A Hundred Small Lessons

A Hundred Small Lessons
Author: Ashley Hay
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2017-11-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501165151

Through the richly intertwined narratives of two women from different generations, Ashley Hay, known for her “elegant prose, which draws warm and textured portraits as it celebrates the web of human stories” (New York Times Book Review) weaves an intricate, bighearted tale of the many small decisions—the invisible moments—that come to make a life. “Readers who loved the quiet introspection of Anita Shreve’s The Pilot’s Wife and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge will enjoy the detailed emotional journeys of Hay’s characters. Their stories will linger long after the final page is turned” (Library Journal). When Elsie Gormley falls and is forced to leave her Brisbane home of sixty-two years, Lucy Kiss and her family move in, eager to make the house their own. Still, Lucy can’t help but feel that she’s unwittingly stumbled into an entirely new life—new house, new city, new baby—and she struggles to navigate the journey from adventurous lover to young parent. In her nearby nursing facility, Elsie traces the years she spent in her beloved house, where she too transformed from a naïve newlywed into a wife and mother, and eventually, a widow. Gradually, the boundary between present and past becomes more porous for her, and for Lucy—because the house has secrets of its own, and its rooms seem to share with Lucy memories from Elsie’s life. Luminous and deeply affecting, A Hundred Small Lessons is a “lyrically written portrayal” (BookPage, Top Pick) of what it means to be human, and how a place can transform who we are. It’s about a house that becomes much more than a home, and the shifting identities of mother and daughter; father and son. Above all else, this is a story of the surprising and miraculous ways that our lives intersect with those who have come before us, and those who follow.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Author: Phyllis Haddox
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1986-06-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0671631985

A step-by-step program that shows parents, simply and clearly, how to teach their child to read in just 20 minutes a day.

A Lesson Before Dying

A Lesson Before Dying
Author: Ernest J. Gaines
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2004-01-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1400077702

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A deep and compassionate novel about a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to visit a Black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting. "An instant classic." —Chicago Tribune A “majestic, moving novel...an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives" (Chicago Tribune), from the critically acclaimed author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. "A Lesson Before Dying reconfirms Ernest J. Gaines's position as an important American writer." —Boston Globe "Enormously moving.... Gaines unerringly evokes the place and time about which he writes." —Los Angeles Times “A quietly moving novel [that] takes us back to a place we've been before to impart a lesson for living.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Four Thousand Weeks

Four Thousand Weeks
Author: Oliver Burkeman
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2021-08-10
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0374715246

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks. Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.

The Little Virtues

The Little Virtues
Author: Natalia Ginzburg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1628729023

In this collection of her finest and best-known short essays, Natalia Ginzburg explores both the mundane details and inescapable catastrophes of personal life with the grace and wit that have assured her rightful place in the pantheon of classic mid-century authors. Whether she writes of the loss of a friend, Cesare Pavese; or what is inexpugnable of World War II; or the Abruzzi, where she and her first husband lived in forced residence under Fascist rule; or the importance of silence in our society; or her vocation as a writer; or even a pair of worn-out shoes, Ginzburg brings to her reflections the wisdom of a survivor and the spare, wry, and poetically resonant style her readers have come to recognize. "A glowing light of modern Italian literature . . . Ginzburg's magic is the utter simplicity of her prose, suddenly illuminated by one word that makes a lightning streak of a plain phrase. . . . As direct and clean as if it were carved in stone, it yet speaks thoughts of the heart.' — The New York Times Book Review

Survival Lessons

Survival Lessons
Author: Alice Hoffman
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 75
Release: 2020-08-18
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1504064542

The New York Times–bestselling author and cancer survivor tells how to hold on to joy in times of sorrow in this “absolutely beautiful book” (Sue Monk Kidd). The prize-winning author of such modern literary classics as Practical Magic, The World That We Knew, and The Marriage of Opposites, Alice Hoffman is also a cancer survivor. In Survival Lessons, she shares her transformative journey, showing us how to re-envision our own lives and relationships with our friends and family, and the significance of the everyday choices we make. Sorrow and joy are both part of the human experience, and the beauty of the world is easy to overlook during periods of crisis, illness, or loss. Here, Hoffman offers wit, wisdom, and comfort in “an optimistic instruction manual [for] anyone struggling with self-care in a time of trouble” (Story Circle Book Reviews). “In this gem of a book, Alice Hoffman acknowledges the sorrows of life, while reminding us of its joys. Survival Lessons is filled with love, insight, and lots of practical advice—including a crazy-good brownie recipe.” —Will Schwalbe, New York Times–bestselling author of The End of Your Life Book Club “Hoffman’s storytelling artistry enlivens each intimate, thoughtfully distilled, charming, and nurturing lesson in living.” —Booklist “[Survival Lessons] is not about [Hoffman’s] breast cancer per se but about making choices that will improve readers’ lives and relationships and remind them ‘of the beauty of life.’” —Library Journal “Full of smart intentions and kind reminders . . . Uplifting advice we’ll gladly take.” —Better Homes & Gardens

A Hundred Small Steps

A Hundred Small Steps
Author: India. Committee on Financial Sector Reforms
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2009-01-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 817829950X

While previous reports have focused solely on the ‘big’ issues like capital account convertibility, bank privatization, and priority sector norms, A Hundred Small Steps: Report of the Committee on Financial Sector Reforms goes deep into other areas where reforms are less controversial, but perhaps as important. The report argues that we need a change in mindset for the financial sector, one that recognizes that efficiency, innovation, and value for money are as important for the poor as they are for our new Indian multinationals, and these will come from improved governance, new entry and competition. Indeed the Committee believes that the road to making Mumbai an international financial centre runs through every village in India. The report is divided into separate self-contained chapters; the underlying theme behind all the proposals is the need to enhance inclusion, growth, and stability by allowing players more freedom, even while strengthening the financial and regulatory infrastructure. The role of the government is to create an enabling environment by building sound financial infrastructure. The Committee has focused primarily on broad principles and directions, without entering too much into details of implementation. It emphasizes three important reasons for financial sector reform: to include more Indians in the growth process; to foster growth itself; and to improve financial stability, flexibility, and resilience and thus protect the economy against the kind of turbulence that is affecting the world today. The Committee recognizes this is a difficult time to propose financial sector reforms in India. The near meltdown of the US financial sector seems to be proof that markets and competition do not work. This is clearly the wrong lesson to take from the debacle. The right lesson is that markets and institutions do succumb occasionally to excesses, which is why regulators have to be vigilant. The report argues for skilled regulators who encourage growth and innovation even while working harder to contain risks.

Living Beloved

Living Beloved
Author: Erin Hawley
Publisher: NavPress
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2018-11-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1684281229

During what can be a demanding and confusing season of life for many women, Living Beloved offers young mothers a chance to grow in their identity as children of God simply by observing their own little ones. By examining the simple characteristics of a child—transparency, trust, joy, boldness, and more—moms will learn to see their relationship with God their Father in a new way. Author Erin Hawley encourages Christian moms to view early motherhood as a wonderful tutoring session from God, as a lesson in how to grow closer to Him and live “beloved” as His child. The biblical insights and personal stories will renew readers, help them move closer to the Lord, and enjoy life as His child during the everyday routine of mamahood. This insightful and warm-hearted book will nourish a mom’s soul as she nourishes her children. Living Beloved helps young mothers develop a stronger sense of identity as children of God, leading to renewed strength, grace, and wisdom for the journey of motherhood.

Lessons

Lessons
Author: Ian McEwan
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 495
Release: 2022-09-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593535219

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A NEW YORKER ESSENTIAL READ • From the best-selling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Vogue • The New Yorker “Masterful.... McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers…. One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland’s biography…. The pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you.” —Associated Press When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life. Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past? Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.

The Body in the Clouds

The Body in the Clouds
Author: Ashley Hay
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2017-07-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501165119

Originally published: Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2010.