Thrilled To Death

A fascinating exploration of the profound loss of pleasure in our daily lives and the seven steps for restoring it. Pleasure. We know what it feels like and many of us spend our days trying to experience it. But can too much pleasure actually be bad for us? Yes, says Dr. Archibald Hart, clinical psychologist and expert in behavorial psychology. Backed by recent brain-imaging research, Dr. Hart shares that to some extent, our pursuit of extreme and overstimulating thrills hijacks our pleasure system and robs us of our ability to experience pleasure in simple things. We are literally being thrilled to death. In this insightful book, Dr. Hart explores the stark rise in a phenomenon known as anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure or happiness. Previously linked only to serious emotional disorders, anhedonia is now seen as a contributing factor in depression (specifically nonsadness depression) and in the growing number of people who complain of profound boredom. This emotional numbness and loss of joy are results of the overuse of our brain's pleasure circuits. In Thrilled to Death, Dr. Hart explains the processes of the brain's pleasure center, the damaging trends of overindulgence and overstimulation, the signs and problems of anhedonia, and the seven important steps we must take to recover our wonderful joy in living.

On the surface, Samantha Shaw's life looks pretty good--she has a hot boyfriend, private investigator Gabe Pulizzi, and her own business, Heart Mates Dating Service. But raising two boys and keeping track of her ornery magician grandfather is tricky business. . .especially when you add murder to the mix. . .. Knocking down the wall between Samantha Shaw's dating service, Heart Mates, and her boyfriend Gabe Pulizzi's P.I. office seemed like a good idea. The construction dust is causing chaos, but the real trouble is how Sam's going to handle her two sons, her grandfather, her business, and training for her P.I. license--and squeeze in a relationship with Gabe at the same time. She hasn't even begun to figure it out when her grandfather, Barney Webb, winds up in trouble of his own--he's been accused by arrogant magician Shane Masters of hiring a hit man to kill him. Sam knows it can't be true, despite Shane's practice of exposing other illusionists' secrets in a series of popular "spoiler" shows. Proving Grandpa's innocence is priority number one, even though the old man is strangely resistant to her offers to get to the bottom of Shane's accusation. Then Grandpa's protégé Fletch Knight shows up in Lake Elsinore, asking Barney to help him videotape backdrops for his upcoming performance at the House of Magic. Sam thinks Barney should be focusing on clearing his name, but she doesn't have much time to push the issue since she's just landed a new case--discovering which magician's secrets Shane will expose for Shane's ex, Nikki Eden, whose high-concept illusions depend on secrecy. With another of Grandpa's former students in town, and Gabe's troubled brother arriving unexpectedly, Sam is up to her ears in sleight of hand and whispered secrets when Shane Masters' murdered body suddenly appears. Detective Logan Vance, Sam's police connection, is furious that she's withheld information. With so many balls in the air, Sam is tempted to throw in the towel and take up juggling, but finding a killer comes first. There's no shortage of suspects, but with Sam's own life at stake--again!--figuring out whodunit is going to be the most spectacular trick of all. . .

Buckle your seatbelts for three high-flying aviation thrillers—written by experienced pilots including a New York Times–bestselling author. Lockout Whoever has electronically disconnected the flight controls of Pangia Flight 10 as it streaks toward the volatile Middle East may be trying to provoke a nuclear war. With time and fuel running out, the pilots are forced to put animosities aside and risk everything to wrest control from the electronic ghost holding them on a course to disaster. “A wild ride through the night sky.” —Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Paper Wings When a boat is found adrift off Fort Lauderdale, the investigation leads to more than murder—the evidence points to an “accident” that downed a passenger jet in Bermuda. Capt. Hart Lindy’s role in the NTSB investigation puts him on a flight path to danger trying to determine what really happened to Flight 63. “A masterful melange of deadly mysteries and desperate acts.” —John J. Nance, New York Times–bestselling author The Strait Upon learning that Swede Bergstrom, the hero who saved his life, has been killed during the commission of a crime, pilot Jake Silver agrees to follow Swede’s mysterious and beautiful sister, Christina, on a search to clear her brother’s name. Their odyssey will take them into the heart of darkness itself, dodging death every step of the way . . . “The Strait interrupted my normal sleep cycle . . . a page-turner for sure.” —Donald J. Porter, aviation historian and author of Flight Failure

When man plays god, evil follows in these three sci-fi fantasy thrillers by the international bestselling author whose “pacing is nonstop” (Publishers Weekly, on Hunter). Hunter Scientists have accidentally tapped into the deepest recesses of the human mind—and unleash a terrifying force. Now, with an infected creature is loose in the Alaskan wilderness, the America military asks expert tracker Nathaniel Hunter to locate the beast before it destroys mankind. Cain A top-secret project brings CIA hit man Roth Tiberius Cain back to life as the ultimate predator. But this killing machine has the soul of a devil. Now the only chance of stopping him rests with a soldier who lost his family, a priest who lost his faith, and the beautiful scientist who created Cain and then lost control of him. Leviathan On an Icelandic Island, an illegal biological weapons experiment has transformed an innocent creature into the biblical Leviathan that once terrorized the world. Escaped from its pen, Leviathan is loose in a vast underground chamber—and if it reaches the surface, it could destroy the world. And a lone electrical engineer must find a way to save his family and kill this powerful Beast of Legend.

Having a good death is our final human right, argues Sandra Martin in this updated and expanded version of her bestselling and award-winning social history of the right to die movement in Canada and around the world. Winner of the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, finalist for both the Donner Prize in Public Policy and the Dafoe Prize for History, A Good Death has a new chapter on Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Law. The law allows mentally competent adults, who are suffering grievously from incurable conditions, to ask for a doctor’s help in ending their lives. Does the law go far enough? No, says Martin. She delivers compelling stories about the patients the law ignores: people with life-crushing diseases who are condemned to suffer because their natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. With a clear analytical eye, she exposes the law’s shortcomings and outlines constitutional challenges, including the presumed right of publicly-funded faith-based institutions to deny suffering patients a legal medical service. Martin argues that Canada can set an example for the world if it can strike a balance between compassion for the suffering and protection of the vulnerable, between individual choice and social responsibility. A Good Death asks the tough question none of us can avoid: How do you want to die? The answer will change your life—and your death. “[An] excellent new book. . . .The timeliness is hard to overstate.” —The Globe and Mail “What truly distinguishes this book is the reportage on individuals and families who have fought to arrange for a better death. . . . These first-hand experiences are the beating heart of a timely and powerful examination.” —2017 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction Jury Citation

Nearly three million copies of Ruth Ware’s books sold worldwide. The highly anticipated fourth novel from Ruth Ware, The Globe and Mail and New York Times bestselling author of the In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game. Harriet Westaway—better known as Hal—makes ends meet as a tarot reader, but she doesn’t believe in the power of her trade. On a day that begins like any other, she receives a mysterious and unexpected letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but she also knows that she can use her cold-reading skills to potentially claim the money. Hal attends the funeral of the deceased and meets the family...but it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and that the inheritance is at the center of it. Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, this is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas delves into the world of virtual reality gaming to stop a sadistic killer in this In Death novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author J. D. Robb. They died with smiles on their faces. Three apparent suicides: a brilliant engineer, an infamous lawyer, and a controversial politician. Three strangers with nothing in common—and no obvious reasons for killing themselves. Police lieutenant Eve Dallas finds the deaths suspicious. And her instincts pay off when autopsies reveal small burns on the brains of the victims. Was it a genetic abnormality or a high-tech method of murder? Eve’s investigation turns to the provocative world of virtual reality games—where the same techniques used to create joy and desire can also prompt the mind to become the weapon of its own destruction...

In what promises to be a breakout in Charles Finch's bestselling series, Charles Lenox travels to the New York and Newport of the dawning Gilded Age to investigate the death of a beautiful socialite. London, 1878. With faith in Scotland Yard shattered after a damning corruption investigation, Charles Lenox's detective agency is rapidly expanding. The gentleman sleuth has all the work he can handle, two children, and an intriguing new murder case. But when Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli offers him the opportunity to undertake a diplomatic mission for the Queen, Lenox welcomes the chance to satisfy an unfulfilled yearning: to travel to America. Arriving in New York, he begins to receive introductions into both its old Knickerbocker society and its new robber baron splendor. Then, a shock: the death of the season's most beautiful debutante, who appears to have thrown herself from a cliff. Or was it murder? Lenox’s reputation has preceded him to the States, and he is summoned to a magnificent Newport mansion to investigate the mysterious death. What ensues is a fiendish game of cat and mouse. Witty, complex, and tender, An Extravagant Death is Charles Finch's triumphant return to the main storyline of his beloved Charles Lenox series—a devilish mystery, a social drama, and an unforgettable first trip for an Englishman coming to America.