Better Place

This sidekick misses his superhero... After hearing that his grandfather has gone to a “better place,” a boy sets off on a grand adventure to find him, dressed as his favourite comic book character. Dylan just moved to a new house, with no friends, and a mother who doesn’t have time for him. Luckily, he has his grandad. Together, they are Red Rocket and Kid Cosmo, who save the world from evil every day with the power of imagination! But one day, Dylan learns that his grandad is suddenly gone… to a “better place.” Now, Kid Cosmo will have to save the day, all by himself. Debut author Duane Murray joins artist Shawn Daley (Samurai Grandpa) for a touching story about family, grief, change, and growth.

In his first book, Erasmo provides a collection of observations, deductions, and opinions that identify problems and proposes solutions to correct those problems. The intent is to promote the utilization of situational awareness as we pursue happiness that simultaneously facilitates the likelihood for others to experience their own happiness.

The notion that funeral rituals, strong religious beliefs, and a firm conviction that death is a beginning and not an end is highlighted in A Better Place. An understanding of these changing burial rites, many of which might seem strange to us today, is invaluable for the family historian.

In 1959, at the age of eleven, Michael Keith left a relatively stable life with his mother and sisters in Albany, New York, and surreptitiously set off for California with his irresponsible alcoholic father. For the rest of Michael's childhood, the two crisscrossed America, perpetually en route to someplace else. His memoir, told in the fresh, funny, world-wise voice of the young boy he once was, describes their bizarre encounters hitchhiking the nation's highways. In the rundown rooming houses and homeless missions where they hole up as Michael's father works odd jobs to make enough money for them to move on, or in the AA meetings they attend in every city for a decent doughnut, we glimpse a different America. Pushed onward by Michael's unceasing thirst for new adventures and his father's dreams of the next better place, the careworn twosome live far outside convention. But despite their peculiar, often dysfunctional life, there is real love between this father and son, and they share the glorious freedom of the peripatetic life. That such happiness exists in a lonely marginal universe doesn't overshadow the fact that a Greyhound bus is the closest Michael comes to experiencing the idea of home. THE NEXT BETTER PLACE explores the fine line between wanderlust and compulsion, between running away and arriving, and leaves us with the understanding that the journey is often more powerful than the destination.

Following his second marriage in 1907 Arthur Conan Doyle was looking to the future. The years ahead would see the birth of three children, fresh literary success and the discovery of his new faith. Those same years would also see the First World War, the final adventures of Sherlock Holmes and ridicule from the religious and scientific communities for his beliefs.

Resentments emerge when a woman returns to her Virginia hometown after a failed quest for stardom, in “a fine novel of manners about life in the South” (Library Journal). In an attempt to discover why her life hasn’t worked out the way she had hoped it would, Valerie Caldwell returns to the Southern town she left twelve years earlier to visit her old haunts and two friends from her school days, Tess and Mary Grace—much to their alarm and chagrin.

MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE “This book is a must read for all with an interest in the future of design.” —Jim Spohrer, PhD, Retired Industry executive, International Society of Service Innovation Professionals “The world is in need of better design, and Kozma’s book shows us how to get there.” —Mark Guzdial, Director, Program in Computing for the Arts and Sciences, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering, University of Michigan Design services, products, experiences, and places that transform the world for the better Make the World a Better Place: Design with Passion, Purpose, and Values presents an insightful and hands-on discussion of design as a profoundly human activity and challenges us all to use design to transform the world for the better. The book explains how and why the design industry lost its way, and how to re-ignite the idealism that once made it a force for good. Make the World a Better Place describes a set of moral principles, based on our shared humanity, that can be used to create “good” designs: designs that reduce harm, increase well-being, advance knowledge, promote equality, address injustice, and build supportive, compassionate relationships and communities. Dr. Kozma applies philosophy, psychology, sociology, and history to the world of design, including: Examples and case studies of designs—both good and bad Seven principles of good design, based on the impact designs have on people An approach to design as a “moral dialog among co-creators,” in which the seven principles can be applied to intentionally improve the world Comprehensive explorations of a person-resource-activity model that explains how technology shapes designs Detailed analyses of the strengths and pitfalls of five design traditions, which include the scientific, technical-analytic, human-centered, aesthetic, and social movement traditions