Robert Hughes has trained his critical eye on many major subjects, from the city of Barcelona to the history of his native Australia. Now he turns that eye inward, onto himself and the world that formed him. Hughes analyzes his experiences the way he might examine a Van Gogh or a Picasso. From his relationship with his stern and distant father to his Catholic upbringing and school years; and from his development as an artist, writer, and critic to his growing appreciation of art and his exhilaration at leaving Australia to discover a new life, Hughes’ memoir is an extraordinary feat of exploration and celebration.
""I guess this was what they meant by a loss of innocence. Who knew?"" Russel Middlebrook is twenty-three years old, gay, and living in trendy Seattle, but life isn't keeping up with the hype. Most of his friends have a direction in life-either ruthlessly pursuing their careers or passionately embracing their own aimlessness. But Russel is stuck in place. All he knows is that crappy jobs, horrible dates, and pointless hook-ups just aren't cutting it anymore. What's the secret? What does everyone else know that he doesn't? Enter Kevin, Russel's perfect high school boyfriend. Could rekindling an old flame be the thing Russel needs to get his life back on track? Or maybe the answer lies in a new friend, an eccentric screenwriter named Vernie Rose, who seems plenty wise. Or what the hell? Maybe Russel will find some answers by joining his best friend Gunnar's crazy search for the legendary Bigfoot One way or another, Russel is determined to learn the all-important secret to life, even if it's a thing he doesn't even know he doesn't know. Author Brent Hartinger first made a splash writing books for teens. "The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know," Hartinger's first book for older readers, is just as much of a page-turner as his earlier works, with plenty of his trademark irreverent humor. But now his books have grown up along with his readers, exploring the issues of new adults, especially the complicated matter of love and sex. "Praise for Brent Hartinger" "Hits the narrative sweet spot." - NPR's "All Things Considered" "Downright refreshing." - "USA Today" BRENT HARTINGER is an author, teacher, playwright, and screenwriter. "Geography Club," the book in which Russel Middlebrook first appears (as a teenager), is also a successful stage play and a feature film co-starring Scott Bakula. In 1990, Brent helped found one of the world's first gay teen support groups, in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington. In 2005, he co-founded the entertainment website AfterElton.com, which was sold to MTV/Viacom in 2006. He now lives in Seattle with his husband, Michael Jensen.
How to release productivity guilt and embrace the hidden values in our daily lives. Any given day brings a never-ending list of things to do. There’s the work thing, the catch-up thing, the laundry thing, the creative thing, the exercise thing, the family thing, the thing we don’t want to do, and the thing we’ve been putting off, despite it being the most important thing. Even on days when we get a lot done, the thing left undone can leave us feeling guilty, anxious, or disappointed. After five years of searching for the secret to productivity, Madeleine Dore discovered there isn’t one. Instead, we’re being set up to fail. I Didn’t Do the Thing Today is the inspiring call to take productivity off its pedestal—by dismantling our comparison to others, aspirational routines, and the unrealistic notions of what can be done in a day, we can finally embrace the joyful messiness and unpredictability of life. For anyone who has ever felt the pressure to do more, be more, achieve more, this antidote to our doing-obsession is the permission slip we all need to find our own way.
“Where else does math become a romp, full of entertaining tricks and turns?”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist Have you ever considered why you always get stuck in the longest line? Why two’s company but three’s a crowd? Or why there are six degrees of separation instead of seven? In this hugely informative and endlessly entertaining book, John D. Barrow takes the most baffling of everyday phenomena and—with simple math, lucid explanations, and illustrations—explains why they work the way they do. His witty, crystal-clear answers shed light on the dark and shadowy corners of the physical world we all think we understand so well.
It is startling to realize that the third most common cause of death in the United States is medical negligence, third only to heart disease and cancer. That translates to about 250,000 deaths per year! That is a catastrophe equivalent to 12 full jumbo jet crashes per week. Serious harm is estimated to be 10-to-20-fold more common than lethal harm due to medical negligence. Contrary to common expectations, it is good and usually competent doctors who make medical errors and contribute to most defendants in claims of medical malpractice. In this book, Dr. Milunsky describes the poignant stories, recounted in litigation, about the causes and consequences of medical errors, culled from his extensive experience in medicine and as an expert witness on both sides of the bar. His focus is on how and why error(s) occurred and what lessons about anticipation, avoidance, and prevention could be learned to assure patient safety. Given his expertise, many of the cases involve possible genetic issues, a matter of importance since only 29% of physicians reported training in genetics in a 2012 survey. In this context, given the great sadness and long-lasting grief following serious errors in pregnancy care, labor and delivery, those planning childbearing would be well advised to heed the lessons from the cases described. Dr. Milunsky examines the pathogenesis of error and the many anticipatory and remedial steps that can be taken to avoid catastrophes. His discussion incorporates the categories of negligent failures in all specialties and how, once recognized, they can be prevented rather than remedied after the fact. This book is for everyone who will become a patient (that is all of us). The aim is to provide knowledge and insight that enables proactive anticipatory and preventative actions. This book is especially important for physicians in all specialties, midwives, nurses and family doctors, those in public health, federal and state legislatures, professional and medical societies, professional colleges, deans of medical schools, safety organizations, and hospital CEOs. All are collectively responsible for not taking drastic action to halt the carnage in which 250,000 patients die each year in the U.S. This is a national crisis that requires everyone's attention. The cases described vividly illustrate the nature of medical error and what can be done to remedy this long-ongoing tragic problem
You are an idiot. Don't get defensive! It's not your fault. For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck! But it's going to be okay. Because we're here to help. Packed with more sexy facts than the Encyclopedia Pornographica, the Cracked De-Textbook will teach you about the true stars of history, why you picture everything from Velociraptors to Ancient Rome incorrectly, and finally, at long last - how to pop a proper squat. This book was built from the ground up to systematically seek out, dismantle and destroy the many untruths that years of misguided education have left festering inside of you, and leave you a smarter person...whether you like it or not. The De-Textbook is a merciless, brutal learning machine. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are informed.
