In today's ultra-competitive marketplace, creative Christians must be heavily involved in promoting themselves and their works.

Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy gives you nine Precepts, ways to restructure your thinking about how you create and why so that you can just get to work and create the work of your dreams.

Repressed desires, irresistible obsessions, and perception-twisting games. When lady's maid Marian Osley and footman Valentine Hobbs assume their positions at the cliff-top estate of Valor Rise, they already share a history. Raised together as paupers in a London workhouse, they escaped through games of imaginary crimes and sublime punishment. Now they've been unexpectedly reunited--in subservience to the brooding Wythe Bornholdt and his frail wife, Diana. A master and mistress with their own dark secrets. In private, Marian and Valentine return to their playful and addictive games--now tinged with BDSM. But when lecherous Wythe sees something he desires in Marian, he turns the pair's diversions violently against them. The line between servitude and bondage is drawn, and the dynamics of dominance and submission will shift in this sensually charged novel of Gothic suspense.

This effortless and unapologetic approach to self-promotion will manage your anxiety and allow you to champion yourself. Does talking about your accomplishments feel scary or icky because you're worried people will think you're "obnoxious"? Does it feel more natural to "put your head down and do the work"? Are you tired of watching the loudest people in your industry get disproportionate praise and rewards? If you answered "yes" to any of the above, you might be self-sabotaging. You need to learn to Brag Better. Meredith Fineman has built a career working with "The Qualified Quiet": smart people who struggle to talk about themselves and thus go underestimated or unrecognized. Now, she shares the surefire and anxiety-proof strategies that have helped her clients effectively communicate their achievements and skillsets to others. Bragging Better doesn't require false bravado, talking over people, or pretending to be more qualified than you are. Instead, Fineman advocates finding quiet confidence in your opinions, abilities, and background, and then turning up the volume. In this book, you will learn the career-changing tools she's developed over the past decade that make bragging feel easy, including: Get remembered by focusing your personal brand and voice on key adjectives (like "effective, subtle, and edgy") Practice explaining what you do in simple, sticky terms to earn respect and recognition from the public and people at work. Eliminate words that undermine your work and find better ones--like your bio saying you're "trying" or "attempting" to do something instead that you ARE doing it. If you're ready to begin Bragging Better--to telling the truth about your accomplishments with grace and confidence--this book is for you.

How does humility feature as a part of human experience, and how can opportunities to decenter the self empower us through present day circumstances? Radical Humility is a collection of essays written by people attempting to be humble at a time when public humility is scarce. Contributors come from a diverse group of experts, activists, makers, scholars, and practitioners: philosophers, psychologists, artists; a librarian, a farmer, a lawyer, a U.S. Navy Captain, and others who've reflected upon the role of humility. Some are leading scholars in their field; others are as-yet unpublished writers. All--the farmer, the librarian, the journalist, the sailor--speak to the ordinary everyday actions that offer significant opportunity for restraint and reflection to empower us personally and politically. For every person who feels uneasy and diminished after subjecting the most intimate parts of their lives to Likes and Followers, and for every person who is uneasy with presidential boasting and disregard for truth, Radical Humility's writers' perspectives are crucial at this turning point in our personal and political lives. Contributors: Aaron Ahuvia, Russell Belk, Charles M. Blow, Richard C. Boothman, Agnes Callard, Lynette Clemetson, Tyler Denmead, Nadia Danienta, Mickey Duzyj, Kevin Em, Eranda Jayawickreme, Kevin Hamilton, Eranda Jayawickreme, Troy Jollimore, Melissa Koenig, Aric Rindfleisch, Valerie Tiberius, and Ami Walsh

The world is full of people who are very certain--in politics, in religion, in all manner of things. In addition, political, religious, and social organizations are marketing certainty as a cure all to all life's problems. But is such certainty possible? Or even good? The Certainty of Uncertainty explores the question of certainty by looking at the reasons human beings crave certainty and the religious responses we frequently fashion to help meet that need. The book takes an in-depth view of religion, language, our senses, our science, and our world to explore the inescapable uncertainties they reveal. We find that the certainty we crave does not exist. As we reflect on the unavoidable uncertainties in our world, we come to understand that letting go of certainty is not only necessary, it's beneficial. For, in embracing doubt and uncertainty, we find a more meaningful and courageous religious faith, a deeper encounter with mystery, and a way to build strong relationships across religious and philosophical lines. In The Certainty of Uncertainty, we see that embracing our belief systems with humility and uncertainty can be transformative for ourselves and for our world.

Winner of the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A Five Books "Best Literary Science Writing" Book of 2023 • A Smithsonian Best Science Book of 2022 • A Prospect Magazine Top Memoir of 2022 • A KCRW Life Examined Best Book of 2022 "Keen observer [and] deft writer" (David Quammen) Florence Williams explores the fascinating, cutting-edge science of heartbreak while seeking creative ways to mend her own. When her twenty-five-year marriage suddenly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. But when she starts feeling physically sick, losing weight and sleep, she sets out in pursuit of rational explanation. She travels to the frontiers of the science of "social pain" to learn why heartbreak hurts so much—and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong. Soon Williams finds herself on a surprising path that leads her from neurogenomic research laboratories to trying MDMA in a Portland therapist’s living room, from divorce workshops to the mountains and rivers that restore her. She tests her blood for genetic markers of grief, undergoes electrical shocks while looking at pictures of her ex, and discovers that our immune cells listen to loneliness. Searching for insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health, she seeks out new relationships and ventures into the wilderness in search of an extraordinary antidote: awe. With warmth, daring, wit, and candor, Williams offers a gripping account of grief and healing. Heartbreak is a remarkable merging of science and self-discovery that will change the way we think about loneliness, health, and what it means to fall in and out of love.

With the inside eight-page photo section published in black and white, the story of the 2015 capital murder of 96-year-old WW II vet Marty Knell in Texas's semi-tropical Rio Grande Valley just to rob him of the sizeable estate he and his deceased wife had spent decades building, underscores two polar opposites of the human spectrum: total depravity and unbridled heroism. For most of their lives, people like Monica Melissa Palacios Patterson, who was 47 when she committed the dirty deed, have proven to be failures once they move into their adult years after living a relatively pampered existence during their formative years. Their family members may flourish - business, politics -- but they never seem able to match their success. Instead, they leave in their wake failed business ventures, failed personal relationships. Ironically, in the end, Patterson did turn out to be successful at something. It's just that her two talents were illegal, not to mention immoral - murder and theft. As a side gig, the killer was stealing from the McAllen-based "hospice" where she served as its administrator caring for the dying, using some of the stolen money for some fun adventures. Like the time she flew to Vegas with her mother-in-law and married lover aboard the same flight, albeit seated in different rows. With two rooms booked at Caesars, life could be a blast. Then someone had to go to the Texas Rangers and blab about the murder, just because she couldn't keep her mouth shut, and Patterson could only watch as her world began to crumble. Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller that redefined what it means to be a leader. Since it was first published almost a decade ago, Seth Godin's visionary book has helped tens of thousands of leaders turn a scattering of followers into a loyal tribe. If you need to rally fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers around an idea, this book will demystify the process. It's human nature to seek out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. Social media gives anyone who wants to make a difference the tools to do so. With his signature wit and storytelling flair, Godin presents the three steps to building a tribe: the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead. If you think leadership is for other people, think again—leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma led a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, ran her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. Tribes will make you think—really think—about the opportunities to mobilize an audience that are already at your fingertips. It's not easy, but it's easier than you think.

"Published by special arrangement with Amazon Publishing"--Title page verso.