"I wanted to play with you... punish you. But now, I want to ruin your world and turn it pitch black. Isolate you so you don't have anything left except me. And remember, it's your own fault."* * * Isolation. Loneliness. Endless silence stretching into eternity.This is the personal living hell of police detective, Kuon Leiris.His punishment for ruining the Black Duke's deal.But when nights come, it gets worse... Cruelty. Care. Brutality. Affection. Constant mind games where he can do nothing, but give in.Yugo pours his every corrupt desire into his prey, testing the limits of their twisted relationship. Do you dare enter a dark world where safe-words don't exist?
This pictorial autobiography of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald documents two lives that have become legendary. The book draws almost entirely from the scrapbooks and photograph albums that the Fitzgeralds scrupulously kept as their personal record and provides a wealth of illustrative material not previously available. Minnesota; a photograph of the country club in Montgomery, Alabama, where the two met; reviews of This Side of Paradise; poems to the couple from Ring Lardner; snapshots of their trips abroad; Fitzgerald's careful accounting of his earnings; a photograph of the house on Long Island where The Great Gatsby was conceived; postcards with Fitzgerald's drawings for his daughter. These rare photographs and memorabilia combine into a narrative augmented by selections from Scott's and Zelda's own writings, conveying the spirit of particuular moments in their lives.
The instant Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestseller “While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their image with sheer, almost irrational force, I’ve found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition.” —from the prologue Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back. Ego Is the Enemy draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to history. We meet fascinating figures such as George Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who all reached the highest levels of power and success by conquering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well. In an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion, the battle against ego must be fought on many fronts. Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, “you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.”
A collection of the early works of Theodore Sturgeon, acclaimed Grand Master of Science Fiction—featuring forewords by Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke Although Theodore Sturgeon's reach was limited to the lengths of the short story and novelette, his influence was strongly felt by even the most original science fiction stylists—including Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Gene Wolfe. Written from 1937 to 1940, the stories here showcase Sturgeon's masterful knack for clever, O. Henry-ish plot twists, sparkling character development, and almost archetypal, “Why didn't I think of that?” story ideas. Early Sturgeon masterpieces include “It,” a story about the violence done by a creature spontaneously born from garbage and mud, and “Helix the Cat,” about an inventor's bizarre encounter with a disembodied soul and the cat that saves it. Featuring more than forty stories, The Ultimate Egoist is a timelessly entertaining tour through the early career and unique genius of this legend of science fiction.
Ayn Rand is well known for advocating egoism, but the substance of that instruction is rarely understood. Far from representing the rejection of morality, selfishness, in Rand's view, actually demands the practice of a systematic code of ethics. This book explains the fundamental virtues that Rand considers vital for a person to achieve his objective well-being: rationality, honesty, independence, justice, integrity, productiveness, and pride. Tracing Rand's account of the harmony of human beings' rational interests, Smith examines what each of these virtues consists of, why it is a virtue, and what it demands of a person in practice. Along the way she addresses the status of several conventional virtues within Rand's theory, considering traits such as kindness, charity, generosity, temperance, courage, forgiveness, and humility. Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics thus offers an in-depth exploration of several specific virtues and an illuminating integration of these with the broader theory of egoism.
The Egotist tracks its author, Jesse Bogner’s, development from a hedonistic New Yorker to a Kabbalist, on a path to find the meaning of life. This book offers a glimpse into the misunderstood world of Kabbalah and how the collective plea of Kabbalists has the power to correct the egos of individuals and the world at large. Never before has a Kabbalah student, in such excruciating detail, illuminated the nature of his own spiritual development.
This Side of Paradise is a novel about post-World War I youth and their morality. Amory Blaine is a young Princeton University student with an attractive face and an interest in literature. His greed and desire for social status warp the theme of love weaving through the story.
