An extraordinary debut novel that “hits that sweet spot where humor and melancholy comfortably coexist” (Entertainment Weekly) Before his brief marriage imploded, Neill Bassett took a job feeding data into what could be the world’s first sentient computer. Only his attempt to give it language—through the journals his father left behind after committing suicide—has unexpected consequences. Amidst this turmoil, Neill meets Rachel, a naïve young woman escaping a troubled past, and finds himself unexpectedly drawn to her and the possibilities she holds. But as everything he thought about the past becomes uncertain, every move forward feels impossible.

From the ancient Greek symposia to Gertrude Stein's famous Paris gatherings, salons have always been the incubators of provocative - at times even dangerous - ideas: the frontiers of cultural change. People who might elsewhere have been socially ostracized were included in salons, welcomed for their wit, intelligence, charm, and insight. And passionate conversation often led to passionate action.In 1991 Utne Reader launched a salon renaissance all over North America when it featured a cover story on salons. The response to the article was staggering, leading Utne to organize a National Salon Association that quickly drew over 20,000 members. Conceived and written by the folks at Utne, Salons is the quintessential authority on the subject, demonstrating that joining or starting your own salon is just a living room away.Salons offers a fascinating history of the salon and supplies all the tools readers need to join or start a group of their own. Classic salon-keepers like Julie deLespinasse, Mabel Dodge, and Gertrude Stein offer models for modern salons. Variations on the salon theme are explored, from studious book clubs and book circles to creativity salons, and finally online saloning. Chapters are grouped under such categories as choosing a salon site, finding salon members, and selecting discussion topics. A closing chapter looks at salons as bedrocks for activism and institutions for keeping social consciousness alive for the long-haul.

Annie Freeman, left one final request, a traveling funeral, and she wants the most important women in her life as pallbearers. From Sonoma to Manhattan, Katherine, Laura, Rebecca, Jill, and Marie will carry Annie's ashes to the special places in her life. At every stop there's a surprise encounter and a small miracle waiting, and as they whoop it up across the country, attracting interest wherever they go, they share their deepest secrets--tales of broken hearts and second chances, missed opportunities and new beginnings. And as they grieve over what they've lost, they discover how much is still possible if only they can unravel the secret Annie left them.

Foreword by Jay Conrad Levinson, The Father Of Guerilla Marketing, 21 million copies sold worldwide - Have you lost the passion, the drive and the fire you once had for your business? - Are you tired of riding the financial roller coaster, where sometimes your appointment book is overflowing with a waiting list and sometimes it's empty as a desert? - Are you hitting the "glass ceiling" of success that virtually every salon or spa owner hits - where income peaks, plateaus, and eventually goes down? - Is your salon/spa business sucking the life out of you? Physically draining and preventing you from having a normal life, such as family get-togethers, time with your friends, your children's sports day, dance performances, and so on. - Are you sick and tired of wasting money on advertising that doesn't get you new clients? - Are you looking to expand to a bigger space or add another location but you are afraid to make the move? - Are you sick of struggling, taking all the risks and putting in "sweat equity" that you're about ready to throw in the towel and get a "regular job" with regular work schedule and regular pay? - Do you want to continue running your salon/spa and have a great "lifestyle" with plenty of money to pay your bills, your mortgage, your car loan and to build a nest egg of cash while having the freedom to work less and when you want? If you answered "YES " to one or more (maybe all) of these questions, then Lies Salon Owners Believe is the book for you. In this book, Dan Lok and DJ Richoux shatter the seven lies that are holding your business back. Next, they reveal the truth behind why most salon businesses don't work - and what to do about it. They also share with you strategies and techniques you can utilize to increase your odds of success. Now is the time to take control of your destiny and to take action. Use the strategies in this book to achieve the life you've always wanted. Now is the first time that you have a chance to stop hoping for a better life and start creating it.

Take Your Next Steps to Making it BIG in the Salon Business! Are you tired of working hard for someone else's benefit? Are you ready to go out on your own and live your dream? Does the idea of starting your first hair salon seem overwhelming? Are you an entrepreneur who wants to enter the lucrative hair salon industry? If you answered "YES" to any of these questions, then you are ripe and ready to become a salon owner. Prepare yourself for success by learning the ropes from a seasoned entrepreneur who started and managed her highly successful hair salons. Linda L. Chappo answers your two main questions, "How do I do it?" and "How can I be successful?" In this new book by salon veteran, Linda L. Chappo, you are given all the insider tips, tricks and secrets to start up your own salon, and make it BIG in the salon business. Linda makes it easy for you to start and grow the salon of your dreams. Whether you are starting your first salon or your fifth, you'll shorten your learning curve and get an invaluable education from her many years of salon ownership. Linda has been through it all and offers you the wisdom of her experience so you can avoid unnecessary and expensive mistakes. Take your next steps toward a successful future! "How to Start Up & Manage Your Own Hair Salon ... and Make it BIG in the Salon Business" is the premier guidebook for individuals who desire to start their own salon and gain financial independence. You Will Learn To: Outsmart the competition Optimize your retail profitability Be a more savvy salon manager and marketer Use internet marketing and social media strategies Use the financial resources you have to start your salon now! Discover shortcuts to save you money and avoid headaches Create a successful marketing campaign & get more clients Implement a business plan and reach your goals

Mario Bellatin’s complex dreamscape, offered here in a brand-new translation, presents a timely allegorical portrait of the body and society in decay, victim to inscrutable pandemic. In a large, unnamed city, a strange, highly infectious disease begins to spread, afflicting its victims with an excruciating descent toward death, particularly unsparing in its assault of those on society's margins. Spurned by their loved ones and denied treatment by hospitals, the sick are left to die on the streets until a beauty salon owner, whose previous caretaking experience extended only to the exotic fish tanks scattered among his workstations, opens his doors as a refuge. In the ramshackle Morgue, victim to persecution and violence, he accompanies his male guests as they suffer through the lifeless anticipation of certain death, eventually leaving the wistful narrator in complete, ill-fated isolation.

"A collection of more than 40 original stories first performed by their authors at Story Salon, Los Angeles' longest running storytelling venue"--Back cover.

'Where are you from?' was the question hounding Hazel Carby as a girl in post-World War II London. One of the so-called brown babies of the Windrush generation, born to a Jamaican father and Welsh mother, Carby's place in her home, her neighbourhood, and her country of birth was always in doubt. Emerging from this setting, Carby untangles the threads connecting members of her family to each other in a web woven by the British Empire across the Atlantic. We meet Carby's working-class grandmother Beatrice, a seamstress challenged by poverty and disease. In England, she was thrilled by the cosmopolitan fantasies of empire, by cities built with slave-trade profits, and by street peddlers selling fashionable Jamaican delicacies. In Jamaica, we follow the lives of both the 'white Carbys' and the 'black Carbys', as Mary Ivey, a free woman of colour, whose children are fathered by Lilly Carby, a British soldier who arrived in Jamaica in 1789 to be absorbed into the plantation aristocracy. And we discover the hidden stories of Bridget and Nancy, two women owned by Lilly who survived the Middle Passage from Africa to the Caribbean. Moving between the Jamaican plantations, the hills of Devon, the port cities of Bristol, Cardiff, and Kingston, and the working-class estates of South London, Carby's family story is at once an intimate personal history and a sweeping summation of the violent entanglement of two islands. In charting British empire's interweaving of capital and bodies, public language and private feeling, Carby will find herself reckoning with what she can tell, what she can remember, and what she can bear to know.

Publisher description

Philippine-born Vancouverite Sophia is most grateful for two things: her modest hair salon and Adrian, her mild-mannered fiancé. She is eager to get married, move away from her highly educated but career-frustrated parents, who believe that their daughter can be so much more than a beautician. Then Sophia's estranged friend reaches out from Manila, desperate for help. After a dubious accident, her fiery Auntie Rosy is on the verge of losing the Cine Star Salon-the place where Sophia first felt the call to become a hairstylist and salon owner. Coming to her auntie's aid is not so easy though. Sophia worries helping might reopen old wounds and threaten the bright future she has planned. Leah Ranada's debut novel is a graphic and engaging depiction of the importance of women's work and the loyalties that connect friends across oceans. The Cine Star Salon marks the entry of a vital new voice in Canadian literature.