Download or read book Amanda in LA written by Lyanne Hamm and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2023-03-17 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mexico City, Jose Manuel Rodriguez is ready to leave Mexico City for Los Angeles on a cultural exchange program. He pats his breast pocket where his airline tickets rest securely. Seat 14A...suddenly, he feels a sharp pain in his back. His lifeless body is thrown in a creek bed with no identification. The man seated in 14A is met in LA and whisked to the eagerly awaiting Methodist Church family. They are unaware of his real identity. In Los Angeles, Amanda Wright is a beautiful twenty-five-year-old single woman whose parents were recently killed in an airplane crash. She has arrived from Nebraska to relocate with her sixty-five-year-old maternal grandmother, Daisy Downing. In the process of healing their grief and starting a musical career for Amanda, our two heroines concentrate their time in two places: the Methodist church and Nicky’s Place—a high-end bar. Nicky has listened to Amanda’s tape, and her lovely voice convinces him to build a small showplace for her. She will sing there in the evenings and work part-time in the church which her grandmother attends. In getting ready for Amanda’s opening, Daisy and Amanda meet Loretta—a specialist in sound equipment. She takes them to the Signal Inn—a bar where she has just installed a top-of-the-line sound system. Loretta introduces them to Rod, the pianist, and he agrees to help Amanda get started at Nicky’s Place. While at the church, she realizes it is not the haven she thought it would be as it offers up disturbing, even spooky, experiences. Whereas the bar, which she thought might be stressful, becomes a friendly home for her talent. Amanda, in her loneliness after her parents’ deaths, wrote a song which she sings in three different places: the church, Rod’s workplace (the Signal Inn), and at her opening at Nicky’s Place. It reflects the theme of the book: being able to reach out to others for what you need, knowing your happiness is not dependent on just one or two people who love you. Love is all around you.

Download or read book Smile and Look Pretty written by Amanda Pellegrino and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] 9 to 5 for the Instagram generation... Darkly funny and bitingly modern.” —Andrea Bartz, author of Reese’s Book Club Pick We Were Never Here HIGHLY ANTICIPATED BY FORTUNE ⋅ FEMINIST BOOK CLUB ⋅ THE NERD DAILY ⋅ BOOKISH ⋅ MOTHERLY What happens when four assistants risk everything to say enough is enough? Best friends Cate, Lauren, Olivia and Max are overworked and underpaid assistants to some of the most powerful people in the entertainment industries. Like the assistants who came before them, the women know they have to pay their dues and abide the demeaning tasks and verbal abuse from their bosses in order to climb the ladders to their dream jobs. But as they are passed over for promotions and the toxic office environments reach a breaking point, the women secretly start an anonymous blog detailing their experiences, which snowballs into hundreds of others coming forward with stories of their own. Confronted with newfound viral fame and the possibility of their identities being revealed, the assistants have to contend with the life-changing consequences of speaking out against those who refuse to share the power.

Download or read book High Conflict written by Amanda Ripley and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the tradition of bestselling explainers like The Tipping Point, [this] book [is] based on cutting edge science that breaks down the idea of extreme conflict--the kind that paralyzes people and places--and then shows how to escape it"--

Download or read book Initiated written by Amanda Yates Garcia and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes meets Women Who Run With The Wolves in this "gorgeously written, fierce, political, personal, and deeply inspiring" (Michelle Tea) memoir about finding meaning, beauty, and power through a life in witchcraft. An initiation signals a beginning: a door opens and you step through. Traditional Wiccan initiates are usually brought into the craft through a ceremony with a High Priestess. But even though Amanda Yates Garcia's mother, a practicing witch herself, initiated her into the earth-centered practice of witchcraft when she was 13 years old, Amanda's real life as a witch only began when she underwent a series of spontaneous initiations of her own. Descending into the underworlds of poverty, sex work, and misogyny, Initiated describes Amanda's journey to return to her body, harness her power, and create the magical world she longed for through witchcraft. Hailed by crows, seduced by magicians, and haunted by ancestors broken beneath the wheels of patriarchy, Amanda's quest for self-discovery and empowerment is a deep exploration of a modern witch's trials - healing ancient wounds, chafing against cultural expectations, creating intimacy - all while on a mission to re-enchant the world. Peppered with mythology, tales of the goddesses and magical women throughout history, Initiated stands squarely at the intersection of witchcraft and feminism. With generosity and heart, this book speaks to the question: is it possible to live a life of beauty and integrity in a world that feels like it's dying? Declaring oneself a witch and practicing magic has everything to do with claiming authority and power for oneself, of taking back our planet in the name of Love. Initiated is both memoir and manifesto calling the magical people of the world to take up their wands: stand up, be brave, describe the world they want, then create it like a witch.

Download or read book The Art of Asking written by Amanda Palmer and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FOREWORD BY BRENE BROWN and POSTSCRIPT FROM BRAIN PICKINGS CREATOR MARIA POPOVA Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world's most successful music Kickstarter. Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for-as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife. She learns that she isn't alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of THE ART OF ASKING. Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. THE ART OF ASKING will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.

Download or read book Cultish written by Amanda Montell and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power. What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . . Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day. Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.

Download or read book Le Renard Argent written by Paul Briggs and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-19 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sergeant Utley is good at two things in life: playing baseball and fighting Nazis. In Le Renard Argenté, he does both. The vignettes of Le Renard Argenté meld the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2017 and 2018 baseball seasons with the battlefields of World War II for a journey into purely speculative, deeply absurdist alternate history. "Space, the final frontier ... or so I thought, until I traveled to the world of Le Renard Argenté. This project looked deep within my soul, and my soul blinked. Like Chase Utley himself, it emerges from the foggy, hard-bitten quiet into a being of unexpected beauty, a testimony to tenacity and the adaptability of experience. Which is to say, it's a big smile." - Jon Weisman, author, Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers' Extraordinary Pitching Tradition "Ms. Smith hilariously takes you into a different reality to tell a story with perhaps the most unique of perspectives. Surreal and bizarre, ridiculous and hysterical. She turns the ultimate grinder into the ultimate Basterd." - Adam Amin, ESPN Broadcaster "Do I like the book? I mean, I don't dislike it." - Keith Law, Senior Baseball Writer ESPN and Twitter Bon Vivant

Download or read book Change Sings written by Amanda Gorman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lyrical picture book debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long "I can hear change humming In its loudest, proudest song. I don't fear change coming, And so I sing along." In this stirring, much-anticipated picture book by presidential inaugural poet and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes—big or small—in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves. With lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations that build to a dazzling crescendo by #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long, Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.

Download or read book All of Us Villains written by Amanda Foody and published by Tor Teen. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An Indie Bestseller! An Indie Next Pick! The blockbuster co-writing debut of Amanda Foody and C. L. Herman, All of Us Villains begins a dark tale of ambition and magick... You Fell in Love with the Victors of the Hunger Games. Now Prepare to Meet the Villains of the Blood Veil. The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins. Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death. The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world—one thought long depleted. But this year a scandalous tell-all book has exposed the tournament and thrust the seven new champions into the worldwide spotlight. The book also granted them valuable information previous champions never had—insight into the other families’ strategies, secrets, and weaknesses. And most important, it gave them a choice: accept their fate or rewrite their legacy. Either way, this is a story that must be penned in blood. The All of Us Villains Duology: #1) All of Us Villains #2) All of Our Demise At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Wordslut written by Amanda Montell and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I get so jazzed about the future of feminism knowing that Amanda Montell’s brilliance is rising up and about to explode worldwide.”—Jill Soloway A brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us. The word bitch conjures many images, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean “a female canine,” bitch didn’t refer to women at all—it originated as a gender-neutral word for “genitalia.” A perfectly innocuous word devolving into an insult directed at females is the case for tons more terms, including hussy, which simply meant “housewife”; and slut, which meant “an untidy person” and was also used to describe men. These are just a few of history’s many English slurs hurled at women. Amanda Montell, reporter and feminist linguist, deconstructs language—from insults, cursing, gossip, and catcalling to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women and other marginalized genders from power. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women speak with vocal fry or use like as filler? Or why certain gender-neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or where stereotypes of how women and men speak come from in the first place? Montell effortlessly moves between history, science, and popular culture to explore these questions—and how we can use the answers to affect real social change. Montell’s irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but downright hilarious and profound. Wordslut gets to the heart of our language, marvels at its elasticity, and sheds much-needed light on the biases that shadow women in our culture and our consciousness.

Download or read book The Hill We Climb written by Amanda Gorman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant #1 New York Times bestseller and #1 USA Today bestseller Amanda Gorman’s electrifying and historic poem “The Hill We Climb,” read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, is now available as a collectible gift edition. “Stunning.” —CNN “Dynamic.” —NPR “Deeply rousing and uplifting.” —Vogue On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman became the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. Taking the stage after the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, Gorman captivated the nation and brought hope to viewers around the globe with her call for unity and healing. Her poem “The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country” can now be cherished in this special gift edition, perfect for any reader looking for some inspiration. Including an enduring foreword by Oprah Winfrey, this remarkable keepsake celebrates the promise of America and affirms the power of poetry.

Download or read book Losing Dad Paranoid Schizophrenia written by Amanda LaPera and published by . This book was released on 2024-01-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No drugs. No alcohol. So, how does a fifty-three-year-old develop schizophrenia? That's the question puzzling Joseph's family when his mind descends into madness, filled with grandiose delusions and paranoia. He traverses several continents as a self-proclaimed prophet of God. Then he disappears.His wife and three kids race to find answers before he slips away forever. Their biggest fear-he will die a faceless stranger on the streets. Alone. Winner of a Benjamin Franklin Silver Award in the category of psychology, Losing Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Family's Search for Hope is a compelling true story told through multiple perspectives-the children, spouse, and patient; it offers a rare glimpse into a world that will either feel hauntingly familiar or shocking. The Foreword written by Xavier Amador, Ph.D., Founder, LEAP Institute, Author, I am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help! (Vida Press 2012) explains the neurological condition of anosognosia; provided supplemental materials include a list of resources; discussion of mental health laws; exclusive author and family member interviews; as well as reading guide questions useful for book clubs, classroom discussion, case study, or professional education for those in medical, mental health, law enforcement, political, and legal fields to better understand the societal and psychological impacts of mental illness, both as experienced by family caregivers and the community. Ideal for Advanced Topics in Psychopathology books portraying lived experiences. Severe mental illness affects one in seventeen and can develop inside any mind at any time. It impacts the entire family.

Download or read book A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise written by Sandy Allen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Compelling…A bracing work of art and a loving tribute” (Los Angeles Times), this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before. Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. As a child, Sandy had been told Bob was “crazy,” that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than Sandy had been alive, and what little Sandy knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009 Bob mailed Sandy his autobiography. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences more than sixty, single-spaced pages, the often-incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a “true story” about being “labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic,” and arrived with a plea to help him get his story out to the world. “Searing” (O, The Oprah Magazine), “enthralling” (Star-Tribune, Minneapolis), and “a marvel” (Esquire), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise shows how Sandy translated Bob’s autobiography, artfully creating a gripping coming-of-age story while sticking faithfully to the facts as he shared them. Sandy also shares background information about their family, the culturally explosive time and place of their uncle’s formative years, and the vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America more broadly. The result is a heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of a young man striving for stability in his life as well as his mind, and an utterly unique lens into an experience that, to most people, remains unimaginable. “Thrilling…Gorgeous…a watershed in empathetic adaptation of ‘outsider’ autobiography” (The New Republic), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is a dazzlingly, daringly written book that’s poised to change conversations about schizophrenia and mental illness overall.

Download or read book The Second Life of Mirielle West written by Amanda Skenandore and published by Kensington Books. This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The glamorous world of a silent film star’s wife abruptly crumbles when she’s forcibly quarantined at the Carville Lepers Home in this page-turning story of courage, resilience, and reinvention set in 1920s Louisiana and Los Angeles. Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord with readers of Fiona Davis, Tracey Lange, and Marie Benedict. Based on the true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century. For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease. At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate. As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore’s medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville – the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring ‘20s, The Second Life of Mirielle West is also the story of a health crisis in America’s past, made all the more poignant by the author’s experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis. PRAISE FOR AMANDA SKENANDORE’S BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY “Intensely emotional…Skenandore’s deeply introspective and moving novel will appeal to readers of American history.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Radical Suburbs written by Amanda Kolson Hurley and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s suburbs are not the homogenous places we sometimes take them for. Today’s suburbs are racially, ethnically, and economically diverse, with as many Democratic as Republican voters, a growing population of renters, and rising poverty. The cliche of white picket fences is well past its expiration date. The history of suburbia is equally surprising: American suburbs were once fertile ground for utopian planning, communal living, socially-conscious design, and integrated housing. We have forgotten that we built suburbs like these, such as the co-housing commune of Old Economy, Pennsylvania; a tiny-house anarchist community in Piscataway, New Jersey; a government-planned garden city in Greenbelt, Maryland; a racially integrated subdivision (before the Fair Housing Act) in Trevose, Pennsylvania; experimental Modernist enclaves in Lexington, Massachusetts; and the mixed-use, architecturally daring Reston, Virginia. Inside Radical Suburbs you will find blueprints for affordable, walkable, and integrated communities, filled with a range of environmentally sound residential options. Radical Suburbs is a history that will help us remake the future and rethink our assumptions of suburbia.

Download or read book Financial Therapy written by Bradley T. Klontz and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-09-10 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Money-related stress dates as far back as concepts of money itself. Formerly it may have waxed and waned in tune with the economy, but today more individuals are experiencing financial mental anguish and self-destructive behavior regardless of bull or bear markets, recessions or boom periods. From a fringe area of psychology, financial therapy has emerged to meet increasingly salient concerns. Financial Therapy is the first full-length guide to the field, bridging theory, practical methods, and a growing cross-disciplinary evidence base to create a framework for improving this crucial aspect of clients' lives. Its contributors identify money-based disorders such as compulsive buying, financial hoarding, and workaholism, and analyze typical early experiences and the resulting mental constructs ("money scripts") that drive toxic relationships with money. Clearly relating financial stability to larger therapeutic goals, therapists from varied perspectives offer practical tools for assessment and intervention, advise on cultural and ethical considerations, and provide instructive case studies. A diverse palette of research-based and practice-based models meets monetary mental health issues with well-known treatment approaches, among them: Cognitive-behavioral and solution-focused therapies. Collaborative relationship models. Experiential approaches. Psychodynamic financial therapy. Feminist and humanistic approaches. Stages of change and motivational interviewing in financial therapy. A text that serves to introduce and define the field as well as plan for its future, Financial Therapy is an important investment for professionals in psychotherapy and counseling, family therapy, financial planning, and social policy.

Download or read book Small Doses written by Amanda Seales and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “one-of-a-kind read” offers insightful essays, poignant life advice, and pithy pearls of wisdom from the comedian and star of HBO’s Insecure (Entertainment Weekly). Anyone who has seen Amanda Seales’s acclaimed stand-up special I Be Knowin, her long-running TV series Insecure, or her groundbreaking gameshow Smart Funny & Black, knows that this woman is a force of nature. In both life and career, she has fearlessly and passionately charted her own course. Now she’s bringing her life’s lessons and laughs to the page with her signature blend of academic intellectualism, Black American colloquialisms, and pop culture fanaticism. This volume of essays, axioms, original illustrations, and photos provides Seales’s trademark “self-help from the hip” style of commentary, fueled by ideology formed from her own victories, struggles, research, mistakes, risks, and pay-offs. Unapologetic, fiercely funny, and searingly honest, Small Doses engages, empowers, and enlightens readers on how to find their truths while still finding the funny!