Love Trumps Grief

Over the past few years, John Pavlovitz's blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said, has become a virtual hub for millions of people from all over the world, drawn there by his clear, compelling words on compassion, equity, love, and justice. This expansive, like-hearted community transcends race, orientation, gender, religious tradition, political affiliation, and nation of origin--and finds its affinity in the deeper place of our shared humanity, which is the True North of his writing. This collection lovingly pulls together some of John's most widely-read and most beloved essays on faith, politics, grief, and the elemental parts of being human. It is an encouraging, inspiring, challenging storehouse of "stuff that needs to be said."

Managing grief is a monumental task and requires the bereaved to navigate through a myriad of obstacles that are not the same but unique to each person experiencing grief. The emotional fallout associated with grief is often likened to "the elephant in the room," and few (including the bereaved) want to acknowledge its existence. Fewer still want to openly discuss what the bereaved are experiencing. The bereaved person typically just wants a friend with a willing ear to listen and/or permission to take the needed time to process the loss they are grieving. They don't want someone to pass judgment as to what they're feeling, nor do they want proffered advice as to how better to cope with their grief. They just want to have someone to care or give them a hug and offer a shoulder on which to shed their tears. Well-intended friends will, nevertheless, unknowingly offer irrelevant or hurtful advice, employing the use of cliché's or the many myths that surround what to expect during the grieving process. This book attempts to shine a light on what to expect, what to avoid, and what to ignore. The bereaved person reading it can use it as a resource, therefore, to help mute the painful impact of what they may hear from well-intended friends. For those wanting to help the bereaved, it can be used to as a resource for better understanding the grieving process and how to avoid saying the wrong thing.

In an unorthodox approach, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice, and sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving their careers. Not only are pre-existing passions rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work, but a focus on passion over skill can be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers. Cal reveals that matching your job to a pre-existing passion does not matter. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it. With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love, and will change the way you think about careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.

The Grieving Brain has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

When suitors are baffled by Miss Fiona's scientific turn of mind her mother tearfully predicts that her daughter will be doomed to spinsterhood-until Lord Henry comes along. Nicknamed "the Mad Scientist," Henry appreciates Fiona's mind as well as her face. Fiona thinks she's found the perfect husband in Henry until notorious Lord Beaumont crashes through her neatly laid plans.

"Reeling from the recent death of his invalid mother, an exhausted, lonely professor comes to our nation's capital to escape his previous life." "What he finds there - in his handsome, solitary landlord; in the city's somber mood and sepulchral architecture; and in the strange and impassioned letters and journals of Mary Todd Lincoln - shows him unexpected truths about America and loss. As he seeks to engage with the living world around him - a challenging student, the mother of a dead friend, even his landlord's neglected dog - he comes to realize that his relationship to his grief is very different than he had thought." "In Grief, Holleran summons voices from the past that eerily echo and speak to our own troubled times. It is a masterwork by one of America's singular voices, a writer who is beloved for his depth of feeling, his humor, the elegance of his prose, and his unflinching honesty."--BOOK JACKET.

Griefland. It’s a place no one wants to visit—a place without borders where language is inadequate and pain is constant. It’s a place where every morning one awakens to the stark reality that a loved one will never be seen, heard—or embraced—again. This is a place that Armen Bacon and Nancy Miller know all too well, for when they met, both of them had lost a child—a son, Alex, and a daughter, Rachel. Griefland provides an intimate portrait of what tragedy does to the human soul, how it changes one’s life, and most important, how it can be survived. With achingly beautiful language, this book explores the acute moment-to-moment experience of grief. But it also transcends that and speaks to the redemptive power of friendship, trust, intimacy, and love. Together they discover a will and desire to move forward, recognizing that life is the ultimate prize for those who survive this excruciating journey.