Hilmar is a successful Heathen but not an ambitious one. His goals today remain what they've always been: to compose his music. To own a good sofa. To read good books. Hilmar owns many books, even by Icelandic standards. The other day, when he came home with a wheelbarrowful, his five-year-old daughter looked him in the eye and implored, "Please, Daddy, please, no more books!" Hilmar has a stock answer to those who criticize his excessive book buying. "It is never a waste of time to study how other people wasted time."
With this major new volume, Paul Krugman, "the heir apparent to Galbraith" and today's most widely read economist, studies the past 80 years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the hard inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal," Krugman has created his finest book to date, a work that weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis. The audiobook, written with Krugman's trademark ability to explain complex issues simply, will transform the debate about American social policy in much the same way as did Kenneth Galbraith's deeply influential book The Affluent Society.
Imagine unleashing your creativity by letting your imagination enjoy the benefits of the type of mental play that helped inspire the theory of relativity. Or evaluating your business climate with the combination of keen observation and an open mind that yielded the theory of evolution. Or navigating your life path with the same love of knowledge and truth that spawned all of Western philosophy. The individuals behind these revolutions of thought live on in our collective memory as models for tackling the challenges that lie ahead. The difference between your mind and theirs is smaller than you think, and is determined less by inborn capacity than by passion, focus, and strategy -- all of which are yours to develop.
Everyone has the potential for genius. The full expression of your unique genius awaits you in these pages! In Discover Your Genius, Michael J. Gelb draws upon the wellspring of history's most revolutionary minds to guide you to unleash your own creativity through mental play. Searching for the most world- shaking ideas, discoveries, and innovations, Gelb assembled a "genius dream team" comprising ten individuals, each of whom embodies a special "genius" characteristic that you are invited to integrate into daily life.
They are:
* Plato-Deepening your love of wisdom
* Filippo Brunelleschi-Expanding your perspective
* Christopher Columbus-Going perpendicular: strengthening your vision, optimism, and courage
* Nicholas Copernicus-Reorganizing your vision of the world
* Queen Elizabeth I-Wielding your power with balance and effectiveness
* William Shakespeare-Cultivating your emotional intelligence
* Thomas Jefferson-Celebrating your freedom in the pursuit of happiness
* Charles Darwin-Developing your power of observation and cultivating an open mind
* Mahatma Gandhi-Applying the principles of spiritual genius to harmonize spirit, mind, and body
* Albert Einstein-Unleashing your imagination and "combinatory play"
Through fascinating, accessible biographies, you'll develop a personal relationship with each genius and learn how to use his or her guiding principle to enrich the quality of your life. Personal self-assessments will help you gauge how each principle is working in your own life, followed by a series of practical and vibrant exercises to help you develop each principle fully.In How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Gelb taught us how to unlock the "da Vincian" genius inside us. Now he provides an enlightening plan for personal and professional development by encouraging us to apply the wisdom of ten of history's greatest minds. Engaging and practical, Discover Your Genius gives us the tools to improve our own mental abilities by making "genius thinking" accessible and fun!
Have you ever had an itch--and not scratched it? In the Buddhist tradition, this points to a vast paradox: that by refraining from our urge to “scratch,” great peace and happiness is available. On Getting Unstuck, Pema Chödrön introduces a rare Tibetan teaching she received from her teacher, Dzigar Kontrul Rinpoche, and one that has become critical to her practice. Here, she unveils the mystery of an ineffable quality; a “pre-emotional” feeling that arises in us, brings us discomfort, and causes us to react by escaping the discomfort--often with harmful habits. With Getting Unstuck, she offers us a first look at “both the itch and the scratch”: what Tibetan Buddhists call ... shenpa. On this new recording, Pema Chödrön--bestselling author and beloved American Buddhist nun--shows us how to recognize shenpa, catch it as it appears, and develop a playful, lively curiosity toward it.
Throughout her long career of "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted," the cause closest to Molly Ivins's heart was working to protect the freedoms we all value. Sadly, today we're living in a time when dissent is equated with giving aid to terrorists, when any of us can be held in prison without even knowing the charges against us, and when our constitutional rights are being interpreted by a president who calls himself "The Decider." Ivins got the idea for BILL OF WRONGS while touring America to honor her promise to speak out, gratis, at least once a month in defense of free speech. In her travels Ivins met ordinary people going to extraordinary measures to safeguard our most precious liberties, and when she first started writing this book, she intended it to be a joyous celebration of those heroes. But during the Bush years, the project's focus changed. Ivins became concerned about threats to our cherished freedoms–among them the Patriot Act and the weakening of habeas corpus–and she observed with anger how dissent in the defense of liberties was being characterized as treason by the Bush administration and its enablers.From illegal wiretaps, the unlawful imprisonment of American citizens, and the undermining of freedom of the press to the creeping influence of religious extremism on our national agenda and the erosion of the checks and balances that prevent a president from seizing unitary powers, Ivins and her longtime collaborator, Lou Dubose, co-author of SHRUB and BUSHWACKED, describe the attack on America's vital constitutional guarantees. With devastating humor and keen eyes for deceit and hypocrisy, they show how severe these incursions have become, and they ask us all to take an active role in protecting the Bill of Rights.In life and on the printed page, Molly Ivins was too cool to offer a posthumous valedictory (or even to take a victory lap for her many triumphs over inane, vainglorious, and addlepated politicos). But in BILL OF WRONGS her final and perhaps greatest book, the irrepressible Molly Ivins really does have the last word.
"Dave Barry has a knack for giving his readers more than a few laughs. This audio presentation is no exception. Read by "Laugh-In" veteran Arte Johnson and featuring introductions by the Author, this is audio comedy at its best. The earnestness and honesty of Barry's humor are stylized with perfection by Johnson's warm and distinctive voice. If you're a fan of Dave Barry's columns, you'll have to have this audio program."
In your hands, you hold the secret to transforming your life. Big words? Yes, but this is a plan that has already proven itself with millions of people around the world. Pastor Will Bowen developed the life-changing A COMPLAINT FREE WORLD plan based on the simple idea that good things will happen for you in abundance if you can just leave your grumbling behind. In a Sunday-morning sermon, Will told his congregation he wanted to make the world a complaint-free zone and, to prove he was serious, he passed out purple bracelets to each church member and offered them a challenge. "If you catch yourself complaining, take the bracelet and move it to the other wrist." Now, less than a year later, more than six million people have taken up the challenge, trying to go twenty-one consecutive days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping, and in so doing, forming a new, positive habit. By changing your words, you can change your thoughts and then begin to create your life by design. People have shared stories with Will of chronic pain relieved, relationships healed, careers improved, and becoming an overall happier person. Less pain, improved health, satisfying relationships, a better job, being more serene and joyous—sound good? It's not only possible, it's probable. Consciously striving to reformat your mental hard drive is not easy, but you can start now by using the steps Bowen presents here. In this audiobook, you can learn what constitutes a complaint, why we complain, what benefits we think we receive from complaining, how complaining is destructive to our lives, and how we can get others around us to stop complaining. You will learn the steps to eradicating this poisonous form of expression from your life. If you stay with it, you will find that not only will you not complain, but others around you will cease to do so as well. In a short period of time, you can have the life you've always dreamed of having.To get your Complaint Free bracelet please visit www.acomplaintfreeworld.org.
Finding a new job is a job in itself. Readers will quickly learn how to concentrate on the positive aspects of the search, such as finding jobs they love, rather than getting caught up in the negative aspects of rejection letters and no responses.
In his short story “The Nine Billion Names of God,” published in 1953, Clarke wrote of a pair of computer programmers sent to a remote monastery in Tibet to help the monks there use a computer to compile a list of all the names of God. Once the list was complete, the monks believed, human and cosmic destiny would be fulfilled and the world would end.
The programmers are fleeing the mountain, hoping to escape the monks’ wrath when the program finishes and the world is still there, when one of them looks up.
“Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”
