  | Book Details Title: Farah Rocks Fifth Grade |
Book DescriptionBook Description Fits a need for more diverse children’s literature–there are very few books with Arab-American main characters; #ownvoices author Susan Muaddi Darraj lends authenticity to the characters and culture; This is the first book in a series; Addresses bullying and learning challenges in a realistic manner; Pre-publication buzz including a feature in /The Guardian/ Read more About the Author Susan Muaddi Darraj is an award-winning author of more than ten books, including two short story collections. She is an Associate Professor of English at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland, and she also teaches creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and Fairfield University. A native Philadelphian, she currently lives in Baltimore. She loves books, coffee, and baseball, and she’s mildly obsessed with stationery supplies.Illustrator and graphic designer Ruaida Mannaa completed her undergraduate studies at the Universidad del Norte in her hometown in Colombia. She went on to pursue a Master’s degree in illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She grew up in a multicultural family, surrounded by different languages, loud parties, and delicious food, and she finds great inspiration for her art in culture and cultural exchange. Read more Customers Review: Does anyone know how important it is for children to see themselves in literature? As a veteran high school teacher, I can tell you it is CRUCIAL to create lifelong readers. So many of our students were completely turned off from reading in their formative years because they simply could not identify/relate/see someone like them in literature. Whenever I have a heart-to-heart with my high school students addressing their reluctance to reading, the number one response is that they just never found anything that kept their interest because they couldn’t relate. My precious 7 year old girl (reads at a 5th grade level) has been attached to this book and calls Farah her “friend”. She finished the book in 2 days, and it would have been in one day had I allowed her to forgo eating, bathing and homework! This story is relatable to ALL children, and I found myself really enjoying it too! Don’t wait to purchase this amazing book! We can’t WAIT for the next one!! | |
Senin, 03 Agustus 2020
[PDF] Download Farah Rocks Fifth Grade by Susan Muaddi Darraj | Free EBOOK PDF English
15 reviews [PDF] Download House on Fire: A Novel (A Nick Heller Novel) by Joseph Finder | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: House on Fire: A Novel (A Nick Heller Novel) |
Book DescriptionReview Praise for House on Fire“Joseph Finder is incapable of writing a bad thriller. I’d follow Nick Heller anywhere.”—C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Long Range“A mixture of Jason Bourne and Sam Spade, Nick Heller is the man you want in your corner. House on Fire is classic whodunit wrapped in a modern world of technology and current events, with enough twists to keep you reading long into the night.”—Brad Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of Daughter of War“Joseph Finder brings back his Nick Heller character after a brief hiatus with smashing (literally!) results in House on Fire… Packed with both brains and brawn, House on Fire is thriller writing at its very best, conjuring tomorrow’s headlines instead of ripping off today’s.”—Jon Land for Providence Journal“Heller can pick locks, handle weapons, and attract beautiful women with the best of them, but the first-person narrative is natural and engaging. A crisp, fast-paced adventure.”—The Times of London“One of the Best Books of the Week… Private investigator Nick Heller has just gotten some bad news: His old Army buddy Sean died of an overdose. At the funeral, Heller is approached by the daughter of a pharmaceutical kingpin who has made millions off of dangerously addictive opioids. Now she wants to become a whistleblower.”—New York Post“Finder has crafted a timely and well-written thriller that engages the reader with an uncomfortable topic in unexpected ways. The author tackles the subject head-on, and by taking one of his best characters and giving him personal stakes, the intensity of the story shines. House on Fire will be remembered as one of Finder’s best.”—Jeff Ayers, Associated Press“Finder delivers tight writing with sharp characters…Fans of HBO’s Succession and dynamic murder mysteries will eagerly inhale House on Fire”—Shelf Awareness“Finder is a master of the narrow escape…Finder’s characterization of Heller gets more layered with every installment. The way Heller moves through the mystery, using social skills, street smarts, and technology to get in and out of trouble, is breathtaking. Excruciating suspense.”—Booklist“By exploring a complicated family dynamic and questions of culpability in a real-life ongoing national crisis, Finder once again has spun a gripping thriller about an up-to-the-minute issue.”—Book Trib“Canny”—Wall Street Journal“Fans of timely, thoughtful page-turners will be richly rewarded.”—Publishers Weekly“Centered on timely issues, but grounded in the craft of detective fiction, House on Fire promises to be one of the year’s best.”—CrimeReads“Nick Heller is back, and all feels right in the thriller world because of it. Finder’s last Heller book, Guilty Minds, remains one of my favorite thrillers ever written…and even I have to admit, this one might be better. Even if you haven’t read the first three books in the series, you can jump in here without missing a beat.”—Real Book Spy “House on Fire should satisfy devotees of this consistently strong series and win over new ones with its incisive portrait of a family that runs on greed.”—Airmail“This taut, smoothly plotted novel, filled with vivid characters, takes some twists and turns even seasoned readers might miss.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer“Finder utilizes his extensive research abilities with current events to make House on Fire yet another winner in this series…Fans of financial thrillers and private-eye fiction will find much to love here.”BookReporter.com“House on Fire is a fast-paced thriller with a plot that could be torn from today’s – or tomorrow’s – newspaper headlines….Unexpected plot twists abound; the author uniquely explores complex family intrigue from highly contrasting perspectives.”—Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal“Finder delivers tight writing with sharp characters…Fans of HBO’s Succession and dynamic murder mysteries will eagerly inhale House on Fire”—Shelf Awareness Read more About the Author JOSEPH FINDER is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen previous novels, including Judgment, The Switch, Guilty Minds, The Fixer, and Suspicion. Finder’s international bestseller Killer Instinct won the International Thriller Writers’ Thriller Award for Best Novel of 2006. Other bestselling titles include Paranoia and High Crimes, which both became major motion pictures. He lives in Boston. Read more Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 1So how are you going to do it?” the guy asked me.”‘Do it’?”He paused, glanced around-there was no one else in my office-and muttered, barely audible, the words he didn’t want to say aloud. “Kill him. How are you going to kill him?””The less you know,” I said, “the better. For both of us. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”He didn’t answer me. “It has to look like an accident,” he said. “Or a random . . . whatever.”I gave him a long, direct look, blinked once. He’d told me that three times already.Mort Vallison was sixty, but he looked ten years older. He was a once-handsome man under a lifetime of stress. He had short gray hair, neatly parted, and sincere brown eyes, but they were haunted. Hollow. He wore an expensive-looking navy-blue blazer and pricy shoes. He was not born to wealth, which was probably why he always dressed expensively.He looked away. Vallison had insisted on coming to my office rather than have me come to his company headquarters. My firm, Heller Associates, is located in an old brick building in Boston’s financial district, a renovated nineteenth-century lead-pipe factory with a steampunk look to it: the bare brick walls, the exposed ductwork, the big factory windows. The office used to belong to a dot-com that sailed high and crashed and left behind their Humanscale chairs.”He’s embezzling,” he said. “But we haven’t been able to catch him at it.”Vallison was the co-owner of a chain of excellent restaurants in Boston and down the East Coast, Neptune Seafood, a Boston institution. He was a wealthy man, with an impressive home in Chestnut Hill. He was convinced that his partner, Herb Martz, was cheating him out of millions of dollars. But he wasn’t able to prove it. This on top of animosity that had accrued over the years had driven him to extreme measures. He wanted me to arrange Martz’s death, and do it undetectably. He was offering a lot of money for the job.”I don’t need to know,” I said. “The less contact we have, the better. And I’m going to need you to pay me in cryptocurrency-bitcoin, Ethereum, or whatever. The last thing we need is a money trail.” He didn’t seem to understand, so I explained it to him. He was a restaurateur, not a tech guy.Herb Martz, his partner, kept to a routine. He lived with his wife in a condo in the Four Seasons. He saw a personal trainer three times a week, early in the morning. He went into work at ten, to their offices on the waterfront. He usually had lunch at one of the Neptunes around the city: a hamburger, most of the time. I guess he was tired of seafood.The next day, late morning, I followed him from the Neptune Seafood at the Prudential Center to a sketchy hotel in Kenmore Square not too far from Fenway Park. I took my gray Toyota Camry. I have two cars; the other one is a truck, a Land Rover Defender in Coniston green. But that’s a distinctive-looking vehicle. Whereas the Camry is so anonymous it’s nearly invisible in traffic. That’s the superpower of an ordinary car.Martz parked his black Mercedes S-Class in a garage next to the hotel, and I pulled into the garage a few cars behind him. I followed him out of the garage and into the lobby. The guy at the desk asked him if he had luggage, and he said no. He checked into the hotel and checked out half an hour later.He was, I assumed, seeing a mistress. And given how quick the assignation was, I figured it had been going on for some time. They knew each other, so they could get right down to business. Skip the preliminaries.I followed him out of the hotel and back to his car. I took the stairs and got there before he did. From a distance, I watched him return to the Mercedes. Then I came around to the passenger’s side and got in.Stunned, he whipped around to look at me. Martz was a rough-looking, pot-bellied guy in his sixties with gin blossoms on his cheeks and tobacco-stained teeth. He wore a blue down vest over his dress shirt. “What the hell?” he said. “Jesus. You scared the shit out of me.”I said nothing. I took out my iPhone and hit play.So how are you going to do it?”Do it”?Kill him. How are you going to kill him?”Motherfucker,” Martz said. “Like I told you. He has some bullshit excuse about how-“”So what do you want to do?” I interrupted. “I’ll go through some of our options.””Did he pay you already?””Half.””You planning on keeping that payment?””Nah, it’s forensic evidence. Connects him to the cyber wallet.” Everyone thinks cyber currency keeps you anonymous. But there are tricks you have to do to hide your identity, and neither of these guys knew them. “So come on, how do you want to play this?”Martz was staring off into space, like he was thinking. “How much more would it cost if you finished the job?””I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “You want to bring in law enforcement, right?””Finish the job. As in finish him. Take the bastard out.”I wasn’t surprised, frankly, and I played it cool. “That’s not on the menu.””Don’t bullshit me,” Martz said. “You think I didn’t do my due diligence? I know your reputation. You’re ex-Special Forces. You’ve killed guys for a living. You’re trained for this.””Yeah, we were more about winning hearts and minds.””You’ve confirmed that I’ve got a problem. Nice work. Now make my problem go away. I’ll pay you another forty thousand. Make it worth your time. Call it a happy ending.””I think I’ll take a pass.””I’m a paying customer, Heller. You ever hear the expression ‘the customer is always right’?””Thing is, Herb, you’re not the customer.””The client, then.””Yeah, you’re not the client either.””What the hell are you talking about?”I couldn’t keep a little grin from my face. I pointed out the window, where six state troopers were surrounding the car, ready to arrest Martz.”The hell-?””See, you’re the target. First rule in my trade: always know who you’re working for, and always know the play. Yep, I did my due diligence too. And I found another play.”The car door on the driver’s side opened, and one of the troopers said, “Step out of the car, Mr. Martz.”2Originally, Herb Martz had come to see me to get proof his partner, Mort Vallison, was trying to kill him. The brake lines on his Mercedes had been cut, he said. He wanted me to get the proof on tape so he could go to the police and get his partner put away.It took me almost a week to get to Mort, because it had to be done subtly. Eventually I ran into him in Oak Long Bar in the Copley Plaza, where Herb told me he hung out sometimes, managed to bump into him as we both stood at one end of the crowded bar.Soon we’d struck up a conversation about my military days and how the world would just be better off with some people taken out, wouldn’t it? I let him know, as subtly as I could, that once in a while I did favors for friends along those lines. And sure enough, he was intrigued. He asked for my business card.I gave him one.A week later, Mort came to my office to discuss business. I assured him the office was a safe place to talk. He wanted me to get rid of his partner. Not that I asked, but he gave a reason that almost held up: his partner was embezzling profits from the company, had been doing so for decades.You’d be surprised how often I get asked to kill people, to do “hits.” I have to explain that it’s not in my list of client services. But something about Herb Martz didn’t smell right.So I agreed to take on the job.Right away I got in touch with my friend Major Liz Rodriguez from the state police’s Special Investigations Unit, and she liked my idea of setting up a sting.My instincts proved correct. It turned out that both Mort and Herb had been illegally diverting cash from Neptune Seafood for years, cheating the government out of tens of millions of dollars in taxes. And both of them were under investigation by the IRS.Herb was afraid Mort would weaken and rat them out to the IRS, turn state’s evidence, expose their long-running scam. Mort was a man who was constantly honored for his philanthropy, and he simply couldn’t cope with the disgrace of going to prison. He would try to make a deal.The two men deserved each other.Right about now the two of them were probably in separate interview rooms at state police headquarters in Framingham. I was guessing that each of them was trying hard to make a deal.Neither one of them would escape prison now.The only downside in this? I wasn’t going to get paid.I didnÕt get to the office until early afternoon. I waved hello to the scowling Mr. Derderian, who was in the doorway of his high-end oriental carpet shop next door. The sign on my second-floor office door reads heller associates-actuarial consulting services, which cuts down on foot traffic. I keep a very low profile. In my line of work, the less my face and name are known, the better.My receptionist and office manager, Jillian Alperin, was eating a late lunch at her desk. Jillian, covered with tattoos and piercings, had turned out to be quite bright. She was still a little intimidated by me, though, which was fine.”A couple of messages for you already, Nick,” she said after taking a large swallow of her-what was it again?-tempeh.”Thanks. Dorothy?””In the break room, I think.”Dorothy Duval, my forensic data tech and researcher, was making a fresh pot of coffee, even though that was really Jillian’s job. She just liked doing things for herself because she liked them done right.Dorothy had a style all her own. Her head was close-shaven, and she normally wore very large earrings. But today she was dressed more conservatively than usual, in a black pencil skirt and blue blazer over a white blouse, and normal-size earrings.She noticed me checking her out and said, “I had a meeting.” Her coffee mug was at the ready. It read Jesus Saves, I spend. She was a devoted churchgoer with a sense of humor about the Lord.”Business meeting?””Personal.” Then she took a breath. “Well, I’m not going to hide it from you, because I need your help. I was just interviewed this morning by the chairman of the co-op board of a building I want to buy into.””Co-op board? Isn’t that a very New York thing?””We’ve got a few in Boston,” she said impatiently. “This one’s called the Kenway Tower on Comm. Ave. In Kenmore Square.””What kind of questions did he ask?””That’s the thing, Nick. On the phone he was as friendly as can be. Really talkative, about how great the building is, and the neighborhood. He wanted to ask me about the NSA, and I think he really dug all the secrecy, the stuff I couldn’t talk about.”Dorothy used to work at the National Security Agency but apparently hadn’t been a good personality fit. So she got a job at a private intelligence firm in DC, Stoddard Associates, where I also used to work before I went off on my own. Later I asked her to join me at Heller Associates. My first and most important hire.She went on. “So I was expecting the third degree when I came in this morning, and instead they could barely get me out of there fast enough. I mean, the dude’s face fell when he saw me.””Uh-oh.” The board of a co-op association has the power to determine who gets to buy into the building.”Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too, uh-oh. They didn’t know I was black until they met me. Then it was like, ‘Later, dude.'”I thought about mentioning the fact that, with her shaved head and her extreme ear piercings, the hedgerow of silver hoops outlining the curving helix of each ear, she could look a little fierce. But it didn’t seem like the right time to say it. And she was making her bow to conventionality by wearing a blue blazer and, I noticed, high-heeled shoes.She continued. “He said he had some concerns about my income and my credit history.””Meaning your income’s not enough to afford-“”No, it is enough. I mean, I could always use a raise, to make it easier, but the numbers work, and I’ve saved up a lot. I’ve had years of decent, steady income.””So what was his problem?””He said he’s worried about you. He said private investigators work close to the bone and often have to lay off their employees. Could you write the board a letter assuring them I’ve got steady employment for the foreseeable future?”I shrugged. “Sure. Write it up for me and I’ll sign whatever. What’s wrong with your credit history?””Nothing. I pay on time. I don’t know what he’s talking about. Anyway, how’d it go today?”I gave her a quick download on the Neptune Seafood partners, Mort Vallison and Herb Martz, and how the two of them got arrested.She said, “This Liz Rodriguez from the Staties?””That’s the one.””So you won’t get paid for any of the work. You’re just doing a good deed. Being a good citizen.””Something like that.””Maybe this isn’t the best time to ask, but . . . are we financially solvent?””Sure. As long as I don’t need to hire anybody else, we’re doing okay.” Could we have been doing a little better? Sure. But I still refused to handle things like divorce cases, and maybe it was time to get over that particular exception. Matrimonial jobs could be lucrative, but they always made me feel grubby. I did private intelligence work. That did not include putting a GPS tracker on a straying spouse’s car.I had standards. Or so I told myself.On the way to my desk, my intercom sounded. “It’s Patty Lenehan,” Jillian announced over the speaker. “She’s calling from a Cape Cod number.””I’ll take it,” I said. Read more Customers Review: I enjoy both Joseph Finder’s stand alone novels as well as his Nick Heller series and House on Fire doesn’t disappoint. I started it last night and read way too late into the night, then finally turned off the light. I woke up at 5am, and picked up the book again and read until my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer. I’m enjoying it immensely so far. Full disclosure, I’m not finished yet… but I’ve never read a book by Joseph Finder that doesn’t keep me enthralled right to the bitter end. Highly recommend picking up a copy of House on Fire. Or better yet, grab the first book in the Nick Heller series and read them in order. You won’t be disappointed. | |
[PDF] Download The Black Cathedral: A Novel by Marcial Gala | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: The Black Cathedral: A Novel |
Book DescriptionReview “Accidental cannibals, tenderhearted killers, angst-ridden ghosts and well-behaved artists soon populate [The Black Cathedral’s] topsy-turvy universe . . . Even as the novel charts the voyages of its vagabonds, it represents an attempt to draw the periphery into the center, steering us toward the provinces as it renovates the Cuban novel . . . Its narrators, more than a dozen in number, are usually granted a page at a time before other characters butt in, pick up the thread or offer their own spin on the same series of events.” ―Shaj Mathew, The New York Times”By telling the story from the perspectives of various people in the community, Gala achieves an oral-history-like effect, producing a profound, and often humorous, meditation on how desires―religious, sexual, financial―clash in a small-town environment.” ―The New Yorker“In Gala’s many-voiced tale, Cienfuegos is a provincial capital harboring mundane material aspirations, ingrained racial divisions, and serious artistic longings in competition with religious urges . . . The Black Cathedral is finally not about larger ideas of redemption and the future at all, but about predictable paths of minor failure and major self-justification. It’s no accident that key events . . . happen during the early years of the Obama administration: there’s a pervasive sense of dashed hopes, business as usual, faith ignored or betrayed.” ―Brian Dillon, 4Columns“A transcendent tale of what it is to be human in a place not made to nurture. Exploring this idea of humanity in all its twisted, generous, deviant, beautiful forms, Gala’s novel is a twisted ode to a town teeming with magic and limitless potential, and replete with people in chase of unlikely dreams. Written with an astute colloquialism that captures a true and impressive diversity of voice, The Black Cathedral transports the reader to the marginal town of Cienfuegos, making no efforts to shield us from the dangers―and subtle joys―at the heart of its stories.” ―Leah Scott, Asymptote”A story of family, an account of a transforming Cuba, an exploration of religious devotion, and a harrowing tale of a sinister man engaged in horrific acts. The Black Cathedral might not be what you first expect, but its unpredictability serves as one of its many strengths.” ―Tobias Carroll, Literary Hub “Marcial Garcia’s The Black Cathedral is told via a panoply of voices ― all the better to narrate this expansive yet taut novel of faith, family, and violence. What begins as the story of a religious family moving to a small Cuban town gradually becomes broader in scope, encompassing obsession and murder along the way.” ―Vol. 1 Brooklyn “An ingenious construction . . . Gala’s novel isn’t based around a single event, but rather the continual horror and occasional beauty of people reacting to one another and their own feelings, setting the courses of their lives according to rhythms that exist outside of them―those of money, love and power . . . The Black Cathedral is an effervescent read filled with energy, possibility and chaotic delights.” ―Elisabeth Cook, BookBrowse (Editors’ Choice)”Strange, exuberant, and altogether brilliant . . . An enthralling work of imagination and grit, Gala’s novel captures the complexity of one neighborhood as much as it exemplifies the many pleasures of great fiction.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)”Award-winning Cuban writer and architect Gala links the fate of a community with the doomed construction of a cathedral in this dark, violent, often comic novel . . . A raucous, anguished, fast-paced story, tautly written and deeply rooted.” ―Kirkus (starred review)”For anyone who has nurtured the fantasy of Cuba as a tropical socialist paradise, that illusion is heartbreakingly shattered in this award-winning novel . . . Kushner’s nimble translation flows with flavor and intensity . . . Gala’s raw, compelling, and highly readable novel lays bare a Cuba that, just like everywhere else, has not found an answer to human desperation, envy, or evil.” ―Sara Martinez, Booklist”Marcial Gala´s magnificent The Black Cathedral is a chorus of unforgettable characters that linger in the ashes of Revolution and personal passions. This novel is the broken mirror in which modern Cuba is portrayed with unsettling humanity.” ―Eduardo Lalo, author of Uselessness Read more About the Author Marcial Gala was born in Havana in 1963. He is a novelist, a poet, and an architect and is a member of UNEAL, the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. He won the Pinos Nuevos Prize for best short story in 1999. The Black Cathedral received the Alejo Carpentier Award for best novel in 2012 and the Critics’ Award in 2012. He lives in Buenos Aires and Cienfuegos.The daughter of Cuban exiles, Anna Kushner was born in Philadelphia and has been traveling to Cuba since 1999. She has translated the novels of Norberto Fuentes, Leonardo Padura, Guillermo Rosales, and Gonçalo M. Tavares, as well as two collections of non-fiction by Mario Vargas Llosa. Read more Customers Review: Portrayal of the under life in Cuba was needlessly disturbing
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[PDF] Download Necessary Risks: Professional Humanitarianism and Violence against Aid Workers by AbStoddard | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Necessary Risks: Professional Humanitarianism and Violence against Aid Workers |
Book DescriptionReview “In Necessary Risks, Abby Stoddard intertwines in-depth analysis on the phenomenon of aid worker violence with harrowing first-person stories of these unarmed professionals working at the frontlines of today’s complex wars. This book is essential reading for policymakers and anyone concerned with the protection of civilians in conflicts.” (Roméo A. Dallaire, Lieutenant-General (ret.), author of Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda)“A deeply practical and very readable book. Stoddard explains why humanitarian aid workers are attacked and abducted, and how the whole aid system needs to change to reduce aid worker risk and increase effective coverage of people’s needs in armed conflict. An important text for every humanitarian who wants to do a better job.” (Hugo Slim, Head of Policy for the International Committee of the Red Cross, author of Humanitarian Ethics: A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster) “Abby Stoddard’s Necessary Risks offers two critical contributions to the theory and practice of humanitarianism. The first is the careful, evidence-based analysis of the growing risks to the security and safety of aid workers. The second is a consideration of how aid agencies have responded in ways that have decreased or increased the risks―and to whom.” (Michael Barnett, Professor of International Affairs and Political Science, George Washington University, USA, author of Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics) Read more From the Back Cover Attacks on humanitarian aid operations are both a symptom and a weapon of modern warfare, and as armed groups increasingly target aid workers for violence, relief operations are curtailed in places where civilians are most in need. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges to humanitarian action in warzones, the risk management and negotiation strategies that hold the most promise for aid organizations, and an ethical framework from which to tackle the problem. By combining rigorous research findings with structural historical analysis and first-person accounts of armed attacks on aid workers, the author proposes a reframed ethos of humanitarian professionalism, decoupled from organizational or political interests, and centered on optimizing outcomes for the people it serves.Abby Stoddard is an international humanitarian policy analyst and former aid worker. She is a founding partner of the research group Humanitarian Outcomes, where she advises governments and international agencies on issues in humanitarian action, with a particular focus on risk and operational security for aid operations. Read more About the Author Abby Stoddard is an international humanitarian policy analyst and former aid worker. She is a founding partner of the research group Humanitarian Outcomes, where she advises governments and international agencies on issues in humanitarian action, with a particular focus on risk and operational security for aid operations. Read more Customers Review:Necessary Risks provides an overview of how humanitarian space has deteriorated over the last couple decades resulting in increased violence against aid workers. The author provides many real-life examples that demonstrate the thinking needed to mitigate the risks present in all too many humanitarian operations. This book should be considered essential reading not only for those who manage humanitarian operations but also for the staff who carry out such programs.Soundly based in research, Necessary Risks provides case studies that make clear how seemingly benign conditions could instead be fraught with danger because key risk factors are either not assessed or are overlooked. Humanitarian work is highly respected because it reflects some of mankind’s highest ideals for saving lives and addressing the suffering of people affected by natural disasters and wars. At the same time, it has also become a field with one of the highest risks of any occupation. Globally, humanitarian workers suffer a higher rate of fatalities than U.S. armed forces.If there were a time when humanitarian workers could deliver assistance while believing that their work put them “above the fray” so that they were not a target of armed fighters, those days have now passed. And yet because of the growing number of conflicts around the world, the need for humanitarian action has never been greater. This calls for a reappraisal of how humanitarian operations should be conducted. The centrality of security analysis and the mitigation of risks to humanitarian operations is no longer optional.One response to the growing risks in humanitarian operations has been to limit work to locations that are outside the conflict zones. This improves program safety but often fails to provide aid to those in greatest need. The key concern should become determining how risks can be mitigated to a level that will enable an organization’s humanitarian mission to be achieved albeit with some residual risks for staff. The many aspects of this challenge are at the heart of Necessary Risks.In over 30 years overseeing humanitarian assistance in conflicts from Southeast Asia, to the Middle East, Europe and Africa, I have witnessed the growing risks that confront humanitarian agencies. Some NGOs have risen to the challenge, but many still have not. In part this can be a question of resources and the need to keep “overhead” rates low to attract donors. But it is often still a lack of awareness about the level of risk that exists in humanitarian operations. Security threats are too frequently viewed as acceptable because they are poorly understood. Risks are taken that could have been avoided had they been understood. There is a lack of threat awareness among staff operating in the field; also lacking is an appreciation for how a critical incident can affect the reputation and financial well-being of a humanitarian organization. When staff are kidnapped, gravely injured or killed, organizations are questioned whether such incidents could have been avoided or whether, at least, the potential for such tragedies could have been mitigated. Lawsuits for negligence can be debilitating. To understand these issues, Necessary Risks provides the analysis all humanitarian managers should understand. | |
Minggu, 02 Agustus 2020
[PDF] Download Transformers, Vol. 1: The World In Your Eyes (Transformers (2019)) by Brian Ruckley | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Transformers, Vol. 1: The World In Your Eyes (Transformers (2019)) |
Book DescriptionReview “You couldn’t ask for a better beginning as you get in on ground-zero for a lot of the defining parts of the mythology. The ride begins here and now, so get on board!” -AiPT!”Unbelievably accessible, crafting a reboot that has quite a lot of brevity, while also exuding a ton of charm and fun. With expressive visuals and a promising narrative, Transformers captures the magic of what the franchise can be.” -ComicBook.comGreat world building. The relationship between Orion Pax and Megatron is fascinating. TRANSFORMERS… is in good hands with Ruckley, Hernandez, Whitman, and Lafuente.” -Comicsverse“A new, yet familiar, world for the Transformers to inhabit. Longtime fans will feel comfortable in the settings created and new or returning fans will be able to start fresh with this new series and continuity.” -GWW Read more About the Author Brian Ruckley is the author of five fantasy novels, including The Free, The Edinburgh Dead, and the three novels of The Godless World trilogy. Before he became a full-time writer in the 2000s, he attended Edinburgh and Stirling Universities and had a series of assorted jobs around London, most of them in the charity-sector. Much of his work has involved extensive overseas travel, environmental and community projects, nature conservation, and fundraising. He now lives back in Edinburgh with his wife and misses the excitement of London only a little, and only occasionally. Read more Customers Review: I loved Transformers as a kid growing up in the 80s. I collected the toys, the comics, watched the cartoon, cried at the animated movie in theaters. But I grew out of it in the early 90s and never looked back. As an adult, I came back to comics/graphic novels and while my tastes have changed substantially, I had heard IDW was making Transformers stories that would appeal more to an adult crowd, so when I saw they were starting a new continuity from square one, I was intrigued.I picked up this book and gave it a read. Glad I did, too, because it was excellent. The more nuanced, human-like relationships of the Transformers gave a much more emotional and political touch to the story than what I’ve seen before with these same characters. Dealing with life and death, social turmoil, rising dissatisfaction with the government and an interesting view on the imperfect, isolationist views of the Autobots that stoke the flames of their opposition’s ire make for a fascinating and believable tale.I eagerly await the next volume.
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[PDF] Download Teaching by Heart: One Professor's Journey to Inspire by Thomas J. DeLong | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: Teaching by Heart: One Professor’s Journey to Inspire |
Book DescriptionReview Advance Praise for Teaching by Heart:”We should all know what makes teachers great, and how they can move us to think about our own roles as leaders. Tom DeLong is the right person to do this. I’m struck by his honesty and willingness to show, in captivating detail, his own vulnerability–a radical act that will alter readers of Teaching by Heart.” — Ophelia Dahl, Cofounder and Chair, Board of Directors, Partners in Health“Tom DeLong lives at the intersection of the art and science of teaching and leading. Anyone facing leadership challenges will learn unique approaches on how to teach and lead to enhance their organization. Teaching by Heart is a must-read.” — David A. Thomas, President, Morehouse College“Tom DeLong has written a beautiful, powerful, and inspiring book. It’s both a memoir and an instruction manual–a how-to guide for great teaching and a testament to the unparalleled joy that both teaching and learning can bring. Every teacher, regardless of their students’ age or the subject matter they teach, should read this book.” — Debora L. Spar, Professor, Harvard Business School; former President, Barnard College“The one characteristic that all of Tom DeLong’s classes have in common is the extent to which students are touched emotionally. All of us are lucky Tom has taken the time to share the secrets that come from forty years of masterful teaching.” — Leonard A. Schlesinger, Professor, Harvard Business School; President Emeritus, Babson College“Teaching by Heart is both a compelling personal story and a feast of insights into teaching, learning, and leading. While I’ve been the beneficiary of Tom’s perceptive advice over the last two decades, it was still thought provoking to experience the rich, holistic framework that underlies his wise counsel. You can’t put this book down.” — Martha S. Samuelson, CEO and Chairman, Analysis Group“I’ve never met another teacher like Tom DeLong. He possesses qualities rarely seen at any level in academia or the business world: a generosity of spirit, an eagerness for deep interaction, and a willingness to show his own vulnerability. This book will enable readers to learn the invaluable skill of leading, teaching, and inspiring simultaneously.” — C. Allen Parker, General Counsel, Wells Fargo Read more About the Author Thomas J. DeLong is the Baker Foundation Professor of Management Practice in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. Since 1997 DeLong has taught over twenty thousand MBAs and executives, both on campus and around the globe, and is internationally recognized for his teaching, writing, and course development. The author of Flying Without a Net, DeLong teaches courses focused on leadership, organizational behavior, managing human capital, and career management. He received his PhD from Purdue University and was a visiting scholar at MIT.To learn more about the author, visit: hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6445 Read more Customers Review: In brief, this book is written by a reflective practitioner. It is relevant to both professors and consultants. Professor Thomas DeLong brings both corporate and academic experience to the task. He models both inner honesty and sense making in exemplary ways and, importantly, offers practical insights particularly in working with MBAs based on his HBS teaching experience. The book, sadly, does not deconstruct his executive education or his case writing experience. The book is in part an autobiography and in part a teaching manual. Given its wide focus, it is uneven. Some areas are unpacked in depth, ie, his Authentic Leadership course. Other areas less so. That said, a call to all of us who teach to “take stock”. Another fine book akin to this is the writer and literature Professor Jay Parini’s, “The Art of Teaching”. Both books show deep reflective skills and take us inside teaching as a kind of invisible fieldwork. A terrain not well mapped or written about in any depth. Much to learn here re craftsmanship in this work.
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Sabtu, 01 Agustus 2020
[PDF] Download How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now by Stanislas Dehaene | Free EBOOK PDF English
 | Book Details Title: How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now |
Book DescriptionReview “[An] expert overview of learning . . . Never mind our opposable thumb, upright posture, fire, tools, or language; it is education that enabled humans to conquer the world . . . Dehaene’s fourth insightful exploration of neuroscience will pay dividends for attentive readers.”—Kirkus Reviews“[Dehaene] rigorously examines our remarkable capacity for learning. The baby brain is especially awesome and not a ‘blank slate’ . . . Dehaene’s portrait of the human brain is fascinating.”—Booklist“A richly instructive [book] for educators, parents, and others interested in how to most effectively foster the pursuit of knowledge.” —Publishers WeeklyPraise for Reading in the Brain: “Splendid…Dehaene reveals how decades of low-tech experiments and high-tech brain-imaging studies have unwrapped the mystery of reading and revealed its component parts…A pleasure to read. [Dehaene] never oversimplifies; he takes the time to tell the whole story, and he tells it in a literate way.”—The Wall Street Journal”Masterful…a delight to read and scientifically precise.”—NaturePraise for Consciousness and the Brain:“Ambitious . . . Dehaene offers nothing less than a blueprint for brainsplaining one of the world’s deepest mysteries. . . . [A] fantastic book.”—The Washington Post”Dehaene is a maestro of the unconscious.”—Scientific American Mind”Brilliant… Essential reading for those who want to experience the excitement of the search for the mind in the brain.”—Nature Read more About the Author Stanislas Dehaene is the director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit in Saclay, France, and the professor of experimental cognitive psychology at the Collège de France. He is the author of Reading in the Brain. Read more Customers Review: “Just as education is based on biology, the field of education must be grounded in a systematic and rigorous research ecosystem that brings together teachers, patients, and researchers, in a ceaseless search for more effective, evidence-based learning strategies” (245) (from How We Learn).How We Learn is Stanislas Dehaene’s fourth book that I have read, and it does not disappoint. Dehaene effortlessly and compassionately moves between the abstract and the useful, carefully and methodically guiding the reader through a veritable mountain range of information from fields as different as neuroscience and education. And The Wall Street Journal got it right for this book as well when it declared (of Reading In The Brain) that Dehaene “never oversimplifies; he takes the time to tell the whole story; and he tells it in a literate way.”All in all this is an incredible book, whether you’re interested in neuroscience, education, how brain plasticity and literacy are related, AI or even the brains of babies. There’s really something in it for everyone, whether you’re looking to apply your knowledge to study (or help someone else study) more effectively, or improve your own understanding of how the brain works. Dehaene is on the cutting edge, and he’s incredibly compassionate without ever being tendentious or moralistic. Below is a more detailed breakdown.How We Learn is divided into three parts. Part One answers the question “What is Learning?” In the first chapter he discusses seven definitions of learning. One of the most interesting definitions (which isn’t even included among the first seven) is “Learning is inferring the grammar of a domain” in which he submits: “Characteristic of the human species is a relentless search for abstract rules, high-level conclusions that are extracted from a specific situation and subsequently tested on new observations” (35).In Chapter 2 Dehaene wrestles for 20 pages with “Why our brain learns better than current machines,” continuing the discussion of learning all the while. Dehaene emphatically disagrees with the belief that “machines are about to overtake us” (27). A handful of the things he argues humans still do much better includes: Learning Abstract concepts; Data-efficient learning; Social learning; One-trial Learning; and, Systematicity and the language of thought.in Part 2 Dehaene delves into “How Our Brain Learns.” This is the most scientifically granular section and, for many more technical readers, may be the most interesting. The neuroscience underpinning the four chapters in Part 2 is where Dehaene really shows off how dynamic a mind he has. Essentially, human thought is itself a kind of symbolic language. Furthermore, the literacy of thought starts almost as soon as a baby starts to develop as a fetus. By the time a baby is born, it is an incredibly well-developed instrument ready for its second (rather than first) phase of life, for which it has been preparing for three seasons. Dehaene’s thoughts and work on infants alone in this book is well worth ten times its price.Part Three, more of the applied education section, starts with the “Four Pillars of Learning”: Attention (Ch 7, about 30 pages), Active Engagement (Ch 8, about 20 pages), Error Feedback (Ch 9, about 20 pages), Consolidation (Ch 10, about 15 pages). Each of these chapters is a combinatory mine of research, experimental data and studies, as well as practical advice for learners and teachers, reminiscent of Brown, Roediger and McDaniel’s excellent book Make It Stick.The following are some kernels of very useful information from Chapters 7-10:“The intellectual quotient [IQ] is just a behavioral ability, and as such, it is far from being unchangeable by education. Like any of our abilities, IQ rests on specific brain circuits whose synaptic weights can be changed by training” (167).“A passive organism does not learn” (178).“To learn, our brain must first form a hypothetical mental model [algorithm] of the outside world, which it then projects onto its environment and puts to a test by comparing its predictions to what it receives from the senses. This algorithm implies an active, engaged, and attentive posture. Motivation is essential: we learn well only if we have a clear goal and we fully commit to reaching it” (178).“While it is crucial for students to be motivated, active, and engaged, this does not mean they should be left to their own devices” (184).“Pure discovery learning, the idea that children can teach themselves, is one of the many educational myths that have been debunked but still remain curiously popular. […] Two other major misconceptions are linked to it: the myth of the digital native [and] the myth of learning styles” 185).“Zero error, zero learning,” but… “We do not need an actual error in order to learn—all we need is an internal sign that travels in the brain” (204)“It would be wrong, therefore, to believe that what matters most for learning is to make a lot of mistakes […] What matters is receiving explicit feedback that reduces the learner’s uncertainty. […] The theory of error backpropogation predicts: every unexpected event leads to corresponding adjustment of the internal model of the world” (205).“This is the golden rule: it is always better to spread out the training periods rather than cram them into a single run. […] Decades of psychological research show that if you have a fixed amount of time to learn something, spacing out the lessons is a much more effective strategy than grouping them” (218).“Sleep and leaning are strongly linked” (228).“Computer scientists have already designed several learning algorithms that mimic the sleep/wake cycle” (231).“From an educational perspective there is little doubt that improving the length and quality of sleep can be an effective intervention for all children, especially those with learning difficulties” (235).Part Three ends with the Dehaene’s “Conclusion: Reconciling Education with Neuroscience.” He conveniently provides a bullet point summary as well as “Thirteen Take-Home Messages to Optimize Children’s Potential.” Here they are, without their supporting paragraphs.Do not underestimate children.Take advantage of the brain’s sensitivity periods.Enrich the environment.Rescind the idea that all children are different.Pat attention to attention.Keep children active, curious, engaged, and autonomous.Make every school day enjoyable.Encourage efforts.Help students deepen their thinking.Set clear learning objectives.Accept and correct mistakes.Practice regularly.Let students sleep.Dehaene ends with his insistence that “schools should devote more time to parents training,” and that “scientists must engage with teachers and schools in order to consolidate the growing field of educational science” (244). | |