The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World

By Lewis Hyde

A modern classic cherished by many of the greatest artists of our time, The Gift is a brilliant, life-changing defense of the value of creative labor.

Drawing on examples from folklore and literature, history and tribal customs, economics and modern copyright law, Lewis Hyde demonstrates how our society—governed by the marketplace—is poorly equipped to determine the worth of artists’ work. He shows us that another way is possible: the alternative economy of The Gift, which allows creations and ideas to circulate freely, rather than hoarding them as commodities.

Illuminating and transformative, The Gift is a triumph of originality and insight—an essential book for anyone who has ever given or received a work of art.

 

Older, but Better, but Older: From the Authors of How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are

By Caroline De Maigret, Sophie Mas

From the bestselling authors of How to be Parisian, what smart, savvy, fabulous French women think, feel and advise as they hit forty on life, love, and everything else

Older, but Better, but Older has the playful wit, self deprecation and worldly advice we have come to expect from these bestselling authors, but now that advice is focused on the French woman’s mindset as she hurtles towards forty. Caroline de Maigret and Sophie Mas are back to amuse you with how they find they are modifying their favorite bad-girl behavior as they address beauty, love, seduction as well as lifestyle, family, work, and living alone.

They are still bohemian iconoclasts saying what you don’t expect to hear. They will tell you things aren’t what they used to be–when a thirty-year-old guy arrives at a party and does not even glance at you; when you wake up feeling great and everyone tells you how tired you look; you know you’re an adult when you’re excited just to go home.
Neuroses vs. confidence, resistance vs. acceptance, passion vs. serenity, de Maigret and Mas through spirited short stories capture the different stages of ageing–as nostalgic but modern Parisian women. From the privately absurd to the strangely universal, this book captures moments of everyday life that will make the reader nod, cringe, and laugh out loud.

 

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

By James Nestor

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.

There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

 

The Greatest Secret (The Secret)

By Rhonda Byrne

From Rhonda Byrne, the author of the worldwide phenomenon The Secret, comes The Greatest Secret—a long-awaited major new work that offers revelations and practices to end suffering and discover lasting happiness.

Ancient traditions knew that to hide a secret it should be put in plain sight, where no-one will think to look for it. Billions of people on our planet have searched—but few have discovered the truth. Those few are completely free from negativity and live in permanent peace and happiness.

For the rest of us, whether we realize it or not, we’ve been in search of this truth unceasingly every single day of our lives. What secret can possibly be so life changing? What single discovery offers a direct path to end suffering and to live a life of deep joy?

The Greatest Secret is a quantum leap that will take the reader beyond the material world and into the spiritual realm, where all possibilities exist.

 

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