private papers, and the cooperation of Vera's relatives -- vividly reconstructed an extraordinary life.
A Life Less Extraordinary
by Lav BhargavaIn this candid memoir, Lav Bhargava embarks on a self-reflective journey, sharing heartfelt anecdotes that blend humour with insightful introspection. Rather than a recounting of triumphs or regrets, the narrative focuses on the people and moments that shaped a life well-lived.The author muses on life&’s deeper truths, touching on the subtle workings of karmic destiny and the limitations of human control. With warmth and honesty, the memoir traces the gradual arc towards contentment, highlighting the lessons learnt along the way.Far from a conventional tale of success, this is a story of personal evolution—embracing flaws, unexpected teachings, and the wisdom that emerges over time. It is a testament to the enduring commitment to authenticity and the peace found in simply being oneself.At a pivotal moment in his seventies, Lav Bhargava reflects on the many roles he has played—politician, actor, social activist, husband, father—offering an honest self-appraisal shaped by decades of public service and personal growth. This is his memoir.
A Life Less Ordinary: A Memoir
by Baby HalderWhen she was very young, Baby Halder was abandoned by her mother and left with a cruel, abusive father. She was married off at twelve to a man twice her age who beat her. At fourteen, she was a mother herself. Her early life was marked by overwhelming challenges and heartbreak until, exhausted and desperate, she fled with her three children to Delhi, to work as a maid in some of the city's wealthiest homes. Expected to serve her employers' every demand, she faced a staggering workload that often left her no time to care for her own children. But she never complained, for such is the lot of the poor in modern-day India.Written without a trace of self-pity, A Life Less Ordinary is a shocking look deep inside a world of poverty and subjugation that few outsiders know about—and an inspiring true story of one remarkable woman's strength, courage, and determination to soar above her circumstances.
A Life Lived Outdoors: Reflections Of A Maine Sportsman
by George SmithFrom laugh-out-loud funny to deeply poignant, A Life Lived Outdoors presents a collection of hand-picked essays by George Smith, one of Maine's favorite outdoor writers, exploring the way life should be, could be, and sometimes is in the great state of Maine. After writing more than 850,000 words for his newspaper editorial column, over a 22-year period, George Smith had plenty to offer for this, a collection of his favorite columns. In his first book, George writes about home and camp, family and friends, life in rural Maine, hunting and fishing and other outdoor fun. Readers will also find a few columns that previously appeared in Down East magazine, and some that George wrote especially for this book.
A Life Not with Standing
by Chava Willig Levy"A Life Not with Standing" chronicles the adventures-by turns exhilarating, agonizing and amorous-of an iron lung alumna. It shatters stereotypes about people with disabilities, enabling others to view disability with pride, not prejudice. It celebrates family, faith, music, perseverance, idealism and indignation. The author's Orthodox Judaism is woven throughout, an equal part of her life. (A glossary of Jewish and Hebrew terms is included at the end of the book.) But most of all, "A Life Not with Standing" tells a story beyond Chava Willig Levy's polio chronicle: how calamities can befall innocent people and how those calamities can evolve into and, in fact, become ingredients of and prerequisites for ensuing joy.
A Life Of Our Lord For Children
by Marigold HuntDescribes the life of Jesus Christ and the establishment of his Kingdom as the Catholic Church.
A Life Of Triumph: How A Girl With Cerebral Palsy Beat The Odds To Achieve Success
by Karen A. Gorr Duane HicklerA Life of Inspiration and Hope Karen A. Gorr was born in 1937 and developed debilitating physical challenges shortly thereafter due to a prolonged illness. Her mother was a single parent with another disabled child and no familial support. When her mother became ill, she placed her children in an institution for the "feeble-minded" since no other facilities stepped up to help. Karen spent 10 years of her childhood there, and she constantly longed to escape the abuse, isolation, hunger, and neglect. A Life of Triumph is Ms. Gorr's story of how her own determination, grit, stubbornness, and a sense of humor - and the help of friends and professionals - enabled her to find a life beyond an institution. She shares her transformation from a "limp rag doll" into a scholarship student, teacher, public speaker, board member, and advocate for those with mental and physical disabilities. Along the way, Ms. Gorr learns to forgive those who caused her so much suffering, and she's blessed with what she calls the "ultimate gift" - her own perfect daughter who has made the whole journey worthwhile.
A Life Shaken: My Encounter with Parkinson's Disease
by Joel Havemann"I'm flat on my back on a couch that's too short in a windowless room in the bureau. I can't even sit at a computer, much less make a keyboard work. My arms and legs are shaking uncontrollably. Although I am only 53 years old, I have already been struggling with Parkinson's disease for seven years. And right now the disease is winning." So begins Joel Havemann's account of the insidious disease that is Parkinson's. Into his own story, Havemann weaves accessible explanations of how Parkinson's disrupts the brain's circuitry, how symptoms are managed through drugs and surgery, and how people cope with the disease's psychological challenges. The updated paperback edition brings the discussion of treatment options and research thoroughly up to date.