Download or read book Never Underestimate A Nervous Nudist written by Rachael Harris and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chris Hodges has been diagnosed as a nudist based on his psychological profile and three fallacious "naked events" from his past, however, he hates being naked. He lives in Saint Louis, where an aggressive population control measure has been implemented that sterilizes anyone with a diagnosed irregular trait. With his diagnosis as a nudist, he will never have his sterilization reversed and be on the Approved for Posterity list. Therefore, he will never become a father, his life's dream. Chris must fight the bogus nature of his malady in order to fulfill his fantasy of becoming a parent and completing the vision that his own father instilled in him long ago. He must also get over his crippling nervousness around women. Well, one step at a time.

Download or read book Nerve A Pulstar Prequel written by Giancarlo Roversi and published by Giancarlo Roversi. This book was released on 2023-03-10 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeking redemption, a discredited agent investigates the perplexing death of an elderly millionaire, unearthing a macabre scheme that might involve himself. A sci-fi noir thriller, in the Philip K. Dick style .” ★★★★★ – Goodreads “Nerve is the best introduction to the feast that continues in Pulstar. Roversi has created a precise work of art.” ★★★★★ – Goodreads “Being absolutely masterfully written, reading it three times, or more, sounds like a fantastic idea indeed.” ★★★★★ – Goodreads Astralvia: a nation on the verge of collapse. Jon Creepel, an elderly millionaire and CEO of a leading high-tech corporation, is dead. Discredited Agent Graham Squirrel investigates this disconcerting death. It’s his chance to clear his name and return to the Federal Police job he lives for. As he delves deeper into the inquiries, he discovers layers of intrigue, secrets, and plots on a significant macabre scale. Working alongside Zabrinah Yorkt, a mysterious and complicated intelligence agent, brings extra challenges and triggers questions Squirrel would never have anticipated. He has to escape the sinister threat looming over him and find out why they assigned him to the case, but nothing is what it seems. And he’s about to discover the truth … he’s about to meet the Nerve. Join Agent Squirrel to see if he cracks the mystery of Creepel’s death and survives the investigation in this suspenseful, mystery-packed sci-fi thriller. Nerve is the enigmatic prequel to the gripping Pulstar trilogy (although you can also read it as a stand-alone novel), which took over ten years to make and has a soundtrack in production.

Download or read book The Vital Question written by Nick Lane and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A game-changing book on the origins of life, called the most important scientific discovery 'since the Copernican revolution' in The Observer.

Download or read book Why We Sleep written by Matthew Walker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

Download or read book Forty one False Starts written by Janet Malcolm and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A National Book Critics Circle Finalist for Criticism A deeply Malcolmian volume on painters, photographers, writers, and critics. Janet Malcolm's In the Freud Archives and The Journalist and the Murderer, as well as her books about Sylvia Plath and Gertrude Stein, are canonical in the realm of nonfiction—as is the title essay of this collection, with its forty-one "false starts," or serial attempts to capture the essence of the painter David Salle, which becomes a dazzling portrait of an artist. Malcolm is "among the most intellectually provocative of authors," writes David Lehman in The Boston Globe, "able to turn epiphanies of perception into explosions of insight." Here, in Forty-one False Starts, Malcolm brings together essays published over the course of several decades (largely in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books) that reflect her preoccupation with artists and their work. Her subjects are painters, photographers, writers, and critics. She explores Bloomsbury's obsessive desire to create things visual and literary; the "passionate collaborations" behind Edward Weston's nudes; and the character of the German art photographer Thomas Struth, who is "haunted by the Nazi past," yet whose photographs have "a lightness of spirit." In "The Woman Who Hated Women," Malcolm delves beneath the "onyx surface" of Edith Wharton's fiction, while in "Advanced Placement" she relishes the black comedy of the Gossip Girl novels of Cecily von Zeigesar. In "Salinger's Cigarettes," Malcolm writes that "the pettiness, vulgarity, banality, and vanity that few of us are free of, and thus can tolerate in others, are like ragweed for Salinger's helplessly uncontaminated heroes and heroines." "Over and over," as Ian Frazier writes in his introduction, "she has demonstrated that nonfiction—a book of reporting, an article in a magazine, something we see every day—can rise to the highest level of literature." One of Publishers Weekly's Best Nonfiction Books of 2013

Download or read book A Mad Wicked Folly written by Sharon Biggs Waller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-23 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Edwardian London, a girl dreams of being an artist, despite her family's disapproval. Welcome to the world of the fabulously wealthy in London, 1909, where dresses and houses are overwhelmingly opulent, social class means everything, and women are taught to be nothing more than wives and mothers. Into this world comes seventeen-year-old Victoria Darling, who wants only to be an artist—a nearly impossible dream for a girl. After Vicky poses nude for her illicit art class, she is expelled from her French finishing school. Shamed and scandalized, her parents try to marry her off to the wealthy Edmund Carrick-Humphrey. But Vicky has other things on her mind: her clandestine application to the Royal College of Art; her participation in the suffragette movement; and her growing attraction to a working-class boy who may be her muse—or may be the love of her life. As the world of debutante balls, corsets, and high society obligations closes in around her, Vicky must figure out: just how much is she willing to sacrifice to pursue her dreams?

Download or read book Beautiful Disaster Signed Limited Edition written by Jamie McGuire and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abby Abernathy is re-inventing herself as the good girl as she begins her freshman year at college, which is why she must resist lean, cut, and tattooed Travis Maddox, a classic bad boy.

Download or read book Ask a Manager written by Alison Green and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

Download or read book One Life One Chance written by Luke Richmond and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-02-19 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born to nomadic parents and humble beginnings, Luke Richmond grew up running wild and free in the Australian outback. After finishing school, he joined the Australian Army and served his country overseas as a qualified infantry soldier – an experience that sparked in him an unrelenting desire for adventure. But when he leaves the army Luke finds himself broke and adrift in London, caught up in the soulless world of drug and alcohol addiction. When he wakes up in a police cell with no memory of how he got there, he knows he has hit rock bottom, and makes the snap decision to turn his life around. Within days he is in Thailand, training his mind and body at a Muay Thai boxing camp in the jungles of Phuket. In suffering Luke finds his salvation, and he decides to make the most out of life by seeking adventure in remote corners of the world. Since then Luke has climbed the highest mountains on six continents, set a new world record for ocean rowing across the Atlantic, battled -60 degree temperatures in the Antarctic, witnessed death at high altitude, was held captive in the humid jungles of West Papua and has thrown himself from cliffs in the adrenalin-fueled world of BASE jumping. More than an awe-inspiring story of endurance and adventure, One Life One Chance will ultimately remind you that we only have one shot, so don’t waste a second of it.

Download or read book Rebel Spring written by Morgan Rhodes and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War brought them together. Love will tear them apart. Auranos has been conquered and the three kingdoms—Auranos, Limeros, and Paelsia—are now unwillingly united as one country called Mytica. But alluring, dangerous magic still beckons, and with it the chance to rule not just Mytica, but the world. . . . CLEO is now a prisoner in her own palace, forced to be an ambassador for Mytica as the evil King Gaius lies to her people MAGNUS stands to eventually inherit the new kingdom but is still obsessed with his feelings for his adopted sister, Lucia LUCIA is haunted by the deadly outcome of her breathtaking display of magic that allowed her father to capture the kingdoms JONAS watches at the palace gates, a troop of rebels behind him, waiting for him to tell them how he plans to overtake King Gaius When Gaius announces that a road is to be built into the Forbidden Mountains, formally linking all of Mytica together, he sets off a chain of cataclysmic events that will forever change the face of this land. Praise for Falling Kingdoms “From an opening dripping with blood, magic, and betrayal through complex interweaving plots detailing treachery, deceit, and forbidden love, this novel . . . will immediately engage readers and keep them intrigued.”—Booklist “[It] will gut you emotionally . . . make you ache, cry, and beg for the sequel as you turn the last page. I absolutely loved it.”—Julie Kagawa, New York Times bestselling author of The Iron Queen “This triple-layered tale of bloodshed, heartbreak, and tangled court intrigue kept me turning pages very late into the night.”—Lesley Livingston, author of Wondrous Strange and Starling Richelle Mead, bestselling author of the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series, sits down with Morgan Rhodes to talk about Rebel Spring, the much-anticipated second book in her bestselling Falling Kingdoms series. Richelle Mead: Morgan Rhodes (aka Michelle Rowen) has been my friend for a number of years. We've hung out together at conferences and swooned over each other's books. When she was able to work on Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide, I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have someone who was already a fan of the VA world and whose writing I personally loved. I'm just as excited about her Falling Kingdoms series and couldn't resist this chance to ask her some questions about Rebel Spring, the next book in the series! Morgan Rhodes: I was thrilled for the chance to write the VA Ultimate Guide! I remember Richelle telling me there were plans for the book and I piped up with: “I totally want to write that!” And what fun it was to delve back into a series that I loved (and am still in love with thanks to the wonderful Bloodlines spinoff). I’m counting down the days for the VA movie! Richelle is not only a friend, but one of my very favorite authors, so it’s a real honor to be interviewed by her about Rebel Spring. RM: So without further ado, let’s start talking about the new book. The world of Falling Kingdoms is so vivid and detail-rich. When it comes to world-building for these novels, where do you get your inspiration? MR: I get my inspiration from pretty much everywhere, although I’m visually inspired by some of my favorite TV shows and movies, which run the gamut from Lord of the Rings to The Princess Bride to Game of Thrones, to name just a few. RM: At the end of Falling Kingdoms, things are looking pretty bleak in Mytica. Is it fair to say that Rebel Spring will be quite a bit darker than book 1? MR: The stakes have been raised and sharpened, for sure. Blood will spill and lives will be lost. But I don’t think I would ever want to write a book that was unrelentingly bleak from beginning to end. I can promise that Rebel Spring contains plenty of comic relief and romance to counterbalance the darker bits. RM: The Falling Kingdoms books are written from multiple POVs, and each of your narrators has such a unique voice and perspective. How does your experience vary from POV to POV? Are there some characters that are more difficult than others? Do you have a favorite? MR: It’s been a wonderful and exciting challenge to write in multiple points of view from my diverse cast. I will admit, some POVs are always a joy to write and others prove to be a challenge. I try to put myself in the head of that character and see the world from their eyes, no matter who they are or what their goals are. I get into the heads of a couple different characters in Rebel Spring, including a villain who definitely sees things from a darker angle than anything I’ve written before – which was fun. The characters whose scenes I most look forward to writing since they are very specific personalities and basically take over and make things easier for me are Cleo and Magnus. They tend to surprise me while the other characters usually stick to the outline! RM: Let’s talk body count. You’re very good at making me fall in love with your characters, but you’re also very good at killing them off when I least expect it. How do you decide the who, how, when, and why when it comes to killing off your characters? MR: I never knew how much I enjoyed killing characters until I started writing this series. *evil grin* However! I like to think those who get the ax (sometimes, um, literally) are necessary deaths. It’s all for a purpose, to change another character in the face of their shock and grief, to lead them down a path they never would have taken before, and to spark a desire for revolution and vengeance in the hearts of those who might previously have been passive and peaceful. Plus, I always think when things seem a bit too ideal and characters are getting too comfortable, it’s a good time to get a few heads rolling to keep things interesting for readers – and for me as the writer! RM: What’s going on with Magnus? He seems like kind of a jerk in Falling Kingdoms, but I get the sense he’s got a soft spot. MR: With a father like King Gaius, whose nickname is the “King of Blood,” it would be pretty hard for a prince to grow up as a nice dude with a sunny disposition! Magnus really came alive on the page for me, more so than any other character in the cast. Initially, he was supposed to be a jerk through and through, but he’s really more of a lost soul whose entire life has been devoted to attempting to gain his cruel and driven father’s love and respect. However, Magnus has begun to learn that he might have a different set of morals than the king, even though he knows following in Daddy’s footsteps would make life easier for him. This isn’t to say that Magnus hasn’t made (and will make) some rather dreadful decisions that will certainly cast a shadow over his future relationships and experiences. RM: Jonas has a lot of axes to grind by the end of book 1. What can we expect from him in Rebel Spring? MR: I think the main thing with Jonas is that beneath his thirst for vengeance (focused on both the murderer of his brother Aron and King Gaius) is that he really does mean well. He cares about the people of downtrodden Paelsia, and he’s someone, unlike his fellow countrymen, who doesn’t believe his future is ruled by uncontrollable fate. In Rebel Spring, Jonas has been thrust into the position of rebel leader, which will be a challenge for him on many levels. RM: Okay, ultimate personality test: Are you a Cleo or a Lucia? MR: Both are princesses from vastly different kingdoms and upbringings – Cleo is a girl who has favored parties and frivolity in the past, while Lucia prefers learning and solitude. Cleo is stubborn and sometimes reckless, and Lucia is more measured and controlled, but may be considered naïve in many ways. I wouldn’t say I’m much like either princess, really, although I am blond like Cleo and I love books like Lucia. :) RM: Lastly, can you talk a little bit about your writing process? MR: It would be next to impossible to undertake a large tapestry of a series like Falling Kingdoms if I didn’t plan a lot of it ahead of time. I work from a detailed outline and map out character goals and conflicts and relationship arcs, but I’m still surprised by some of the things my characters say and do that can take me in a direction different from what was meticulously planned. So far, it’s been a lot of fun to explore these unexpected paths to see where they lead.

Download or read book Where Is My Flying Car written by J. Storrs Hall and published by Stripe Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an engineer and futurist, an impassioned account of technological stagnation since the 1970s and an imaginative blueprint for a richer, more abundant future The science fiction of the 1960s promised us a future remade by technological innovation: we’d vacation in geodesic domes on Mars, have meaningful conversations with computers, and drop our children off at school in flying cars. Fast-forward 60 years, and we’re still stuck in traffic in gas-guzzling sedans and boarding the same types of planes we flew in over half a century ago. What happened to the future we were promised? In Where Is My Flying Car?, J. Storrs Hall sets out to answer this deceptively simple question. What starts as an examination of the technical limitations of building flying cars evolves into an investigation of the scientific, technological, and social roots of the economic stagnation that started in the 1970s. From the failure to adopt nuclear energy and the suppression of cold fusion technology to the rise of a counterculture hostile to progress, Hall recounts how our collective ambitions for the future were derailed, with devastating consequences for global wealth creation and distribution. Hall then outlines a framework for a future powered by exponential progress—one in which we build as much in the world of atoms as we do in the world of bits, one rich in abundance and wonder. Drawing on years of original research and personal engineering experience, Where Is My Flying Car?, originally published in 2018, is an urgent, timely analysis of technological progress over the last 50 years and a bold vision for a better future.

Download or read book Guess Who Is the Happiest Girl in Town written by and published by Patrick Frey Edition. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrated with over 1,000 images, Guess Who Is the Happiest Girl in Town is the first memoir by Swiss-German party girl Susi Wyss (b. 1938). The 40-year history begins in the 1970s with Wyss studying fashion design in Zu'rich, where at 18 years old she was initiated into the fast-moving life of the European jet set, a world revolving around the elite names in the international music and fashion scene. A regular model for Helmut Newton, the young Wyss enjoyed the company of noted celebrities ranging from Dennis Hopper and Iggy Pop to J. Paul Getty. After years of partying with rock-n-roll royalty she became one of Pariss top madams and finally, in her early 60s, a writer. This intimate autobiography / photographic diary is a fascinating record capturing a time when the world of drugs, sex, and rock and roll was at its zenith.

Download or read book Shame and Guilt written by June Price Tangney and published by Guilford Press. This book was released on 2003-11-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume reports on the growing body of knowledge on shame and guilt, integrating findings from the authors' original research program with other data emerging from social, clinical, personality, and developmental psychology. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that these universally experienced affective phenomena have significant implications for many aspects of human functioning, with particular relevance for interpersonal relationships. --From publisher's description.

Download or read book Alabama Moon written by Watt Key and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this compelling, action-packed book, Watt Key gives us the thrilling coming-of-age story of the unique and extremely appealing Alabama Moon, the basis for the film of the same name starring Jimmy Bennett and John Goodman. For as long as ten-year-old Moon can remember, he has lived out in the forest in a shelter with his father. They keep to themselves, their only contact with other human beings an occasional trip to the nearest general store. When Moon's father dies, Moon follows his father's last instructions: to travel to Alaska to find others like themselves. But Moon is soon caught and entangled in a world he doesn't know or understand; he's become property of the government he has been avoiding all his life. As the spirited and resourceful Moon encounters constables, jails, institutions, lawyers, true friends, and true enemies, he adapts his wilderness survival skills and learns to survive in the outside world, and even, perhaps, make his home there. This title has Common Core connections. Alabama Moon is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Download or read book Culture and Human Development written by Jaan Valsiner and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2000-02-02 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major new textbook by Jaan Valsiner focuses on the interface between cultural psychology and developmental psychology. Intended for students from undergraduate level upwards, the book provides a wide-ranging overview of the cultural perspective on human development, with illustrations from pre-natal development to adulthood. A key feature is the broad coverage of theoretical and methodological issues which have relevance to this truly interdisciplinary field of enquiry encompassing developmental psychology, cultural anthropology and comparative sociology. The text is organized into five coherent parts: Part 1: Developmental theory and methodology; Part 2: Analysis of environments for human development Part 3:

Download or read book Beyond Jealousy written by Kit Rocha and published by NLA Digital LLC. This book was released on 2014-03-17 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: She’s been looking for the perfect man. She found two. When Rachel Riley sacrificed a life in Eden to protect the O’Kanes, she earned her place in the powerful Sector Four gang. But the former crime princess is tired of being everyone’s sweet little sister . It’s time for her to get wild, to embrace her fantasies as only an O’Kane can—with a delicious exiled soldier and the gang’s wickedly sinful tattoo artist. A saint... Lorenzo Cruz is a warrior, taught by his commanding officers in Eden that involvement equals distraction. Emotion is a liability, and desire a sin. In Sector Four, he finds decadence, shameless sex—and his own dark urges. No battle strategy prepared him for how Rachel makes his heart race…or the way his rival for her affections sets his blood on fire. ...and a sinner. Ace Santana has a dirty reputation and a mind to match, especially where his new lovers are concerned. He’s eager to help Cruz embrace his dominant side, and to explore the lines between pleasure and pain with Rachel. But corrupting them quickly becomes an obsession, a need he can’t deny—and a love he never imagined. Three hearts on the line means a hundred ways their ménage a trois could go wrong. After all, even O’Kanes do forever two-by-two. One of them could be the missing piece that makes them all whole…or a temporary diversion destined for a broken heart.

Download or read book Queen of Fashion written by Caroline Weber and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-10-02 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dazzling new vision of the ever-fascinating queen, a dynamic young historian reveals how Marie Antoinette's bold attempts to reshape royal fashion changed the future of France Marie Antoinette has always stood as an icon of supreme style, but surprisingly none of her biographers have paid sustained attention to her clothes. In Queen of Fashion, Caroline Weber shows how Marie Antoinette developed her reputation for fashionable excess, and explains through lively, illuminating new research the political controversies that her clothing provoked. Weber surveys Marie Antoinette's "Revolution in Dress," covering each phase of the queen's tumultuous life, beginning with the young girl, struggling to survive Versailles's rigid traditions of royal glamour (twelve-foot-wide hoopskirts, whalebone corsets that crushed her organs). As queen, Marie Antoinette used stunning, often extreme costumes to project an image of power and wage war against her enemies. Gradually, however, she began to lose her hold on the French when she started to adopt "unqueenly" outfits (the provocative chemise) that, surprisingly, would be adopted by the revolutionaries who executed her. Weber's queen is sublime, human, and surprising: a sometimes courageous monarch unwilling to allow others to determine her destiny. The paradox of her tragic story, according to Weber, is that fashion—the vehicle she used to secure her triumphs—was also the means of her undoing. Weber's book is not only a stylish and original addition to Marie Antoinette scholarship, but also a moving, revelatory reinterpretation of one of history's most controversial figures.