  | Book Details Title: Munch (Basic Art Series 2.0) |
Book DescriptionAbout the Author Ulrich Bischoff is an art historian and writer. From 1994 to 2013, he worked as director of the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. He has published extensively in the areas of classical modernity and contemporary art. Read more Customers Review: A very good overview of the works by a little-known (at least in the U.S.) artist except for one painting. It seemed well researched, but was not pedantic (a flaw that often happens with well researched works regardless of subject). His paintings really showed that he was quite a bit ahead of his time. While the mainstream, especially in France, were in the throes of Impressionism, he rather pioneered Expressionism, but was still abl to “connect” with mainstream values and, though he didn’t adhere to them, appreciated them. | |
Jumat, 31 Juli 2020
[PDF] Download Munch (Basic Art Series 2.0) by Ulrich Bischoff | Free EBOOK PDF English
24 reviews [PDF] Download We Wish You Luck: A Novel by Caroline Zancan | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: We Wish You Luck: A Novel |
Book DescriptionReview “Caroline Zancan’s wizardry is difficult to summarize: her prose is precise, deft, cutting—summing up a glance, an intent, a person’s inner weather with perfect efficiency, and making it look easy. We Wish You Luck is a book for anyone who’s ever had literature change their life. It makes the undeniable case for the power of words on a page—their power to make us, and to break us apart completely.”—Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin”A twisted campus novel told in the third person, which collectively expresses the perspective of three ambitious, brilliant students…. It’s a rollicking read that offers a sharp take on the creative process, revenge, and envy.” —Elle“Elegant and enthralling” —Newsweek”A classic tale of revenge and redemption, as well as love and friendship, and success and ambition…. Zancan adeptly describes the naked wanting, aspirations, and work that are part of the MFA experience, but she also shows how devastating cruelty or even mere criticism can be depending on how it is received and the recipient’s mindset. The novel’s characters are multi-dimensional…” —Bust”Zancan does a wonderful job of describing the characters who populate this program, with excellent pacing and a momentum that turns the MFA life into a gripping story of professional and personal revenge.” —The Millions (Most Anticipated List)“Immersive and atmospheric, easy to stick with… We Wish You Luck is a clever take down of the systems and privileges of writing programs and the academicification of creative writing.” —BookRiot “So unbelievably satisfying.” —HelloGiggles “Literary catnip…young writers, bad teachers, revenge, poetry. A Eugenides-esque chorus of students narrate the events of their time at a low residency MFA program in Vermont.” —Emily Temple, Lit Hub “[An] elaborate revenge plot, which I just had to see through to the last dark deed.” —Kiki Koroshetz, Goop”[I]nventive, addictive…. Zancan excels at portraying the claustrophobia and competitiveness that can arise when someone is near others who share the same goals. This ambitious novel about love and revenge reads like a thriller, while asking probing questions about what it means to make art and how artists influence each other, for better or worse.” —Publishers Weekly”[C]aptures the fraught environment of almost-grown-ups on campus in sharp, unsparing detail and with lyrical momentum…. [A]sks intriguing questions about power, complicity, and the urge to tell someone else’s story.” —Kirkus“Zancan weaves together an extraordinary story peopled by fascinating characters who are not easily forgotten. She explores the communal process of literary production and creates a palpable tension between creation and destruction that will keep readers engaged.” —Booklist“A seductive and tightly controlled literary revenge story. With a dash of The Secret History, We Wish You Luck is a wonderful, hypnotic novel about craft, narrative, and the stakes of literary production.” —Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State “We Wish You Luck is a thrilling tale, a puzzle that isn’t so much assembled as revealed by its crafty chorus of We. I loved watching the story unfold, and I loved never knowing if the collective impulse was to create or destroy. A smart, fun read.”—Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You’re Hungry and Ugly Girls“A coming-of-age story filled with fascinating, richly imagined characters, Zancan tells the story of writers and their intricate, at times darkly ruinous desires. It’s rare to describe a book about writing as ‘addictive,’ but that’s exactly what Zancan has done here.” —Hala Alyan, author of Salt Houses Read more About the Author Caroline Zancan is the author of the novel Local Girls. She is a graduate of Kenyon College and holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. A Senior Editor at Henry Holt, she lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with her husband and their children. Read more Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. There is no train ride in the world prettier than the one from Penn Station to Albany. Ten of the seventeen people in our class took that train up to the first June residency. The solemn, solitary appreciation that those of us on the train had for the violent ripples of the Hudson River, which ran along the tracks, and the eerie, radioactive-orange just-after-sunset light is one of the few things we all had in common. We sat in separate rows-separate cars where possible-pretending not to see one another when we passed each other in the aisles, knowing these three hours would be the last we’d have completely to ourselves for the next ten days.It was half camp, half graduate program we were headed to. Half vacation-at least, it used up all our vacation days-half second job. We only had to be on campus for two ten-day residencies a year, which we sometimes hated telling people, because it made it seem like a part-time program, when in reality we had to mail our professors packets with twenty pages of new work and two critical papers every month, which was considerably harder than drinking wine on campus during the stretches we were technically “in school.” In between residencies, we didn’t have the luxury of writing all day, and had to set alarms an hour earlier than we would have for our paying work alone, and we scribbled good lines on napkins during lunch breaks. But we graduated without all the debt. There are fewer than ten low-residency MFA programs in the country, and the classes tend to be small, but that only makes it a more exclusive club. Fielding’s program was set up so that its students had minimal interaction with the liberal arts undergrads-our residencies were held during their summer and winter breaks. The undergrads had not yet tasted the tedium and burnt coffee that best characterizes most entry-level office jobs, which we felt certain kept them from fully appreciating the beauty of a campus we loved at first sight.We all had secret lives back home. We were doctors and judges and waitresses. Baristas and teachers and marketing managers. We had children and grandchildren, boyfriends, wives, and pets, pictures and anecdotes about whom, it was silently and mutually agreed, would come out for sharing only once, in the beginning of the first residency. They were the tools of our procrastination, interrupting the stories we were working on to ask for a warm cup of milk or the name of the new neighbor, just when those stories were starting to get good. This was our time-time for which we had given up tropical cruises, family reunions, and exotic destination weddings. We had shown up tired and droopy to our jobs the mornings after all-nighters pulled to make packet deadlines, and typed dialogue on our cell phones in the middle of our children’s dance recitals. And so, during the ten-day stretch when our part-time campus beckoned and kept us, we guarded our time vigilantly, careful of the omniscient threat of home and all its comforts.The program’s students generally fell into three categories. The first was the married accountants. Or married ad-copy writers. Or married drug reps. People who had jobs that no one’s practical father had ever warned against. Monotonous, reliable, well-paying work that came with benefits and retirement plans and that nobody ever dreamed about doing when they were young. These holders of practical jobs were almost always men, but it was not their practical jobs or their gender that really defined this first kind of student. It was their boredom. When they were off campus they fought their boredom in the small, suburban towns they lived in by writing gratuitously violent stories in clunky, showy prose that always felt like a version of somebody else’s writing, but less sure of itself, less effortless. It was prose you could feel working. The rest of us almost felt bad for them, because it was clear that their overwritten Westerns and Brooklyn crime novels had been written by someone who had never seen the desert or ridden a subway, but also that these stories had been labored over, redrafted again and again, and were loved. We didn’t, though-feel that bad for them-because during the ten days they were on campus this group of students fought their boredom by flirting with the twentysomething female students who had not been out of school long enough to realize that the beers these men bought for them, and the men’s willingness to laugh at their jokes or encourage their latest novel ideas, were all bad clichŽs. The only people more convinced than the rest of us that these men would never do anything with their lackluster, after-hours writing ambition and their time in the program except maybe strain their marriages even further than they already were, were the men themselves. They didn’t have the stack of rejections the rest of us did, because they hadn’t bothered to submit their work anywhere.We all secretly took pride in having Lucas White and Robbie Myers as our class representatives to the larger married-accountant body of students, because they took the art of revelry to a new level. Noticing, on the first night of our first residency, that our informal semicircle of first-years drinking wine out of plastic Solo cups dispersed earlier than it might have if the grass hadn’t been so itchy, they drove into town to get those bouncy balls that double as chairs. They eventually incorporated the balls into the literary drinking games they created, which had surprisingly thoughtful and complex rules. During our last residency Lucas threw Robbie a surprise thirty-seventh birthday party that featured a homemade cake with Lucas’s face on it. Though we all laughed when he uncovered the cake, we had to admit that the homemade buttercream frosting was as delicious as any we’d ever tasted. It was only years after we left campus for the last time that we realized these flourishes had been as inspired as the sturdiest, most well-crafted lines of prose any of us could point to in our own work-we can still recall the surprising way the vanilla of the frosting and the coconut of the cake took turns arriving on our tongues. We feel bad, remembering that cake now, about how we assumed their games and jokes and general good natures made them less serious writers than the rest of us, even as we played the games and laughed at the jokes, and retreated to our dorm rooms feeling less alone in this strange place because of them.Though each of us could point to plenty of times we’d been on the receiving end of Robbie’s cutting humor, Lucas was the one who was truly gifted at pushing boundaries and buttons. A bad case of septic arthritis as a child had left him with a pronounced limp. His four older brothers had taken it as their duty to teach him that the most effective way to avoid jokes at his expense was to think up the cleverest, most stinging insults before anyone else could, so that by lobbing the biggest stones at himself he would leave only pebbles for bullies. He took this habit of his as permission to point out the blemishes and soft spots the rest of us tried to hide about ourselves. And though none of us really minded, given that he never focused too much on any one target, some of us swore his limp was more pronounced just before or after his most savage ribbing, reminding us why these liberties were his to take. More important, though, his limp left him with a prescription for medical marijuana, which he and Robbie smoked freely around campus. Spotting any sort of authority, even on the distant horizon, they made fast, delighted work of pointing to the massive joint between them, Lucas’s I need it for medicine timed perfectly to Robbie’s It’s for his limp. Robbie never bothered to make up an excuse for the considerable number of hits he himself took.The next group of people was the retirees and the babies. The former doctors and lawyers who wanted to leave some record of the careers they had just retired from, and all the strange and interesting things they had seen and the noble acts they had done in the face of them-the jury that had returned the verdict they had gone to bed praying for every night for three years but never really expected; the guilty clients they knew how to help and the innocent ones they didn’t; the patient who survived a three-story fall or fourteen-hour surgery and the healthy thirtysomething who had died on the table during a routine procedure. These students were always the gentlest in workshop and rarely drank or danced in the student center. We saw them walking sometimes in the early morning, on the edge of campus, while the rest of us scrambled to the dining hall to grab something on the way to class before they stopped serving breakfast, and again during open, unscheduled chunks of time in the afternoon, heading out into the woods with their binoculars, eager to find the rare birds the Vermont woods are known for. The counterpoint to these gray-haired baby boomers were the twenty-three-year-olds who had come to the program at the very start of their postschool lives, with everything ahead of them, unsure how to fill the years to come. They didn’t necessarily have a passion for writing; the problem was that they didn’t really have a passion for anything-if they had done better on their LSATs they might’ve gone to law school. Some of them already had graduate degrees. They worked in coffee shops and volunteered on political campaigns when they weren’t on campus.Tammy had just retired from thirty years of social work for the state of Virginia. She also had a law degree she still occasionally used for pro bono work. She was the authentic version of the country protagonists so many of us tried in vain to capture on the page. She used words like Mama without any irony, or even any awareness that this was not how everyone addressed their mothers. Her work was cancerous with the worst things her career had shown her-the most hopeless cases and the darkest parental acts-but she had the good sense not to describe them in any detail, and instead she let them live just off the page, letting your imagination do the dirty work. The language she used to convey these things was abundantly unfussy; her words were functional, not acrobatic. That someone who knew as little as she did about verbal pyrotechnics knew that what went unsaid was more powerful than even the sharpest, most colorful language reminded us all that as useful as training was, predisposition counted for something, too.The details of the various hells her career had taken her through were not the only things she withheld. She had introduced herself as only “Tammy” to all of us-no last name. People in her workshop confirmed that it was the only name on top of her writing sample. She was the first person in our class whose name we all knew.The final group was the industry people-the people who worked at magazines and online journals that reviewed books, sometimes even at publishing houses. They never came right out and said that they knew things about books and writing that you didn’t, but their knowing, pressed-lip smiles and their literary tote bags made it so they didn’t have to. They occasionally hung out at the student center, but they mostly drank nice wines and brown liquors that they had brought up on the train from New York, in small, exclusive groups in their rooms. They judged the married accountants harder than anybody, and the accountants learned quickly not to make a romantic target out of anyone from this group.Mimi Kim was the social media coordinator for a small press in Brooklyn and relished any opportunity to display her considerable knowledge of things that have had exactly zero effect on the course of human existence. She knew what appetizers were served at the Nobel Prize ceremony and the name of the Silver Lake speakeasy that served the strongest gin cocktails. She knew which Metro-North lines went to which long-weekend destinations and at which parties she was likely to meet people who owned houses in each of them. She knew the paint colors on the walls of Joan Didion’s apartment.Though there was some contention between the groups, there was no hierarchy. The married accountants were the ones who kept the parties going late into the night, not caring how fresh they were for the next morning’s workshop, and even the most well-behaved, nondrinking retiree and most dedicated industry person needed the escape of a drink at these parties at least once a residency. Everyone knew the industry people could help you get published, or pass along the email address of an editor who would look at your short story. And the retirees could give you the Heimlich should you choke in the cafeteria, or serve as your legal representative should you get caught driving back to campus after one too many drinks or without a license, and they could spot you money for drinks at the student center-they seemed like real people in the way the rest of us, when placed alongside them, didn’t. They were the adults, and the only ones who didn’t define themselves by the program-who didn’t necessarily bring it up when they met new people at parties and meetings in the Real World.Occasionally there was cross-pollination between the groups, letting everyone feel a little better about themselves, writers not generally a group of people who like to think of themselves as close-minded or exclusive. Sarah Jacobs probably had less in common with Mimi than any other member of our class, even if they were both women of roughly the same age. We liked to joke that if reincarnation were real and each person had a different number of lives in their back pocket, Sarah was on her first. She was all big-eyed curiosity and guilelessness and had enough freckles to make this adorable instead of tiresome. At twenty-three, she was still living over her parents’ garage and, until the June we all started at Fielding, worked as a lifeguard at her local YMCA. There was a story Sarah’s family members liked to tell that Mimi reported back to us after she started vacationing with them. During a visit they made her freshman year at Wellesley, Sarah’s midwestern, baseball-loving family had insisted on going to a Red Sox game. Upon entering the stadium they noticed the purposefulness of her gait and, happily deciding that this meant her time away from home had bred self-sufficiency, followed her without a word. They were dismayed to learn, upon the start of their second lap around the stadium, that she had been walking for the sake of walking, eager to explore the stadium and whatever curiosities it held. During the seventh-inning stretch, though, when a rogue baseball came directly at her little sister, Sarah batted the ball away without a sound or flinch, shattering all the bones in her right hand. She had unexpected reserves of extraordinary capability when she needed them. It’s not that she wouldn’t have been able to find the family’s seats if she had any real desire to, it’s just that she sometimes wanted to marvel at the shapes of the clouds. It wasn’t so much laziness as an appreciation for the sky. Mimi knew the sky was blue only by its reputation. She found what was happening on the ground, behind doors closed in front of her and in darkened corners of whatever Brooklyn neighborhood was in the process of gentrifying, so much more interesting than anything she can find out by looking up on a clear day. And yet despite these and other differences, by the time we graduated the girls had gone in on a time-share at the Jersey Shore together, and Sarah had spent enough nights on Mimi’s couch in Brooklyn that she stopped having to tell people she still lived at home. Read more Customers Review: As an avid reader I sorely disapointed. It seems poorly written with long convoluted sentences. Nothing seems to happen which makes the book feel indulgent.
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[PDF] Download TIP: A Simple Strategy to Inspire High Performance and Lasting Success by Dave Gordon | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: TIP: A Simple Strategy to Inspire High Performance and Lasting Success |
Book DescriptionFrom the Inside Flap TIP is more than a story of one person’s journey to recognition and growth in work and life. TIP is a strategy and motivational reminder to take personal accountability for your reputation, your results, and your value. TIP is an action plan designed to help people who desire a simple way to take charge of their careers, improve their performance, manage their reputations, and enhance their lives. TIP is a timeless story filled with insights to help you become a stand-out performer, make good choices, give all you can, provide value to others, and be rewarded in return. Based on author Dave Gordon’s 30 years of professional experience and insights, TIP is the engaging and educational story of Brian Davis, an uninspired employee with a young family. One day, Brian is unceremoniously fired from his job without any notice. After spending a decade at the same job and never truly pushing himself to be more than average, Brian finds himself unemployed with no immediate prospects. Facing an uncertain future, Brian must choose between accepting another uninspiring job, or finally taking responsibility to control his own success and create his own unique value. Faced with a crossroads in his life, Brian takes a temporary job in the restaurant and hospitality industry while he searches for his next, perfect role. Brian doesn’t see himself as valuable to anyone at first. But, with the help of his new coworkers, insightful customers, and an unexpected mentor, Brian rediscovers the importance of purpose and passion in the delivery of standout customer service. He learns to add his own unique value by identifying his strengths and being known for the one thing that only he can bring. The more he gives of himself, the more he gets. Through his commitment and his consistency of beliefs, words, and actions, Brian gains a new reputation by creating memorable experiences for everyone around him. TIP shows you that everyone has value, whether to another person, a community, a team, or an organization. When you know your value, everything you do in work and life becomes easier and more rewarding. The simple, yet powerful, strategy presented in TIP will help you take control of your career and your reputation and keep you on the path to sustained success. Read more From the Back Cover Praise for TIP “A team will only succeed, and a company will only grow, when each person on that team is responsible and accountable for their own results. If you want to consistently bring your best every day, you need to read this book and follow Dave’s game plan for personal, team, and organizational success.” ―Jon Gordon, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, The Energy Bus and The Power of Positive Leadership “I love this story and this book. It truly sends a powerful message and takes what I have learned from Dave Gordon to the next level. I am sharing this with everyone I know and telling them to read it―twice!” ―Kurt Leisure, Vice President, Risk Services, The Cheesecake Factory “Dave Gordon is a master at helping you see through the fog of adversity and setting the right course for your future. He helps you discover your brand and reminds you to always protect it.” ―Jon McGavin, Area General Manager, The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott Orlando, Grand Lakes “Dave is an expert at aligning people with a purpose. Now he has taken his ‘stand for your brand’ principles and created a powerful resource with broad appeal and helpful guidance for any leader looking to build a world-class team or company.” ―Scott Hudson, President and CEO, Gallagher Bassett “After reading TIP, you will have no choice but to look at your own career and relationships through a different lens; one that empowers you to never accept being ‘average,’ and to take control of your future with a simple plan for personal innovation.” ―Jenny Hutt, author, SiriusXM host of Just Jenny and cofounder of BunnyEyez “Every great athlete, CEO, leader, teacher, and parent understands that greatness is a journey filled with the creative meaning of trying, falling, crying, laughing―and persevering, because the journey is what makes the difference. In TIP, Dave uses the power of conversation, of words, to compel you to cheer the hero along, all the while really cheering for yourself to become the best you can become.” ―Brian Hainline, MD, NCAA Chief Medical Officer “How you feel about a brand or company often comes down to one individual who either cared deeply, and took accountability for the experience of a customer, or just didn’t give a flip. TIP is a resource for anyone who wants to inspire their people to care more and have a positive impact on the future of their career, the success of the company, and the strength of the entire brand.” ―Ann Handley, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everybody Writes, and Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs Read more About the Author DAVE GORDON is an internationally recognized brand, marketing, and communications expert. He is an inspirational speaker, author, coach, and leader on a mission to help people identify, communicate, and deliver their unique value to build stronger personal, team, and corporate brands. Dave’s work has positively impacted leaders, teams, organizations, and associations in countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Read more Customers Review: Not just another typical business book filled with bullet points, 7-point strategies and questionable anecdotes.Written as a fictional narrative of a mid-level sales guy just let go from his job, the book follows him as he ends up working at a bar and meeting mentors who help him on a personal journey to become more than “justa” a sales guy and instead someone with a true personal brand that has something to offer employers. Sure enough, by the end of the book, he’s transformed.It’s a quick, highly readable book that you’ll zip through on a plane or train and give you something to think about and hopefully reframe how you think of yourself in the business world. Definitely one of the more enjoyable and easily digestible business books I’ve read in a long while. | |
[PDF] Download Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by John Jennings | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation: A Graphic Novel Adaptation |
Book DescriptionReview “…the graphic novel is faithful to Butler, yet still fresh in its world building.”, USA Today“…alarmingly prescient and relevant…This accessible adaptation is poised to introduce Butler’s dystopian tale to a new generation of readers.”, Publishers Weekly“…Jennings’ work in the book is beyond stunning…”, The Beat Read more About the Author Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) was a renowned African-American author who was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Since her death, sales of her books have increased enormously as the issues she addressed in her Afro-Futuristic, feminist novels and short fiction have only become more relevant. Damian Duffy, author of Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, is a cartoonist, scholar, writer, and teacher. He holds a MS and PhD in library and information sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, where he is on faculty. John Jennings, illustrator of Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside. Read more Customers Review: Relevant in the Age of Trump and the moral, economical, and environmental decay of America.Love love love this book | |
[PDF] Download The Art of Classic Planning: Building Beautiful and Enduring Communities by Nir Haim Buras | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: The Art of Classic Planning: Building Beautiful and Enduring Communities |
Book DescriptionReview “This is truly the mother of all urban planning books.”―Léon Krier, author of The Architecture of Community“A much-needed and heroic corrective to the grandiose techno-narcissistic dogma that has turned the American landscape into a wilderness of free parking, anxiety, and ennui. Nir Buras’s The Art of Classic Planning presents a new template for a human habitat with a plausible future.”―James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency“In the face of the triple threat of rapid urbanization, climate change, and natural resource depletion, we urgently need to relearn the art of building beautiful and enduring communities, as set out in The Art of Classic Planning, to ensure future generations can prosper.”―Ben Bolgar, The Prince’s Foundation“A veritable bible of urbanism, Nir Buras’s The Art of Classic Planning is a formidable challenge to modernist principles.”―Hillel Schocken, Azrieli School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University“This compendium should be understood not as an attempt to constrain urbanism to the classical, but rather to extend the range of urbanism to include the classical. Why on earth would an urbanist want to be without this trove of knowhow on the table?”―Andrés Duany, FAIA, CNU, recipient of the Driehaus Prize and coauthor of Suburban Nation Read more About the Author Nir Haim Buras is an architect and city planner with over thirty years of experience in strategic planning and transportation design. He has worked on the East Side Access at Grand Central Terminal in New York City, the International Terminal at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the Tel Aviv Metro, and the US Capitol Senate and House Office Buildings in Washington, DC. Buras founded the Washington, DC, chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art and visited 100 cities worldwide to write The Art of Classic Planning. Read more Customers Review:Undoubtedly with the best of intentions every new idea under the sun has been thrown at them for the past century to solve the many problems they face. During that time no other author has taken up the subject of Classic Planning. In the Art of Classic Planning Dr. Nir Buras unpacks for the reader the embedded wisdom of the previous 5,000 years of city building that carries many a legacy of beautiful places created to meet the aspirations of their community. All of the above is conveyed in a common sense approach that is free of jargon and readily accessible to the professional planner, city official, and engaged citizen alike. The Art of Classic Planning is not merely a “must have” book for the old library, it is a once in a generation treatise that contains within its pages the power to heal the world. – Patrick Webb | |
[PDF] Download Inversion Tarot in a Tin by Jody Boginski-Barbessi | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Inversion Tarot in a Tin |
Book DescriptionAbout the Author Jody Boginski Barbessi is an artist and graphic designer. She studied fine arts at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, the school Pamela Colman Smith attended before illustrating the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Jody is also is the creator of Influence of the Angels Tarot. Read more Customers Review: Not quite a true Tarot de Marseille; Fortitude or Strength is #8 instead of #11, which of course means that the Justice card is #11. This is a faux pas, as is the suit of Pentacles in place of Coins.As a TdM reader, I was thrilled by a TdM in a tin, but disappointed by it not being a true TdM.True, it is based on the deck by Rolla Nordic, but even that deck got Fortitude and Justice right even if they share pentacles in place of coins.Still, I really like the tarot in a tin product line and hope that more genuine TdMs are included. I already have the Tarot of Maria Celia which is the only TdM tarot in a tin published by US Games Systems Inc.I like the aesthetics of white on black and aside from my complaints, I will use them. Maybe US Games will eventually reissue it, or better yet, make more genuine TdMs available in a tin. | |
[PDF] Download Bone Chalk by Jim Reese | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Bone Chalk |
Book Description Review From essay to essay, Reese bemusedly works to sort it out—blessedly, without a hint of Garrison Keillor’s labored folksiness. In one comic piece, Reese recalls his ill-fated stint as Willy the Wildcat. . . . alcohol, come-ons, and physical abuse all came with the job. . . . But the narrative’s true centerpiece is an essay reconciling his childhood fears growing up in Omaha with his hesitance to teach writing in prisons, something he’s done for a dozen years regardless. There, he masterfully weaves his personal history with observations of the prison system both intimately (in the prisoner’s writings, their tattoos, the strict regulations) and broadly (the troubled prison system, race and class divides). . . . the variety is the appeal, and Reese is skilled in many registers. . . . An eclectic, appealingly no-nonsense set of appreciations of the heartland.—Kirkus Review…Reese’s central concern is nothing less than the nature of evil and how best to deal with it. His school-boy experience of city-wide panic in Omaha during a wave of killings, and a few years later the murder of a friend, leave no room for naiveté or a Hollywood-style glamorization of crime…Reese also knows that the difference between a man on the street and a man in a cell is most often no more than a bad decision…This effort to change the lives of these men charges Reese’s teaching. And it will charge readers of this book…—Cleveland Review of BooksThe publication of this collection announces Jim Reese as a major writer on the Midwest in all its shades — lively and bright, somber and muted, violent and dark. Readers of all backgrounds will come away from his writings with a deeper understanding of the Midwest and of the human spirit itself.—Omaha World HeraldThis author has the ability to morph from “Green Acres” scenarios into situations more suitable to “Breaking Bad” without missing a beat. The reader will be transported from Fordyce, Nebraska to San Quentin prison with the turn of a page… Reese, finds universal truths in his work. Readers will discover that love of family, decency, honesty, and a sense of humor are not limited to any particular region of the country.—Lincoln Journal StarSouth Dakota writer Jim Reese’s new book BONE CHALK is a collection of rural life, written with the thoughtful story-telling skills that we expect from a practiced poet…Much of this book is good humor about the beautiful idiosyncrasies of country living. However, one of the longest and most serious chapters is Reese’s reckoning with crime, violence and the prison culture. Few writers have gained such a close-up view of life behind bars in South Dakota. —South Dakota MagazineBone Chalk is Midwestern Americana at its best. Ringing of truth down to the last thought and gesture, Reese creates a modern portrait of small town life; one Norman Rockwell definitely wouldn’t recognize. Built on prose that never fusses or falters, humor, and the endless intrigues that are there in everyday life—if you just know where to look—this is the sort of book you’ll pick up and finish in one sitting and be glad you did.—The Nervous Breakdown…The longest essay in the book, “Never Talk to Strangers—12 Years in Prisons and What Criminals Teach Me,” is a compilation of short pieces that center around a single question, “Why?” Included here are the John Joubert killings in Nebraska, as well as the murder of a good friend of Reese’s while she was babysitting. Juxtaposed to such memories are Reese’s present-day interactions with inmates in his job teaching writing in prisons. The central question is ever present. Why do criminals do what they do? …Yet Bone Chalk is not all seriousness, and Reese is also quite adept at sharing the more humorous aspects of his life… In this debut memoir, Jim Reese shares a wide variety of personal experiences that few readers would be able to relate to in any other way….And if throwing the door open to new experience is one of the reasons you choose to read, Bone Chalk is definitely your book.—North American Review Customers Review: Jim Reese’s new book of memoir, Bone Chalk, well illustrates some important lessons acquired in the writing and publishing of his previous collections of poetry. One of the more important of those is the necessary use of significant detail in an attempt to share an experience rather than simply tell about it. In this collection of essays, Reese shares a variety of experiences: of his youth in Omaha; as an undergraduate student in a state college in Nebraska; of living, working and raising a family in small-town and rural Nebraska; and of his job teaching writing at a South Dakota college, two South Dakota prisons, and at San Quentin. Embedded in these experiences are insightful comments on the political and economic concerns that daily affect rural and small-town folks, and that have adversely affected many of those presently confined in America’s prisons. The longest essay in the book, “Never Talk to Strangers—12 Years in Prisons and What Criminals Teach Me,” is a compilation of short pieces that center around a single question, “Why?” Included here are the John Joubert killings in Nebraska, as well as the murder of a good friend of Reese’s while she was babysitting. Juxtaposed to such memories are Reese’s present-day interactions with inmates in his job teaching writing in prisons. The central question is ever present. Why do criminals do what they do? Why do we incarcerate more of our people here in the United States than anywhere else in the world? Why are some people in prison for selling marijuana, while others go on selling opioids and profiting from the often-tragic consequences? Bone Chalk is not all seriousness though, and Reese is also quite adept at sharing the more humorous aspects of his life, including his stint as a college mascot in “My Life as Willy the Wildcat.” In this debut memoir, Jim Reese shares a wide variety of personal experiences that few readers would be able to relate to in any other way. If throwing the door open to new experience is one of the reasons you choose to read, Bone Chalk is definitely a book for you.
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Kamis, 30 Juli 2020
[PDF] Download Don't Fall For It: A Short History of Financial Scams by Ben Carlson | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Don’t Fall For It: A Short History of Financial Scams |
Book DescriptionFrom the Inside Flap We have all heard stories of people turning their money over to fraudsters in hopes of making some quick cash. How many times have you rolled your eyes upon hearing about someone falling for the ‘Nigerian Prince’ scam or the latest version of the classic ‘Pyramid’ scheme? You may think that you would never be so gullible, but the truth is we all make mistakes with our finances. You may never get roped into a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, but it’s likely that, at some point, you may be tempted by the promise of easy money. Maybe the prospect of improved health or a new romance may tempt you. Fraudsters, con artists, and charlatans are everywhere—and they know just how to draw you in. They prey on fear, greed, vulnerability, and desperation. And many of them are extremely successful, right up until the time they get caught. Don’t Fall for It: A Short History of Financial Scams explores some of the most sensational frauds and fraudsters in history. The goal of this book is twofold: to entertain and educate you about the world of financial scams and, more importantly, to help you make better decisions and avoid making harmful financial mistakes. Most business and finance books claim to provide the secret to success, but don’t mention the importance of avoiding failures. There is much more to learn from frauds, hucksters, and scams because they show you what not to do. This engaging book examines the most scandalous instances of financial fraud and shows you some of the individuals who got away with it for years. Each chapter examines different frauds, perpetrators, or victims of scams. These engrossing, real-life stories include discussions of how these frauds were carried out and insights on spotting the six warning signs of fraud before you become a victim. Fraud can happen anywhere, to anyone. It’s easy to think of fraud victims as unsophisticated and easy to fool, yet some of the biggest frauds in history were perpetrated against wealthy, business-savvy individuals. Financial fraud is never going to disappear. For as long as money exists, there will be people trying to cheat you out of it. Don’t Fall for It will help you avoid being one of their victims. Read more From the Back Cover LEARN FINANCIAL AND BUSINESS LESSONS FROM SOME OF THE BIGGEST FRAUDS IN HISTORY Don’t Fall for It explores some of the biggest financial frauds and most successful charlatans, scammers, and hucksters of all-time. These real-life stories include anecdotes about how these frauds were carried out and discussions of what can be learned from them. Sharing lessons that apply to business, money management, and investing, this compelling book answers questions such as: Why do even the most intelligent among us fall for financial scams? What makes fraudsters successful? Why is it often harder to stay rich than to get rich? History is full of sensational financial frauds and scams. Enron was forced to declare bankruptcy after allegations of massive accounting fraud, wiping out $78 billion in stock market value. Bernie Madoff, the largest individual fraudster in history, built a $65 billion Ponzi scheme that ultimately resulted in him being sentenced to a 150-year prison term. It doesn’t matter if you are a farmer looking for a miracle cure or a Hollywood superstar looking to turn a quick profit―no one is immune from getting deceived when money is involved. Read more About the Author BEN CARLSON is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He has spent his career helping various nonprofit, institutional, and high-net-worth clients plan and invest their money wisely. Ben is the creator of a popular financial blog and podcast and is the author of several books including A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment Plan and Organizational Alpha: How to Add Value in Institutional Asset Management. Read more Customers Review: A really interesting, fun-to-read and difficult to put down book that provides profiles of some of the biggest financial scams in history, here and abroad — from multiple perspectives – that of the scammers, of the scammed, of psychologists, of economists. I agree that the book is pricey, but I also felt it was worth the price of an evening lecture in terms of wisdom gained. I once conversed with a group of women gathering to share experience and wisdom. The topic was the worst financial decision you ever made. I have a feeling that had we read this book as teenagers, many of those pitfalls would have been avoided — everything from timeshares to dating services to self-improvement schemes — average amounts lost were $5K – $20K plus. This book would be good for everything from a graduation gift to a gift for some of those successful friends you might have you do not have a sound financial background or for your family members or best friend. This book also saves you from reading some long, dry book about stocks and the economy. And finally, it is just an engaging and practical book. I know I did not waste my time or money on it. | |
[PDF] Download A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: A Beginning at the End |
Book DescriptionReview “This postapocalyptic slice-of-life novel…delivers big emotions by keeping the focus small…. By foregrounding family, Chen manages to imbue his apocalypse with heart, hope, and humanity. Sci-fi fans will delight in this lovingly rendered tale.” –Publisher’s Weekly, starred review, on A Beginning at the End “A Beginning at the End is the best kind of dystopian novel: one rooted deeply in the hearts of his characters and emphasizing hope and connection over fear. Chen has a true gift for making the biggest of worlds center around the most complex workings of hearts, and his newest is compelling, realistic, and impossible to put down.” —Booklist, starred review“Sometimes it is not the violent battles of post-apocalyptic stories that pull readers in; it is the emotional connection of humanity finding their way. Chen’s prose lights a brilliant, fragile path through the darkness.” —Library Journal, starred review, on A Beginning at the End“A slice-of-life at the end of the world, tender, character-driven, and gentle—which makes it feel all the more terrifyingly plausible…. profoundly subversive and honest… This book is never bleak. Instead, hope reverberates through every character and plotline.” –Tor.com on A Beginning at the End“An imaginative premise, likable characters, and an uplifting ending…. A refreshingly nondystopian end-of-the-world story.” —Kirkus on A Beginning at the End“Human beings are the worst, but they’re also the best—and A Beginning at the End is a brilliant story about how the best parts of ourselves won’t be stopped by a little something like the apocalypse.” —Sam J Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of Blackfish City“A Beginning at the End is both an apocalyptic thriller and a timely reminder of what is most important in life—family, love, and hope.” —Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M“If you’re tired of grim, grueling apocalypses with high body counts and bleak horizons, A Beginning at the End offers an intimate, surprisingly gentle vision of post-disaster humanity, less concerned with how we might survive than with why—and for whom.” —Alix E. Harrow, Hugo Award-winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January“With beautifully-drawn characters and an intricately imagined future history, A Beginning at the End tells an intensely human story about people reaching out through trauma and loss and discovering who and what to hold on to after the end of the world. Gripping, poignant, hopeful, and heartfelt.” —HG Parry, author of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep“Strikes the perfect balance of dystopian collapse…and a fresh start for humanity. It’s science fiction with heart…you won’t be able to put it down.” –Meghan Scott Molin, author of The Frame Up, on A Beginning at the End“[The characters] all grapple with questions of identity and morality, of what it means to be part of a family, of what we’re willing to sacrifice and for whom. This is a story that’s as fun as it is moving…. Mike Chen has richly imagined every detail… A Beginning at the End is truly a special addition to the postapocalyptic genre, and it stands up right alongside heavy hitters like Station Eleven and The Last.” –Megan Collins, author of The Winter Sister“A subtly woven meditation about the fragility of time raises the bar in this smart, fun, and affectionate story.” —Kirkus Reviews on Here and Now and Then“Clever, thrilling and full of heart, it is an instant sci-fi classic.” —Hypable.com on Here and Now and Then“Chen carefully balances heart, humor, and precise world building to bring alive an emotional and genre-bending story.” —Booklist on Here and Now and Then Read more About the Author Mike Chen is a lifelong writer, from crafting fan fiction as a child to somehow getting paid for words as an adult. He has contributed to major geek websites (The Mary Sue, The Portalist, Tor) and covered the NHL for mainstream media outlets. A member of SFWA and Codex Writers, Mike lives in the Bay Area, where he can be found playing video games and watching Doctor Who with his wife, daughter, and rescue animals. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @mikechenwriter Read more Customers Review: Chen has achieved a feat I would have thought impossible: making a story about a global pandemic and the collapse of our infrastructure into a personal, emotional story about parenthood, family, survival, and trauma. It’s beautifully written, superbly executed, and gripping even as the core stakes are so personal and small compared to what the world of the book is facing. It puts an incredible new spin on this genre.
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Rabu, 29 Juli 2020
[PDF] Download Elemental Knits: A Perennial Knitwear Collection by Courtney Spainhower | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Elemental Knits: A Perennial Knitwear Collection |
Book DescriptionElemental Knits is for women who aspire to be ever stylish, more comfortable, and less wasteful. With knitwear designer Courtney Spainhower, you’ll craft an appearance that truly reflects your spirit with a collection of 20 knitting patterns designed to enhance your wardrobe year-round. • Knit with intention, selecting patterns and fibers for their wearablity, versatility, and how they enhance your existing wardrobe. • 20 patterns explore a range of knitting techniques with features suited to each season–texture and cables for autumn, allover patterning for winter, garter and lace for spring, and colorful accents for summer. • Revel in gorgeous details that take these garments and accessories from functional to essential in a way that will have you wearing them year after year. Enrich your hand-knit wardrobe with intentional projects that will act as wardrobe staples for years to come with Elemental Knits. Customers Review: I have never purchased a book on the day it released but this one called to me. I have not yet read it all but I have looked at every page. The photos and descriptions of each pattern are well done, I have yet to see one that makes me question an element of the design. The patterns I have read through seem well written. Now I just need to decide between the 20 beautiful patterns which one I will make first. I will update once I knit one of the patterns. | |