Download or read book THE SECRET BIRTHDAY PARTY written by Srividya Narayanan and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2024-03-07 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Secret Birthday Party is written in an epistolary style. It is about a group of friends and classmates who live in the same locality. They have not met each other for nearly four months because of COVID lockdown, so they find a reason to meet. They plan to have a party!

Download or read book Power Media and the Covid 19 Pandemic written by Stuart Price and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection provides an in-depth, interdisciplinary critique of the acts of public communication disseminated during a major global crisis. Encompassing contributions from academics working in the fields of politics, environmentalism, citizens’ rights, state theory, cultural studies, journalism, and discourse/rhetoric, the book offers an original insight into the relationship between the various social forces that contributed to the ‘Covid narrative’. The subjects analysed here include: the performance of the ‘mainstream’ media, the quality of political ‘messaging’ and argumentation, the securitised state and racism in Brazil, the growth of ‘catastrophic management’ in UK universities, emergent journalistic practices in South Africa, homelessness and punitive dispossession, the pandemic and the history of eugenics, and the Chinese media’s attempt to disguise discriminatory practices. This is one of the first comparative studies of the various rationales offered for state/corporate intervention in public life. Delving beneath established political tropes and state rhetoric, it identifies the power relations exposed by an event that was described as unprecedented and unique, but was in fact comparable to other major global disruptions. As governments insisted on distinguishing their own propaganda from unregulated disinformation, their increasingly sceptical ‘publics’ pursued their own idiosyncratic solutions to the crisis, while the apparent sacrifice of a host of citizens – from the most dedicated to the most vulnerable – suggested that inequality and exploitation remained at the heart of the social order. Power, Media, and the Covid-19 Pandemic is essential reading for students, researchers and academics in media, communication and journalism studies, politics, environmental sciences, critical discourse analysis, cultural studies, and the sociology of health.

Download or read book Gone Viral written by Justin Hart and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data and marketing consultant and statistical sage to presidential candidates, governors, businesses, and the real powers-that-be, epidemiologists, Justin Hart catalogs in a terrifying-but-sprightly manner the folly and psychosis produced by the pandemic and diagnoses the societal destruction that the massive overresponse to the COVID virus has wreaked, as well as what can be done to stop the madness and bring the world back to a modicum of rationality. WORST. DISEASE. EVER. Someone broke America. In this nightmare, neighbors have turned into agoraphobes, teachers fear their students, children are muzzled, citizens are censored, dystopian fictions have become reality, and unelected officials are creating a biometric police state. Oh wait. It’s not a nightmare. It’s our daily lives! In truth, much of this insanity didn’t start with the coronavirus pandemic (it was already latent in big government and big corporations) and it won’t end there. COVID-19’s greatest threat turned out to be . . . mental. All we had to fear was fear itself—and boy did some of us fear! The very idea of the virus weakened the immune system of America and revealed a decaying underbelly of confusion, panic, unease, and cowardice few of the strong ones suspected existed. What a horrible wake-up call! In a spate of anxious dread and gleeful power-grabbing, our health overlords threw away the pandemic response handbook and tried—beyond all reason—to protect, well, everyone. From massive over-testing to universal retail plexiglass to stay-at-home orders to stay-away-from-school orders to masking mandates to vaccine mandates to some of the worst restrictions on civil liberties in American history, this is an epic story that poses big questions about America’s future as a free society. And the odd thing is, as Justin Hart shows, the actual disease was, as pandemics go, not that threatening; most people were at minimal risk. What is really scary is the total overreaction of half the country, many governments, that lost all sense of perspective. Hart offers a hopeful prescription on how we might face the madness down and claw our way back to sanity!

Download or read book Forever 51 written by Pamela Skjolsvik and published by Fawkes Press. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Veronica is eternally fifty-one years old with a proclivity for problematic drinking. Like most hormonally challenged women negotiating the change of life, she is a hot mess. To retain her sanity, she attends weekly AA meetings and adheres to a strict diet of organic, locally-sourced, (mostly) cruelty-free human blood from the hospice facility where she works. Her life stopped being fun about a hundred years ago, right about the time her teenage daughter stole her soul and took off for California with a hot, older guy. These days, Veronica’s existence is just that – an existence, as flat and empty as her own non-reflection in the bathroom mirror. When her estranged daughter contacts her via Facebook, Veronica learns that she has one chance to escape her eternal personal summer: she must find and apologize to every one of the people she’s turned into vampires in the last century. That is, if they’re still out there. With raging hormones and a ticking clock, Veronica embarks on a last-ditch road trip to regain her mortality, reclaim her humanity, and ultimately, die on her own terms.

Download or read book The Art of Gathering written by Priya Parker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" --Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together—at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond. In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them.

Download or read book Death Becomes Us written by Pamela Skjolsvik and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-02 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost everyone with a pulse fears death, but not everyone fears life. With crippling social anxiety, I feared both. But after an accidental call to a funeral home during my mid-life crisis trip to grad school, I reluctantly embarked on a journey to explore professions that dealt with death in order to come to terms with my own mortality. (From cover).

Download or read book Alicia s Happy Day written by Meg Starr and published by Star Bright Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is Alicia's birthday and as she walks through her Latino neighborhood all her neighbors and friends help to make the day very special.

Download or read book The Gift of an Ordinary Day written by Katrina Kenison and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2009-09-07 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition, with boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, and an attempt to find a deeper sense of place—and a slower pace—in a small New England town. This is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers—holding on, letting go. Poised on the threshold between family life as she's always known it and her older son's departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all. The relationships, hopes, and dreams that Kenison illuminates will touch women's hearts, and her words will inspire mothers everywhere as they try to make peace with the inevitable changes in store.

Download or read book The Wonders of Daily Drawing written by Julia Zass and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Drawing Journal is about finding the inspiration hidden in the beauty of our everyday environment. It's a personal diary where you capture your memories through drawing, writing, and other visual mediums.You'll find it a great way to be inspired by your daily routine, develop your drawing skills, and remember special moments forever. This guide was created for all ages and drawing levels. It's for anyone who wants to try something new or feels a lack of creativity and art in their daily life.In this book, Julia Zass shares her personal experience in keeping a Drawing Journal for over 3 years and shows how you can discover the wonders of daily drawing for yourself.

Download or read book Before I Say Goodbye written by Ruth Picardie and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-09-14 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays, letters, and personal recollections in which Ruth Picardie records her feelings in the year before she died of breast cancer.

Download or read book Beach Read written by Emily Henry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION! "Original, sparkling bright, and layered with feeling."--Sally Thorne, author of The Hating Game A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They're polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

Download or read book Briar s Book Circle of Magic 4 written by Tamora Pierce and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth book in the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce.

Download or read book Bloom written by BeautyBeyondBones and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-03 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bloom: A Journal by BeautyBeyondBones takes the reader on a motivating and inspiring journey inside the mind of a young woman trapped in the cycle of anorexia, and through the raw and often painful journey to new life. Designed as an interactive, three-month daily journal with room to write, Caralyn shares the Scripture verses and quotes that were the most powerful in her own recovery from anorexia. She weaves in dramatic entries from her own journal kept during inpatient treatment, while offering present day reflections on these daily entries - ten years later as a healthy and thriving young woman.And she provocatively concludes each day with introspective questions meant to challenge the reader to deeper transformation. She speaks to the heart of the matter in words that she "wished she would have heard." A must-read and useful tool for sufferers and their loved ones alike. Now is the time to bloom.

Download or read book Memoir of a Debulked Woman Enduring Ovarian Cancer written by Susan Gubar and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-04-30 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2012 New York Times Book Review Notable Book "Staggering, searing…Ms. Gubar deserves the highest admiration for her bravery and honesty." —New York Times Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2008, Susan Gubar underwent radical debulking surgery, an attempt to excise the cancer by removing part or all of many organs in the lower abdomen. Her memoir mines the deepest levels of anguish and devotion as she struggles to come to terms with her body’s betrayal and the frightful protocols of contemporary medicine. She finds solace in the abiding love of her husband, children, and friends while she searches for understanding in works of literature, visual art, and the testimonies of others who suffer with various forms of cancer. Ovarian cancer remains an incurable disease for most of those diagnosed, even those lucky enough to find caring and skilled physicians. Memoir of a Debulked Woman is both a polemic against the ineffectual and injurious medical responses to which thousands of women are subjected and a meditation on the gifts of companionship, art, and literature that sustain people in need.

Download or read book Creativity and Development written by R. Keith Sawyer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-04 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is creativity, and where does it come from? Creativity and Development explores the fascinating connections and tensions between creativity research and developmental psychology, two fields that have largely progressed independently of each other-until now. In this book, scholars influential in both fields explore the emergence of new ideas, and the development of the people and situations that bring them to fruition. The uniquely collaborative nature of Oxford's Counterpoints series allows them to engage in a dialogue, addressing the key issues and potential benefits of exploring the connections between creativity and development. Creativity and Development is based on the observation that both creativity and development are processes that occur in complex systems, in which later stages or changes emerge from the prior state of the system. In the 1970s and 1980s, creativity researchers shifted their focus from personality traits to cognitive and social processes, and the co-authors of this volume are some of the most influential figures in this shift. The central focus on system processes results in three related volume themes: how the outcomes of creativity and development emerge from dynamical processes, the interrelation between individual processes and social processes, and the role of mediating artifacts and domains in developmental and creative processes. The chapters touch on a wide range of important topics, with the authors drawing on their decades of research into creativity and development. Readers will learn about the creativity of children's play, the creative aspects of children's thinking, the creative processes of scientists, the role of education and teaching in creative development, and the role of multiple intelligences in both creativity and development. The final chapter is an important dialogue between the authors, who engage in a roundtable discussion and explore key questions facing contemporary researchers, such as: Does society suppress children's creativity? Are creativity and development specific to an intelligence or a domain? What role do social and cultural contexts play in creativity and development? Creativity and Development presents a powerful argument that both creativity scholars and developmental psychologists will benefit by becoming more familiar with each other's work.

Download or read book The Girl They Left Behind written by Roxanne Veletzos and published by Atria Books. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping historical romance that is “gripping, tragic, yet filled with passion and hope” (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author), offering a vivid and unique portrayal of life in war-torn 1941 Bucharest during World War II and its aftermath—perfect for fans of Lilac Girls and Sarah’s Key. On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest. With Romania recently allied with the Nazis, the Jewish population is in grave danger so the girl is placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by a wealthy childless couple who name her Natalia. As she assimilates into her new life, she all but forgets the parents who were forced to leave her behind. As a young woman in Soviet Romania, Natalia crosses paths with Victor—an important official in the Communist regime that she used to know as an impoverished young student. Now they are fatefully drawn into a passionate affair despite the obstacles swirling around them and Victor’s dark secrets. When Natalia is suddenly offered a one-time chance at freedom, Victor is determined to help her escape, even if it means losing her. Natalia must make an agonizing decision: remain in Bucharest with her beloved adoptive parents and the man she has come to love, or seize the chance to finally live life on her own terms, and to confront the painful enigma of her past. The Girl They Left Behind “is a vividly told, beautifully written, impossible-but-true story” (Helen Bryan, internationally bestselling author of War Brides) that you won’t soon forget.

Download or read book Love and Friendship written by Jane Austen and published by Alma Classics. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wonderful addition to Alma Classics' Jane Austen collection, here presented to include all the popular British writer's juvenilia