After Life

Life is one of our most basic concepts, and yet when examined directly it proves remarkably contradictory and elusive, encompassing both the broadest and the most specific phenomena. We can see this uncertainty about life in our habit of approaching it as something at once scientific and mystical, in the return of vitalisms of all types, and in the pervasive politicization of life. In short, life seems everywhere at stake and yet is nowhere the same. In After Life, Eugene Thacker clears the ground for a new philosophy of life by recovering the twists and turns in its philosophical history. Beginning with Aristotle’s originary formulation of a philosophy of life, Thacker examines the influence of Aristotle’s ideas in medieval and early modern thought, leading him to the work of Immanuel Kant, who notes the inherently contradictory nature of “life in itself.” Along the way, Thacker shows how early modern philosophy’s engagement with the problem of life affects thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze, Georges Bataille, and Alain Badiou, as well as contemporary developments in the “speculative turn” in philosophy. At a time when life is categorized, measured, and exploited in a variety of ways, After Life invites us to delve deeper into the contours and contradictions of the age-old question, “what is life?”

Subject: When a loved one dies, the pain of loss can feel unbearable, especially in the case of a traumatizing death that leaves us shouting, 'NO!' with every fiber of our body. The process of grieving can feel wild and nonlinear and often lasts for much longer than other people, the nonbereaved, tell us it should. This book is a companion for life and most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. The author, who is also a bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field accompanies the reader along the heartbreaking path of love, loss, and grief. Through moving stories of her encounters with grief over decades of supporting individuals, families, and communities, as well as her own experience with loss, the author opens a space to process, integrate, and deeply honor our grief

WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to? Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in lifeâe(tm)s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.

The groundbreaking, bestselling classic, now available in a special fortieth-anniversary edition that includes a new Foreword from Eben Alexander, M.D., author of Proof of Heaven, and a new Afterword by the author. Raymond Moody is the “father” of the modern NDE (Near Death Experience) movement, and his pioneering work Life After Life transformed the world, revolutionizing the way we think about death and what lies beyond. Originally published in 1975, it is the groundbreaking study of one hundred people who experienced “clinical death” and were revived, and who tell, in their own words, what lies beyond death. A smash bestseller that has sold more than thirteen million copies around the globe, Life After Life introduced us to concepts—including the bright light, the tunnel, the presence of loved ones waiting on the other side—that have become cultural memes today, and paved the way for modern bestsellers by Eben Alexander, Todd Burpo, Mary Neal, and Betty Eadie that have shaped countless readers notions about the end life and the meaning of death.

The zombies are back. The humans are losing. One man has the answers how to stop it all. Too bad he's dead, and not talking. It was supposed to be a rebirth of the human civilization, but the anti-techs who came up with the zombie virus don't want civilization to come back. No safe zones. No military. No government. Everyone for themselves. A small group of survivors knows about the plan and is looking for a way to stop it. All they have to do is travel through zombie filled towns and get past the humans who are already succumbing to the idea that might makes right and no one is to be trusted.

"Study of over sixty homicide offenders who served long sentences before being released"--Foreword.

The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk trains her considerable wit and curiosity on the human soul. "What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that—the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die.

A reflection on Federico García Lorca’s life, his haunting death, and the fame that reinvigorated the marvelous in the modern world “A galaxy of critical insights into the cultural shock waves circling and crisscrossing Lorca’s execution and his unknown resting place, there is not a single book on Lorca like this one.”—Andrés Zamora, Vanderbilt University There is something fundamentally unfinished about the life and work of Federico García Lorca (1898–1936), and not simply because his life ended abruptly. Noël Valis reveals how this quality gives shape to the ways in which he has been continuously re-imagined since his death. Lorca’s execution at the start of the Spanish Civil War was not only horrific but transformative, setting in motion many of the poet’s afterlives. He is intimately tied to both an individual and a collective identity, as the people’s poet, a gay icon, and fabled member of a dead poets’ society. The specter of his violent death continues to haunt everything connected to Lorca, fueling the desire to fill in the gaps in the poet’s biography.

In the follow-up to Elisa Medhus’s My Son and the Afterlife—“a heartfelt, deeply moving story” (Eben Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of Proof of Heaven)—her son Erik tells his astounding story directly from the afterlife, describing in detail his death, transition, and spiritual renewal. My Life After Death begins on the tragic day when Erik Medhus took his own life. What follows is a moment-by-moment account of the spiritual life he discovers on the other side—told for the very first time in his own words as channeled by medium Jamie Butler and then transcribed by his mother Elisa. Overflowing with his signature honesty and candor, Erik describes more than just a visit to the afterlife. He personally walks us through the experience of dying, transitioning into spirit form, and reveals a detailed look at the life awaiting us on the other side. In this intimate and provocative memoir, crucial questions will finally be answered, including: What does it feel like to die? What is it like to become a spirit? Why and how do spirits communicate with the living? Is there a heaven? Ultimately, Erik’s story provides the answers that will help readers find solace and remove the fears surrounding death, showing that love has no boundaries and life does not truly end.