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The Great Life Diet

2011-07-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

By Denny Waxman

"As a child, I refused to eat vegetables. Lettuce and tomatoes (in a sandwich) were the only exceptions. My mother was an excellent cook but I didn't appreciate her skills. Food was a problem for me. Once a week I was permitted to have dinner out with my friends. These were the meals I liked best. I ate all the junk food my body could handle. Whether consciously or not, throughout my childhood I refused vegetables completely. I would eat my mother's vegetable soup only if she strained out the vegetables. I was that bad! In light of this confession, it strikes me as highly ironic that I have spent most of my adult life trying to convince other people to eat their vegetables."

The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership

2011-06-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

By Steven B. Sample

"To a greater extent than we realize, and to far greater extent than we would ever care to admit, we are what we read."

The Hour I First Believed

2011-06-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

By Wally Lamb

"Figuring it was better if they talked with someone who could speak "medical," I had Maureen call the hospital. She tried twice but couldn't get past "Louella's resting comfortably" and "Someone from the medical team will be calling" and "Can you verify that her insurance provider is Blue Cross/Blue Shield?" And goddamnit, by the time the medical team did call, Mo'd gone out."

Thrive

2011-05-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

By Brendan Brazier

"As the body carries out normal functions such as movement and digestion, it naturally becomes increasingly acidic: Acid formation is a natural by-product of a healthy metabolism. The normal biological function becomes a problem only when an inordinate amount of food is consumed. As I mentioned earlier, nutrient-dense, high net-gain food is key. The lower the net gain of the food, the more that must be consumed to obtain all the nutrients the body needs. This leads not only to an overconsumption of empty calories but also to the digestion of more food than is necessary. The more food that passes through the system, the more acidic the body will become."

Body Eloquence

2011-05-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

By Nancy Mellon

"After the king died, his ghost haunted the castle the princess had inherited from him, threatening her every step. In her loneliness, she sent her servants out with wicker baskets in search of birds. Each morning she would cry, 'Bring more birds! I must have more birds!'"

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

2011-04-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

By Helen Simonson

"To tell Mortimer that he had never begrudged Bertie the gun had been a damn lie. Sitting on the seafront, his back pressed against the wooden slats of a park bench, the Major turned his face up to the sun. The sweater absorbed heat as efficiently as a black plastic bin liner, and it was pleasant to sit tucked away in the lee of the fisherman's black-tarred net-drying sheds, listening to the waves breaking themselves to pieces on the shingle."

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2011-04-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

By Rebecca Skloot

"I told her I was hoping to talk to David, and she asked who was calling. Rebecca, I said, afraid she'd hang up if I said anything more."

Just Kids

2011-04-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

By Patti Smith

"I needed to get another job. My friend Janet Hamill had been hired at Scribner's Bookstore, and once again, as she had done in college, she found a way of giving me a helping hand by sharing her good fortune. She spoke to here superiors, and the offered me a position. It seemed like a dream job, working in the retail store of the prestigious publisher, home to writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and their books, where paintings by Maxfield Parrish hung in the stairwell."

In Defense of Food

2010-08-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

By Michael Pollan

"So scientific eating is an old and venerable tradition in America. Here's how Harvey Levenstein sums up the quasiscientific belies that have shaped American attitudes toward food for more than a century: 'that taste is not a true guide to what should be eaten; that one should not simply eat what one enjoys; that the important components of foods cannot be seen or tasted, but are discernible only in scientific laboratories; and that experimental science has produced rules of nutrition which will prevent illness and encourage longevity.' Levenstein could be describing the main tenets of nutritionism."

Time Alive

2010-07-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

By Alexandra Stoddard

"The rooms we occupy are not still lifes. They are living, breathing spaces where we go to celebrate every day. While there will be many different rooms in ours lives, each one we feel comforable in and enjoy living in will have a great deal of influence on our mood and outlook."

The Book Thief

2010-07-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

By Markus Zusak

"As they walked back to Himmel Street, Rudy forewarned her. 'One day, Liesel,' he said, 'you'll be dying to kiss me.'"

Sh*t My Dad Says

2010-07-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

By Justin Halpern

"My dad has always valued education and hard work. 'If you work hard and study hard and study hard, and you fuck up, that's okay. If you fuck up and you fuck up, then you're a fuck up,' he's said to me on more than one occasion. But there are a lot of other factors besides effort that go into a successful and enjoyable school experience. Probably the most important one is how you fit in socially. "

Prescriptions For Natural Healing

2010-05-20T07:55:00.000-07:00

By Phyllis A. Balch, CNC

"Many cases of carnitine deficiency have been identified as partly generic in origin, resulting from an inherited defect in carnitine synthesis. Possible symptoms of deficiency include confusion, heart pain, muscle weakness, and obesity."

Tropic of Cancer

2010-05-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

By Henry Miller

"Easter came in like a frozen hare - but it was fairly warm in bed. Today it is lovely again and along the Champs-Elysees at twilight it is like an outdoor seraglio choked with dark-eyed houris. The trees are in full foliage and of a verdure so pure, so rich, that it see,s as tough they are still wet and glistening with dew. From the Palais du Louvre to the Etoile it is like a piece of music for the pianoforte. Tor five days I have not touched the typewriter nor looked at a book; nor have I had a single idea in my head except to go to the American Express. At nine this morning I was there, just as the doors were being opened, and again at one o'clock. No news. At four-thirty I dash out of the hotel, resolve to make a last minute stab at it. just as i turn the corner I brush against Walter Pach. Since he doesn't recognize me, and since I have nothing to say to him, I make no attempt to arrest him. Later, when I am stretching legs in the Tuileries his figure reverts to mind. He was a little stooped, pensive, with a sort of serene yet reserved smile on his face. I wonder, as I look up at this softly enameled sky, so faintly tinted, which does not bulge today with heavy rain clouds but smiles like a piece of old china, I wonder what goes on in the mind of this man who translated the four thick volumes of the History of Art when he takes his blissful cosmos with his drooping eye."

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

2010-04-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

"I want to find some travel or history books about the Channel Islands too. Is it really true that on a clear day, you can see the cars on the French coast roads? So it says in my Encyclopedia, but I bought it secondhand for 4 shillings and I don't trust it. There I also learned that Guernsey is 'roughly seven miles long and five miles wide, with a population of 42,000 inhabitants.' Strictly speaking, very informative, but I want to know more than that."

The Detox Strategy

2010-03-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

By Brenda Watson

"While allergic reaction to mold (experienced by one in three people) is the most common health problem associated with exposure, many symptoms (either alone or in combination) may also result."

The Secret

2010-03-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

By Rhonda Byrne

"Action is a word that can imply "work" to some people, but inspired action will not feel like work at all. The difference between inspired action and action is this: Inspired action is when you are acting to receive. If you are in action to try and make it happen, you have slipped backward. Inspired action is effortless, and it feels wonderful because you are on the frequency of receiving."

The Agenda

2010-03-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

By Bob Woodward

"The morning of October 4, 1992, Clinton called Stephanopoulos into his suite at the Grand Hotel in Washington. Clinton was grumpy. He was scheduled to travel to North Carolina to deliver a speech on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)."

The Alchemist

2010-03-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

By Paulo Coelho

"All who went there were happy at having done so. They placed the symbols of the pilgrimage on the doors of their houses. One of them, a cobbler who made his living mending boots, said that he had traveled for almost a year through the desert, but that he got more tired when he head to walk through the streets of Tangier buying his leather."

Just a Couple of Days

2010-03-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

By Tony Vigorito

"Sophia and Blip had already been dancing together for five years when I first met them ten years ago, but they got married (or merried, as they insisted) only eight years ago. They made certain, however, that their wedding guests understood that they were not about to start counting their anniversaries all over again."

B is for Beer

2010-02-23T13:40:00.000-08:00

By Tom Robbins

"Costa Rica is downstairs from Mexico. With your mother's help, you can locate it in Volume C of that old encyclopedia that used to provide your bedtime stories. What the map won't tell you is that Costa Rica has done more to preserve its natural environment than any country on Earth, and that it has no army. No navy. No air force. It's hard to believe, isn't it, that any modern government could be that enlightened or any modern population that civilized? Since their government also guarantees free health care, and since it's reasonable to assume they aren't tying their shoes too tight down there, Madeline's business prospects may be limited, but, hey,it's personal freedom not hundred dollar bills that lights the soul's cigar, and I hope they're teaching you that in kindergarten."

Your Face Never Lies

2010-02-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

By Michio Kushi

"In addition to points on the meridians we can look for areas where there is swelling or stiffness, discoloration or excessive body hair. Some of these areas are on the meridians, some lie over the organs themselves. The following two drawings show several such areas on the front and back of the body."

Paths of Desire

2010-02-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

By Dominique Browning

" Leonard and I were walking through the yard early one morning at the beginning of winter, reviewing the possibilities ahead one last time before the cold settled in seriously. His crew had delivered enough firewood to see me trough the Ice Age. I was (of course) adding to our book-length list of what would go where, haggling over what to keep, what to transplant. We had started laying out the outlines of the new beds with colorful cords I had bought at the hardware store. With every walk-through, the shapes of the beds changed, but I knew I had the Winter of Last Dayreams ahead of me to mull it all over. Leonard was fun to talk to. He was entering a boyish middle-age; he was overstressed; and, as he constantly told me, the demands of the business were taking a toll on his wife, and on his heart. (Why do men worry so about their hearts? They all do, even twelve-year-old men -- their hearts and their knees.)"

Lost Horizon

2010-02-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

By James Hilton

"Conway said quietly: 'If you'd had all the experiences I've had, you'd know that there are times in life when the most comfortable thing to do is nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen, The war was rather like that. One is fortunate if, as on this occasion, a touch of novelty seasons the unpleasantness.'"

Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead

2009-09-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

By Cassandra Danz

"His mother's flowery mead was so successful, he turned much of what was a formal English lawn into meadow as well. Instead of resting solidly on perfectly manicured greensward, a series of topiary sculptures now seem to float to a waving sea of color and undulating grass."

101 Commonsense Rules For The Office

2009-09-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

By John R. Brinkerhoff

"There are circumstances in which it is better to do something by yourself rather than wait for help. Perhaps time pressure is intense or there is a good chance the help will be late, insincere , or inadequate. Maybe you have a great stake in the project. If you really love it and have confidence in yourself, go head. Take a chance. Don' wait for help."

The Works of Plato

2009-09-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Edited by Irwin Edman

"Euthyphro. I quite remember."

The Assalt on Reason

2009-09-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

By Al Gore

"The following week, in addressing a joint session of Congress, Bush said god had foreordained the outcome of the conflict in which we were engaged because "freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them."

The Curious Gardener's Almanac

2009-08-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

By Niall Edworthy

"Pea and Mint Soup

Plain boiled or steamed peas are a simple and tasty accompaniment to many meat and fish dishes, but it is almost as easy to make a delicious soup from them. Boil about a pound of freshly podded peas in about a quart of vegetable or chicken stock along with a largish potato and an onion, both chopped roughly. When the ingredients have softened, whiz them in a blender and then return the mixture to the pan and stir in some cream and a small handful f chopped mint."

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2009-08-26T17:57:00.001-07:00

By Stieg Larsson

"I can only guess. Blomkvist believed in his story, but something happened along the way and the information turned out to be false. This in turn means that the source was someone he trusted or that someone deliberately fed him false information-which sounds improbably complicated. The alternative is that he was subjected to such a serious threat that he threw in the towel and would rather be seen as an incompetent idiot than fight back, But I'm just speculating, as I said."

Managing By Storying Around

2009-08-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

By David M. Armstrong

"All companies go through tough times, and Armstrong, unfortunately is no exception. In 1987, for the first time since the Depression, we put a wage freeze into effect to help us get through what looked like it would be a very difficult year."

The Hobbit

2009-08-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

By J. R. Tolkien

"It seemed quite a fair size, but not too large and mysterious. It had a dry floor and some comfortable nooks. At one end there was room for the ponies; and there they stood (mighty glad of the change) steaming, and champing in their nosebags. Oin and Gloin wanted to light a fire at the door to dry their clothes, but Gandalf would not hear of it. So they spread out their wet things on the floor, and got dry ones out of their bundles; then they made their blankets comfortable, got out their pipes and blew smoke rings, which Gandalf turned into different colours and set dancing up by the roof to amuse them. They talked and talked, and forgot about the storm, and discussed what each would do with his share of the treasure (when they got it, which at the moment did not seem so impossible); and so they dropped off to sleep one by one. And that was the last time that they used the ponies, packages, baggages, tools and paraphernalia that they had brought with them."

Quest For The Best

2009-08-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

By Stanley Marcus

"It is reported that Renoir once said to Cezanne, "How can you wear that cravat? Can't you see it's in bad taste?" to which Cezanne replied, "If it were in bad taste, I wouldn't be wearing it"."

The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health

2009-08-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

By Michio Kushi and Alex Jack

"The roots of macrobiotics stretch back in time. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates coined the term makrobios to refer to longevity and health. To understand why he was known as the Father of Medicine, we have to go back and look at the worldview that prevailed in that era. People commonly believed that health and sickness, life and death, fortune and misfortune, were governed by the gods. The gods and goddesses including Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Hermes, Apollo, and many other, were believed to live on Mount Olympus in northern Greece. The common view was that if you went to temple, prayed, and sacrificed, the gods would bestow upon you long life (makrobios), health, wealth, prosperity, many children, and all the blessings of life. Conversely, if you didn't go to church, light incense, burn candles, or carry out the rituals of that time, the gods would send you short life (mikrobios), sickness, accident, plague, sterility, misfortune, and disaster. Throughout the ancient world, people believed that what little influence, if any, we had on health and sickness, life and destiny, was through religious faith and practice.

Animal Farm

2009-08-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

By George Orwell

"Nevertheless, they were both thoroughly frightened by the Rebellion on Animal Farm, and very anxious to prevent their own animals from learning too much about it. At first they pretended to laugh to scorn the idea of animals managing a farm for themselves. The whole thing would be over in a fortnight, they said. They put it about that the animals on the Manor Farm (they insisted on calling it the Manor Farm; they would not tolerate the name "Animal Farm") were perpetually fighting among themselves and were rapidly starving to death. When time passed and the animals had evidently not starved to death, Frederick and Pilkington changed their tune and began to talk of the terrible wickedness that now flourished on Animal Farm. It was given out that the animals there practiced cannibalism, tortured on another with red hot horseshoes, and had their females in common. This was what came of rebelling against the laws of Nature, Frederick and Pilkington said."

The Last Lecture

2009-08-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

By Randy Pausch

"III
Adventures...
And Lessons Learned"

(Chapter title page)

The Time Traveler's Wife

2009-08-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

By Audrey Niffenegger

"It's late Sunday morning. I can hear the bells ringing at St. Joes's. Dad came home late last night: I think he must have stopped at the Exchequer after the concert; he was so drunk he fell down on the stairs and I had to haul him into the apartment and put him to bed. He coughs and I hear him messing around in the kitchen."

Second Nature

2009-08-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

By Michael Pollan

"Nowhere in the world are lawns as prized as in America. In little more than a century, we've rolled a green mantle of it across the continent, with scant thought to the local conditions or expense. America has some 50,000 square miles of lawn under cultivation, on which we spend an estimated $30 billion a year-this according to the Lawn Institute, a Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, outfit devote to publicizing the benefits of turf to Americans (surely a case of preaching to the converted). Like the interstate highway system, like fast-food chains, like television, the lawn has served to unify the American landscape; it is what makes the suburbs of Cleveland and Tucson, the streets of Eugene and Tampa, look more alike than not. According to Ann Leighton, the late historian of gardens, America has made essentially one important contribution to world garden design: the custom of "uniting the front lawns of however many houses there may be on both sides of a street to present an untroubled aspect of expansive green to the passerby." France has its formal, geometric gardens, England its picturesque parks, and America this unbounded democratic river of manicured lawn along which we array our houses."

The Savage Garden

2009-08-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

By Peter D'Amoto

"After winter, when the last of the severe frost dangers are over, the coverings can be removed. Some plants that do not form true winter resting buds, such as the short-lived Drosera capillaris or Pinguicula lusitianica, will probably have died off. Such varieties usually return from, or cn be reintroduced by, seed from a previous season."

Under The Grammar Hammer

2009-08-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

By Douglas Cazort

"Bad Swing: I was walking through Disneyland when I feel the pavement start shaking under my feet.

Direct Hit: I was walking through Disneyland when I felt the pavement start shaking under my feet.

In the last example, since you were walking through Disneyland sometime in the past, you also felt the pavement shaking in the past."

How To Expand Love

2009-08-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Having understood the kindness of your prime nurturer in this lifetime, extend this felt understanding gradually to other friends. Think about how when they were your mother or best of friends, they protected you with great kindness, just as your prime nurturer has done. Reflect slowly and carefully about their kindness, starting with your next slosest friend and considering, as you did above:

This person was my mother many times over the continuum of lives. even in just this lifetime, she has bestowed on me a body that supports an auspicious life through which I am able to progress spiritually. She sustained me in her womb for nine months, during which she could not behave as she wished but had to pay special attention to this burden that she carried in her body, making it heavy and difficult to move about. even though my movements would cause her pain, she would take delight in them, thinking how strong her child was, rather than becoming angry and concentrating on her pain. Her sense of closeness and dearness was great."

The Last Days Of Old Beijing

2009-08-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

By Michael Meyer

"Old city neighborhood were not immune from Olympic plans, however. A 2005 report authored by a leading government think tank titled the Investigation of Urban Corners in Beijing said, "In order to implement the mighty philosophy of 'New Beijing, New Olympics' in citing planning, we cannot ignore and must solve the urban corner problem." The term was a euphemism for slum. The report's title page contained one photo. It wasn't of a courtyard home or hutong, but New York city's Chrysler Building."

A Prayer For Owen Meany

2009-08-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

by John Irving

"But every time we rode the train to Sawyer Depot, my mother and I weighed the advantages of sitting on the left-hand side of the train so that we could see Mt. Chocorua - or on the right-hand side of the train, so that we could see Ossipee Lake. Chocorua was our first indication of how much snow there would be where we were going but there's more visible activity around a lake than there is on a mountian-and so we would sometimes "opt for Ossipee," as Mother and I described our decision. We also played a game that involved guessing where everyone was going to get off, and I always ate too many of those little tea sandwiches that they served on board, the kind with the crusts cut off; this overeating served to justify my inevitable trip to the lurching pit with the railroad ties going by underneath me, in a blur, and the whoosh of the rank air the blew upward on my bare bottom."