Download or read book The Probable Future written by Alice Hoffman and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2004-06-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alice Hoffman’s most magical novel to date—three generations of extraordinary women are driven to unite in crisis and discover the rewards of reconciliation and love. Women of the Sparrow family have unusual gifts. Elinor can detect falsehood. Her daughter, Jenny, can see people’s dreams when they sleep. Granddaughter Stella has a mental window on the future—a future that she might not want to see. In The Probable Future this vivid and intriguing cast of characters confronts a haunting past—and a very current murder—against the evocative backdrop of small-town New England. By turns chilling and enchanting, The Probable Future chronicles the Sparrows’s legacy as young Stella struggles to cope with her disturbing clairvoyance. Her potential to ruin or redeem becomes unbearable when one of her premonitions puts her father in jail, wrongly accused of homicide. Yet this ordeal also leads Stella to the grandmother she was forbidden to meet and to a historic family home full of talismans from her ancestors. Poignant, arresting, unsettling, The Probable Future showcases the lavish literary gifts that have made Alice Hoffman one of America’s most treasured writers. Praise for The Probable Future “A thrilling adventure of literary alchemy . . . A magical, mystical tour de force of pure entertainment.”—The Seattle Times “Delicious . . . Hoffman is an unapologetic optimist, and optimism is in short supply these days. It feels like a vacation to curl up with [The Probable Future].”—The New York Times Book Review “Instantly alluring . . . A mysterious, modern-day fairy tale . . . Hoffman is an amazingly talented writer with a beautiful sense of sentence construction, an intriguing imagination, and the ability to create compelling, complex characters that readers care about.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Hoffman’s ethereal tale of a family of women with supernatural gifts is a magical escape, grounded in the complex relationships between mothers and daughters.”—Marie Claire

Download or read book The Probable Future written by Alice Hoffman and published by Alice Hoffman. This book was released on 2004-06 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The women of the Sparrow family, who each possess an unusual psychic gift, must confront a haunting past--and a very current murder--in small-town New England.

Download or read book Survival Lessons written by Alice Hoffman and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author and cancer survivor tells how to hold on to joy in times of sorrow in this “absolutely beautiful book” (Sue Monk Kidd). The prize-winning author of such modern literary classics as Practical Magic, The World That We Knew, and The Marriage of Opposites, Alice Hoffman is also a cancer survivor. In Survival Lessons, she shares her transformative journey, showing us how to re-envision our own lives and relationships with our friends and family, and the significance of the everyday choices we make. Sorrow and joy are both part of the human experience, and the beauty of the world is easy to overlook during periods of crisis, illness, or loss. Here, Hoffman offers wit, wisdom, and comfort in “an optimistic instruction manual [for] anyone struggling with self-care in a time of trouble” (Story Circle Book Reviews). “In this gem of a book, Alice Hoffman acknowledges the sorrows of life, while reminding us of its joys. Survival Lessons is filled with love, insight, and lots of practical advice—including a crazy-good brownie recipe.” —Will Schwalbe, New York Times–bestselling author of The End of Your Life Book Club “Hoffman’s storytelling artistry enlivens each intimate, thoughtfully distilled, charming, and nurturing lesson in living.” —Booklist “[Survival Lessons] is not about [Hoffman’s] breast cancer per se but about making choices that will improve readers’ lives and relationships and remind them ‘of the beauty of life.’” —Library Journal “Full of smart intentions and kind reminders . . . Uplifting advice we’ll gladly take.” —Better Homes & Gardens

Download or read book Faithful written by Alice Hoffman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love, family, and fate. Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt. What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithful is the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night. Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap. Alice Hoffman’s “trademark alchemy” (USA TODAY) and her ability to write about the “delicate balance between the everyday world and the extraordinary” (WBUR) make this an unforgettable story. With beautifully crafted prose, Alice Hoffman spins hope from heartbreak in this profoundly moving novel.

Download or read book Blackbird House written by Alice Hoffman and published by Alice Hoffman. This book was released on 2005-03-29 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a series of interlinking stories that capture the lives and fortunes of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over the course of two centuries.

Download or read book Teaching about the Future written by P. Bishop and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The faculty at the University of Houston's program in Futures Studies share their comprehensive, integrated approach to preparing foresight professionals and assisting others doing foresight projects. Provides an essential guide to developing classes on the future or even establishing whole degree programs.

Download or read book The Probable Future written by Alice Hoffman and published by . This book was released on 2004-06-03 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women of the Sparrow family have unusual gifts. Elinor can detect falsehood. Her daughter, Jenny, can see people's dreams when they sleep. Granddaughter Stella has a mental window to the future - a future that she might not want to see.In Alice Hoffman's latest tour de force, this vivid and intriguing cast of characters confronts a haunting past - and a very current murder - against the evocative backdrop of small-town New England. By turns chilling and enchanting, The Probable Future chronicles the Sparrows' legacy as young Stella struggles to cope with her disturbing clairvoyance. Her potential to ruin or redeem becomes unbearable when one of her premonitions puts her father in jail, wrongly accused of homicide. Yet this ordeal also leads Stella to the grandmother she was forbidden to meet, and to an historic family home full of talismans from her ancestors.

Download or read book The Dovekeepers written by Alice Hoffman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ambitious and mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of Rules of Magic. The Dovekeepers is “striking….Hoffman grounds her expansive, intricately woven, and deepest new novel in biblical history, with a devotion and seriousness of purpose” (Entertainment Weekly). Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.

Download or read book The Ministry for the Future written by Kim Stanley Robinson and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 579 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR “The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem "If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." —Ezra Klein (Vox) The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. "One hopes that this book is read widely—that Robinson’s audience, already large, grows by an order of magnitude. Because the point of his books is to fire the imagination."―New York Review of Books "If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late." ―Polygon (Best of the Year) "Masterly." —New Yorker "[The Ministry for the Future] struck like a mallet hitting a gong, reverberating through the year ... it’s terrifying, unrelenting, but ultimately hopeful. Robinson is the SF writer of my lifetime, and this stands as some of his best work. It’s my book of the year." —Locus "Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom." ―Bloomberg Green

Download or read book Second Nature written by Alice Hoffman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1998-02-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A suburban woman discovers her own wild spirit in this “suspenseful...dark, romantic meditation on what it means to be human”(The New Yorker) from the bestselling author of The Rules of Magic. Robin Moore, coping with a divorce and a troubled teen-aged son, impulsively rescues a strange man from a psychiatric ward—a beautiful, uncivilized innocent who has been raised in the wilderness and possesses no more sophistication than a child. But when she brings him home to her perfectly ordered neighborhood, the events that follow cause Robin to question her wisdom and doubt her own heart—and, ultimately, to change all of her ideas about love and humanity. “Her richest and wisest, as well as her boldest, novel to date.”—The New York Times Book Review

Download or read book Between Certain Death and a Possible Future written by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and published by arsenal pulp press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every queer person lives with the trauma of AIDS, and this plays out intergenerationally. Usually we hear about two generations—the first, coming of age in the era of gay liberation, and then watching entire circles of friends die of a mysterious illness as the government did nothing to intervene. And now we hear about younger people growing up with effective treatment and prevention available, unable to comprehend the magnitude of the loss. But there is another generation between these two, one that came of age in the midst of the epidemic with the belief that desire intrinsically led to death, and internalized this trauma as part of becoming queer. Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing up with the AIDS Crisis offers crucial stories from this missing generation in AIDS literature and cultural politics. This wide-ranging collection includes 36 personal essays on the ongoing and persistent impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis in queer lives. Here you will find an expansive range of perspectives on a specific generational story—essays that explore and explode conventional wisdom, while also providing a necessary bridge between experiences. These essays respond, with eloquence and incisiveness, to the question: How do we reckon with the trauma that continues to this day, and imagine a way out?

Download or read book Future Imperfect written by David D. Friedman and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Speculative Research written by Alex Wilkie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is another future possible? So called ‘late modernity’ is marked by the escalating rise in and proliferation of uncertainties and unforeseen events brought about by the interplay between and patterning of social–natural, techno–scientific and political-economic developments. The future has indeed become problematic. The question of how heterogeneous actors engage futures, what intellectual and practical strategies they put into play and what the implications of such strategies are, have become key concerns of recent social and cultural research addressing a diverse range of fields of practice and experience. Exploring questions of speculation, possibilities and futures in contemporary societies, Speculative Research responds to the pressing need to not only critically account for the role of calculative logics and rationalities in managing societal futures, but to develop alternative approaches and sensibilities that take futures seriously as possibilities and that demand new habits and practices of attention, invention, and experimentation.

Download or read book Four Futures written by Peter Frase and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the utopias and dystopias that could develop from present society Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism and extermininsm might actually entail. Could the current rise of the real-life robocops usher in a world that resembles Ender's Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth—but there's no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of "likes," wouldn't rise to take their place. A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies are already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful, and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail.

Download or read book What is the Future written by John Urry and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking about the future is essential for almost all organizations and societies. States, corporations, universities, cities, NGOs and individuals believe they cannot miss the future. But what exactly is the future? It remains a mystery – perhaps the greatest mystery, especially because futures are unpredictable and often unknowable, the outcome of many factors, known and unknown. The future is rarely a simple extrapolation from the present. In this important book, John Urry seeks to capture the many efforts that have been made to anticipate, visualize and elaborate the future. This includes examining the methods used to model the future, from those of the RAND Corporation to imagined future worlds in philosophy, literature, art, film, TV and computer games. He shows that futures are often contested and saturated with different interests, especially in relation to future generations. He also shows how analyses of social institutions, practices and lives should be central to examining potential futures, and issues such as who owns the future. The future seems to be characterized by 'wicked problems'. There are multiple 'causes' and 'solutions', long-term lock-ins and complex interdependencies, and different social groups have radically different frames for understanding what is at stake. Urry explores these issues through case-studies of 3D printing and the future of manufacturing, mobilities in the city, and the futures of energy and climate change.

Download or read book Angel Landing written by Alice Hoffman and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-09-23 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A good, old-fashioned love story . . . Alice Hoffman’s writing at its precise and heartbreaking best.” —The Washington Post Things have changed in Fisher’s Cove, the Long Island harbor town where Natalie spent her summers as a girl. The water used to be clean, and from her aunt Minnie’s boarding house you could see all the way to Connecticut even on hazy days. Twenty years ago, Minnie never had a problem finding lodgers—but now everyone wants to be in Montauk or the Hamptons. The biggest change of all, though, is the nuclear power plant under construction on Angel Landing. Natalie’s boyfriend, Carter, is leading a protest against the plant, and despite the fact that he is more devoted to his environmental work than he is to her, she has followed him to Fisher’s Cove. During the days, she works as a therapist at a local counseling center; in the evenings, she ignores her aunt’s disapproval as she waits for Carter to call. But after an explosion lights up the night sky above Angel Landing, Natalie’s world is turned upside down. Into her office walks a man with an incredible confession to make, and the more she listens, the more Natalie begins to question the direction of her own life. The conclusions she draws—about passion, commitment, and what her heart truly wants—will lead her to a love she never imagined possible. Told with grace, charm, and wit, Angel Landing is a captivating romance and one of Alice Hoffman’s most delightful novels.

Download or read book Speculative Everything written by Anthony Dunne and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-12-06 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to use design as a tool to create not only things but ideas, to speculate about possible futures. Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use, sexy, and consumable. In Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby propose a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas. For them, design is a means of speculating about how things could be—to imagine possible futures. This is not the usual sort of predicting or forecasting, spotting trends and extrapolating; these kinds of predictions have been proven wrong, again and again. Instead, Dunne and Raby pose “what if” questions that are intended to open debate and discussion about the kind of future people want (and do not want). Speculative Everything offers a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, ideals, and approaches. Dunne and Raby cite examples from their own design and teaching and from other projects from fine art, design, architecture, cinema, and photography. They also draw on futurology, political theory, the philosophy of technology, and literary fiction. They show us, for example, ideas for a solar kitchen restaurant; a flypaper robotic clock; a menstruation machine; a cloud-seeding truck; a phantom-limb sensation recorder; and devices for food foraging that use the tools of synthetic biology. Dunne and Raby contend that if we speculate more—about everything—reality will become more malleable. The ideas freed by speculative design increase the odds of achieving desirable futures.