Happiness, Like Water

Happiness, Like Water
Author: Chinelo Okparanta
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2013
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0544003454

A moving debut story collection centered on Nigerian women, as they build lives out of longing and hope, faith and doubt, the struggle to stay and the mandate to leave, and the burden and strength of love.

Under the Udala Trees

Under the Udala Trees
Author: Chinelo Okparanta
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2015
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0544003446

Inspired by her mother's stories of war and Nigeria's folktale traditions, Under the Udala Trees is Chinelo Okparanta's deeply searching, powerful debut about the dangers of living and loving openly

Happiness

Happiness
Author: Aminatta Forna
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2018-03-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0802165575

The prize-winning author of The Memory of Love investigates London’s hidden nature and marginalized communities in this fascinating novel. London, 2014. A fox makes its way across Waterloo Bridge. The distraction causes two pedestrians to collide—Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes, and Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist. Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma, and to contact a friend’s daughter Ama, his “niece” who hasn’t called home in a while. Ama has been swept up in an immigration crackdown, and now her young son Tano is missing. Jean offers to help Attila by mobilizing her network volunteer fox spotters. Soon, rubbish men, security guards, hotel doormen, traffic wardens—mainly West African immigrants who work the myriad streets of London—come together to help. As the search for Tano continues, a deepening friendship between Attila and Jean unfolds. Attila’s time in London causes him to question his own ideas about trauma, the values of the society he finds himself in, and a personal grief of his own. In this delicate tale of love and loss, of thoughtless cruelty and unexpected community, Aminatta Forna asks us to consider our co-existence with one another and all living creatures, and the true nature of happiness.

A Field Guide to Happiness

A Field Guide to Happiness
Author: Linda Leaming
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1401946909

In the West, we have everything we could possibly need or want—except for peace of mind. So writes Linda Leaming, a harried American who traveled from Nashville, Tennessee, to the rugged Himalayan nation of Bhutan—sometimes called the happiest place on Earth—to teach English and unlearn her politicized and polarized, energetic and impatient way of life. In Bhutan, if I have three things to do in a week, it’s considered busy. In the U.S., I have at least three things to do between breakfast and lunch. After losing her luggage immediately upon arrival, Leaming realized that she also had emotional baggage—a tendency toward inaction, a touch of self-absorption, and a hundred other trite, stupid, embarrassing, and inconsequential things—that needed to get lost as well. Pack up ideas and feelings that tie you down and send you lead-footed down the wrong path. Put them in a metaphorical suitcase and sling it over a metaphorical bridge in your mind. Let the river take them away. Forced by circumstance and her rustic surroundings to embrace a simplified life, Leaming made room for more useful beliefs. The thin air and hard climbs of her mountainous commute put her deeply in touch with her breath, helping her find focus and appreciation. The archaic, glacially paced bureaucracy of a Bhutanese bank taught her to go with the flow—and take up knitting. The ancient ritual of drinking tea brought tranquility, friendship, and, eventually, a husband. Each day, and each adventure, in her adopted home brought new insights and understandings to take back to frantic America, where she now practices the art of "simulating Bhutan." This collection of stories, impressions, and suggestions is a little nudge, a push, a leg up into the rarefied air of paradise—of bright sunlight and beautiful views.

Harry Sylvester Bird

Harry Sylvester Bird
Author: Chinelo Okparanta
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2022-07-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0358622328

From the award-winning author of Under the Udala Trees and Happiness, Like Water comes a brilliant, provocative, up-to-the-minute satirical novel about a young white man’s education and miseducation in contemporary America. Harry Sylvester Bird grows up in Edward, Pennsylvania, with his parents, Wayne and Chevy, whom he greatly dislikes. They’re racist, xenophobic, financially incompetent, and they have quite a few secrets of their own. To Harry, they represent everything wrong with this country. And his small town isn’t any better. He witnesses racial profiling, graffitied swastikas, and White Power signs on his walk home from school. He can’t wait until he’s old enough to leave. When he finally is, he moves straight to New York City, where he feels he can finally live out his true inner self. In the city, he meets and falls in love with Maryam, a young Nigerian woman. But when Maryam begins to pull away, Harry is forced to confront his identity as he never has before—if he can. Brilliant, funny, original, and unflinching, Harry Sylvester Bird is a satire that speaks to all the most pressing tensions and anxieties of our time—and of the history that has shaped us and might continue to do so.

Blue Mind

Blue Mind
Author: Wallace J. Nichols
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2014-07-22
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0316252077

A landmark book by marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols on the remarkable effects of water on our health and well-being. Why are we drawn to the ocean each summer? Why does being near water set our minds and bodies at ease? In Blue Mind, Wallace J. Nichols revolutionizes how we think about these questions, revealing the remarkable truth about the benefits of being in, on, under, or simply near water. Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with compelling personal stories from top athletes, leading scientists, military veterans, and gifted artists, he shows how proximity to water can improve performance, increase calm, diminish anxiety, and increase professional success. Blue Mind not only illustrates the crucial importance of our connection to water; it provides a paradigm shifting "blueprint" for a better life on this Blue Marble we call home.

Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway

Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 1028
Release: 2014-05-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1476770417

This stunning collection of short stories by Nobel Prize­–winning author, Ernest Hemingway, contains a lifetime of work—ranging from fan favorites to several stories only available in this compilation. In this definitive collection of short stories, you will delight in Ernest Hemingway's most beloved classics such as “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection. For Hemingway fans The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.

Hardwiring Happiness

Hardwiring Happiness
Author: Rick Hanson, PhD
Publisher: Harmony
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016-12-27
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0385347332

With New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Hanson's four steps, you can counterbalance your brain's negativity bias and learn to hardwire happiness in only a few minutes each day. Why is it easier to ruminate over hurt feelings than it is to bask in the warmth of being appreciated? Because your brain evolved to learn quickly from bad experiences and slowly from good ones, but you can change this. Life isn’t easy, and having a brain wired to take in the bad and ignore the good makes us worried, irritated, and stressed, instead of confident, secure, and happy. But each day is filled with opportunities to build inner strengths and Dr. Rick Hanson, an acclaimed clinical psychologist, shows what you can do to override the brain’s default pessimism. Hardwiring Happiness lays out a simple method that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new neural structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace. You’ll learn to see through the lies your brain tells you. Dr. Hanson’s four steps build strengths into your brain to make contentment and a powerful sense of resilience the new normal. In just minutes a day, you can transform your brain into a refuge and power center of calm and happiness.

The Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness
Author: Tara Altebrando
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2006-03-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416513280

Reeling from her mother's death, an aimless 21st-century teen working at a historic village discovers new friends, new loves, and the courage to forge her own path.

Accidental Happiness

Accidental Happiness
Author: Jean Reynolds Page
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Accident victims
ISBN: 9780345462183

Gina Melrose's life is turned upside down when her late husband's ex-wife shows up on her doorstep with her daughter in-tow.