This portfolio of oil and acrylic paintings by award-winning California landscape painter Rick J. Delanty is accompanied by inspirational short essays, each focusing on the theme of beauty. Personal anecdotes from the artist's life experience of over 40 years as a professional fine artist give the reader insight into the artist's creative process. Hardcover, 120 pages.

Based on the author's online photography project, this stunning collection features portraits of 500 women from more than 50 countries, accompanied by revelatory captions that capture their personal stories. Since 2013 photographer Mihaela Noroc has traveled the world with her backpack and camera taking photos of everyday women to showcase the diversity of beauty all around us. The Atlas of Beauty is a collection of her photographs celebrating women from all corners of the world, revealing that beauty is everywhere, and that it comes in many different sizes and colors. Noroc's colorful and moving portraits feature women in their local communities, ranging from the Amazon rainforest to London city streets, and from markets in India to parks in Harlem, visually juxtaposing the varied physical and social worlds these women inhabit. Packaged as a gift-worthy, hardcover book, The Atlas of Beauty presents a fresh perspective on the global lives of women today.

An invitation to embrace a spirituality of beauty. Grounded in the foundational writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, it explores the ability of beauty to introduce components of prayer, joy, and spirituality into our lives today.

A best book of the year from New York Public Library, NPR, the Financial Times, Book Riot, and the Sunday Times (London). A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard. Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamorous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew. To his surprise and the reader’s delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards—a gorgeous mosaic of artists, musicians, blue-collar stalwarts, immigrants, cutups, and dreamers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grow, he comes to understand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns. In the tradition of classic workplace memoirs like Lab Girl and Working Stiff, All The Beauty in the World is a surprising, inspiring portrait of a great museum, its hidden treasures, and the people who make it tick, by one of its most intimate observers.

The bestselling classic that redefined our view of the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."

A New Creation Our very survival is at stake. We must change. The references and values on which we used to depend are becoming relativized and questionable, and the true sense of integrity, responsibility, and purpose now seems outdated. Instead, we seem to have chosen the path of shortsighted success and gratification, convenient arrangements, and sometimes the one-sided fanaticism and fundamentalism. No wonder we find ourselves in such a deep spiritual crisis that makes all other crises possible, probable, and even certain and extremely dangerous. Change Your World: Awakening to the Power of Truth Beauty Simplicity - Change is an invitation to faithfully recapture the basics, deeply rediscover the very reason for our existence, and carefully reassess our references and values. Truth will make us free. Beauty will save the world. Simplicity will help redefine our priorities. Change will transform us and will transform our world into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is a profoundly political book; it describes, in an original and engaging way, how to live and govern from our highest and most sacred consciousness. Therefore, do not expect politics as usual, politically correct, well-calculated, and feeling good spirituality talks. Expect rather as it is articulation, straightforward approaches, and unequivocal descriptions of the new creation values. Our survival depends on our ability to be truly human and in alignment with our most sacred consciousnessthe mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Isnt contemplation the highest form of activity, as Aristotle suggested? Masterfully, Dr. Maalouf uncovers the simple truths of a happy, healthy, and meaningful life, and discloses the secret of the fullness of life. A contemplative approach to life is indispensable for grasping and living the essence of what it means to be truly human.

The global beauty business permeates our lives, influencing how we perceive ourselves and what it is to be beautiful. The brands and firms which have shaped this industry, such as Avon, Coty, Estée Lauder, L'Oréal, and Shiseido, have imagined beauty for us. This book provides the first authoritative history of the global beauty industry from its emergence in the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring how today's global giants grew. It shows how successive generations of entrepreneurs built brands which shaped perceptions of beauty, and the business organizations needed to market them. They democratized access to beauty products, once the privilege of elites, but they also defined the gender and ethnic borders of beauty, and its association with a handful of cities, notably Paris and later New York. The result was a homogenization of beauty ideals throughout the world. Today globalization is changing the beauty industry again; its impact can be seen in a range of competing strategies. Global brands have swept into China, Russia, and India, but at the same time, these brands are having to respond to a far greater diversity of cultures and lifestyles as new markets are opened up worldwide. In the twenty first century, beauty is again being re-imagined anew.

The impact of environmental issues on government is traced by exploring controversial policies and clarifying relationships between political institutions and changing social values in contemporary America.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “I find myself thinking deeply about what it means to love America, as I surely do.” —Dan Rather At a moment of crisis over our national identity, venerated journalist Dan Rather has emerged as a voice of reason and integrity, reflecting on—and writing passionately about—what it means to be an American. Now, with this collection of original essays, he reminds us of the principles upon which the United States was founded. Looking at the freedoms that define us, from the vote to the press; the values that have transformed us, from empathy to inclusion to service; the institutions that sustain us, such as public education; and the traits that helped form our young country, such as the audacity to take on daunting challenges in science and medicine, Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. As a living witness to historical change, he offers up an intimate view of history, tracing where we have been in order to help us chart a way forward and heal our bitter divisions. With a fundamental sense of hope, What Unites Us is the book to inspire conversation and listening, and to remind us all how we are, finally, one.

The Most Efficient and Least Expensive Health Care Plan There Is Have you ever heard of a universal coverage offered by a health care provider that does not cost you a dime? “Impossible,” you said! Here is one. This book will tell you how relevant and efficient such a plan is, how it works, and how it can heal body-mind-soul, patients and doctors, old and young, men and women, individuals and groups, nations and the entire universe. No drugs, surgery, or magical herbs are necessary. The one thing needed is to follow God’s prescription. We may not be able to be in full control of our circumstances, but here are guidelines that enable us to have a healthier and happier life: • Finding meaning in life • Adopting healthy beliefs • Listening to God’s word • Developing good nutrition and exercise programs • Detoxifying • Controlling stress • Strengthening your immune system to resist physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual viruses • Living up to your own potential • Helping yourself by helping others • Receiving and enjoying God’s gifts • Glorifying God in your body • Making right choices • Simplifying • Living by timeless principles • Experiencing the healing power of laughter, sleep, leisure, and success • Celebrating life • Understanding Our Spiritual DNA • And much more In these pages of uncommon common sense, sensitivity, and profound understanding, Dr. Maalouf, by inviting us to dig to the root causes of our loneliness, depersonalized culture, and general physical, mental, and spiritual malaise, helps us to rediscover the secret of living the fullness of life. You are invited to try this plan at no cost to you except your willingness, enthusiasm, and commitment. Since no one else can do it for you, please choose to make this plan your way of life and you will see the difference it will make.