Showing results by narrator "Tom Pile" in All Categories

Thirty years ago, "mindfulness" was a Buddhist principle mostly obscure to the west. Today, it is a popular cure-all for Americans' daily problems. A massive and lucrative industry promotes mindfulness in every aspect of life, however mundane or unlikely: Americans of various faiths (or none at all) practice mindful eating, mindful sex, mindful parenting, mindfulness in the office, mindful sports, mindfulness-based stress relief and addiction recovery, and hire mindful divorce lawyers.

Dr. Joe Bryce, a dedicated physician, has spent the last three years in war-torn Africa. Having left his millionaire fiancee at the altar, the con man continues his string of taking advantage of rich women to fund his living the high life on his yacht, the Dragonfly. In Nimrod's Chapel, GA, he meets the hottest-selling American romance author, Abby Abelard - a blindingly beautiful and wealthy woman, but one paralyzed after a hit-and-run accident. Her uncle, Dr. Luke, and his wife, Charlene, a substance abuser, like Joe, have secrets of their own.

Music in the Halls reveals the inner workings of a high-poverty District of Columbia Public School. In it, Jankowski brings to light the visceral and emotional nature of childhood poverty and trauma and how it not only impacts a student’s ability to learn but also how it restricts their ability to live a full life.

In this engaging and intriguing work, renowned Japanese psychologist Hayao Kawai examines his own personal experience of how a Japanese became a Jungian psychoanalyst and how the Buddhism in him gradually reacted to it.

Tired of letting stress have a negative impact on your life? Easy. It's impossible to get through life without encountering stress. And unfortunately, most of us learn the incorrect ways to cope with it. Thankfully, Stress Management For Dummies gives you trusted, time-tested guidance on teaching your body and mind to properly cope with stress while keeping your sanity intact.

There have been a lot of books that have made the case for Buddhism. What makes this book fresh and exciting is Asma's iconoclasm, irreverence, and hardheaded approach to the subject. He is distressed that much of what passes for Buddhism is really little more than "New Age mush." He loudly asserts that it is time to "take the California out of Buddhism." And he presents a spiritual practice that does not require a belief in creeds or dogma.

The Internet, created during the Cold War, has now ushered in one of the greatest shifts in society since the Industrial Revolution. There are many positive ways in which the Internet has contributed to the world, but as a society we are less aware of the Internet's deeply negative effects on our psychology, economy, and culture. Andrew Keen, a 20-year veteran of the tech industry, investigates how the Internet is reconfiguring our world, often at great cost.

Richard Dawkins and Deepak Chopra are two of the most famous Big Thinkers of our time. And yet their deeply acrimonious, decade-long battle over God, human consciousness and "quantum healing" has gone unchronicled until now. Dawkins, a best-selling author and evolutionary biologist who coined the term "meme", has staked his name on the cause of militant atheism.

With candid, witty, and compelling experiences of yoga from renowned memoirists, including Cheryl Strayed (author of the number one New York Times best-seller Wild), Claire Dederer (author of national best-seller Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses), Dinty W. Moore (author of The Accidental Buddhist), Neal Pollack (author of Stretch: The Making of a Yoga Dude) and many others, Going Om shares a range of observations about this popular practice.

When Sam West wanders into the Sunny-Side-Up Diner for the last time, hoping for a last slice of Mort's world-class pie, and one last look at a waitress named Delilah, he has no idea he's about to become the instrument of a great, kharmic cleansing. The only thing crazier than the seemingly inevitable trail of bodies following Sam and Delilah south is the fact that - as State Police and local sheriffs begin to investigate - they find no evidence.

In the labyrinthian maze of endless corridors, annexes, and wings of the enormous medical complex known as the Castle prowls a grief-stricken man determined to redeem himself and bring justice for those victims incapable of doing it for themselves.

"Kidnappers are frequently complex devious people," the detective had warned her. But that wasn't the half of it. What began as a routine kidnapping would end in much more--sins of unspeakable evil and terrifying violence. Who are these strangely sinister captors and who is their wickedly erotic victim? What has been happening to this strange young girl, and what has produced this nerve-fraying nightmare of sheer electric terror?

Through time, there are certain instances that can change everything, and the people who guide these changes are either heroes or villains. Twelve-year-old Theodore Crane is a prankster from a small Minnesota town, who half-heartedly shares a friend with a belligerent bully. When he is not spending his days dodging an abusive father, he is out fleeing the scenes of goofy pranks and dares. After a devastating tragedy strikes home, Theodore questions everything about himself, his family, and the universe. He then searches for answers by returning to the scene of this tragic incident and discovers the truth when an intervention from outer space reveals an epic intergalactic conflict.

When it comes to food, Americans seem to have a pretty great deal. Our grocery stores are overflowing with countless varieties of convenient products. But like most bargains that are too good to be true, the modern food system relies on an illusion. It depends on endless abundance, but the planet has its limits. So too does a healthcare system that must absorb rising rates of diabetes and obesity. So, too, do the workers who must labor harder and faster for less pay.

Each year thousands of people die waiting for organ transplants. Many of these deaths could have been prevented were it not for the almost universal moral hand-wringing over the concept of selling human organs. Author and bioethicist Mark Cherry reasserts the case that health care could be improved and lives saved by introducing a regulated transplant organs market rather than by well-meant, but misguided, prohibitions.

Rafe Carmichael has a good life. As assistant manager of a ski lodge in the mountains of Utah, he's living the dream - until the dream turns sour. When one of his employees dies of an accidental drug overdose, he's naturally saddened, but not surprised. But when he finds a kilo of heroin stashed in the dead man's ski locker, and learns some troubling information from the man's ex-girlfriend, he begins to wonder if it really was an accident after all.

Toyota would like us to think that Mother Nature drives a Prius, Ford wants us to Join the Green Revolution,” and McDonald’s has painted its golden arches green. But are big brands and the celebrities endorsing them really as green as they claim? In The Greenwash Effect, Guy Pearse looks behind the corporate façade in the tradition of Fast Food Nation and No Logo - and what he finds will startle you.

Reverend Carpenter only wanted to help his congregation. But deep inside, he knew he was failing, losing his faith...until the night he stumbled into a tiny curio shop. There he met a strange old man who read his fortune in the Tarot, and who gave him his one true card of power - the power to heal. Now every man, woman, and child in Corona City can be “saved” by his touch. The deck is stacked…against their souls.

Elements of Discipline is a timely and helpful book for teachers, parents, and day-care professionals that provides a simple set of rules for managing - successfully and humanely - a wide range of discipline situations and challenges. A well-respected child development specialist, Stephen Greenspan outlines his "ABC Theory of Discipline".

Wassermann Gardens is the story of a group of young soldiers who have contracted a wildly contagious and fatal disease. The disease is considered so dangerous to humanity that the soldiers are declared missing in action and quarantined on an unknown and unnamed island in the South Pacific, where they must live out their few remaining years.