Leaving a promising career in academic philosophy to embark on a career in film, American director Terrence Malick has created cinematic works of art that are also deeply philosophical. His contribution to philosophy through a half century of filmmaking has become the focus of increasing scholarly attention. Inviting the reader along a journey of reflections at the intersection of film, art, and philosophy, Life Above the Clouds brings together an international team of contributors to present the most current and definitive statement of the filmmaker's work. Accessibly written and exploring films such as Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, Song to Song, and A Hidden Life, the nineteen essays herein will be of interest not only to scholars and students of philosophy, theology, film studies, and aesthetics, but also to anyone with a true love of film.

A breathtaking and lavishly illustrated autobiography in essays on Anatoli Boukreev, the late world-famous mountaineer and author of The Climb. When Anatoli Boukreev died on the slopes of Annapurna on Christmas day, 1997, the world lost one of the greatest adventurers of our time. In Above the Clouds, both the man and his incredible climbs on Mt. McKinley, K2, Makalu, Manaslu, and Everest-including his diary entries on the infamous 1996 disaster, written shortly after his return-are immortalized. There also are minute technical details about the skill of mountain climbing, as well as personal reflections on what life means to someone who risks it every day. Fully illustrated with gorgeous color photos, Above the Clouds is a unique and breathtaking look at the world from its most remote peaks.

The most accomplished mountain runner of all time contemplates his record-breaking climb of Mount Everest in this profound and free-flowing memoir—an intellectual and spiritual journey that moves from the earth’s highest peak to the soul’s deepest reaches.

Can you still have a home if you don't have a house? In the spirit of The Truth About Jellyfish and Fish in a Tree comes a stunning debut about a family struggling to find something lasting when everything feels so fleeting. Always think in threes and you'll never fall, Cora's father told her when she was a little girl. Two feet, one hand. Two hands, one foot. That was all Cora needed to know to climb the trees of Brooklyn. But now Cora is a middle schooler, a big sister, and homeless. Her mother is trying to hold the family together after her father's death, and Cora must look after her sister, Adare, who's just different, their mother insists. Quick to smile, Adare hates wearing shoes, rarely speaks, and appears untroubled by the question Cora can't help but ask: How will she find a place to call home? After their room at the shelter is ransacked, Cora's mother looks to an old friend for help, and Cora finally finds what she has been looking for: Ailanthus altissima, the "tree of heaven," which can grow in even the worst conditions. It sets her on a path to discover a deeper truth about where she really belongs. Just Under the Clouds will take root in your heart and blossom long after you've turned the last page. "[A] heartbreaking yet hopeful story of a family searching for a place to belong." --Publishers Weekly "[A] thought provoking debut about the meaning of home and the importance of family."--Horn Book Magazine

GET ONBOARD AND GET INSPIRED!Unafraid to 'rock the boat,' this sailor-turned-author drops her truth bombs-like an anchor. Here's your chance to live vicariously through one woman's journey of finding her voice, taking control of her health, and discovering her passions, strength and capacity for love and forgiveness. Join Carole as she moves onto a boat, adapts to a new lifestyle, learns hard 'beginner' lessons, sails the breathtaking ocean, survives gale storms, and navigates life for 20 years in a meager 41 feet of living space with an unconventional husband and, of course, a dog.S.A.I.L. Above the Clouds weaves big emotions, humorous impasses, and motivating results through topics such as overcoming major health concerns and chronic disease, tackling mental health, surviving the doldrums of a 30-year marriage, discovering life's purpose, and learning when you're the crab's dinner, or receiving a naked spank from Mother Nature.How to SIMPLIFY Your Life is the first of a four-book series where each book represents a unique aspect from the author's signature program S.A.I.L: Simplify, Align, Integrate, Let Go. Readers will benefit from tips and insights on how to simplify all aspects of their life while exploring different healing modalities, writing prompts, and exercises following each chapter.It is packed with stories that will make readers laugh, cry, or cringe-all weaved into an interactive set of tools that invites you to dive deep into a journey of self-discovery and come out of it energized, enlightened, and inspired!Raise your sails and set course on an exciting and purpose-driven adventure!

Tatiana, a young Mexican woman, is adrift in Berlin. Choosing a life of solitude, she takes a job transcribing notes for the reclusive Doktor Weiss. Through him she meets 'ant illustrator turned meteorologist' Jonas, a Berliner who has used clouds and the sky's constant shape-shifting as his escape from reality. As their three paths intersect and merge, the contours of all their worlds begins to change...

Who hasn’t dreamed of escaping a humdrum existence, shredding unrelenting debts, thumbing a nose at ravenous utility behemoths, and fleeing to some remote mountain hideaway? Ben did! Pull up a chair, pour a pleasing beverage, and follow his journey as he strives to exist off the grid, on ten magnificent acres atop an Idaho mountain. In that isolated setting, as he labors to convert its tiny cabin into a self-sufficient abode, he began to imagine that he was evolving into a modern-day Henry David Thoreau. His story chronicles, with humor and wisdom, his first year with his struggles, trials, errors, lessons learned, blunders made, friends acquired, and curious encounters with neighborhood wildlife. It is informative, enlightening, funny, and inspirational. Military yarns, trucker’s tales, and anecdotes abound, and liberally laced with the wit and wisdom of Henry David.

• Written by a critically-acclaimed natural-history author • Shares author’s fun journey to understanding clouds • Written for the curious—but non-science—minded Author Maria Mudd Ruth fell in love with clouds the same way she stumbles into most passions: madly and unexpectedly. A Sideways Look at Clouds is the story of her quite accidental infatuation with and education about the clouds above. When she moved to the soggy Northwest a decade ago, Maria assumed that locals would know everything there was to know about clouds, in the same way they talk about salmon, tides, and the Seahawks. Yet in her first two years of living in Olympia, Washington, she never heard anyone talk about clouds—only the rain. Puzzled by this lack of cloud savvy, she decided to create a 10-question online survey and sent it to everyone she knew. Her sample size of 67 people included men and women, new friends in Olympia, family on the East Coast, outdoorsy and indoorsy types, professional scientists, and liberal arts majors like herself. The results showed that while people knew a little bit about clouds, most were like her—they had a hard time identifying clouds or remembering their names. As adults, they had lost their curiosity and sense of wonder about clouds and were, essentially, not in the habit of looking up. A Sideways Look at Clouds acknowledges the challenges of understanding clouds and so uses a very steep and bumpy learning curve—the author’s—as its plot line. The book is structured around the ten words used in most definitions of a cloud: “a visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the earth.” A captivating story teller, Maria blends science, wonder, and humor to take the scenic route through the clouds and encourages readers to chart their own rambling, idiosyncratic course.

While many baby boomers are downsizing to a simpler retirement lifestyle, photographer and writer Judy Blankenship and her husband Michael Jenkins took a more challenging leap in deciding to build a house on the side of a mountain in southern Ecuador. They now live half the year in Cañar, an indigenous community they came to know in the early nineties when Blankenship taught photography there. They are the only extranjeros (outsiders) in this homely, chilly town at 10,100 feet, where every afternoon a spectacular mass of clouds rolls up from the river valley below and envelopes the town. In this absorbing memoir, Blankenship tells the interwoven stories of building their house in the clouds and strengthening their ties to the community. Although she and Michael had spent considerable time in Cañar before deciding to move there, they still had much to learn about local customs as they navigated the process of building a house with traditional materials using a local architect and craftspeople. Likewise, fulfilling their obligations as neighbors in a community based on reciprocity presented its own challenges and rewards. Blankenship writes vividly of the rituals of births, baptisms, marriages, festival days, and deaths that counterpoint her and Michael’s solitary pursuits of reading, writing, listening to opera, playing chess, and cooking. Their story will appeal to anyone contemplating a second life, as well as those seeking a deeper understanding of daily life in the developing world.

Constructive Living brings together two psychotherapies--Morita and Naikan-- and their associated lifeways. Both therapies were developed in this century, but their roots extend back hundreds of years in East Asian history. Morita was a professor of psychiatry at Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo. Yoshimoto was a successful businessman who retired to become a lay priest in Nara. Morita's method has it origins in Zen Buddhist psychology, and Yoshimoto's Naikan has its origins in Jodo Shinshu Buddhist psychology. Neither of these systems requires that one believe in Buddhism or have faith in anything other than one's experience. They work as well for Christians and Moslems and Jews as for Buddhists. Both are built on the naturalistic observations of humans and careful introspection of their founders. Constructive Living isn't mystical or oriental, but practical and human.