Essays Life

At age 30, Joshua Fields Millburn left his six-figure career, ditched most of his material possessions, and started focusing on life's most important aspects. Once he embraced his newfound minimalist lifestyle, he never looked back. Suffice it to say, everything has changed in Millburn's life in the last three years. After his mother died in October 2009 and his marriage ended a month later, he began questioning everything in his life: his material possessions, his career, his goals, his health, his relationships, his path in life.

This book focuses on the most significant biblical reflection of God's purpose for choosing President Trump, His End-Time vessel.

In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita was published in the United States to immediate controversy and best-sellerdom. More than 60 years later, this phenomenal novel generates as much buzz as it did when originally published. Central to countless issues at the forefront of our national discourse - art and politics, race and whiteness, gender and power, sexual trauma - Lolita lives on, in an afterlife as blinding as a supernova.

In these essays, Steven Garber challenges us to move beyond our fragmented sense of reality, and to view life differently. Once we discover that there is no chasm between heaven and earth, and begin to see the truest truths of the universe woven into the very meaning of life and labor, of learning and liturgy, we are able to understand the coherence between the work of God and our lives in the world.

For the last three decades Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events and with the most significant personalities to impact the black diaspora: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Obama's victory, entering New Orleans days after hurricane Katrina or interviewing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. He has witnessed how much change is possible and the power of systems to thwart those aspirations.

By 1617, Donne had done it all. After being an MP, lawyer, womaniser, soldier, diplomat, father to twelve children by a secret wife, and the greatest poet of his age, he settled into the priesthood. Shortly thereafter, his wife died, prompting him to write a defence of suicide in God's eyes. She was soon followed by his 18 year old daughter died. Then Donne fell gravely ill. Physicians were called, but none could agree on what to do. It seemed certain that he would die.

Omnibus is an engrossing ride through Jo’s wacky world. There are articles and stories on ski jumps, drumming, music and dogs; even Mary Poppins gets a mention. There’s a friend lost, then found, then slowly lost again as his mind begins to crumble – thank goodness we shared some laughs in days gone by. There’s even a set of Antlers and my favourite aeroplane, the S71 Blackbird at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, England. And then there’s the odd ride on a bus! No ordinary journey this. Many years ago, following some dire health issues, Jo and wife Jan discarded their long-term ...

I’m not a musician. Not that I haven’t tried. My brain just doesn’t seem to be wired for it. I’m not a student of music either, at least not in the academic sense. I don’t work in music, but I do listen to music while I work. And I’m definitely not a music nerd. By that I mean I don’t memorize who’s in what band or who produced whatever album. The point I’m trying to make is, there’s no good reason why I should be writing a book about my personal music history, other than the fact that music is everything to me. Music has a hold on so many of us. It comforts us. It pumps...

Whether embellishing the embarrassing, reeling over reality, or analyzing the awkward, author Matt Hribar has collected life stories and experiences into one collective book of comedic essays. Follow Matt’s journey through "professionalism," vacations gone wrong, and career highlights. Jump through awkward moments teaching children creative writing, spinning crazy DJ stories, and amuse over some emotional moments with friends. These essays blend observational comedy, real-life experiences, and even a few moments of existentialism.

Embracing the possibilities and impossibilities of language, Kim rejoices in the similes of Korean, her mother tongue, and draws inspiration from K-dramas and writers across cultures who sustain her. As borders close in and nations enter lockdown, the journey that Kim traces is fraught-and at once illuminates that the act of remaining present has its own power, allowing boundless hope.

Early in her career, Katie Pryal learned that being a professor isn’t easy if your brain isn’t quite right. “I was a junior in college when I finally realized that I was different in a way that my medically inclined parents would call ‘clinical.’” In these deeply personal, fiery essays, Pryal tells her story of transformation that began the moment she chose to publicly disclose her own mental illness and leave her career in higher education to begin fighting for a better world for people with psychiatric disabilities.

What songs have made up your life's soundtrack? Which have captured your every mood and deepest sentiments? Pop music, like no other form of entertainment or art, is capable of articulating our feelings, desires, joy, and pain. In a few soul-grabbing minutes, artists from every genre - from Little Richard to Lou Reed, Willie Nelson to Wu-Tang Clan, Sly and the Family Stone to the Rolling Stones - can help us understand our place in our own lives.

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Yvonne Orji has never shied away from being unapologetically herself and that includes being outspoken about her faith. Known for interpreting Biblical stories and metaphors to fit current times, her humorous and accessible approach to faith leaves even non-believers inspired and wanting more. The way Yvonne sees it, God is a Sovereign Prankster. When she meditates on her own life - complete with unforeseen blessings and unanticipated roadblocks - she realises it's one big testimony to how God tricked her into living out her wildest dreams.

Sir Francis Bacon, sometimes known as the father of empiricism, was one of the major political figures of his day, his career culminating as Lord Chancellor under King James I in 1617. Bacon wrote widely, but it is the Essays (published in its third edition in 1625, the year before his death) for which he is best known. Deftly written and often displaying a cutting wit, they cover a wide range of subjects including death, love, marriage, ambition and atheism.

In 16 brilliantly observed true stories, Sam Harris emerges as a natural humorist in league with David Sedaris, Chelsea Handler, Carrie Fisher, and Steve Martin, but with a voice uniquely his own. Praised by the Chicago Sun-Times for his "manic, witty commentary", and with a storytelling talent the New York Times calls " New Yorker - worthy," he puts a comedic spin on full-disclosure episodes from his own colorful life. What better place to find painfully funny material than in growing up gay, gifted, and ambitious in the heart of the Bible belt?

Incisive, wide-ranging and witty, it explores the questions, anxieties and agendas that consume our lives. Pandora Sykes interrogates the stories we’ve been sold and the ones we tell ourselves - from happiness to wellness, womanhood to consumerism - in ways that are both surprising and reassuring.

A Full Heart is a collection of essays and a few speeches that are personal reflections on a wide variety of topics, from baseball to love, from health issues to surviving child sex abuse, from the arts to reflections on war and peace, from life to death. The book also has a companion volume, Bleeding Heart, a collection of political writings. Most of the pieces in both books were originally published as Facebook notes or blog posts, and many of them were also published in print or online in publications from Madison Wisconsin's weekly arts paper, Isthmus, to Belt Magazine, Verse Wisconsin,...

This is the remarkable and tragic story of Oscar Wilde, legendary wit and conversationalist, author of perhaps the most perfect comedy in the English language, yet seemingly doomed by his own flawed temperament to suffer at the hands of a censorious and hypocritical society...

"Nadie debería escribir después de los setenta y cinco años", había dicho un amigo. A los setenta y siete, bloqueado como escritor, Theodor Kallifatides toma la difícil decisión de vender el estudio de Estocolmo, donde trabajó diligentemente durante décadas, y retirarse. Incapaz de escribir y, sin embargo, incapaz de no escribir, viaja a su Grecia natal con la esperanza de redescubrir la fluidez perdida del lenguaje.En este bellísimo texto, Kallifatides explora la relación entre una vida con sentido y un trabajo con sentido, y cómo reconciliarse con el envejecimiento.