Essays Life

Featuring a brand new introduction by the author on how he willingly gave up his birthright as the heir apparent to a multi-million dollar commercial construction firm in order to pursue his writing passion, Pieces of Mind contains essays on topics as diverse as lost love, sex, divorce, coping with a child's severe depression, experiencing Carnival in Venice, to sharing a first beer with your teenage son. But every word is delivered under the umbrella of a full-time fiction writer and freelance journalist trying to make sense of the lush world that surrounds him.

Introducing Laurie Notaro, the leader of the Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club. Every day she fearlessly rises from bed to defeat the evil machinations of dolts, dimwits, and creepy boyfriends - and that's before she even puts on a bra. For the past 10 years, Notaro has been entertaining Phoenix newspaper readers with her wildly amusing autobiographical exploits and unique life experiences.

In his debut essay collection, Nicholas Belardes uses today’s pop culture and self-deprecating humor as a filter for discussing personal stories of family, writing, gender, art, and race. He dives into the Harry Potter play and discusses his cursed childhood home. He tells coming-of-age tales of Dungeons & Dragons and blames Stranger Things for jogging those hilarious memories.

Author Joni B. Cole worries that Vlad the Impaler may be a distant cousin. She feuds with a dead medium. She thinks (or overthinks) about insulting birthday cards, power trips, and the real reason writers hate Amazon. And she wishes, really wishes, all those well-meaning people would stop talking about Guatemala. At once irreverent and thought provoking, Cole's collection is a joy ride through eclectic essays that arrive smack on that sweet spot between soul searching and social commentary, between humor and heft.

In the best-selling and beloved tradition of Dave Barry, a coming-of-middle-age tale by Thurber finalist Dan Zevin, master of “Seinfeld-ian nothingness” ( Time) about a man’s inevitable transition into mid-life and fatherhood.

New York Times reporter John Branch's riveting, humane pieces about ordinary people doing extraordinary things at the edges of the sporting world have won nearly every major journalism prize. Sidecountry gathers the best of Branch's work, featuring 20 of his favorites from the more than 2,000 pieces he has published in the paper.

Ever since he joined the sports department of the Boston Globe in 1968, sports enthusiasts have been blessed with the writing and reporting of Bob Ryan. Tony Kornheiser calls him the "quintessential American sportswriter". For the past 25 years, he has also been a regular on various ESPN shows, especially The Sports Reporters, spreading his knowledge and enthusiasm for sports of all kinds.

Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter is as unconventional and wide-ranging as Frank Deford's remarkable career, in which he has chronicled the heroes and the characters of just about every sport in nearly every medium. Deford joined Sports Illustrated in 1962, fresh, and fresh out of Princeton. In 1990, he was Editor-in-Chief of The National Sports Daily, one of the most ambitious and ill-fated projects in the history of American print journalism.

Short stories include biographical, humorous and imaginative fiction. Poetry is sprinkled throughout the book. Stories, essays and poetry cover both serious topics and fun insights. This book includes uplifting, positive and thought-provoking insights. Also, several Christmas stories. Audio version is done in three parts.

Each essay illuminates the life of a single species and its relationship to humans, and how these species can help us understand birds in general. A dedicated birdwatcher and teacher, Gedney finds wonder not only in the speed and glistening beauty of the Anna's hummingbird, but also in her nest building. He acclaims the turkey vulture's and red-tailed hawk's roles in our ecosystem, and he venerates the inimitable California scrub jay's work planting acorns.

In her journey to share these selected essays, Vivian A. Velasco has lived a life filled with possibilities. In these personal writings, her deepest thoughts come to the forefront to help others in trying times of need. As a cancer survivor, loss of twin boys and her sons unexpected passing during the writing of this book, Vivian hopes to help others on their paths through life by sharing her own.

A tribute to America's favorite past time, Chicken Soup for the Baseball Fan's Soul is written by people at every level of competition, from World Series champions to tee-ball moms. Their inspiring stories highlight the best of baseball, the importance of sportsmanship and a love of the game. Whether these stories take place on the field of a local YMCA or under the bright lights of a major league ballpark, the focus is the same: The Love of the Game.

From the time she is nine years old and discovers a “Private Way” full of the wonderful and creepy creatures of the wild - spiders, deer, moles, chipmunks, and foxes - Lauren Slater finds in animals a refuge from the troubled life of her suburban home. As she matures, her bond with animals - raccoons, horses, swans, cats, and primarily, dogs - strengthens and grows more complex and compelling. They offer relief from the pain of her mother’s mental illness.

Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America. Easy to learn, but impossible to master, it’s no wonder that nearly 5 million people nationwide have picked up their paddles and taken to the court. But people aren’t just dabbling in this up-and-coming activity, they are obsessed; some hit the court as many as five, six, even seven times a week. As Vanity Fair put it, pickleball has “won over everyone, from Leonardo DiCaprio to your grandparents.”

The "web" has become our most powerful ecological image of the interconnectedness of all creatures, yet this image predates science, it is present in every culture's anthology. Chief Seattle said "Whatever man does to the web, he does to himself." Award-winning journalist Richard Louv explores the fragile network that connects people and the strands that make it up: nature, childhood, adulthood, spirit, purpose, and community.

In this collection, Vivian Gornick turns her attention to a large theme in literature: the struggle for the semblance of inner freedom. In the essays collected here, she explores the work of V. S. Naipaul, James Baldwin, George Gissing, Randall Jarrell, H. G. Wells, Loren Eiseley, Allen Ginsberg, Hayden Carruth, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth.

Jewish Law and Identity is second in the Hermit Kingdom Studies in Christianity and Judaism, an academic monograph series in Hebrew, Jewish, and Early Christian Studies. This audiobook contains nine academic essays relating to the theme of Jewish law and identity. All the academic essays in the book discuss Jewish law and identity in a creative, and groundbreaking way in light of the most recent research trends.

Raised in Manhattan by her overly protective sex-therapist mother who wore "seven layers of shoulder pads" and her two doting grandparents, life in Wendy Spero's world has never been dull. As a child, she passed the time organizing impromptu "garage sales" on city sidewalks, sniffing fruit-scented magic markers to intoxication, parenting dozens of high-maintenance stuffed animals, and seeking out other "microthrills", which she writes about in this hilarious audiobook of odd but true stories.

With self-deprecation and surprising wit, Marla reveals what it's like to see the world through her eyes, how it feels to grow up "disabled" in a society where expectations are often based on perceived abilities, and what it means to compete at the world-class level despite the fact that - quite literally, for her - there is no finish line.

Life Lessons: Ruminations on Life of a Human on Earth, Essays by Mary A Faderan, PhD is a collection of essays on her musings about life in the world as we know it. Her life has taken many turns, starting from her research work at Yale School of Medicine, postdoctorate studies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and then at Purdue University.