Other books that might interest you

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  The Heart of Homestay - Creating...

  Jennifer Robin Wilson

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  Open yourself up to the homestay experience and bring the world to your family.Every year, thousands of students from around the world come to Canada, Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. for an immersive, educational experience. Helping them to get the most of their overseas adventure are the homestay families who open their hearts and homes to these students. But beyond the usual tips on meal preparation and culture shock, what does it take to have success as a homestay family? If you’re ready to ask deeper questions, this collection of stories and guidance has your answers.In The Heart of Homestay, Jennifer Robin Wilson draws on her two decades of experience working in the homestay industry to provide an honest and comprehensive portrayal of the homestay experience. By sharing real stories from a vast network of homestay families, Wilson shows the benefits of bringing an international student into your home while also being real about the challenges that can arise. From first impressions and settling in to navigating cultural differences with compassion, communicating through language barriers, and what to do when it's time to say goodbye, Wilson guides you through countless scenarios to bring you closer to the experience.No matter what stage of the homestay journey you are in, this book is a resource you will return to again and again. And you’ll learn that while there is a lot to consider when choosing to open your home to a stranger, once you do, your family will grow further abroad than you ever imagined.

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  The Power of Ritual - Turning...

  Anonymous

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  Casper ter Kuile, a Harvard Divinity School fellow and cohost of the popular Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast, explores how we can nourish our souls by transforming common, everyday practices—yoga, reading, walking the dog—into sacred rituals that can heal our crisis of social isolation and struggle to find purpose—a message we need more than ever for our spiritual and emotional well-being in the age of COVID-19. 
   
  “After half a decade of research and hundreds of conversations with people around the country, I am convinced we are in the midst of a paradigm shift. That what used to hold us in community no longer works, and that the spiritual offerings of yesteryear no longer help us thrive.”–Casper ter Kuile 
  What do Soul Cycle, gratitude journals, and tech breaks have in common? For ter Kuile they offer rituals that create the foundation for our modern spiritual lives.  
  We are in crisis today. Our modern technological society has left too many of us—no matter our ages—feeling isolated and bereft of purpose. Previous frameworks for building community and finding meaning no longer support us. Yet ter Kuile reveals a hopeful new message: we might not be religious, but that doesn’t mean we are any less spiritual.   
  Instead, we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in which we seek belonging and meaning in secular practices. Today, we find connection in:CrossFit and SoulCycle, which offer a sense of belonging rooted in accountability and support much like church groupsHarry Potter and other beloved books that offer universal lessons Gratitude journals, which have replaced traditional prayer Tech breaks, which provide mindful moments of calm  
  In The Power of Ritual, ter Kuile invites us to deepen these ordinary practices as intentional rituals that nurture connection and  wellbeing. With wisdom and endearing wit, ter Kuile’s call for ritual is ultimately a call to heal our loss of connection to ourselves, to others, and to our spiritual identities. 
  The Power of Ritual reminds us that what we already do every day matters—and has the potential to become a powerful experience of reflection, sanctuary, and meaning.

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  Maya Chronicles - A Civilization...

  P Agrawal

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.   
  Maya Chronicles: A Civilization Revealed is an in-depth exploration of the ancient Maya civilization, offering a comprehensive look at one of the most advanced and enigmatic cultures in human history. From their awe-inspiring cities like Tikal and Chichen Itza to their remarkable achievements in astronomy, mathematics, and art, this book takes readers on a journey through the Maya’s rich legacy. Through detailed chapters, it delves into the Maya's complex social structure, religious practices, and cultural contributions, while also examining the enduring mysteries that continue to captivate scholars and enthusiasts alike. 
  The book unravels the Maya’s sophisticated understanding of time, their reverence for nature, and their remarkable innovations in agriculture and architecture. It also explores the unanswered questions about their sudden city collapses, the full significance of their monumental structures, and the incomplete deciphering of their written language. In addition to presenting the Maya’s achievements, Maya Chronicles reflects on the lasting lessons this civilization offers the modern world, from sustainability and environmental stewardship to the pursuit of knowledge and the search for spiritual meaning. 
  With its scholarly yet accessible approach, Maya Chronicles: A Civilization Revealed provides a captivating narrative of a civilization that flourished for over a thousand years and whose mysteries continue to shape our understanding of human history.

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  Fourteenth Colony - The...

  Mike Bunn

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  The British colony of West Florida—which once stretched from the mighty Mississippi to the shallow bends of the Apalachicola and portions of what are now the states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana—is the forgotten fourteenth colony of America's Revolutionary era. The colony's eventful years as a part of the British Empire form an important and compelling interlude in Gulf Coast history that has for too long been overlooked. For a host of reasons, including the fact that West Florida did not rebel against the British Government, the colony has long been dismissed as a loyal but inconsequential fringe outpost, if considered at all. But the colony's history showcases a tumultuous political scene featuring a halting attempt at instituting representative government; a host of bold and colorful characters; a compelling saga of struggle and perseverance in the pursuit of financial stability; and a dramatic series of battles on land and water which brought about the end of its days under the Union Jack. In Fourteenth Colony, historian Mike Bunn offers the first comprehensive history of the colony, introducing listeners to the Gulf Coast's remarkable British period and putting West Florida back in its rightful place on the map of Colonial America.

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  Democracy Unmoored - Populism...

  Samuel Issacharoff

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  The 2016 election of Donald Trump focused people's minds on populism, and most of the attention paid to the subject since has been on the threat it poses to wealthy democracies. In Democracy Unmoored, Samuel Issacharoff takes a far wider-angle view of the phenomenon, covering countries from across the globe: Brazil, Poland, Argentina, Turkey, India, Hungary, Venezuela, and more. Just as importantly, he focuses on populism's attack on the institutions of governance. Democracy requires two critical features: first, a commitment to repeat play such that political actors understand that what goes around comes around; and, second, institutional constraints so that the majority can prevail, albeit not by too much. Democracies must avoid the doomsday scenario in which the contending parties see the next election as the final choice between salvation and perdition. Issacharoff shows how populist governance undermines each of these two critical underpinnings of stable democracy, first by compressing the time horizon to the immediate, and second by eroding institutional constraints on strongman rule. At the same time, Issacharoff highlights the fact that ascendent populists were pushing in an open door as they found democracies in states of disrepair in the post-2008 world.

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  The Most Human Right - Why Free...

  Eric Heinze

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  What are human rights? Are they laid out definitively in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the US Bill of Rights? Are they items on a checklist—dignity, justice, progress, standard of living, health care, housing? In  
  The Most Human Right, Eric Heinze explains why global human rights systems have failed. International organizations constantly report on how governments manage human goods, such as fair trials, humane conditions of detention, health  
  care, or housing. But to appease autocratic regimes, experts have ignored the primacy of free speech. Heinze argues that goods become rights only when citizens can claim them publicly and fearlessly: free speech is the fundamental  
  right, without which the very concept of a “right” makes no sense. 
   
  Heinze argues that throughout history countless systems of justice have promised human goods. What, then, makes human rights different? What must human rights have that other systems have lacked? Heinze revisits the origins of the  
  concept, exploring what it means for a nation to protect human rights, and what a citizen needs in order to pursue them. He explains how free speech distinguishes human rights from other ideas about justice, past and present.

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