A SCIENTIST’S CASE FOR THE AFTERLIFE

Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.

Then, Dr. Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion—and in essence makes us human—shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back.

Alexander’s recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself.

Alexander’s story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.

This story would be remarkable no matter who it happened to. That it happened to Dr. Alexander makes it revolutionary. No scientist or person of faith will be able to ignore it. Reading it will change your life.

"Day 167 – New Year's Day – Tuesday 1st January 2002 – 6.00 pm

I miss my wife, I miss my family and I miss my friends. But the only enemy I have to contend with is boredom and it's a killer. For many prisoners, it is the time when they first experiment with drugs. To begin with, offered by the dealers for nothing, and when they want more, in exchange for a phone card and an ounce of tobacco. Finally, when they're hooked, they'll give anything for a fix – including their life."

Jeffrey Archer's final volume of prison diaries covers the period of his transfer from Wayland to his eventual release on parole in July 2003. It includes a shocking account of the traumatic time he spent in the notorious Lincoln jail and the events that led to his incarceration there – it also throws light on a system that is close to breaking point.

Told with humour, compassion and honesty, the diary closes with a thought-provoking manifesto that should be applauded by the Establishment and prison population alike.

Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years' imprisonment at 12.07pm on Thursday 19th July 2001. Within six hours, Prisoner FF8282, as he is now known, was on suicide watch in the medical wing of Belmarsh top security prison in south London. This, he discovered, is standard procedure for first-time offenders on their first night in jail. By 6.00am the next morning, Archer had resolved to write a daily diary of everything he experienced while incarcerated, because "I have a feeling that being allowed to write in this hellhole may turn out to be the one salvation that will keep me sane". Jeffrey Archer's diary of his first three weeks imprisonment is a raw account of life in a top-security jail in Britain. It is also an indictment of the British penal system. The tales of his fellow inmates – many of whom are in for life – are often moving stories of hopelessness. But there are those, too, who, no matter what their previous histories, attempt to live their prison lives with dignity and integrity. Returning favours, Archer comments, is far more commonplace in prison than outside. The diary should be of interest to anyone concerned with the improvement of our penal system, whether they are concerned citizens, politicians or workers in the prison service.

The No 1. Bestseller and storyteller continues his forceful account of life inside the British penal system. On Thursday 19 July 2001, after a perjury trial lasting seven weeks, Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in jail. In this second installment of his diaries, Jeffrey Archer recounts the time he spent in Wayland Prison.

Svetlana Aleksievici s-a născut la 31 mai 1948 la Ivano-Frankivsk (fost Stanislav), în vestul Ucrainei. După ce tatăl ei a fost demobilizat din armată, familia – tatăl bielorus si mama ucraineancă – s-a stabilit în Bielorusia, unde părinţii au lucrat ca profesori la sat. A studiat jurnalismul la Minsk, considerând facultatea de profil drept lucrul „cel mai apropiat de o şcoală de scriere”. După absolvire, a lucrat în redacţii din provincie şi apoi din capitală. Prima ei carte, compusă din mărturiile unor oameni care şi-au părăsit locurile natale, a fost retrasă din librării de autorităţi. Următoarea apariţie, Războiul nu are chip de femeie (1985), publicată simultan la Moscova şi la Minsk, are la bază interviuri cu femeile care au luptat în Armata Roşie în al Doilea Război Mondial şi a reprezentat o ieşire din cadrele mitologiei sovietice din epocă. Titlul cărţii a fost folosit de Mihail Gorbaciov într-un discurs oficial. Băieţii din zinc (1990) cuprinde mărturii ale militarilor sovietici care au participat la războiul dus de URSS în Afganistan (1979-1989). În 1997 a publicat Dezastrul de la Cernobîl. Mărturii ale supravieţuitorilor, rezultat al unei documentări începute în 1986, imediat după accidentul nuclear din Ucraina. La începutul anilor 2000 a plecat din Bielorusia, atât în semn de protest faţă de dictatura lui Aleksandr Lukaşenko, cât şi pentru a se putea dedica plenar scrisului. După perioade petrecute în Italia, Germania, Spania şi Suedia, a revenit, în 2011, la Minsk.

În 2015 i s-a decernat Premiul Nobel pentru Literatură, pentru „scrierile sale polifonice, un monument dedicat suferinţei şi curajului în zilele noastre”. A devenit astfel unul dintre puţinii scriitori distinşi pentru nonficţiune. Vremuri second-hand (2013), cea mai recentă carte a sa, întregeşte seria „Vocile Utopiei”, consacrată de autoare celor care s-au aflat timp de aproape un secol sub semnul ideologiei comuniste.

Marketing consultant Blakemore finds that in moments of struggle and stress she revisits her favorite childhood women authors and their plucky heroines for respite, escape, and perspective. Jane Austen, who broke off an engagement and threw away her last chance at a respectable marriage, poked fun at polite society and its expectations of women in her novels, and she created a self-assured, self-respecting protagonist in Pride and Prejudice's Lizzy Bennet--who also doesn't need a man to complete her even if Lizzy does get a rich, handsome husband in the end. As Blakemore pushes against the boundaries of her own life, she also identifies with selfish Scarlett O'Hara, who, lacking in self-awareness and oblivious to the emotions of others, shoulders life's burdens and moves ahead, "her decisions swift, self-serving, and without compromise." The Little House on the Prairie series reminds Blakemore that when we focus on people and life instead of on material possessions, we learn to acknowledge what really counts. She finds inspiration, too, in Little Women, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Color Purple, and Anne of Green Gables, and offers some nuggets of wisdom, but for the most part, her observations are familiar and pat.

« C’est l’histoire d’une Emma Bovary des seventies, qui a reproduit lors de son divorce le silence de la génération précédente sur les malheurs des deux guerres.

C’est l’histoire d’un homme devenu un jouisseur pour se venger d’être quitté, d’un père cynique parce que son cœur était brisé.

C’est l’histoire d’un grand frère qui a tout fait pour ne pas ressembler à ses parents, et d’un cadet qui a tout fait pour ne pas ressembler à son grand frère.

C’est l’histoire d’un garçon mélancolique parce qu’il a grandi dans un pays suicidé, élevé par des parents déprimés par l’échec de leur mariage.

C’est l’histoire d’un pays qui a réussi à perdre deux guerres en faisant croire qu’il les avait gagnées, et ensuite à perdre son empire colonial en faisant comme si cela ne changeait rien à son importance.

C’est l’histoire d’une humanité nouvelle, ou comment des catholiques monarchistes sont devenus des capitalistes mondialisés.

Telle est la vie que j’ai vécue : un roman français. »

" Du mécanique plaqué sur du vivant ". Cette formule n'est pas elle-même plaquée mécaniquement par Bergson sur le rire! Bien au contraire, c'est un Bergson à la fois psychologue, sociologue, philosophe de l'art et moraliste qui écrit Le Rire. Essai sur la signification du comique en 1900, au cœur d'une œuvre dont ce livre est une étape majeure, et d'un moment dont il traverse tous les enjeux. Une diversité infinie donc, mais plus que jamais dans une intuition, dans une écriture d'une simplicité extrême qui en font un chef-d'œuvre unique.

'Miracles of Life' opens and closes in Shanghai, the city where J.G.Ballard was born, and where he spent the most of the Second World War interned with his family in a Japanese concentration camp. In the intervening chapters Ballard creates a memoir that is both an enthralling narrative and a detailed examination of the events which would profoundly influence his work. Beginning with his early childhood spent exploring the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai, Ballard charts the course of his remarkable life from the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of the Lunghua Camp to his return to a Britain physically and psychologically crippled by war. He explores his subsequent involvement in the dramatic social changes of the 1960s, and the adjustments to life following the premature death of his wife. In prose displaying his characteristic precision and eye for detail, Ballard recounts the experiences which would fundamentally shape his writing, while simultaneously providing an striking social analysis of the fragmented post-war Britain that lies behind so many of his novels. 'Miracles of Life' is an utterly captivating account of an extraordinary writer's extraordinary life.

Ein Gehirnschlag beendete Ende letzten Jahres das alltägliche, das «normale» Leben des vierundvierzigjährigen Jean-Dominique Bauby, der bis dahin Chefredakteur der Zeitschrift «Elle» war und von da an nur noch vier Monate zu leben hatte. Bauby nutzte seine Zeit, um alles, was ihn bewegte, zu Papier zu bringen. Doch er selber sollte dazu gar nicht mehr in der Lage sein, war er doch vollständig gelähmt und dazu verdammt, nur noch mit dem linken Auge zu blinzeln.

Mittels eines Spezialalphabets, das sich an der Häufigkeit der Vokale und Konsonanten im Französischen orientierte, diktierte er der Lektorin Claude Mendibil fortan alles, was ihn bewegte – mittels Lidschlag: Aus seiner abgeschirmten Taucherglocke heraus funkte bzw. blinzelte er auf diese Weise empfindsame letzte Nachrichten an eine Welt, die für ihn schon unerreichbar weit weg war.

The editor-in-chief of French Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that resulted in locked-in syndrome when he was 43 years old. He died just two days after the French publication of his book.

I was so blown away by this book I had to meet Viktor in person and now count him as a personal friend. The book is factual in every respect and is difficult to put down once started. John Barron is an excellent author and did a first class job of writing Viktor’s story. In addition to an exciting escape story it reveals why the Soviet Union had to collapse of its own ineptitude, deceit, and corruption. It details humorous incidents such as army pilots’ mess-hall riots due to bad food.

Viktor is not only a first class pilot, he is also a true hero.

Don’t lend this book to anyone and expect to get it back.

This one makes for a very interesting read. Why? Stieg Larsson is the man who created Lisbeth Salander and penned down Millennium Trilogy, one of the best-selling crime thriller series in recent times. But very few know about the actual Larsson, his journalist days or his personal life. Kurdo Baksi, Larrson’s close friend (who also appears in the trilogy as himself) answers some of the questions that Larsson fans have been seeking for quite some time. In a candid tone, Baksi recounts Larsson’s upbringing, his battle against racism and for democracy, his anti fascist magazine Expo, his fascination with feminism, the death threats he faced and the insomnia that led to many sleepless nights.

Five years after his death, Stieg Larsson is best known as the author of the Millennium Trilogy, but during his career as a journalist he was a crucial protagonist in the battle against racism and for democracy in Sweden, and one of the founders of the anti-facist magazine Expo. Kurdo Baksi first met Larsson in 1992; it was the beginning of an intense friendship, and a fruitful but challenging working relationship. In this candid and rounded memoir, Baksi answers the questions a multitude of Larsson's fans have already asked, about his upbringing; the recurring death threats; his insomnia and his vices; his feminism – so evident in his books – and his dogmatism. What was he like as a colleague? Who provided the inspiration for his now-immortal characters (Baksi is one of the few who appears in the trilogy as himself)? Who was Lisbeth Salander?

Laura Bennett is not a soccer mom or a PTA mom or a helicopter mom—and she’s certainly not mother of the year. Another breed of mother entirely, Laura is surely more Auntie Mame than June Cleaver. As a busy mother of six, Laura is on an impossible mission: raising a brood of fast-moving, messy, wild sons in the jungles of Manhattan. So what other choice does she have than to sit back, grab a martini, and let the boys be, er, boys? In Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday?, Laura gives her irreverent take on modern motherhood and proves that a strong sense of humor and an even stronger sense of self are the mother’s milk of sanity. In a series of refreshingly candid and hilarious anecdotes, she unapologetically breaks every rule in the Brady Bunch playbook: She gives her kids junk food, plays favorites, and openly admits to having “a genetic predisposition to laissez-faire parenting.” Children, she observes, don’t need constant supervision from neurotic, perfectionist parents. Allow kids to make mistakes and entertain themselves and they’ll turn out just fine—even if you do sometimes forget to pick them up from school. Beyond the mayhem of a life among males, Laura celebrates the glories of womanhood with a generous helping of wit and style. She gives thanks to the fashion gods for the essentials—red lipstick, Manolo Blahniks, and Lycra shapewear—but reminds us that true style comes from an inner compass that points directly at oneself. In every aspect of life, Laura gives one simple, powerful piece of advice: “Dress like you want it or stay home.” Brutally honest, outrageous, and sure to raise a few eyebrows, Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday? is a riotously funny read—and it’ll go fabulously well with your new handbag.

The sinking of the has captured the imagination of the public like no other tragedy of the modern age. Lawrence Beesley’s eyewitness account of the disastrous voyage stands as one of the most carefully written and authoritative books on the subject, despite the fact that it was published only months after the event. Beesley was uniquely qualified to write this book, having himself been a second class passenger aboard the SS . He gives a detailed description of his personal experiences aboard the doomed luxury liner, setting the record straight on many topics, as well as presenting the event from a variety of other perspectives. Rich in both narrative detail and compassion, should be the first port of call for anyone interested in the famous ship.