A Passion For Life

This book takes seriously our increased life span along with its challenges to live fully, to grow, to develop unexplored parts of ourselves, to find creative ways of being vitally involved in our own inner and outer lives. With an emphasis on anecdotes drawn from famous as well as not-so-famous people, Passion for Life weaves inspiration with motivation for uncovering and freeing ongoing individual growth. Since each decade presents new awakenings, Brennan and Brewi demonstrate how life's greatest accomplishments and achievements can come in the second half of life.

Having lived many lives when most of us only live one, the stories of Joan Collins' adventures on film sets around the world, the friendships she made, the triumphs and the near disasters could fill many books. Encounters with Princess Diana, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the romantic story of her courtship and marriage to Percy Gibson are among the new stories Joan shares, in this latest instalment of her witty, wise and revelatory memoirs. Following on from where Second Act left off, the screen icon reveals details of her life with her fifth (and final) husband Percy, her travels around the world, fun with family and friends, and shares more revealing anecdotes about the fascinating people she has met during her life. A Passion for Life is - quite literally - an expression of the joie de vivre which Joan exudes. Filled with fabulous never-before-seen images of her life, from childhood to recent holiday snaps with Percy and her children, this is the ultimate illustrated guide to the life of a British icon.

A national bestselling author examines one of the mind's most exalted states—one that is crucially important to learning, risk-taking, social cohesiveness, and survival itself. “[Jamison is] that rare writer who can offer a kind of unified field theory of science and art.” —The Washington Post Book World With the same grace and breadth of learning she brought to her studies of the mind’s pathologies, Kay Redfield Jamison examines one of its most exalted states: exuberance. This “abounding, ebullient, effervescent emotion” manifests itself everywhere from child’s play to scientific breakthrough. Exuberance: The Passion for Life introduces us to such notably irrepressible types as Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir, and Richard Feynman, as well as Peter Pan, dancing porcupines, and Charles Schulz’s Snoopy. It explores whether exuberance can be inherited, parses its neurochemical grammar, and documents the methods people have used to stimulate it. The resulting book is an irresistible fusion of science and soul.

The first authoritative biography of the most enduring poet of the twentieth century 'This is a magnificent biography' HAROLD PINTER 'Feinstein's biography is fuelled by an infectious enthusiasm for the poems: this is its greatest strength ... it is crammed with adventure stories, narrow scrapes, passionate encounters' GUARDIAN 'A magnificently researched work ... Feinstein brilliantly elucidates the main driving forces behind Neruda's life and work' INDEPENDENT __________________________ Poet and politician, Pablo Neruda continues to cast a long shadow across the world fifty years after his death in the wake of the 1973 Chilean coup. From the lyricism of Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair and the melancholy of Residence on Earth to the direct simplicity of the Elemental Odes and the epic grandeur of the Canto General, Neruda's range was vast. Few Nobel laureates have enjoyed such enduring popularity. Neruda was a complicated man, both politically and emotionally. In this first authoritative biography, Adam Feinstein draws on revealing interviews with his closest friends, acquaintances and surviving relatives, as well as newly discovered documents. He follows Neruda's life from a sickly childhood in Chile to political engagement and literary fame, until his death in 1973, within days of the death of Salvador Allende in the coup that brought Pinochet to power. This acclaimed biography, now updated with an afterword about the recent exhumation of Neruda's remains, tells the full story of an iconic twentieth-century figure for the first time.

Reflections by Joan Chittister with icons by Robert Lentz present over two dozen saints and prophets--from Hildegard of Bingen to Martin Luther King, Jr.,--who speak to the urgent spiritual questions of our time.

The spiritual search is as much a part of being human as eating, sleeping, working, and playing, but all too often we try to limit it to an hour on Sunday--or ignore it all together. Now comes a guide to tapping the inner powers we all possess--by the coauthor of one of the most successful and inspiring books ever published in the field: Born to Win. 76 photos and drawings.

The coauthors of the bestselling Peak Performance dive into the fascinating science behind passion, showing how it can lead to a rich and meaningful life while also illuminating the ways in which it is a double-edged sword. Here’s how to cultivate a passion that will take you to great heights—while minimizing the risk of an equally great fall. Common advice is to find and follow your passion. A life of passion is a good life, or so we are told. But it's not that simple. Rarely is passion something that you just stumble upon, and the same drive that fuels breakthroughs—whether they're athletic, scientific, entrepreneurial, or artistic—can be every bit as destructive as it is productive. Yes, passion can be a wonderful gift, but only if you know how to channel it. If you're not careful, passion can become an awful curse, leading to endless seeking, suffering, and burnout. Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness once again team up, this time to demystify passion, showing readers how they can find and cultivate their passion, sustainably harness its power, and avoid its dangers. They ultimately argue that passion and balance--that other virtue touted by our culture--are incompatible, and that to find your passion, you must lose balance. And that's not always a bad thing. They show readers how to develop the right kind of passion, the kind that lets you achieve great things without ruining your life. Swift, compact, and powerful, this thought-provoking book combines captivating stories of extraordinarily passionate individuals with the latest science on the biological and psychological factors that give rise to—and every bit as important, sustain—passion.

This is a biography of Dr Felicia Wu. Felicia was a scientist with a successful career in cancer research, but what marked the most extraordinary aspect about her life was her journey as a truly brave cancer patient and an incredibly determined cancer fighter. Originally, this book was intended to be an autobiography written and narrated by Felicia herself. She wanted to share with other cancer sufferers her 13 long years of experience fighting cancer to prepare them for the side effects and uncertainties of the treatment, and also to encourage them to brace and face their own treatment without fear. What she did not realize then was that her time was ticking away, and her life trickling off quickly. Writing her own autobiography proved to be an impossible task. Felicia succumbed to the prolonged battle and departed from this world. Her husband, Dr Cheng-Wen Wu, finished the uncompleted task of writing the book in loving memory of her. The biography of Felicia, originally published in Chinese edition, has been recommended as a reading model for students in schools and was nominated for an award in Taiwan. Felicia''s story had also inspired the production of a documentary film entitled, OC A Passion for Life, OCO funded and sponsored by The American Cancer Society. This biography of Felicia in English edition, painstakingly translated by Dr Cheng-Wen Wu and his collaborating translator, Ms Annie Chen, will certainly live up to its original premise as an inspiration to touch more lives and as a source of strength to all who encounter difficulty, disappointment and hurt at any point of their lives. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Introduction (35 KB). Contents: Days of Youth: Precocious From the Start; Meeting and Getting to Know Each Other; Lifelong Mutual Commitment; Studying Abroad; Life Abroad: Memories of Studying Abroad; Our Research and Life Together; A Sabbatical Year in France; The Long Island Days; Transition Period: Discovering Breast Cancer; Imparting Our Knowledge as Our Contribution to Taiwan; Life after Returning to Taiwan; Cancer Recurs; Fighting Cancer: Beginning a Long-Term Resistance; Offering Oneself as a Lab Specimen; High Dose Chemotherapy; Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation; Reborn in Fire, Arisen from the Ashes; Fighting to the End: Cancer Strikes Once Again; Trying Medicine after Medicine; The Last Stage; Death Summons. Readership: General public."