Download or read book The Five Minute Iliad Other Instant Classics written by Greg Nagan and published by Gallery Books. This book was released on 2000-08-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was Homer really blind, or was that just his shtick? Was Dante a righty or a lefty? Why aren't there any pictures of Jane Austen in a bikini? What made Oscar so Wilde? How much did Hemingway? These are just some of the many great questions of Western literature ignored in this book. From the author of A Prairie Home Companion's beloved "Five-Minute Classics" comes The Five-Minute Iliad and Other Instant Classics, a witty and profane lampoon of the Western literary canon -- the Spinal Tap of literature. "I will never write such wordy trash again," Leo Tolstoy said of War and Peace after reading Homer in the original Greek. Tolstoy's pledge inspired humorist Greg Nagan to whet his double-edged verbal sword and offer this gleefully twisted take on what contemporary readings of the Great Books say about our society today. From The Iliad to On the Road, these fifteen parodies provide a riotous romp through Western civilization (one version of it, anyway) from Homer to Kerouac, from Ancient Greece to Postwar America, from the Lyrical Epic to the Breathless Gush. Nagan's mirthful mayhem will delight those who've read the Great Books, and those who haven't read them will find these literary caricatures entertaining in their own right.

Download or read book Uncanny Collateral written by Brian McClellan and published by Brian McClellan. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alek Fitz is a reaper, a collection agent who works for the supernatural elements of the world, tracking down debtors and solving problems for clients as diverse as the Lords of Hell, vampires, Haitian loa, and goblins. He’s even worked for the Tooth Fairy on occasion. Based out of Cleveland, Ohio, Alek is the best in the game. As a literal slave to his job, he doesn’t have a choice. When Death comes looking for someone to track down a thief, Alek is flung into a mess of vengeful undead, supernatural bureaucracy, and a fledgling imp war. As the consequences of failure become dire, he has few leads, and the clock is ticking. Only with the help of his friend Maggie—an ancient djinn with a complex past—can he hope to recover the stolen property, save the world, and just maybe wring a favor out of the Great Constant himself. It’s a hell of a job, but somebody’s got to do it . . .

Download or read book The Night Garden written by Lisa Van Allen and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Sarah Addison Allen, Aimee Bender, and Alice Hoffman, The Night Garden is a luminous novel of love, forgiveness, and the possibilities that arise when you open your heart. Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its center lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colorful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors. Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harboring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. But when her childhood best friend, Sam Van Winkle, returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe, isolated world and wonders if she at last has the courage to let someone in. As she and Sam reconnect, Olivia faces a difficult question: Is the garden maze that she has nurtured all of her life a safe haven or a prison? Praise for Lisa Van Allen’s The Wishing Thread “Reader to reader, knitter to knitter: You’re going to love this book.”—Debbie Macomber “Whimsical . . . great for fans of Sarah Addison Allen and Alice Hoffman.”—Library Journal Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

Download or read book The Wrong Book written by Nick Bland and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicholas Ickle is in the wrong book. He is trying to introduce a book but before he can begin the pages are invaded by other characters. He is interrupted one after the other by an elephant, two monsters, a pirate, a queen and two servants, a horde of curious rats and a puppet. Nick Blands humorous illustrations show Nicholas losing his temper and sending the characters away. Just as he tries to introduce the real subject of the bookhimselfthe End descends.

Download or read book The Way I Heard It written by Mike Rowe and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emmy-award winning gadfly Rowe presents a ridiculously entertaining, seriously fascinating collection of his favorite episodes from America's #1 short-form podcast, The Way I Heard It, along with a host of memories, ruminations, illustrations, and insights.

Download or read book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running written by Haruki Murakami and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the best-selling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and After Dark, a rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running, and the integral impact both have made on his life. In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Haruki Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a slew of critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and includes settings ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvellous lens of sport emerges a cornucopia of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs and the experience, after the age of fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in distance running.

Download or read book The Short Attention Span Book written by Gunnar Alutalu and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-09-11 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABOUT THE BOOK A significant segment of the world's literate population prefers their reading material in short, zippy, punchy sections. This collection of literary tidbits is deliberately disorganized in an effort to hold the reader's attention. Should the reader find a particular story devoid of interest, he will soon come to the end of it and stumble on something that might appeal to him or her. No serious effort has been made to be scientifically, historically or grammatically correct.

Download or read book Journal written by Barnyardpassion Journals and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2018-11-24 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I Don't Have a Short Attention Span, I Just Oh, Look a Chinchilla" Journal Notebook Diary, 6 x 9 This crepuscular gift journal is perfect for the rodent lover or pet owner in your life. Grab our furry mammal notebook in time for your next trip to the pet store to purchase a cage or water bottle for your newest small animal. This is a blank lined journal that's a convenient size to take anywhere. Other features include 55 sheets / 110 pages 6 x 9 inches Excellent and thick binding Durable cream paper Sleek, matte-finished cover for a professional look This journal paper is a neutral wide-ruled paper with a line at the top for date. The date line automatically defaults to the left or right depending on which side of the book the page is printed on. Journals are a big part of the self-help movement and are often used by people who would like to write down their thoughts, often during a particularly challenging transition in their lives, for example pregnancy, rehabilitation, illness or therapy. People also like to journal while traveling, taking part in a new activity (like a class) or when they're planning something exciting like a wedding or adoption. Journals are also popular with people who would like to make a change in their lifestyle, so they may use it to document their sleeping, exercise, cleaning or eating habits, their dreams or their thoughts about their relationship or financial affairs.

Download or read book Hard Laughter written by Anne Lamott and published by Viking. This book was released on 1980 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anne Lamott's poignant first novel, reissued in an attractive new edition. Writer (and sometime housecleaner) Jennifer is twenty-three when her beloved father, Wallace, is diagnosed with a brain tumor. This catastrophic discovery sets off Anne Lamott's unexpectedly sweet and funny first novel, which is made dramatic not so much by Wallace's illness as by the emotional wake it sweeps under Jen and her brothers, self-contained Ben and feckless, lovable Randy. With characteristic affection and accuracy, Lamott sketches this offbeat family and their nearest and dearest as they draw ever closer in the intimacy Jen prizes "among the other estimable things: good music, good hard laughter, good sex, good industry, and good books."

Download or read book The Mars Room written by Rachel Kushner and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TIME’S #1 FICTION TITLE OF THE YEAR • NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 FINALIST for the MAN BOOKER PRIZE and the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD LONGLISTED for the ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL An instant New York Times bestseller from two-time National Book Award finalist Rachel Kushner, The Mars Room earned tweets from Margaret Atwood—“gritty, empathic, finely rendered, no sugar toppings, and a lot of punches, none of them pulled”—and from Stephen King—“The Mars Room is the real deal, jarring, horrible, compassionate, funny.” It’s 2003 and Romy Hall, named after a German actress, is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: her young son, Jackson, and the San Francisco of her youth. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living, portrayed with great humor and precision. Stunning and unsentimental, The Mars Room is “wholly authentic…profound…luminous” (The Wall Street Journal), “one of those books that enrage you even as they break your heart” (The New York Times Book Review, cover review)—a spectacularly compelling, heart-stopping novel about a life gone off the rails in contemporary America. It is audacious and tragic, propulsive and yet beautifully refined and “affirms Rachel Kushner as one of our best novelists” (Entertainment Weekly).

Download or read book Distraction written by Natalie M. Phillips and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary Attention: An fMRI Study of Reading Jane Austen

Download or read book How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds Or Less written by Milo O. Frank and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1987 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to get your listener’s attention, keep her interest, and make your point—all in thirty seconds! Milo Frank, America’s foremost business communications consultant, shows you how to focus your objectives, utilize the “hook” technique, use the secrets of TV and advertising writers, tell terrific anecdotes that make your point, shine in meetings and question-and-answer sessions, and more! These proven techniques give you the edge that successful people share—the art of communicating quickly, precisely, and powerfully!

Download or read book Radical Attention written by Julia Bell and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essay on the battle for our attention in the age of distraction. Attention pays. In today's online economy it has become a commodity to be bought and sold. Bombarding us with free smartphone apps and news websites, developers and advertisers have turned what and how focus our attention into the world's fastest growing industry. In exchange for our attention, information and entertainment is ever at our fingertips. But at what cost? In this essay, at once personal and polemical, meditative and militant, Julia Bell asks what has been lost in this trade off. How can we reclaim our attention? In a world of infinite distraction, how can attention become radical?

Download or read book Concentration written by Stefan Van Der Stigchel and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to concentrate in a world of beeping smartphones, channel surfing, live-tweeting, pop-up ads, and other distractions. We are in the midst of an attention crisis—caused in large part by our smartphones. There's a constant stream of information that we are powerless to withstand because it shows up in our notifications. More and more of us are finding it harder and harder to concentrate. In this book, attention expert and cognitive psychologist Stefan Van der Stigchel explains how concentration works and offers advice on how to stay focused in a world of beeping smartphones, channel surfing, live-tweeting, pop-up ads, and other distractions. The good news, Van der Stigchel reports, is that we now know more about brain and behavior than ever before, and he draws on the latest scientific findings in his account of concentration. He explains, among other things, that the battle for our attention began long before the digital era; why our phones are so addictive; the importance of working memory (responsible for executing complicated tasks) and how to increase its capacity; and why multitasking is bad for our concentration, but attention rituals help it. He describes the 2017 Oscars debacle (when the Best Picture presenter was given the wrong card) as a failure of multitasking; argues that daydreaming can be good for our concentration; and shows that the presence of a passenger in a car reduces the risk of an accident. He explains the positive effects of taking “tech breaks” (particularly in natural surroundings), meditation, and even daydreaming. We can win the battle for our attention, Van der Stigchel argues, if we have the knowledge and the tools to do it.

Download or read book Got Your Attention written by Sam Horn and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A communication strategist shares her eight-stage process for connecting with any number of people with two-way interactions. Did you know: • Goldfish, yes, goldfish, have longer attention spans than we humans do? • One in four people abandons a website if it takes longer than four seconds to load? Imagine if there were ways, in a world of impatience and INFObesity, to quickly intrigue busy, distracted people and earn their interest, trust and buy-in. Imagine if there was a process for pleasantly surprising decision-makers and convincing them you're the right person for the job, position, project or contract. You don’t have to imagine it, Sam Horn has created it. Sam’s innovative techniques have helped her clients close deals and raise millions of dollars, and will be your “secret sauce” to getting funded, hired, elected, promoted or referred. “These accessible techniques transcend generations and read like a modern-day version of How to Win Friends and Influence People.” —Miki Agrawal, one of Forbes’s “Top 20 Millennials on a Mission” and founder of THINX “Sam Horn’s smart and snappy book will teach you how to get people’s attention—and keep it.” —Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of To Sell Is Human “If you can’t get people’s attention, you’ll never get their business. Sam Horn’s new book shows how to quickly earn respect so people are motivated to listen.” —Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity and WayBlazer and chair of Kayak “A must-read for those in the workplace who want to contribute at their highest level and create more strategic networks.” —Betsy Myers, former executive director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School “Horn offers innovative ways to initiate genuine conversations and meaningful connections that turn strangers into friends.” —Keith Ferrazzi, author of the #1 bestseller Never Eat Alone

Download or read book Teach Me to Talk written by and published by . This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book I m Thinking of Ending Things written by Iain Reid and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a Netflix original movie, this deeply scary and intensely unnerving novel follows a couple in the midst of a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease. You will be scared. But you won’t know why… I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always. Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.” And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here. In this smart and intense literary suspense novel, Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic Under the Skin, and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, “your dread and unease will mount with every passing page” (Entertainment Weekly) of this edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping, and atmospheric, I’m Thinking of Ending Things pulls you in from the very first page…and never lets you go.