![]() ![]() ![]() And, each in its own way, the stories prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new heights of beauty, meaning, and compassion. ![]() The story is understated, quiet and humble, but is exciting and touching at the same time. Also included are two brand-new stories: "Omphalos" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom."In this fantastical and elegant collection, Ted Chiang wrestles with the oldest questions on earth-What is the nature of the universe? What does it mean to be human?-and ones that no one else has even imagined. Ted Chiang's longest work to date, The Lifecycle of Software Objects, is a fascinating story that takes a bit of a new look at how an artificial intelligence might develop. ![]() And in "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being. In the epistolary "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people, but for all of reality. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and the temptation of second chances. “From an award-winning science fiction writer (whose short story "The Story of Your Life" was the basis for the Academy Award-nominated movieArrival), the long-awaited new collection of stunningly original, humane, and already celebrated short storiesThis much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. ![]()
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![]() ![]() The program is offered during a period of 1 to 3 days. The program helps teams understand how, as a team, they score on the key components of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team model: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results. The ultimate goal of building greater trust, conflict, commitment, and accountability is one thing: the achievement of results. When everyone is committed to a clear plan of action, they will be more willing to hold one another accountable. When team members are able to offer opinions and debate ideas, they will be more likely to commit to decisions. ![]() When there is trust, team members are able to engage in unfiltered, constructive debate of ideas. When team members are genuinely transparent and honest with one another, they are able to build vulnerability-based trust. The single most untapped competitive advantage is teamwork. The Five Dysfunctions of Team is a learning experience that helps individuals and organizations understand and reveal what it takes to build a truly cohesive and effective team in the most approachable, competent, and effective way possible. ![]() ![]() ![]() To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. With their control of the orbitals, there's no way to win and earth's governments have accepted the status quo. Since then, they've held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. ![]() When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief. ![]() When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar system, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. Beginning a New Series by a New York Times Best-Selling Author.Will the People of Earth Bow Down toAlien Overlords-or Will They Live Free or Die? ![]() ![]() ![]() “I know you’re there, Helen,” Mommy said. There was music playing on a stereo inside, and the voice of someone on the phone. She went to the apartment door and listened. Mommy stepped past them and walked through a haze of reefer smoke and took the elevator to the eighth floor. Nicholas Avenue, with junkies and winos standing out front. It was a dilapidated housing project near St. Mommy got the address and went to the place herself. She told Ma she didn’t know much about the lady other than that she wore a lot of scarves and used incense. ![]() She’s living with some crazy woman,” Jack said. Weeks passed, months, and Helen didn’t return. ![]() He was an old-timer who called school “schoolin”’ and called me “boy.” He had run off from Jim Crow in the South and felt that education, any education, was a privilege. They spoke a completely different language. “It’ll work out.” He had no idea what to do about Helen. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() However, suicidal ideation is not a brand or a label, it is a sign that an individual is suffering deeply and must seek treatment. Unfortunately, our society often paints suicide the way they would a prison sentence-a permanent situation that brands an individual. Within the past year, about 41,000 individuals died by suicide, 1.3 million adults have attempted suicide, 2.7 million adults have had a plan to attempt suicide and 9.3 million adults have had suicidal thoughts. ![]() You can also get crisis text support via the Crisis Text Line by texting NAMI to 741741. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health, suicide or substance use crisis or emotional distress, reach out 24/7 to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) by dialing or texting 988 or using chat services at to connect to a trained crisis counselor. ![]() ![]() ![]() Brubaker brings the romanticism of Michael Mann, with Ethan and Linh flirting over drinks or taking night-time strolls on the beach, allowing Ethan relief from his self-isolated environment. This case leads to Ethan meeting fiery librarian Linh Tran, whom he falls for. His nostalgia makes Ethan almost feel sorry for one mark he tracks down, who faked his suicide only to Xerox his old life, trying to find “some lost moment where it all felt right, and just wrap it around. ![]() But even back then Ethan, coping with the death of his estranged father, was withdrawing into the past, indulging in 16mm episodes of old TV shows in his cinema/headquarters. ![]() Friend of the Devil is still set in the mid-80s, but Ethan’s narration makes it clear he’s looking back from the present, distanced and hardened by his memory. The digital device feels so jarring in this analogue world, where Ethan scrolls through periodical on a microfiche reader and lives off-the-grid as an unlicensed helper paid in cash (or “a private eye who doesn’t pay taxes”). The most surprising thing in Friend of the Devil – the brilliant new entry in Ed Brubaker, and Sean and Jacob Phillips’ Reckless series – is when Ethan Reckless mentions laptops. ![]() ![]() ![]() Desperate to save her brother, Kaya will do anything to make it to Prima, including story magic. When Hob is taken prisoner in Prima, the faraway capital city, Kaya is convinced it's her fault, either because someone discovered what she was doing or because the bad luck has found her. Although Kaya knows the risks, she attempts a little story magic to impress Hob. ![]() ![]() If the listener is pleased and likes the story, it will allow the storyteller to work magic. The trick is to sense a listener, one of the magical beings that inhabit the world, and tell it a story. Everyone knows this, but that doesn't stop twelve-year-old Kaya A'Dor from learning the basics from her older brother Hob. Girls are forbidden to practice story magic. Twelve-year-old Kaya must harness the power of story magic - ignoring her society's bias against female magic wielders and her own internalised fear that her magic will cause bad luck - to save her brother and find herself. ![]() ![]() Having lived in a world full, according to her mother, of 'beautiful men', she has found that in death it is the women she falls for, their beauty she cannot turn away from, and it is the women and girls who, over her centuries in the village and at the monastery, she has sought to protect from the attentions of men with what little power she has. Blanca's was a life cut short and she is outraged. Witness to this tumultuous arrival is Blanca, the ghost of a teenage girl who has been at the monastery for over three hundred years. They are there to create and to convalesce, to live a simple life after the wildness of their Paris days. In 1838 Frederic Chopin, George Sand and her children travel to a monastery in Mallorca. 'A gorgeous, wildly seductive novel, shimmering with intelligence, humour and joy' - Sarah Waters ![]() ![]() ![]() Gril comes back with shocking news, and it soon becomes clear that Orin has also vanished. Beth stays with him while Orin hurries to town for help, but it’s not Orin who returns. When they reach the cabin, the old man is alive, but not in the best shape. ![]() Beth Rivers sets off with her friend Orin and dog Gus, toward the cabin of an elderly resident, intending to check on him. At the end of each brutal winter, citizens gather downtown and then break into groups to search the community for those who might have somehow gotten stuck at home. ![]() It’s springtime in Benedict, Alaska, and with the warmer weather comes an unseasonably somber local tradition.the annual Death Walk. The fourth installment in the gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series, Paige Shelton's Winter's End. ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. (glossary, author’s note, bibliography) (Fiction. ![]() Readers will cheer as the truth sets Rachel free, and as she, against all odds, becomes a doctor and returns to Africa to rebuild the hospital where her father healed patients before her. Though it bogs down with the rehashing of Rachel’s internal dilemmas and in African animal metaphors, the story remains irresistible in a The Prince and the Pauper or The Secret Garden sort of way. The up-until-now somber novel blooms as the orphaned Rachel shares her newfound grandfather’s passion for bird watching and bonds with him despite her reluctant impersonation. ![]() In this satisfying story set in the early 20th century, the money-grubbing Pritchards swap the unassuming 13-year-old Rachel for their spoiled daughter Valerie when Valerie dies, manipulating her into traveling to England to pose as the rich, elderly Mr. Little does she suspect that the loss of her own British missionary parents to influenza will leave her to the wicked clutches of the neighboring Pritchards. Raised in British East Africa, Rachel knows well that when parents die, their young are vulnerable to attack. ![]() |