Download or read book The Unwitting written by Ellen Feldman and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In CIA parlance, those who knew were “witting.” Everyone else was among the “unwitting.” On a bright November day in 1963, President Kennedy is shot. That same day, Nell Benjamin receives a phone call with news about her husband, the influential young editor of a literary magazine. As the nation mourns its public loss, Nell has her private grief to reckon with, as well as a revelation about Charlie that turns her understanding of her marriage on its head, along with the world she thought she knew. With the Cold War looming ominously over the lives of American citizens in a battle of the Free World against the Communist powers, the blurry lines between what is true, what is good, and what is right tangle with issues of loyalty and love. As the truths Nell discovers about her beloved husband upend the narrative of her life, she must question her own allegiance: to her career as a journalist, to her country, but most of all to the people she loves. Set in the literary Manhattan of the 1950s, at a journal much like the Paris Review, The Unwitting evokes a bygone era of burgeoning sexual awareness and intrigue and an exuberance of ideas that had the power to change the world. Resonant, illuminating, and utterly absorbing, The Unwitting is about the lies we tell, the secrets we keep, and the power of love in the face of both. Praise for The Unwitting “Much of the fun comes from the literary cameos (think: Mary McCarthy, Richard Wright and Robert Lowell), but it’s [Ellen Feldman’s] haunting portrait of a marriage that make this Cold War novel so resonant for readers of any time period, including our own.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “The first notable thing about this book is the narrator’s voice: it is snappish, confident, argumentative, literate. I fell for it from the beginning. . . . The Unwitting is vibrant, sassy, informative, a page-turner, absorbing, and swift. I am a woman, so maybe it is a women’s book, but I seriously doubt it, and hope that male readers will give it a shot. Surely they too will appreciate the research that went into it. Surely they too will be fascinated by its bold and thorough review of the American twentieth century.”—Kelly Cherry, The Los Angeles Review of Books “Compelling enough to take its place with the best of crime fiction, Feldman’s language is loving, bright and sharp while her storytelling abilities are unquestionable. . . . The Unwitting cuts us into an interesting time, then ramps things up. . . . Feldman is clearly a writer who is going places, [and] The Unwitting brings that home: it’s a terrific book.”—January Magazine “A story of love and intrigue during the Cold War, The Unwitting plumbs not only the secrets of spies, but those of the human heart. Moving, witty, and thoroughly intelligent, it is an absorbing and deeply satisfying read.”—Kevin Baker, author of The Big Crowd “Unforgettable . . . The Unwitting compelled me from the first page and through every unexpected twist and turn. This look into the dark places in human nature cries out to be read, re-ead, and discussed.”—Lynn Cullen, author of the national bestseller Mrs. Poe “Through the lens of a passionate, complex marriage, Ellen Feldman brings the Cold War back to life. The Unwitting is a wise and irresistible portrait of fascinating people in a tumultuous time.”—Roger Straus III, former managing director, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Download or read book Unwitting Street written by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighteen strange, whimsical, and philosophical tales by the Russian master of the weird, all now in English for the very first time. When Comrade Punt does not wake up one Moscow morning--he has died--his pants dash off to work without him. The ambitious pants soon have their own office and secretary. So begins the first of eighteen superb examples of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's philosophical and phantasmagorical stories. Where the stories included in two earlier NYRB collections (Memories of the Future and Autobiography of a Corpse) are denser and darker, the creations in Unwitting Street are on the lighter side: an ancient goblet brimful of self-replenishing wine drives its owner into the drink; a hypnotist's attempt to turn a fly into an elephant backfires; a philosopher's free-floating thought struggles against being "enlettered" in type and entombed in a book; the soul of a politician turned chess master winds up in one of his pawns; an unsentimental parrot journeys from prewar Austria to Soviet Russia.

Download or read book Unwitting Zionists written by Haya Gavish and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the Iraqi Jewish community of Zakho that investigates the community's attachment to the Land of Israel, the effects of Zionist activity, and immigration to Palestine and Israel. Unwitting Zionists examines the Jewish community in the northern Kurdistan town of Zakho from the end of the Ottoman period until the disappearance of the community through aliyah by 1951. Because of its remote location, Zakho was far removed from the influence of the Jewish religious leadership in Iraq and preserved many of its religious traditions independently, becoming the most important Jewish community in the region and known as "Jerusalem of Kurdistan." Author Haya Gavish argues, therefore, that when the community was exposed to Zionism, it began to open up to external influences and activity. Originally published in Hebrew, Unwitting Zionists uses personal memoirs, historical records, and interviews to investigate the duality between Jewish tradition and Zionism among Zakho's Jews. Gavish consults a variety of sources to examine the changes undergone by the Jewish community as a result of its religious affiliation with Eretz-Israel, its exposure to Zionist efforts, and its eventual immigration to Israel. Because relatively little written documentation about Zakho exists, Gavish relies heavily on folkloristic sources like personal recollections and traditional stories, including extensive material from her own fieldwork with an economically and demographically diverse group of men and women from Zakho. She analyzes this firsthand information within a historical framework to reconstruct a communal reality and lifestyle that was virtually unknown to anyone outside of the community. Appendixes contain biographical details of the interviewees for additional background. Gavish also addresses the relative merits of personal memoirs, optimal interviewer-interviewee relationships, and the problem of relying on the interviewees' memories in her study. Folklore, oral history, anthropology, and Israeli studies scholars, as well as anyone wanting to learn more about religion, commuity, and nationality in the Middle East will appreciate Unwitting Zionists.

Download or read book Unwitting Accomplice written by Sid Meltzer and published by Rogue Phoenix Press. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can a homicide be prevented when it’s still only in some stranger’s head? Kim Barbieri, a tough, street-smart New York City crime reporter unfazed by fragile male egos and mangled bodies, is sent an anonymous note with an ominous message: I intend to commit a murder. She doesn’t know who the killer is. She doesn’t know who his victim will be. She doesn’t know where, when and how he will strike. But there is one thing she does know: If she doesn’t learn to think like a killer, someone’s going to get away with murder. Does she succeed in stopping the homicide? Or does she become complicit in it?

Download or read book Unwitting Wisdom written by Aesop and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2004-08-05 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated adaptation of twelve animal fables first told by the Greek slave Aesop.

Download or read book Unwitting Mystic written by Mary Reed and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unwitting Mystic: Evolution of The Message of Love is a rare journey from Washington, DC to India and into otherworldly Divine realms in the company of God, Jesus, Buddha and a woman with no previous interest in, or understanding of, spiritual teachings. Through intimate details of profound metaphysical events and a miraculous recovery following a serious suicide attempt, this transcendent story goes beyond the borders of conflict-driven human experience to offer hope in the promise that the ever-increasing willingness to resurrecting one's own divinity is resurrecting a new love-driven consciousness throughout the world.

Download or read book Accidental Gods written by Anna Della Subin and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE, THE IRISH TIMES AND THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age Ever since 1492, when Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World and was hailed as a heavenly being, the accidental god has haunted the modern age. From Haile Selassie, acclaimed as the Living God in Jamaica, to Britain’s Prince Philip, who became the unlikely center of a new religion on a South Pacific island, men made divine—always men—have appeared on every continent. And because these deifications always emerge at moments of turbulence—civil wars, imperial conquest, revolutions—they have much to teach us. In a revelatory history spanning five centuries, a cast of surprising deities helps to shed light on the thorny questions of how our modern concept of “religion” was invented; why religion and politics are perpetually entangled in our supposedly secular age; and how the power to call someone divine has been used and abused by both oppressors and the oppressed. From nationalist uprisings in India to Nigerien spirit possession cults, Anna Della Subin explores how deification has been a means of defiance for colonized peoples. Conversely, we see how Columbus, Cortés, and other white explorers amplified stories of their godhood to justify their dominion over native peoples, setting into motion the currents of racism and exclusion that have plagued the New World ever since they touched its shores. At once deeply learned and delightfully antic, Accidental Gods offers an unusual keyhole through which to observe the creation of our modern world. It is that rare thing: a lyrical, entertaining work of ideas, one that marks the debut of a remarkable literary career.

Download or read book Blood Profits written by Vanessa Neumann and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2017-12-05 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revealing how the multibillion-dollar illegal trade of everyday counterfeit products is actually funding the world's terrorist organizations, a report by an expert on countering illicit trade explains the dangerous consequences of purchasing contraband.

Download or read book An Unwitting Pioneer written by Marshall A. Isler and published by Tate Publishing. This book was released on 2011-07 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I quickly began to realize that, regardless of race, at the end of the day, one's success in a particular organization depends on one's contribution to the objectives of that organization. Therefore, I had to create a win-win for the organization. The more I won, the better I felt and the more productive I became for the organization. In addition, as a pioneer to my white peers, I was representing all black America. I was removing myths and preconceived notions about the intellectual capacity of blacks. Separate water fountains for blacks were common in the South in the 1950s. Marshall Isler III grew up in the Jim Crow South. Despite the social pressure for him to stay in his 'place, ' Isler forged ahead by obtaining a degree in engineering from Howard University and becoming one of few black officers in the navy at that time. Little did he know, these were just his first steps toward becoming An Unwitting Pioneer. After forgoing a civil service super-grade at 38, Isler joined Parametric, the largest black construction management firm, where he orchestrated a 17 million dollar parking garage deal with the city of Philadelphia. From there, he entered the world of entrepreneurship, only to find that others expected him to stay in his 'place' in business as well. Follow Isler as he breaks boundaries, blazes trails for the black businessman, and finds God in An Unwitting Pioneer

Download or read book Unwitting Street written by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighteen strange, whimsical, and philosophical tales by the Russian master of the weird, all now in English for the very first time. When Comrade Punt does not wake up one Moscow morning--he has died--his pants dash off to work without him. The ambitious pants soon have their own office and secretary. So begins the first of eighteen superb examples of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's philosophical and phantasmagorical stories. Where the stories included in two earlier NYRB collections (Memories of the Future and Autobiography of a Corpse) are denser and darker, the creations in Unwitting Street are on the lighter side: an ancient goblet brimful of self-replenishing wine drives its owner into the drink; a hypnotist's attempt to turn a fly into an elephant backfires; a philosopher's free-floating thought struggles against being "enlettered" in type and entombed in a book; the soul of a politician turned chess master winds up in one of his pawns; an unsentimental parrot journeys from prewar Austria to Soviet Russia.

Download or read book Sharenthood written by Leah A. Plunkett and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From baby pictures in the cloud to a high school's digital surveillance system: how adults unwittingly compromise children's privacy online. Our children's first digital footprints are made before they can walk—even before they are born—as parents use fertility apps to aid conception, post ultrasound images, and share their baby's hospital mug shot. Then, in rapid succession come terabytes of baby pictures stored in the cloud, digital baby monitors with built-in artificial intelligence, and real-time updates from daycare. When school starts, there are cafeteria cards that catalog food purchases, bus passes that track when kids are on and off the bus, electronic health records in the nurse's office, and a school surveillance system that has eyes everywhere. Unwittingly, parents, teachers, and other trusted adults are compiling digital dossiers for children that could be available to everyone—friends, employers, law enforcement—forever. In this incisive book, Leah Plunkett examines the implications of “sharenthood”—adults' excessive digital sharing of children's data. She outlines the mistakes adults make with kids' private information, the risks that result, and the legal system that enables “sharenting.” Plunkett describes various modes of sharenting—including “commercial sharenting,” efforts by parents to use their families' private experiences to make money—and unpacks the faulty assumptions made by our legal system about children, parents, and privacy. She proposes a “thought compass” to guide adults in their decision making about children's digital data: play, forget, connect, and respect. Enshrining every false step and bad choice, Plunkett argues, can rob children of their chance to explore and learn lessons. The Internet needs to forget. We need to remember.

Download or read book If I Had Two Wings Stories written by Randall Kenan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction Longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction Finalist for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Mingling the earthy with the otherworldly, these ten stories chronicle ineffable events in ordinary lives. In Kenan’s fictional territory of Tims Creek, North Carolina, an old man rages in his nursing home, a parson beats up an adulterer, a rich man is haunted by a hog, and an elderly woman turns unwitting miracle worker. A retired plumber travels to Manhattan, where Billy Idol sweeps him into his entourage. An architect who lost his famous lover to AIDS reconnects with a high-school fling. Howard Hughes seeks out the woman who once cooked him butter beans. Shot through with humor and seasoned by inventiveness and maturity, Kenan riffs on appetites of all kinds, on the eerie persistence of history, and on unstoppable lovers and unexpected salvations. If I Had Two Wings is a rich chorus of voices and visions, dreams and prophecies, marked by physicality and spirit. Kenan’s prose is nothing short of wondrous.

Download or read book Running on Empty written by Jonice Webb and published by Morgan James Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A large segment of the population struggles with feelings of being detached from themselves and their loved ones. They feel flawed, and blame themselves. Running on Empty will help them realize that they're suffering not because of something that happened to them in childhood, but because of something that didn't happen. It's the white space in their family picture, the background rather than the foreground. This will be the first self-help book to bring this invisible force to light, educate people about it, and teach them how to overcome it.

Download or read book The Power of Horses and Other Stories written by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifteen stories contained in The Power of Horses portray, each in a different way, the sensitive and enduring culture of the Dakota of the Upper Plains and convey many of the basic truths that have sustained Elizabeth Cook-LynnÕs people for countless generations. Though the stories are often filled with violence and grief, they are also brimming with beauty, gentleness, charm, and humor. In these striking and memorable tales of Dakota country, Joseph grieves that the body of his middle son will never be returned to his native shores from the distant World War I battlefields where he was killed; family members gather to bury their father and barely survive their own weaknesses and bickering; a grandmother takes her grandchild for a walk and imparts to the child some of the old wisdom of times past; a whining hound dogÑprimordial to the DakotaÑcompetes unwittingly with Reverend TilestonÕs efforts to bring the word of the Christian God to a tight-knit family, and wins; Magpie is a poet but is also on parole, and just as his friends have begun to rethink the finality of justice, he is ÒaccidentallyÓ shot and killed in the white manÕs jail. Cook-Lynn writes unsparingly yet compassionately of reservation life in the last century. In each of these gemlike stories she reveals something of the mystery and essential toughness of the Dakota people.

Download or read book The Power of Experiments written by Michael Luca and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How tech companies like Google, Airbnb, StubHub, and Facebook learn from experiments in our data-driven world—an excellent primer on experimental and behavioral economics Have you logged into Facebook recently? Searched for something on Google? Chosen a movie on Netflix? If so, you've probably been an unwitting participant in a variety of experiments—also known as randomized controlled trials—designed to test the impact of different online experiences. Once an esoteric tool for academic research, the randomized controlled trial has gone mainstream. No tech company worth its salt (or its share price) would dare make major changes to its platform without first running experiments to understand how they would influence user behavior. In this book, Michael Luca and Max Bazerman explain the importance of experiments for decision making in a data-driven world. Luca and Bazerman describe the central role experiments play in the tech sector, drawing lessons and best practices from the experiences of such companies as StubHub, Alibaba, and Uber. Successful experiments can save companies money—eBay, for example, discovered how to cut $50 million from its yearly advertising budget—or bring to light something previously ignored, as when Airbnb was forced to confront rampant discrimination by its hosts. Moving beyond tech, Luca and Bazerman consider experimenting for the social good—different ways that governments are using experiments to influence or “nudge” behavior ranging from voter apathy to school absenteeism. Experiments, they argue, are part of any leader's toolkit. With this book, readers can become part of “the experimental revolution.”

Download or read book Pride Perception a Pride Prejudice Variation written by Sue Barr and published by ISBN Canada. This book was released on 2021-03-08 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if...The entail on Longbourn had been broken?The Bennets owned Netherfield Park?Jane had firm opinions?Lizzy overheard the second derogatory comment Darcy made about her beauty? After the Bennets had dined at Netherfield Park, he said, "Her a beauty? I should as soon call her mother a wit."Yeah - that one.This is a story where we explore all these beautiful what ifs.

Download or read book Dark Persuasion written by Joel E. Dimsdale and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A harrowing account of brainwashing’s pervasive role in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries This gripping book traces the evolution of brainwashing from its beginnings in torture and religious conversion into the age of neuroscience and social media. When Pavlov introduced scientific approaches, his research was enthusiastically supported by Lenin and Stalin, setting the stage for major breakthroughs in tools for social, political, and religious control. Tracing these developments through many of the past century’s major conflagrations, Dimsdale narrates how when World War II erupted, governments secretly raced to develop drugs for interrogation. Brainwashing returned to the spotlight during the Cold War in the hands of the North Koreans and Chinese. In response, a huge Manhattan Project of the Mind was established to study memory obliteration, indoctrination during sleep, and hallucinogens. Cults used the techniques as well. Nobel laureates, university academics, intelligence operatives, criminals, and clerics all populate this shattering and dark story—one that hasn’t yet ended.