The Monsters We Deserve

'Do monsters always stay in the book where they were born? Are they content to live out their lives on paper, and never step foot into the real world?' The Villa Diodati, on the shore of Lake Geneva, 1816: the Year without Summer. As Byron, Polidori, and Mr and Mrs Shelley shelter from the unexpected weather, old ghost stories are read and new ghost stories imagined. Born by the twin brains of the Shelleys is Frankenstein, one of the most influential tales of horror of all time. In a remote mountain house, high in the French Alps, an author broods on Shelley's creation. Reality and perception merge, fuelled by poisoned thoughts. Humankind makes monsters; but who really creates who? This is a book about reason, the imagination, and the creative act of reading and writing. Marcus Sedgwick's ghostly, menacing novel celebrates the legacy of Mary Shelley's literary debut in its bicentenary year.

Marcus Sedgwick, autor bestseller internacional, escribe sobre los monstruos que hemos creado, tanto en laliteratura, como en nuestras propias mentes, en esta reinterpretación del Frankenstein de Mary Shelley. ¿Los monstruos siempre se quedan en el libro en el que nacieron? ¿Están conectadas a la vida exterior sus vidas del papel y nunca ponen un pie en el mundo real? 1816, Villa Diodati, a las orillas del Lago Lemán: el Año sin Verano. Mientras Byron Polidori y el Sr. y la Sra. Shelley leen viejas historias e imaginan otras nuevas, todas ellas relacionadas con fantasmas. Nacido de la imaginación de los Shelley se encuentra Frankenstein, una de las historias de terror más influyentes de todos los tiempos. En una casa de una remota montaña, en lo más alto de los Alpes Franceses, un escritor se encuentra criando a la creación de los Shelley. La realidad y la percepción se unen, alimentadas por pensamientos envenenados. La humanidad crea monstruos; pero ¿quién crea a quién realmente? Este es un libro sobre la razón, la imaginación y sobre los actos relacionados con la lectura y la escritura. Una fantasmagórica novela de Marcus Sedgwick que constituye una celebración al legado de Mary Shelley. Reseñas: «Una fina y extraordinariamente bien escrita evocación sobre las fuentes más profundas del terror.» The Guardian «Una tensa y amenazadora historia de fantasmas.» The Bookseller «Ambiciosa y original.» T he Observer «El ritmo de la historia es constante y las imágenes que componen el libro ayudan a que te sientas casi tan angustiado como el propio escritor.» Alas de Sofía «Una historia diferente, original,que se adentra en el acto mismo de escribir, en la relación íntima del autor y su obra.» Anika entre libros

The Woods explores the lives of people in a small Vermont college town and its surrounding areas—a place at the edge of the bucolic, where the land begins to shift into something untamed. In the tradition of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, these stories follow people who carry private griefs but search for contentment. As they try to make sense of their worlds, grappling with problems—worried about their careers, their marriages, their children, their ambitions—they also sift through the happiness they have, and often find deep solace in the landscape. What do we find in the woods? An uplifting of spirit or a quieting of sorrow. A sense of being haunted by the past. Sometimes rougher, more violent things: abandoned quarries and feral cats, black bears, brothers caught up in an escalating war, a ghost who wishes to pass on her despair, monsters who boom with hollow ecstatic laughter. But also songbirds: the hermit thrush and the winter wren. Rushing rivers glossy with froth. A nineteenth-century inn that’s somehow gotten by all these years. And far within, a vegetal twilight and constant dusk that feels outside of time. This remarkable debut illuminates the ways we all carry within ourselves aspects stark, beautiful, wild, and unknowable.

HE was a gentleman tyrant who lived for his family-even the bastard he was forced to raise. YOU could have taken on the world with her by your side yet still you were discarded-the reek of your weakness doubtless overwhelming-and witnessing the pain she had caused only seemed to strengthen her resolve. I have always looked out for that neurotic wreck so it's a crying shame that he would rather lick his wounds in a town he despises than spend summer chasing fresh foreign flesh with his brother. More for me then, I suppose. THIS is a filthy narrative, a muddled confessional, a hate crime of passion. THIS is a darkly comic, unapologetically bitter dance between the hazards of a twisted Britain and a rose-tinted Denmark built with madness in mind-a place Englishmen needn't bring any demons of their own for there are crawling things enough, and crawl they will, ever closer. THIS is the tale of an island, two cities and the monsters we became or fell for.

An investigation into the mental health crisis affecting young adults today, and an impassioned argument for creating learning environments characterized both by compassion and challenge Alarming statistics in recent years indicate that mental health problems like depression and anxiety have been skyrocketing among youth. To identify solutions, psychologist and professor Sarah Rose Cavanagh interviews a roster of experts across the country who are dedicating their lives to working with young people to help them actualize their goals, and highlights voices of college students from a range of diverse backgrounds. Cavanagh also brings the reader on an invigorating tour of pedagogical, neuroscientific, and psychological research on mental health—one that involves her own personal journey from panic to equilibrium. The result of these combined sources of inquiry indicates that to support youth mental health, we must create what Cavanagh calls compassionate challenge—first, we need to cultivate learning and living environments characterized by compassion, and then, we need to guide our youth into practices that encourage challenge, helping them face their fears in an encouraging, safe, and even playful way. Mind over Monsters is a must-read for teachers, administrators, parents, and young people themselves.

Exploring the pedagogical power of the monstrous, this collection of new essays describes innovative teaching strategies that use our cultural fascination with monsters to enhance learning in high school and college courses. The contributors discuss the implications of inviting fearsome creatures into the classroom, showing how they work to create compelling narratives and provide students a framework for analyzing history, culture, and everyday life. Essays explore ways of using the monstrous to teach literature, film, philosophy, theater, art history, religion, foreign language, and other subjects. Some sample syllabi, assignments, and class materials are provided.

Have you ever felt uncomfortable with conflicting versions of God? Have you ever struggled with God's anger and violence?Have you ever wondered what God wants from you? If you have wrestled with any of these ideas of God, then this book is for you. Understanding God the Father is important. In fact, you cannot appreciate Jesus fully without knowing something about the nature of the Father. Nahum will require you to wade deep into some very tough issues, but it will give you the opportunity to explore who God is and what really matters to Him. God is not who you have imagined Him to be. He is more...much more.