Wonders Of The Heart

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON And Spring had just arrived in Chad Alexander's household. Namely, Spring Barbour, an effervescent young woman who brought a breath of fresh air to the jaded businessman's world—along with a storm of temptation…. A TIME TO HEAL Officially, Spring was under Chad's roof for one purpose: to look after his orphaned kid sister. But as she sensed the anguish in her handsome employer's lonely heart, she suspected the Lord had another plan…. A TIME TO LOVE Until Spring came along, Chad's life was about work and worry. Now it was bursting with so much more: faith, laughter—even hope that he might build a future with the woman who had changed everything….

Hidden Wonders of the Human Heart is an intimate guide to ways of seeing which help us reveal what is stirring in our hearts. It unveils a source of hidden wisdom in each of us, a vital realm alive with the possibility of new beginnings.

Can your whole life change in a single day? Emily dreams of birds. She feels constrained by nearly everything—her overbearing sisters, the expectation to be a proper young lady, and even her stiff white pinafore. Kitty feels undone. Her heart is still grieving a tragic loss, and she doesn’t want to be sent away to a boarding school so far away from home. When the two girls meet by chance, on a beach on the outskirts of Victoria, BC, in 1881, neither knows that their one day together will change their lives forever. Inspired by the childhood of acclaimed Canadian artist Emily Carr, A Day of Signs and Wonders is a sensitive and insightful look at friendship, family, and the foundations of an artist, drawn over the course of a single day—a day in which a comet appears, an artist is born and an aching hole in one girl’s heart begins to heal.

“A poet celebrates the wonders of nature in a collection of essays that could almost serve as a coming-of-age memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape—she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance. “What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts. Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy. Praise for World of Wonders Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year An NPR Best Book of 2020 An Esquire Best Book of 2020 A Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book of Fall 2020” A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020 “Hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year.” —NPR “A timely story about love, identity and belonging.” —New York Times Book Review “A truly wonderous essay collection.” —Roxane Gay, The Audacity

Hidden Wonders of the Human Heart is a moving testament to ways of seeing which reveal the tender wisdom that stirs in our hearts in times of change and sorrow. Drawing on eight true stories of revelation and renewal from her psychotherapy practice, Susan Holliday invites us to see the ecology of our hearts as a vital realm alive with the possibility of new beginnings. The cultivation of insight has never been more urgent. We live in a world awash with glances, swipes and clicks. The intimate truth of our hearts is increasingly veiled behind categories and labels that merely codify how we feel. If we are to appreciate the wonders at play in the depths of our human nature, we need to learn how to see ourselves through a more creative vision. Weaving compelling storytelling with insight from poets, artists and musicians, Hidden Wonders of the Human Heart takes its place alongside popular nonfiction titles that explore how we can enrich everyday experience, by listening, feeling and seeing more deeply.

From typographic illustrator Marian Bantjes, I Wonder will make you think in new ways about art, design, beauty, and popular culture. This unique presentation features the elaborately crafted word pictures of Marian Bantjes, the most inventive and creative typographic illustrator of our time. Whether intricately hand-drawn or using computer illustration software, Bantjes's work crosses the boundaries of time, style, and technology. There is, however, another side to Bantjes's visual work: her thoughtful treatises on art, design, beauty, and popular culture that add a deeper dimension to the decorative nature of her best-known work. These reflections cover the cult of Santa, road-side advertising, photography and memory, the alphabet's letterforms, heraldry, and stars. Bantjes's writing style ranges from the playful to the confrontational, but it is always imbued with perspicacity, insight, and a sense of fun. Intended to inspire creatives of any persuasion, this is more than a collection of ideas: Bantjes has meticulously illustrated every page of the book in her inimitable style to create an accessible work of art that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Quirky, poignant, astute, funny--this beautiful book presents a compelling collection of observations on visual culture and design. In Stefan Sagmeister's telling words, Bantjes's work is his "favorite example of beauty facilitating the communication of meaning." This paperback edition is expanded with a new essay from the author.