The Yoga of Max's Discontent

The Yoga of Max's Discontent
Author: Karan Bajaj
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0698192044

“A beautifully rendered epic journey . . . . The novel works on many levels and excels at them all.” —New York Journal of Books In this captivating and surprising novel of spiritual discovery—a No. 1 bestseller in India—a young American travels to India and finds himself tested physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Max Pzoras is the poster child for the American Dream. The child of Greek immigrants who grew up in a dangerous New York housing project, he triumphed over his upbringing and became a successful Wall Street analyst. Yet on the frigid December night he’s involved in a violent street scuffle, Max begins to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother’s death. His search takes him to the farthest reaches of India, where he encounters a mysterious night market, almost freezes to death on a hike up the Himalayas, and finds himself in an ashram in a drought-stricken village in South India. As Max seeks answers to questions that have bedeviled him—can yogis walk on water and live for 200 years without aging? Can a flesh-and-blood man ever achieve nirvana?—he struggles to overcome his skepticism and the pull of family tugging him home. In an ultimate bid for answers, he embarks on a dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave, where his physical and spiritual endurance is put to its most extreme test. By turns a gripping adventure story and a journey of tremendous inner transformation, The Yoga of Max's Discontent is a contemporary take on man's classic quest for transcendence.

Miles from Nowhere

Miles from Nowhere
Author: Nami Mun
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781594488542

Fleeing her 1980s Bronx family home in the wake of her unfaithful father's abandonment and her mother's mental illness, Korean teen Joon struggles through an adolescence marked by homeless shelters, addiction, and demeaning jobs.

The Yoga of Max's Discontent

The Yoga of Max's Discontent
Author: Karan Bajaj
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2017-05-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0735213453

“A beautifully rendered epic journey . . . . The novel works on many levels and excels at them all.” —New York Journal of Books In this captivating and surprising novel of spiritual discovery—a No. 1 bestseller in India—a young American travels to India and finds himself tested physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Max Pzoras is the poster child for the American Dream. The child of Greek immigrants who grew up in a dangerous New York housing project, he triumphed over his upbringing and became a successful Wall Street analyst. Yet on the frigid December night he’s involved in a violent street scuffle, Max begins to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother’s death. His search takes him to the farthest reaches of India, where he encounters a mysterious night market, almost freezes to death on a hike up the Himalayas, and finds himself in an ashram in a drought-stricken village in South India. As Max seeks answers to questions that have bedeviled him—can yogis walk on water and live for 200 years without aging? Can a flesh-and-blood man ever achieve nirvana?—he struggles to overcome his skepticism and the pull of family tugging him home. In an ultimate bid for answers, he embarks on a dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave, where his physical and spiritual endurance is put to its most extreme test. By turns a gripping adventure story and a journey of tremendous inner transformation, The Yoga of Max's Discontent is a contemporary take on man's classic quest for transcendence.

Louisiana Catch

Louisiana Catch
Author: Sweta Srivastava Vikram
Publisher: Modern History Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2018-04-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1615993525

ÿA grieving daughter and abuse survivor must summon the courage to run a feminist conference, trust a man she meets over the Internet, and escape a catfishing stalker to find her power. Ahana, a wealthy thirty-three-year-old New Delhi woman, flees the pain of her mother's death, and her dark past, by accepting a huge project in New Orleans, where she'll coordinate an annual conference to raise awareness of violence against women. Her half-Indian, half-Irish colleague and public relations guru, Rohan Brady, who helps Ahana develop her online presence, offends her prim sensibilities with his raunchy humor. She is convinced that he's a womanizer.ÿ Meanwhile, she seeks relief from her pain in an online support group, where she makes a good friend: the mercurial Jay Dubois, who is also grieving the loss of his mother. Louisiana Catch is an emotionally immersive novel about identity, shame, and who we project ourselves to be in the world. It's a book about Ahana's unreliable instincts and her ongoing battle to deter?mine whom to place her trust in as she, Rohan, and Jay shed layers of their identities. "Louisiana Catch is a triumph. In Ahana, Sweta Vikram has created an unforgettable character, strong, wise, and deeply human, who'll inspire a new generation struggling to come to terms with their identity in a world of blurring identities." --KARAN BAJAJ, New York Times bestselling author,ÿThe Yoga of Max's Discontent "In Louisiana Catch, Sweta Vikram brings life to the complex human rights issue of violence against women. Through one woman's journey to make sense of her past and ultimately heal, Vikram shows us that yoga can reconnect us to ourselves, and that by empowering others, we transform our own lives." --ZO? LEPAGE, Founder,ÿExhale to Inhale "Louisiana Catch perfectly captures what it means to be human in a digital world, where support groups meet online, love interests flirt on Twitter, and people get confused with personas. Equal parts tender and playful, moving and hopeful, Vikram's prose connects us with timeless truths about grief and redemption in a satisfyingly modern way." --STEPHANIE PATERIK, Managing Editor,ÿAdweek Learn more at www.SwetaVikram.com From Modern History Press, www.ModernHistoryPress.com

Keep Off The Grass

Keep Off The Grass
Author: Karan Bajaj
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2013-12-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9350292874

What do you do when you are a twenty-five-year-old Yale graduate making half-a-million dollars a year as a hotshot investment banker on Wall Street? You bust your ass and become a millionaire by thirty, of course.Not if you are Samrat Ratan, born in the USA to immigrant Indian parents; you quit and enrol in business school in India instead.Samrat's rollercoaster journey begins at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore, where he spends his time getting high on marijuana while his grades - and self-confidence - plummet. Soon, Samrat's quest for identity turns increasingly bizarre as it takes him places he hadn't planned on visiting - prison, for example - and makes him do things he hadn't banked on doing: 'meditating' stoned with a sexy Danish hippie in the Himalayas, hanging out with a cannibal on the banks of the Ganga, and peddling soap to the formidable Raja Bhaiya in Benares. Does Samrat - Yale valedictorian, investment banker, convict, pothead - survive his fall from grace?

Can't Quit You, Baby

Can't Quit You, Baby
Author: Ellen Douglas
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 273
Release: 1989-12-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0140121021

“It is rare when a book this fine enters the world of contemporary American literature.” – The Boston Globe Two women share a Mississippi household for fifteen years, rolling out piecrusts and making conversation. Cornelia is rich, white, and pampered, the mistress of the house, who oversees a seemingly perfect world of smooth surfaces and stubborn silence. Tweet, her housekeeper, is a poor, black, world-weary woman with a ghost-ridden past. As the years go by, Cornelia and Tweet each endure moments of uncertainty and despair; each, in her time of need, is rescued by the other. In the footsteps of Southern writers like Peter Taylor, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor, Ellen Douglas celebrates the resiliency of the human spirit in this story of two women bound by transgression and guilt, memory and illusion, gratitude and love. “Ellen Douglas is not just one of our best Southern novelists. She is one of our best American novelists.” – The New York Times Book Review

Larry's Party

Larry's Party
Author: Carol Shields
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2011-10-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307364119

The Stone Diaries marked a new phase in a literary career already ablaze with achievement. As well as the many international awards it received, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Governor General's Award, the book also met with universal critical acclaim and topped bestseller lists around the world. "Carol Shields," raved Maclean's, "has crafted a small miracle of a novel." "The Stone Diaries," said the New York Times Book Review, "reminds us again why literature matters." The San Diego Tribune called The Stone Diaries "a universal study of what makes women tick." Now, in Larry's Party, Carol Shields does the same for men. Larry Weller, born in 1950, is an ordinary guy made extraordinary by his creator's perception, irony and tenderness. Larry's Party gives us, as it were, a CAT scan of his life, in episodes between 1977 and 1997 that flash backward and forward seamlessly. As Larry journeys toward the new millennium, adapting to society's changing expectations of men, Shields' elegant prose transforms the trivial into the momentous. We follow this young floral designer through two marriages and divorces, his interactions with parents, friends and a son. And throughout, we witness his deepening passion for garden mazes -- so like life, with their teasing treachery and promise of reward. Among all the paradoxes and accidents of his existence, Larry moves through the spontaneity of the seventies, the blind enchantment of the eighties and the lean, mean nineties, completing at last his quiet, stubborn search for self. Larry's odyssey mirrors the male condition at the end of our century with targeted wit, unerring poignancy and faultless wisdom.

Unsuitable Boy

Unsuitable Boy
Author: Karan Johar
Publisher: Random House India
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2018-01-09
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9385990934

Karan Johar is synonymous with success, panache, quick wit, and outspokenness, which sometimes inadvertently creates controversy and makes headlines. KJo, as he is popularly called, has been a much-loved Bollywood film director, producer, actor, and discoverer of new talent. With his flagship Dharma Production, he has constantly challenged the norms, written and rewritten rules, and set trends. But who is the man behind the icon that we all know? Baring all for the first time in his autobiography, An Unsuitable Boy, KJo reminisces about his childhood, the influence of his Sindhi mother and Punjabi father, obsession with Bollywood, foray into films, friendships with Aditya Chopra, SRK and Kajol, his love life, the AIB Roast, and much more. In his trademark frank style, he talks about the ever-changing face of Indian cinema, challenges and learnings, as well as friendships and rivalries in the industry. Honest, heart-warming and insightful, An Unsuitable Boy is both the story of the life of an exceptional film-maker at the peak of his powers and of an equally extraordinary human being who shows you how to survive and succeed in life.

Johnny Gone Down

Johnny Gone Down
Author: Karan Bajaj
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2010-04-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 935029494X

Nikhil Arya has fallen. Once, he was an Ivy League scholar with a promising future at NASA; now, at forty, he is broke, homeless, and minutes away from blowing his brains out in a diabolical modern-day joust. It wasn't meant to be this way. An innocent vacation turned into an epic intercontinental journey that saw Nikhil become first a genocide survivor, then a Buddhist monk, a drug lord, a homeless accountant, a software mogul and a deadly game fighter. Now, twenty years later, Nikhil aka Johnny is tired of running. With the Colombian mafia on his trail and his abandoned wife and son ten thousand miles away, he prepares for his final act, aware that he will have lost even if he wins. Or will he? Is there any greater victory than living a life that knows no limits, a world that has seen no boundaries? From the bestselling author of Keep Off the Grass comes the once-in-a-lifetime story of an ordinary man fighting an extraordinary destiny. Can he pick up the pieces one last time or will Nikhil, now Johnny, go down for good?

High on Low

High on Low
Author: Wilhelm Schmid
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Happiness
ISBN: 9781935830283

Nonfiction. Self-Help. Mental Health. Philosophy. Ethics. Winner of the 2015 Living Now Book Award for Personal Growth. Is not being happy really so bad? In HIGH ON LOW: HARNESSING THE POWER OF UNHAPPINESS, Wilhelm Schmid persuasively argues that far from preventing us from living a full and successful life, being unhappy--be it in terms of discontent, melancholy, sadness, or depressive mood--is an inherent part of a well-rounded, active, and creative life. Rather than attempting to treat unhappiness as an unwelcome interloper on our perpetual quest for happiness, we should, Schmid suggests, draw on and harness the very power of not being happy. "This little book covers the gray area between melancholy and depression, finding meaning in a sense of place where one is unhappy, and pinpointing the real values in life." --Midwest Book Review "High on Low surprises on nearly every page .. Unlike the often simplistic recommendations found in many self- help books, these philosophical musings written for a general audience feel more like a rare chance to sit and listen to the advice of a wise elder. High on Low is a little book that can be read and reread, something to pull out and ponder on rainy, melancholy days." --Patty Somlo, The Mindful World "Psychology, philosophy and self-help shelves in the majority of our bookstores are lined with manuals on how to achieve as much happiness as possible, but this philosopher is able to offer up something different that may be able to help an individual who just can't connect with a hedonistic culture." --Erica Roberts, The Mindful World