Download or read book The Irresponsible Self written by James Wood and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2005-04-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "James Wood has been called our best young critic. This is not true. He is our best critic; he thinks with a sublime ferocity."--Cynthia Ozick Following the collection The Broken Estate--which established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation--The Irresponsible Self confirms Wood's preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of contemporary novels. In twenty-three passionate, sparkling dispatches, he effortlessly connects his encyclopedic, passionate understanding of the literary canon with an equally earnest and appreciative view of the most discussed authors writing today, including Franzen, Pynchon, Rushdie, DeLillo, Naipaul, David Foster Wallace, and Zadie Smith. This collection includes Wood's famous and controversial attack on "hysterical realism", and his sensitive but unsparing examinations of White Teeth and Brick Lane. The Irresponsible Self is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about modern fiction.

Download or read book The Irresponsible Self written by James Wood and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2004 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description

Download or read book Serious Noticing written by James Wood and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive collection of literary essays by The New Yorker’s award-winning longtime book critic Ever since the publication of his first essay collection, The Broken Estate, in 1999, James Wood has been widely regarded as a leading literary critic of the English-speaking world. His essays on canonical writers (Gustav Flaubert, Herman Melville), recent legends (Don DeLillo, Marilynne Robinson) and significant contemporaries (Zadie Smith, Elena Ferrante) have established a standard for informed and incisive appreciation, composed in a distinctive literary style all their own. Together, Wood’s essays, and his bestselling How Fiction Works, share an abiding preoccupation with how fiction tells its own truths, and with the vocation of the writer in a world haunted by the absence of God. In Serious Noticing, Wood collects his best essays from two decades of his career, supplementing earlier work with autobiographical reflections from his book The Nearest Thing to Life and recent essays from The New Yorker on young writers of extraordinary promise. The result is an essential guide to literature in the new millennium.

Download or read book The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise written by Jim L. Bowyer and published by Levins Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In ''The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise, '' Dr. Jim L. Bowyer clearly documents an ethically bankrupt position that underlies much of our environmental policy. High consumption in wealthy countries usually goes hand-in-hand with resistance to domestic raw materials extraction and half-hearted interest in recycling. Because of this, the world's wealthiest countries increasingly rely on imported raw materials from poorer nations to fuel consumption. This, in turn, allows citizens of wealthy countries to smugly enjoy high levels of consumption with minimal exposure to the environmental impacts of that consumption. Bowyer concludes, ''Contrary to common practice today, high consuming nations need to be asking, 'Why not in my back yard?'''

Download or read book How Fiction Works written by James Wood and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-07-22 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What makes a story a story? What is style? What’s the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation. Ranging widely—from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings—Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step. The result is nothing less than a philosophy of the novel—plainspoken, funny, blunt—in the traditions of E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. It sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision. It will change the way you read.

Download or read book Promise Land written by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A funny yet surprisingly nuanced look at the legends and ideas of the self-help industry” (People, 3.5 stars), Promise Land explores the American devotion to self-improvement—even as the author attempts some deeply personal improvements of her own. Raised by a child psychologist who was himself the author of numerous self-help books, as an adult Jessica Lamb-Shapiro found herself both repelled and fascinated by the industry: did all of these books, tapes, weekend seminars, groups, posters, t-shirts, and trinkets really help anybody? Why do some people swear by the power of positive thinking, while others dismiss it as so many empty promises? Promise Land is an irreverent tour through the vast and strange reaches of the world of self-help. In the name of research, Jessica attempted to cure herself of phobias, followed The Rules to meet and date men, walked on hot coals, and even attended a self-help seminar for writers of self-help books. But the more she delved into the history and practice of self-help, the more she realized her interest was much more than academic. Forced into a confrontation with the silent grief that had haunted both her and her father since her mother’s death when she was a baby, she realized that sometimes thinking you know everything about a subject is a way of hiding from yourself the fact that you know nothing at all. “A jaunty, cannily written memoir” (Chicago Tribune), Promise Land is cultural history from “a witty and enjoyably self-aware writer…Jessica Lamb-Shapiro’s talent as a storyteller is undeniable” (The New York Times Book Review).

Download or read book The Fun Stuff written by James Wood and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self, and How Fiction Works—books that established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation—The Fun Stuff confirms Wood's preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of the contemporary novel. In twenty-three passionate, sparkling dispatches—that range over such crucial writers as Thomas Hardy, Leon Tolstoy, Edmund Wilson, and Mikhail Lermontov—Wood offers a panoramic look at the modern novel. He effortlessly connects his encyclopedic, passionate understanding of the literary canon with an equally in-depth analysis of the most important authors writing today, including Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, Aleksandar Hemon, and Michel Houellebecq. Included in The Fun Stuff are the title essay on Keith Moon and the lost joys of drumming—which was a finalist for last year's National Magazine Awards—as well as Wood's essay on George Orwell, which Christopher Hitchens selected for the Best American Essays 2010. The Fun Stuff is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about contemporary literature.

Download or read book You Are a Badass written by Jen Sincero and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • MORE THAN 5 MILLION COPIES SOLD The first ever self-development book to help millions of people around the globe transform their lives using humor, irreverence, and the occasional curse word—now updated and expanded for its 10th anniversary with a brand-new foreword, reader's guide, and more! In this refreshingly entertaining guide to reshaping your mindset and your life, mega-bestselling author and world-traveling success coach Jen Sincero serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilarious and inspiring stories, sage advice, loving yet firm kicks in the rear, and easy-to-implement exercises to help you: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want. Shift your energy and attract what you desire. Create a life you totally love. And start creating it NOW. Make some damn money already. The kind you've never made before. By the end of You Are a Badass, you’ll understand how to blast past what’s holding you back, make some serious changes, and start living the kind of life that once seemed impossible.

Download or read book The Source of Self Regard written by Toni Morrison and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Here is the Nobel Prize winner in her own words: a rich gathering of her most important essays and speeches, spanning four decades that "speaks to today’s social and political moment as directly as this morning’s headlines” (NPR). These pages give us her searing prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of language, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., her heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. She looks deeply into the fault lines of culture and freedom: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, “black matter(s),” human rights, the artist in society, the Afro-American presence in American literature. And she turns her incisive critical eye to her own work (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, Paradise) and that of others. An essential collection from an essential writer, The Source of Self-Regard shines with the literary elegance, intellectual prowess, spiritual depth, and moral compass that have made Toni Morrison our most cherished and enduring voice.

Download or read book Expanding the Boundaries of Self Beyond the Limit of Traditional Thought written by Oliver H. Jobson and published by Oliver H. Jobson. This book was released on 2005-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 150 Word Description: "Expanding The Boundaries Of Self Beyond The Limit Of Traditional Thought."..communicates a direct perception of the self through realization, detailing a profound understanding of the laws of Karma, attraction, retribution, resonance and sin. With Oliver H. Jobson's dynamic personality, deep intellect and universal knowledge, he goes beyond traditional thought offering an autobiographical philosophical insight from research into World Faiths. He challenges readers to look within as he reveals the pertinent keys to unlocking the secret teachings behind all Religions. Jobson presents a synthesis linking religion, science, philosophy and our daily life into a reality of universal harmony, dispelling the bigotry, divisiveness and confusion that create religious separation and conflict in a fast shrinking global community. The essence of his book comprises five fundamental guiding principles, called the five E's; they are Examination of self, Expansion of mind, Edifying understanding, Eliminating erroneous thoughts and maintaining Equanimity and balance.

Download or read book Things Not Seen written by Andrew Clements and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-04-20 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of American Library Association Schneider Family Book Award! Bobby Phillips is an average fifteen-year-old-boy. Until the morning he wakes up and can't see himself in the mirror. Not blind, not dreaming-Bobby is just plain invisible. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to Bobby's new condition; even his dad the physicist can't figure it out. For Bobby that means no school, no friends, no life. He's a missing person. Then he meets Alicia. She's blind, and Bobby can't resist talking to her, trusting her. But people are starting to wonder where Bobby is. Bobby knows that his invisibility could have dangerous consequences for his family and that time is running out. He has to find out how to be seen again-before it's too late.

Download or read book The Broken Estate written by James Wood and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2013-11-06 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book recalls an era when criticism could change the way we look at the world. In the tradition of Matthew Arnold and Edmund Wilson, James Wood reads literature expansively, always pursuing its role and destiny in our lives. In a series of essays about such figures as Melville, Flaubert, Chekhov, Virginia Woolf, and Don DeLillo, Wood relates their fiction to questions of religious and philosophical belief. He suggests that the steady ebb of the sea of faith has much to do with the revo- lutionary power of the novel, as it has developed over the last two centuries. To read James Wood is to be shocked into both thinking and feeling how great our debt to the novel is. In the grand tradition of criticism, Wood's work is both commentary and literature in its own right--fiercely written, polemical, and richly poetic in style. This book marks the debut of a masterly literary voice.

Download or read book Egotistical Puckboy written by Eden Finley and published by Absolute Books. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EZRAPartying, dudes, and hockey. What more could a gay NHL player want?If it weren't for Anton Hayes, my life would be perfect.Not that he affects my life in any way. At all. That would imply I care what the winger from Philly thinks of me.Which I don't.Not even a one-night stand with him can thaw his misplaced animosity toward me.He says I'm the one with the ego, but he can talk. He rivals me for most egotistical puck boy in the league.I hate him as much as he hates me. Even if I crave a repeat.ANTONWhen it comes to hockey, I'm all about the game.I've worked for years to be one of the best in the league, and I've done it without splashing my orientation all over the tabloids.My hockey image is one I've carefully cultivated, and after one night with Ezra Palaszczuk, I risk it all.He's cocky, obnoxious, and has an ego bigger than Massachusetts. And okay, maybe he's the sexiest man I've ever known.We'll never get along. Not when we sleep together. Not even when my possessive streak awakens.That doesn't stop us from falling into bed together over and over again.

Download or read book The Mountain Is You written by Brianna Wiest and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT SELF-SABOTAGE. Why we do it, when we do it, and how to stop doing it-for good. Coexisting but conflicting needs create self-sabotaging behaviors. This is why we resist efforts to change, often until they feel completely futile. But by extracting crucial insight from our most damaging habits, building emotional intelligence by better understanding our brains and bodies, releasing past experiences at a cellular level, and learning to act as our highest potential future selves, we can step out of our own way and into our potential. For centuries, the mountain has been used as a metaphor for the big challenges we face, especially ones that seem impossible to overcome. To scale our mountains, we actually have to do the deep internal work of excavating trauma, building resilience, and adjusting how we show up for the climb. In the end, it is not the mountain we master, but ourselves.

Download or read book The Middle Finger Project written by Ash Ambirge and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh, funny, and fearless, The Middle Finger Project is a point-by-point primer on how to get unstuck, slay imposter syndrome, trust in your own worth and ability, and become a strong, capable, wonderful, weird, brilliant, ballsy, unfuckwithable YOU. "Don't worry, this isn't a book about God, nor is it a book about Ryan Gosling (second in command). But it is a book about authority and becoming your own." --Ash Ambirge After a string of dead-end jobs and a death in the family, Ash Ambirge was down to her last $26 and sleeping in a Kmart parking lot when she faced the truth: No one was coming to her rescue. It was up to her to appoint herself. That night led to what eventually became a six-figure freelance career as a sought-after marketing and copywriting consultant, all while sipping coffee from her front porch in Costa Rica. She then launched The Middle Finger Project, a blog and online course hub, which has provided tens of thousands of young "women who disobey" with the tools and mindset to give everyone else's expectations the finger and get on your own path to happiness, wealth, independence, and adventure. In her first book, Ash draws on her unconventional personal story to offer a fun, bracing, and occasionally potty-mouthed manifesto for the transformative power of radical self-reliance. Employing the signature wit and wordsmithing she's used to build an avid following, she offers paradigm-shifting advice along the lines of: • The best feeling in the world is knowing who you are and what you're capable of doing. • Life circumstances are not life sentences. If a Scranton girl who grew up in a trailer park can make it, so can you. • What you believe about yourself will either murder your chances or save your life. So why not believe something good? • You don't need a high-ranking job title to be authorized to contribute. You just need to contribute. • Be your own authority. Authority only works as long as you trust that someone smarter than you is making the rules. • The way you become a force is by being the most radically real version of yourself that you can be. • You only have 12 fucks a day to give, so use them wisely.

Download or read book Own Your Self written by Kelly Brogan, M.D. and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times best-selling author presents a radical alternative to psychotropic meds: discerning the meaning in your symptoms and your struggle as a way to reclaim your health and your self. For years, we've been telling ourselves that our difficult feelings-sadness, rage, shame, intensity, worry-are somehow "not okay." And, all too often, we've relied on the promise of pharmaceuticals to tamp them down. The fact is, though, that these feelings are a vital part of our experience. They are real. And those of us who feel them most strongly are the canaries in the coalmine-sensitive to things that are seriously wrong in the world today. In a book that's both provocative and promising, holistic psychiatrist Kelly Brogan, M.D., author of A Mind of Your Own, shows us that we don't have to medicate our mental, emotional, and physical pain away-that the best way out is through. She explodes the mistaken belief that our symptoms-from mood changes to irritability to fogginess and fatigue-are evidence that we are sick or broken. Then she charts a new path to get real, get well, and get free. The journey includes: • Coming to a new appreciation of the meaning behind symptoms, and whether you are a canary in the coal mine • Learning the 2 major risks of medication that most doctors are not trained to disclose • Exploring the 5 reversible physical drivers of so-called mental illness • Starting the process of radical physical healing with inclusive details of Dr. Brogan's history-making 30-day protocol • Taking an emotional inventory of energy drains and toxic relationships • Taking a deeper dive into the spiritual awakening and expansion that comes when you reclaim your real self from conventional medicine • Identifying the most likely places you have given your power away • Understanding what the science has to say about psychedelics as a tool for awakening • Navigating health challenges with curiosity and the proper tools • Guidance, support, and many Travel Tips shared from the trenches! Our experiences, Dr. Brogan argues, aren't problems or pathologies; they reflect what we need to accept, acknowledge, and transform in order to truly become who we are. Own Your Self is a journey of healing, and also something more: a journey of coming home to ourselves.

Download or read book A Little Life written by Hanya Yanagihara and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.