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 358 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 Quarantine Diaries written by Mantimes Publishing and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-03 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is your perfect notebook for quarantine . - Matte Paperback - (6x19) - 120 pages - Lined journal This notebook features: Great for notes, poetry, journaling, recipes, writing, drawing and more. place your order now!

Download or read book On the Roof written by Josh Katz and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This view of a life-altering moment in our history—captured from one photographer’s Brooklyn rooftop—is a testament to human hope and resilience, and what we’ve learned about living in community. The roof of a New York apartment building, like some New York neighbors, can be elusive—you could live there for years and never see it. The unique constraints of 2020’s quarantine drove photographer and Brooklyn transplant Josh Katz up to his Bushwick rooftop and introduced him to both. What he discovered there astonished him. Families, lovers, dogs, meditators, artists, exercise fanatics, daredevils, drinkers, dancers—in this strange time the world below had found a way to continue ticking on up above, subject to new patterns and distances. And then, there were the pigeon fanciers, who had been up there for decades, watching the neighborhood change around them. Josh reached for his camera. The project grew from a man’s attempt to cope with his own isolation to a tender portrait of his community—captured entirely from his own roof—and a resonant chronicle of how some of us found new hope and space in a life-altering year. Characters as heartfelt as any in the now-classic Humans of New York accompany Josh’s keen observations on urban space, human interaction, and new ways of city living we can bring down from the roof to apply in a post-quarantine world.

Download or read book Our Dogs Ourselves written by Alexandra Horowitz and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Alexandra Horowitz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Inside of a Dog, an eye-opening, informative, and wholly entertaining examination and celebration of the human-canine relationship for the curious dog owner and science-lover alike. We keep dogs and are kept by them. We love dogs and (we assume) we are loved by them. We buy them sweaters, toys, shoes; we are concerned with their social lives, their food, and their health. The story of humans and dogs is thousands of years old but is far from understood. In Our Dogs, Ourselves, Alexandra Horowitz explores all aspects of this unique and complex interspecies pairing. As Horowitz considers the current culture of dogdom, she reveals the odd, surprising, and contradictory ways we live with dogs. We celebrate their individuality but breed them for sameness. Despite our deep emotional relationships with dogs, legally they are property to be bought, sold, abandoned, or euthanized as we wish. Even the way we speak to our dogs is at once perplexing and delightful. In thirteen thoughtful and charming chapters, Our Dogs, Ourselves affirms our profound affection for this most charismatic of animals—and opens our eyes to the companions at our sides as never before.

Download or read book Love Poems in Quarantine written by Sarah Ruhl and published by Copper Canyon Press. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning, multi-genre writer grapples with the pandemic, death of George Floyd, and other crises of our times in gnomic poems written from inside the purgatory (and sudden revelations) of quarantine. Writing from and toward “the endless desire / to be at home in the world,” Sarah Ruhl wrote Love Poems in Quarantine to mark the passage of time when all familiar landmarks disappeared. From the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, to the murder of George Floyd, to months of simultaneous quarantine and protest, this is—in free verse and form, lamentation and meditation—a book of days, a survival kit for spiritual malady. These poems find small solace in domestic absurdities. Even in global crisis, there is the laundry. The dog rolls in something putrid, the child interrupts a Zoom meeting, and dinner must get made, again and again. Using language to travel and touch when bodies could not, Ruhl has drawn with great care a portrait of a year unlike any other in history.

Download or read book Crow Magnum written by Laurel McHargue and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-13 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ruby and Jade are not your average twins. Lost on a dreary road on their way home from a day's adventure, they remain indecisive until one mysterious crow appears above--and then another one joins the first. The girls decide to follow the direction of the birds' flight, believing the crows will lead them home. Instead, the crows lead them to a place where they must make a life-changing decision.The first version of Crow-Magnum was published on April 1, 2020, in McHargue's short story collection "Dark Ebb: Grim Tales (Volume 1)"

Download or read book The Front Steps Project written by Kristen Collins and published by Graphic Arts Books. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People magazine's top reason for Hope in America. Curated from a grassroots social movement, The Front Steps Project is an inspiring, uplifting portrait series capturing how people coped with living in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Front Steps Project™ demonstrates that even in the most challenging of circumstances, kindness, love, courage, and hope exist to build, bind, and connect communities around the globe. Created on March 18, 2020, The Front Steps Project™ began when friends Kristen Collins and Cara Soulia sought out to unite their neighbors through photographs of life in quarantine. In addition to incorporating work from other local photographers, the women traveled to neighborhoods around Needham, Massachusetts to photograph residents in front of their homes in exchange for donations to their local food pantry. Within days, #TheFrontStepsProject became a grassroots social mission, connecting thousands of people across the globe and raising over $3,250,000 for vital non-profit organizations and local businesses including food pantries, frontline workers, homeless and animal shelters, hospitals and so much more. Through their noble efforts, hundreds of thousands of images and stories of love, sacrifice, compassion, kindness, perseverance, and – ultimately hope – flooded social media. Featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and more, The Front Steps Project brings communities together virtually, despite being – and maybe feeling – isolated. The Front Steps Project contains over 400 photographs and dozens of stories of families during the COVID-19 pandemic. This heartwarming keepsake commemorates a massive effort of courage, unity, and goodwill. As a tribute to the good work of The Front Steps Project, a portion of book sales will be donated to The United Way to help people impacted by the pandemic.

Download or read book Covid Stories from East Africa and Beyond written by Njeri Kinyanjui and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2020-11-11 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The coronavirus has rattled humanity, tested resolve and determination, and redefined normalcy. This compelling collection of 29 short stories and essays brings together the lived experiences of covid19 through a diversity of voices from across the African continent. The stories highlight challenges, new opportunities, and ultimately the deep resilience of Africans and their communities. Bringing into conversation the perspectives of laypeople, academics, professionals, domestic workers, youth, and children, the volume is a window into the myriad ways in which people have confronted, adapted to, and sought to tackle the coronavirus and its trail of problems. The experiences of the most vulnerable are specifically explored, and systemic changes and preliminary shifts towards a new global order are addressed. Laughter as a coping mechanism is a thread throughout.

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 The Loners written by Lex Thomas and published by Carolrhoda Lab ®. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning. A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you're as good as dead. And David has no gang. It's just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school. In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don't fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.

Download or read book The Lacquered Talisman written by Laurie Dennis and published by Earnshaw Books Limited. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping coming-of-age epic, The Lacquered Talisman launches the story of one of the most influential figures in Chinese history. He is the son of a bean curd seller and he will found the Ming Dynasty, which ruled China from 1368 to 1644. Known as "Fortune" as a boy, Zhu Yuanzhang is part of a large and doting family who shepherd him through hardship until drought and plague ravage the countryside. Left with nothing but a lacquered necklace from his grandfather, Fortune is deposited in the village temple and is soon wandering the countryside as a begging monk. He encounters pockets of resistance to the ruling Mongol dynasty, studies the stars, and tangles with Daoists as he seeks to understand his destiny. Signs and dreams convince him that he has a special fate. Is he to be the abbot of a monastery? A general? What matters most is that he proves himself to be a filial son. Praise for The Lacquered Talisman: "Historical fiction lovers will delight in The Lacquered Talisman, which gives us a vividly-imagined, brilliantly-told story of a real-life emperor's humble origins. The first part of a biography of the first Ming Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, it is a vivid and engaging portrayal of a young man determined to honor the love and sacrifices of his tragedy-stricken family, set against the beautifully-drawn backdrop of 14th century China." --IndieReader "This epic coming of age story is about Fortune, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, as a boy until he reached the age of twenty-three. The author writes in a literary style, and although it is fiction, it reads similar to an account told by a first-person narrator. The style is evocative of the ancient Classic style and suits this lovely novel exactly." --Discovering Diamonds

Download or read book Together Apart written by Jolanda Jetten and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2020-07-13 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by leading social psychologists with expertise in leadership, health and emergency behaviour – who have also played an important role in advising governments on COVID-19 – this book provides a broad but integrated analysis of the psychology of COVID-19 It explores the response to COVID-19 through the lens of social identity theory, drawing from insights provided by four decades of research. Starting from the premise that an effective response to the pandemic depends upon people coming together and supporting each other as members of a common community, the book helps us to understand emerging processes related to social (dis)connectedness, collective behaviour and the societal effects of COVID-19. In this it shows how psychological theory can help us better understand, and respond to, the events shaping the world in 2020. Considering key topics such as: Leadership Communication Risk perception Social isolation Mental health Inequality Misinformation Prejudice and racism Behaviour change Social Disorder This book offers the foundation on which future analysis, intervention and policy can be built. We are proud to support the research into Covid-19 and are delighted to offer the finalised eBook for free. All Royalties from this book will be donated to charity.

Download or read book The Great Realization written by Tomos Roberts (Tomfoolery) and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by Today as a book "to ease kids’ anxiety about coronavirus.” We all need hope. Humans have an extraordinary capacity to battle through adversity, but only if they have something to cling onto: a belief or hope that maybe, one day, things will be better. This idea sparked The Great Realization. Sharing the truths we may find hard to tell but also celebrating the things—from simple acts of kindness and finding joy in everyday activities, to the creativity within us all—that have brought us together during lockdown, it gives us hope in this time of global crisis. Written for his younger brother and sister in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Tomos Roberts’s heartfelt poem is as timely as it is timeless. Its message of hope and resilience, of rebirth and renewal, has captured the hearts of children and adults all over the globe—and the glimpse it offers of a fairer, kinder, more sustainable world continues to inspire thousands every day. With Tomos Roberts’s heartfelt poem and beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Nomoco, The Great Realization is a profound work, at once striking and reassuring, reminding readers young and old that in the face of adversity there are still dreams to be dreamt and kindnesses to be shared and hope. There is still hope. We now call it The Great Realization and, yes, since then there have been many. But that’s the story of how it started . . . and why hindsight’s 2020.

Download or read book Draw with Rob at Christmas written by Rob Biddulph and published by HarperCollins Children's Books. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Merry Christmas! The internet phenomenon #DrawWithRob is now a fantastically festive art activity book for you to draw with Rob at home... The second book based on the viral videos seen everywhere on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, TV, and more, from the creative genius and bestselling author Rob Biddulph! Christmas is different this year, with more families at home and wondering what to do! Pick up your pencils and join thousands of children around the world and #DrawWithRob - celebrating Christmas has never been so much fun! The first DRAW WITH ROB activity book went to Number One in the charts and was named 'Book of the Year' at the 2020 Sainsbury's Children's Book Awards! Now every family can share this fantastically festive new art activity book for Christmas. Join Rob and learn to draw your favourite Christmas characters - from Polar Bears to Elves and from Father Christmas to a Snowman, this perfect present is packed with arts, crafts and festive fun. The bestselling and award-winning author/illustrator Rob Biddulph is the genius behind the phenomenal, viral sensation that is DRAW WITH ROB and the accompanying activity book, and now the sensational DRAW WITH ROB AT CHRISTMAS - bringing joy to families everywhere with his easy to follow instructions and warm-hearted humour. So whether you're in home education, home-schooling, learning to draw or just having fun, let Rob show you that anyone can learn to #DrawWithRob! *WITH PERFORATED PAGES SO YOU CAN EASILY TEAR OUT AND DISPLAY YOUR ART!* Rob's original hit videos are also available at www.robbiddulph.com, and on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, with Rob appearing on TV to talk about them too. Perfect stay-at-home fun for boys, girls, and everyone aged three to one hundred and three, and a wonderful introduction to Rob Biddulph's bestselling picture book range - including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize-winning Blown Away, Odd Dog Out, and many more! Available in all good bookstores and online retailers, and perfect for children who are learning to read - or just love to!

Download or read book Data Privacy During Pandemics written by Benjamin Boudreaux and published by RAND Corporation. This book was released on 2020-07-30 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have deployed mobile phone surveillance programs to augment public health interventions. However, these programs raise privacy concerns. The authors of this report examine whether two goals can be achieved concurrently: the use of mobile phones as public health surveillance tools to help manage COVID‐19 and future crises, and the protection of privacy and civil liberties.

Download or read book The Warmth of Other Suns written by Isabel Wilkerson and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this beautifully written masterwork, the Pulitzer Prize–winnner and bestselling author of Caste chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

Download or read book The Human Capital Index 2020 Update written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2021-05-05 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is a central driver of sustainable growth, poverty reduction, and successful societies. More human capital is associated with higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. Much of the hard-won human capital gains in many economies over the past decade is at risk of being eroded by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Urgent action is needed to protect these advances, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Designing the needed interventions, targeting them to achieve the highest effectiveness, and navigating difficult trade-offs make investing in better measurement of human capital now more important than ever. The Human Capital Index (HCI)—launched in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project—is an international metric that benchmarks the key components of human capital across economies. The HCI is a global effort to accelerate progress toward a world where all children can achieve their full potential. Measuring the human capital that children born today can expect to attain by their 18th birthdays, the HCI highlights how current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers and underscores the importance of government and societal investments in human capital. The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19 presents the first update of the HCI, using health and education data available as of March 2020. It documents new evidence on trends, examples of successes, and analytical work on the utilization of human capital. The new data—collected before the global onset of COVID-19—can act as a baseline to track its effects on health and education outcomes. The report highlights how better measurement is essential for policy makers to design effective interventions and target support. In the immediate term, investments in better measurement and data use will guide pandemic containment strategies and support for those who are most affected. In the medium term, better curation and use of administrative, survey, and identification data can guide policy choices in an environment of limited fiscal space and competing priorities. In the longer term, the hope is that economies will be able to do more than simply recover lost ground. Ambitious, evidence-driven policy measures in health, education, and social protection can pave the way for today’s children to surpass the human capital achievements and quality of life of the generations that preceded them.