Leveling The Playing Field In Spite Of Myself

This is a consolidation of both of my previous publications and a revision of my autobiography portrayed in a more explicit manner. I present more details as to how, with my pronounced limited academic ability, I managed to utilize both positive and detrimental factors from my early childhood to my advantage in order to accomplish my ultimate success in life. I present my usual witty satire in discussing the many hardships and hurdles I encountered during my seemingly-impossible educational path. My eventual goal was also undoubtedly attributed to my life-long ability of being able to overachieve and outperform. Along with these factors and endless battles with bipolar illness and gross obesity, I managed to convert these deterrents into an incredibly advantageous situation, as I explain how some of the characteristics resulting from my illness actually helped to sustain my drive to success. Even one of my decisions to quit medical school turned out to be a very important impetus in my eventual success. I eventually served thirty years as a rural family practice physician and fourteen years as coroner of a mid-sized Louisiana parish. I strive to add and discuss more pertinent information regarding my life experiences that was previously erroneously but unintentionally omitted and address many of the questions that arose unanswered, along with relating more gruesome and mischievous incidents, including a more recent mishap that left me with a slight handicap. I discuss the countless problems that I faced while treating my patients, relate my numerous conflicts with various governmental agencies and organizations, and detail many unusual cases that helped mold my life and influenced my decisions. I also reveal even more of my innermost secrets and confessions during my practice, and I elaborate further on my bipolar illness and its impact on my life. I feel that this book is a must-read for bipolar individuals who should have no problems identifying with me.

a priceless artifact could restore a family's honor - or destroy everything in its wake. While vacationing in Tokyo, archaeologist Annja Creed is approached by a man who desperately needs her help. Kennichi Ogawa, the last descendant of an ancient warrior family, is trying to locate a stolen artifact. Legend has it that the vajra was mystically endowed by a warrior's spirit to help the Yumegakure-ryu family forever be a source for good. But the vajra could help the forces of evil if it gets into the wrong hands. And now the bloodthirsty Yakuza and a group of hired ninja are after it. As Annja and Kennichi trek through the fog-enshrouded mountains of the Iga province to find the relic, they must also outsmart the vicious Yakuza and ninja who are dangerously close to uncovering the vajra first...and to destroying their competition.

Canada’s most celebrated and acclaimed actor lets loose in a magnificent memoir that will delight and enchant readers across the country. A rollicking, rich self-portrait written by one of today’s greatest living actors. The story of a “young wastrel, incurably romantic, spoiled rotten” – his privileged Montreal background, rich in Victorian gentility, included steam yachts, rare orchid farms, music lessons in Paris and Berlin – “who tore himself away from the ski slopes to break into the big, bad world of theater not from the streets up but from an Edwardian living room down.” Plummer writes of his early acting days – on radio and stage with William Shatner and other fellow Canadians; of the early days of the Stratford Festival in southern Ontario; of his Broadway debut at twenty-four in The Starcross Story, starring Eva Le Gallienne (“It opened and closed in one night, but what a night!”); of joining Peter Hall’s Royal Shakespeare Company (its other members included Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Peter O’Toole); of his first picture, Stage Struck, directed by Sidney Lumet; and of The Sound of Music, which he affectionately dubbed “S&M.” He writes about his legendary colleagues: Dame Judith Anderson (“the Tasmanian devil from Down Under”); Sir Tyrone Guthrie; Sir Laurence Olivier; Elia Kazan (“this chameleon of chameleons might change into you, wear your skin, steal your soul”); and “that reprobate” Jason Robards, among many others. A revelation of the wild and exuberant ride that is the actor’s – at least this actor’s – life.

Constituting a major contribution to literature on the EU, this comprehensive Companion analyses the structure and value of the EU, capturing the normality of its politics alongside crises and political breakdown.

A great revolution is coming…. a revolution that would be more powerful than the one that could be in the imaginations of MK Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan. Unavoidable is the revolt of the new generation against the evils of corruption, discrimination, oppression, communalization and violence, in the new world of connectivity and cooperation defined by powerful technological tools, which we welcomed knowingly or unknowingly. The book “WHAT AFTER MODI SARKAR?” is nothing less than a great prophesy and it passionately searches for ways and means to build a New India beyond the ideological trajectories of Nehruvian socialism and Hindutva nationalism. In this book, the author conducts a deep inquiry into the intricacies of contemporary Indian political process. He knows very well, “The task ahead is tough. But never to forget the proverb: when the going gets tough, the tough gets going”.

What is ‘creativity’? And what is ‘madness’? How far can we interpret an artist’s work through our knowledge of his or her mental state, and how far can we infer a mental state from a work of art? When does a work of art cease to be a personal statement by the artist and become a matter of public concern? The contributions to this book attempt to answer some of these questions. They come from a wide range of disciplines and experiences – a practising psychiatrist, a practising artist suffering from reactive depression, and critics working in literature, film, music and the visual arts. The essays include discussions of the ‘myth of creativity’, the music of Robert Schumann, the borders of sanity in the writing of Lawrence Durrell, the ‘insane truth’ of Virginia Woolf, the meeting of doctor and patient in the poetry of Anne Sexton, mood disorders in the fiction of David Foster Wallace, love and madness in the poetry of Hafiz of Shiraz, and the paintings of Adolf Wölfli. Central to this discussion of creativity, madness and civilisation is the difficulty of establishing an appropriate and effective vocabulary and mindset between critics and clinical psychiatrists, which would enable them to work together in understanding mental disturbance in creative artists.

TRILOGY BOOK TWO includes three books from my numerous writings. Writing and philosophizing for so long now, I am pleased to get to do this while others simply cant take the time. In my journeys, I dont know if I am getting closer to knowing anything, and it seems the more I know, the more I know I dont know. I suppose all we can be sure of, is that as long as we are alive, we have the opportunity to keep searching, while continuing to delve into our minds and hearts for clues to greater meaning and purpose on earth. How long have you been standing here, God? is the title of the book, and it comes to you along with two others, Evolution: Facts and Fairy Tales and Amistad (Spanish for friendship). All three were written with you (the reader and fellow life-mate) especially in mind. If you struggle with your personal spirituality, and need greater awareness that God is on all sides of you, then maybe How long have you been standing here, God? (Book One) will be helpful. If you are wondering about your origins, trying to figure out how it all came about, then perhaps Evolution: Facts and Fairy Tales (Book Two) will make things even more confusing! During my time in Central America, I have learned plenty about the concept of friendship, and I mean that in the context of the whole of life. Amistad (Book Three) is a book about befriending the people, places and things that make up our lives.

Hold onto your hats: popular and controversial Toronto city journalist Sue-Ann Levy -- a self-described nice, chubby, Jewish, gay, conservative girl -- takes on the establishment and establishment thinking in this provocative, honest, and insightful memoir that will surprise her fans and foes alike. Sue-Ann Levy was born to a traditional patriarchal Jewish family in which the son was considered accomplished simply for being born, and she realized from an early age that she would not fit into the mold designated for her. An outspoken, right-wing lipstick lesbian, Levy has spent her life challenging the status quo -- from championing the underdog, to taking on the Liberal left, to running as the first openly gay candidate for the Ontario Progressive Conservative party in 2009. Underdog chronicles Levy's journey through Toronto politics with the same candid, humorous, and self-deprecating approach for which she has become famous for in her daily columns. Persuasive and timely, Sue-Ann Levy will inspire readers to speak up against the inequalities in our political and justice systems.