The Bomb Inside My Brain

"All heart, no politics this time around. Forty-two gut-ripping, heart-stomping, mind-stabbing essays about brain surgery, heartache, broken friendships, shattered families, drugs, religion, PTSD, and fatherhood. More raw emotion than you'd expect from the man his friends call the Iron Marshmallow. " -- Amazon.com

A first-generation Indian American explains how he had a full-on brain bleed at the age of 25, right before his brother's wedding; how he had to relearn even the most basic tasks; and how his family helped during his recovery. Original.

'Whenever I see Martino I am reminded of how little I know about life and death compared to him. How we don't know what is within us or what may lie on the other side. I hope it's as magical and beautiful as this book.' --Russell Brand When film producer Martino Sclavi began experiencing intense headaches, he attributed them to his frenetic lifestyle. As it turned out, he had grade 4 brain cancer and was given 18 months to live. After undergoing brain surgery - while awake - Martino found he had lost the ability to recognise words. His response was to close his eyes and begin to move his fingers across the keyboard to write this, an account of life before diagnosis and since. Defying all predictions Martino is still very much alive, words read out to him by the monotone of a computerised voice he calls Alex. But he must now live in a new way. This book - that he has written but cannot read - charts the effects of his experience: on his relationship with his young son, his marriage, his work and with himself. In the wake of his illness, everything must be reconfigured and Martino is made to question the habits, dreams and beliefs of his old life and confront the present. What he finds is strange and beautiful. Searching for the words between life and death, Sclavi shows that with determination and a subtle, persistent sense of humour, it is possible to change the story of our lives.

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are the enemys weapon of choice in Iraq, and to date they are the number-one killer of Coaliti on forces on the batt lefi eld. Their ever-increasing sophisti cati on is a challenge but not an insurmountable one. Generally speaking, IEDs are roadside bombs that threaten our Soldiers and logisti cal convoys taking much-needed supplies to them. Master Sergeant Ewell, a Combat Engineer, and Expert in the Tacti cs and Techniques the Enemy was using in Iraq to assemble, disguise and detonate IEDs, became one of the fi rst two Soldiers ever to make up a special team, whos mission was vital in the fi ght to fi nd and render safe the Improvised Explosive Devices, before they could unleash their deadly force upon other Soldiers, Convoys, and the local traffi c of Iraqi civilian commuters. In Iraq, he performed 59 dangerous missions, co-authored a fi rst of its kind manual used for the training of special teams that would have the mission of fi nding IEDs, was Blownup six diff erent ti mes and saved countless lives. A recipient of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart Medal. This is a powerful account of his experience during War, and his Post-War struggles with Severe Injuries and PTSD thru Poetry.

A Cambridge man wakes to find his home rendered strange, as if everything in it has been moved a fraction of a centimeter while he slept. In an irrational state he flees to the nearby international airport and purchases a ticket, certain that he is outrunning some horribly present danger. At the security checkpoint, the scanner's monitor clearly displays a cylindrical bomb in his carry-on luggage, a bag that he hastily had packed with traveling essentials and has at no point in memory left out of sight. The smiling security officers seem to be waving him through ...

In "The Redneck Manifesto", Goad elucidates redneck politics, religion, and values in his own unique way. "A furious, profane, smart, and hilariously smart-aleck defense of working-class white culture".--"Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel".

The debut novella from one of contemporary fiction's most exciting young voices, now in a new edition. Salem, Massachusetts, 1851: McGlue is in the hold, still too drunk to be sure of name or situation or orientation--he may have killed a man. That man may have been his best friend. Intolerable memory accompanies sobriety. A-sail on the high seas of literary tradition, Ottessa Moshfegh gives us a nasty heartless blackguard on a knife-sharp voyage through the fogs of recollection. They said I've done something wrong? . . . And they've just left me down here to starve. They'll see this inanition and be so damned they'll fall to my feet and pass up hot cross buns slathered in fresh butter and beg I forgive them. All of them . . . : the entire world one by one. Like a good priest I'll pat their heads and nod. I'll dunk my skull into a barrel of gin.

The author of the acclaimed Proust and the Squid follows up with a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies. A decade ago, Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid revealed what we know about how the brain learns to read and how reading changes the way we think and feel. Since then, the ways we process written language have changed dramatically with many concerned about both their own changes and that of children. New research on the reading brain chronicles these changes in the brains of children and adults as they learn to read while immersed in a digitally dominated medium. Drawing deeply on this research, this book comprises a series of letters Wolf writes to us—her beloved readers—to describe her concerns and her hopes about what is happening to the reading brain as it unavoidably changes to adapt to digital mediums. Wolf raises difficult questions, including: Will children learn to incorporate the full range of "deep reading" processes that are at the core of the expert reading brain? Will the mix of a seemingly infinite set of distractions for children’s attention and their quick access to immediate, voluminous information alter their ability to think for themselves? With information at their fingertips, will the next generation learn to build their own storehouse of knowledge, which could impede the ability to make analogies and draw inferences from what they know? Will all these influences change the formation in children and the use in adults of "slower" cognitive processes like critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that comprise deep reading and that influence both how we think and how we live our lives? How can we preserve deep reading processes in future iterations of the reading brain? Concerns about attention span, critical reasoning, and over-reliance on technology are never just about children—Wolf herself has found that, though she is a reading expert, her ability to read deeply has been impacted as she has become increasingly dependent on screens. Wolf draws on neuroscience, literature, education, and philosophy and blends historical, literary, and scientific facts with down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate complex ideas that culminate in a proposal for a biliterate reading brain. Provocative and intriguing, Reader, Come Home is a roadmap that provides a cautionary but hopeful perspective on the impact of technology on our brains and our most essential intellectual capacities—and what this could mean for our future.

A compassionate guide to healing from trauma through the power of giving back. If you’ve suffered a loss or trauma—perhaps a life-changing illness, the death of a loved one, or a sexual assault—you probably feel that life as you know it has changed forever. You’re dealing with intense, draining emotions as you try to negotiate a new normal, and you’re wondering if you’ll ever fully rebound. Courtney Clark has been there, and in The Giving Prescription, she shares a fresh approach to the healing journey: one focused on the fact that helping behaviors—like volunteering, donating, and advocating—can help survivors find their footing after a major loss. When you’re giving to others, you’re reconnecting with people, participating in something larger than yourself, taking on a new role, and perhaps even helping others who are going through the same experience you had. Each of these has the potential to strengthen your recovery and help you flourish following a trauma. Starting with an acknowledgment that everyone’s healing journey is different, Clark shares eight questions designed to help you reflect on what type of giving works best for you, and when you’ll be ready to try it. And as she draws from her own experiences with cancer and brain surgery as well as other real-life stories, she shows how understanding the power of helping others can transform your journey of recovery. “As a three-time cancer survivor and someone who interacts with others affected by cancer each and every day, I have been a long-time believer in the positive effects of philanthropic actions while on the road to recovery. The Giving Prescription offers a model, based on scientific research and the experiences of trauma survivors, that will help you to heal mentally and physically. Whether it’s cancer or another form of trauma that you have experienced, I believe that the information in this book will be incredibly valuable to you.” —Doug Ulman, president and CEO of the Livestrong Foundation www.thegivingprescription.com