Being There

A quirky, brilliant novel starring Chauncey Gardiner, an enigmatic man who rises from nowhere to become a media phenomenon—“a fabulous creature of our age” (Newsweek). One of the most beloved novels by the New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award–winning author of The Painted Bird and Pinball, Being There is the story of a mysterious man who finds himself at the center of Wall Street and Washington power—including his role as a policy adviser to the president—despite the fact that no one is quite sure where he comes from, or what he is actually talking about. Nevertheless, Chauncey “Chance” Gardiner is celebrated by the media, and hailed as a visionary, in this satirical masterpiece that became an award-winning film starring Peter Sellers. As wise and timely as ever, Being There is “a tantalizing knuckleball of a book delivered with perfectly timed satirical hops and metaphysical flutters” (Time).

A powerful look at the importance of a mother’s presence in the first years of life **Featured in The Wall Street Journal, and seen on Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and CBS New York** In this important and empowering book, veteran psychoanalyst Erica Komisar explains why a mother's emotional and physical presence in her child's life--especially during the first three years--gives the child a greater chance of growing up emotionally healthy, happy, secure, and resilient. In other words, when it comes to connecting with your baby or toddler, more is more. Compassionate and balanced, and focusing on the emotional health of children and moms alike, this book shows parents how to give their little ones the best chance for developing into healthy and loving adults. Based on more than two decades of clinical work, established psychoanalytic theory, and the most cutting-edge neurobiological research on caregiving, attachment, and brain development, Being There explains: • How to establish emotional connection with a newborn or young child--regardless of whether you're able to work part-time or stay home • How to ease transitions to minimize stress for your baby or toddler • How to select and train quality childcare • What's true and false about widely held beliefs like "I'm not good with babies" and “I’ll make up for it when he’s older” • How to recognize and combat feelings of postpartum depression or boredom • Why three months of maternity leave is not long enough--and how parents can take control of their choices to provide for their family's emotional needs in the first three years Being a new mom isn’t easy. But with support, emotional awareness, and coping skills, it can be the most magical—and essential—work we’ll ever do.

Brain, body, and world are united in a complex dance of circular causation and extended computational activity. In Being There, Andy Clark weaves these several threads into a pleasing whole and goes on to address foundational questions concerning the new tools and techniques needed to make sense of the emerging sciences of the embodied mind. Clark brings together ideas and techniques from robotics, neuroscience, infant psychology, and artificial intelligence. He addresses a broad range of adaptive behaviors, from cockroach locomotion to the role of linguistic artifacts in higher-level thought.

Everyone has friends or family who suffer from sickness, disability, depression, or the death of a loved one. Often times, the people who love the hurting also struggle in their own unique ways. They tend to suffer in silence and without much support from others. Writing from the unique perspective of one who needs extra help on a daily basis, Dave Furman offers insight into the support, encouragement, and wisdom that people need when helping others. Furman draws on his own life experiences, examples from the Bible, and wisdom from Christians throughout history to address the heart and ministry of those who are called to serve others. Deeply personal and powerfully pastoral, this book points readers to the strength that only God can provide as they love those who are hurting. Afterword written by Gloria Furman, the author's wife.

Shelby Jane Cooper is seventeen, pretty and quiet. It's just Shelby and her mom, Shaylene, a court stenographer who wears pyjama jeans, stitches tapestry, eats ice-cream for dinner and likes to keep Shelby safe. So safe she barely goes out. So safe she doesn't go to school. Because anything could happen, to a girl like Shelby. Anything. When Shelby gets knocked down by a car, it's not just her leg that's broken: Shelby's world is shattered. Her mom turns up to collect her and drives off into the night, like it's the beginning of a road trip, like two criminals on the run, like Thelma and Louise or Bonnie and Clyde. And somehow, everywhere she looks, there's a coyote watching her, talking to her, telling her not to believe. Who is Shelby Jane Cooper? If the person who keeps you safe also tells you lies, who can you trust?

"In recent decades anthropologists have learned to think of themselves as prisoners of text. In the new orthodoxy, ethnography is best viewed as a certain kind of literary genre, textual criticism provides a master theory for understanding all manner of social and cultural phenomena, and young anthropologists show a reluctance to leave the comfort zone of the archive and the library where, whatever else happens, no unruly interlocutor is going to do something unseemly like answering back. This brilliant and humane volume promises to put paid to all that. Anthropology is the product of an encounter with the world we call fieldwork, and fieldwork is an edgy business in which researchers necessarily put themselves at intellectual, political and ethical risk. This volume restores that edgy business to the heart of our concerns, and reminds anthropologists that their distinctive way of engaging the world can be the source of real intellectual excitement, and as worthy of sophisticated theoretical reflection as anything they do."—Jonathan Spencer, University of Edinburgh

How can an academic who does not believe evil spirits cause illness harbor the hope that her cancer may be cured by a healer who enters a trance to battle her demons? Whose actions are more (or less) honorable: those of a prostitute who sells her daughter’s virginity to a rich man, or those of a professor who sanctions her daughter’s hook-ups with casual acquaintances? As they immerse themselves in foreign cultures and navigate the relationships that take shape, the authors of these essays, most of them trained anthropologists, find that accepting cultural difference is one thing, experiencing it is quite another. In tales that entertain as much as they illuminate, these writers show how the moral and intellectual challenges of living cross-culturally revealed to them the limits of their perception and understanding. Their insights were gained only after discomforts resulting mainly from the authors’ own blunders in the field. From Brazil to Botswana, Egypt to Indonesia, Mongolia to Pakistan, mistakes were made. Offering a gift to a Navajo man at the beginning of an interview, rather than the end, caused one author to lose his entire research project. In Côte d’Ivoire, a Western family was targeted by the village madman, leading the parents to fear for the safety of their child even as they suspected that their very presence had triggered his madness. At a time when misunderstanding of cultural difference is an undeniable source of conflict, we need stories like these more than ever before.

Father Ted (Dermot Morgan), his housemates Father Dougal (Ardal O'Hanlon) and Father Jack (Frank Kelly), and of course housekeeper Mrs Doyle (Pauline McLynn), all return for some more madcap clerical comedy in these episodes from the second season of the hit TV show. In 'Hell', the Fathers' annual holiday looks to be heading for disaster with the arrival of a suspicious couple, an over-excitable youth group and plenty of rain. In 'Think Fast Father Ted', Ted damages the first prize (a new car) in the church raffle and must come up with a plan. In 'Tentacles of Doom', Ted is desperate to keep Dougal and Jack under control when the Bishop comes to Craggy Island to upgrade the Holy Stone of Clonrichert to a Class II relic. In 'The Old Grey Whistle Theft', a rebellious young priest arrives on the island and threatens to bring about the breakdown of law and order. Whilst in 'A Song For Europe', Ted decides to enter the Song For Europe 'borrowing' an old unknown song for his entry. Also includes the Christmas special 'A Christmassy Ted'. You will enjoy it. Oh, you will, you will, you will...