The Silence Between Breaths

Passengers boarding the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston are bound for work, assignations, reunions, holidays or new starts, with no idea that their journey is about to be brutally curtailed. Holly has just landed her dream job, which should make life a lot easier than it has been, and Jeff is heading for his first ever work interview after months of unemployment. They end up sitting next to each other. Onboard customer service assistant Naz dreams of better things as he collects rubbish from the passengers. And among the others travelling are Nick with his young family who are driving him crazy; pensioner Meg and her partner setting off on a walking holiday and facing an uncertain future; Caroline, run ragged by the competing demands of her stroppy teenage children and her demented mother; and Rhona, unhappy at work and desperate to get home to her small daughter. And in the middle of the carriage sits Saheel, carrying a deadly rucksack...

How do you survive the unthinkable? Passengers boarding the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston are bound for work, reunions, holidays and new starts, with no idea that the journey is about to change their lives for ever... Holly has just landed her dream job and Jeff is heading for his first ever work interview. Onboard customer service assistant Naz dreams of better things as he collects rubbish from the passengers. And among the others travelling are Nick with his young family; pensioner Meg setting off on a walking holiday with her dog; Caroline, run ragged by the competing demands of her stroppy teenagers and her demented mother; and Rhona, unhappy at work and desperate to get home. And in the middle of the carriage sits Saheel, carrying a deadly rucksack . . . And in the aftermath, amidst the destruction and desolation, new bonds are formed, new friendships made... and we find hope in the most unlikely of places and among the most unlikely people. 'Cath Staincliffe gets into the heads of ordinary people and makes them extraordinary' Ann Cleeves 'Harrowing and humane. A real knockout' Ian Rankin 'Complex and satisfying' Sunday Times

A fictional story of four generations of a family with real life situations and historical facts... staged in Puerto Rico in the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century. It addresses real-life interactions between members of all four generations at different times in their lives... in situations we can all relate to in our real-lives. Also, it is educational in that it provides correct definitions and translations of Spanish/Puertorrican nicknames, food, and ingredients for different colloquial plates that are still prepared in this day and age. It portrays beliefs that some readers will identify with and others will just file it under fantasy... but it's fun and interesting. This is just the beginning... the end of it will be coming soon!

Beloved former ABC 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas reveals her alcohol addiction and anxiety disorder in a shockingly honest and emotional memoir. Winner of the Books for a Better Life Award in the First Book category Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw. Now, in BETWEEN BREATHS, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety--which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam--and how she dealt with this anxiety as she came of age, eventually turning to alcohol for a release from her painful reality. The now-A&E Network reporter reveals how she found herself living in denial about the extent of her addiction, and how she kept her dependency a secret for so long. She addresses her time in rehab, her first year of sobriety, and the guilt she felt as a working mother who could never find the right balance between a career and parenting. Honest and hopeful, BETWEEN BREATHS is an inspiring read.

Hayden Crewe is the hottest rockstar on the planet… …and I’m going to make him all mine. I’m tired of playing it safe. Of missing out and nursing my regrets instead of grabbing life by the balls. So, this time, even though I have everything to lose, I’m going for my rock star. After all, what more can break me? I’m already halfway to heartache. And hanging on by a thread. The one Hayden has pulled tight, wrapped around me. In our short time together, Hayden managed to play my heart and body beautifully. Now, this rollercoaster with my rockstar could be real. Beautiful. Fragile. But life isn’t done throwing me curveballs. We’re both hiding secrets, nursing our grief, and I can’t help but wonder if I’ll survive the final, glorious crash forced on us by fate and fickle fame. Don’t miss the chance to lose your heart to Briar, Hayden, and a very grumpy cat in this steamy saga of hope and love from a USA Today bestselling author.

Calm your worries and build your bravery — or just relax during a busy day or wind down before bed All day long, you breathe — in and out, in and out — without even thinking about it. But did you know that you can play with your breath, use it to take you on an adventure? All you have to do is find a comfy spot and close your eyes. Does your breath sound like ocean waves? Like the wind before a storm or a breeze at the start of spring? Can you feel it all the way down to the tips of your toes? By the time you open your eyes, you might just feel a little lighter, calmer, more relaxed. In Big Breath, William Meyer’s gentle prompts, alongside Brittany R. Jacobs’s wonderful illustrations, make meditation as fun as a game, but with big results.

A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR “A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love 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.

An old joke tells of a Jewish woman who treks to the Himalayas to seek an audience with a guru sitting in seclusion on a mountaintop. When at last she comes before him, she implores: "Sheldon, come home!" Rosie Rosenzweig became that Jewish mother—but in real life, the story has a different ending. Instead of asking her Buddhist son, Ben, to come home, Rosie accepts his invitation to find out about Buddhism firsthand. Together they visit retreat centers in Europe and Asia and meet leading meditation masters who are Ben's gurus: Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and Tibetan lamas Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. While struggling to come to terms with Ben's choice of a spiritual path so different from everything that she cherishes, Rosie finds that she is learning more about herself than she anticipated. The adventures of Rosie recounts take her from her Boston suburb to a Zen hermitage in France, an enclave of Tibetan Buddhists in Nepal, and finally to her own spiritual home in Jerusalem. Whether she is practicing mindfulness meditation, sharing a cup of tea with a Zen master, or worrying about bowing down to idols, Rosie is intent in her quest to find common ground between two ancient traditions, to deepen her understanding of her son, and to find a way to her own authentic experience of truth. Hers is a mission of peace that seeks to build a bridge of understanding between cultures and faiths while remaining true to her own Jewish identity.

Sudden, extreme deaths have always fascinated us-- and now more than ever as athletes and travelers rise to the challenges of high-risk sports and journeys on the edge. In this spellbinding book, veteran travel and outdoor sports writer Peter Stark reenacts the dramas of what happens inside our bodies, our minds, and our souls when we push ourselves to the absolute limits of human endurance. Combining the adrenaline high of extreme sports with the startling facts of physiological reality, Stark narrates a series of outdoor adventure stories in which thrill can cross the line to mortal peril. Each death or brush with death is at once a suspense story, a cautionary tale, and a medical thriller. Stark describes in unforgettable detail exactly what goes through the mind of a cross-country skier as his body temperature plummets-- apathy at ninety-one degrees, stupor at ninety. He puts us inside the body of a doomed kayaker tumbling helplessly underwater for two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes. He conjures up the physiology of a snowboarder frantically trying not to panic as he consumes the tiny pocket of air trapped around his face under thousands of pounds of snow. These are among the dire situations that Stark transforms into harrowing accounts of how our bodies react to trauma, how reflexes and instinct compel us to fight back, and how, why, and when we let go of our will to live. In an increasingly tamed and homogenized world, risk is not only a means of escape but a path to spirituality. As Peter Stark writes, "You must try to understand death intimately and prepare yourself for death in order to live a full and satisfying life." In this fascinating, informative book, Stark reveals exactly what we’re getting ourselves into when we choose to live-- and die-- at the extremes of endurance.

In the echo of silence that follows a loss, we often find ourselves standing on the precipice of an immense void, staring into the depths of grief. This void, though seemingly desolate and forbidding, is the landscape of our healing, a silent testament to the resilience of the human spirit. "Verses from the Void: Poetry for the Mourning Soul" is a journey through this terrain, an exploration of the multifaceted emotions and experiences we encounter when faced with the profound impact of loss. Each chapter in this collection is a beacon of light, illuminating a specific stage of the grieving process. We begin with "Early Grief," a poignant exploration of the initial shock and heartbreak that accompanies loss. The poems in this section serve as raw, candid depictions of the very first steps we take into the labyrinth of grief. "Memories and Nostalgia" and "The Void Whispers" mark the subsequent stages, delving into the heartrending pull of the past and the aching loneliness that seeps into the corners of our existence. These poems evoke images of cherished moments and the daunting silence that reverberates in their absence, respectively. Moving further into the labyrinth, we are met with "Anger and Betrayal" and "Depression and Despair," where the verses embody the turbulence of rage and the deep pits of sorrow. These are the dark valleys of our grief journey, where emotions, raw and unfiltered, rise like tidal waves. "Longing and Yearning" touches upon the deep-rooted desire for what once was, the yearning for the presence of the departed. Each verse echoes with the quiet whispers of longing, like a tender, heartfelt lament for the familiar, now lost. As we navigate the complexity of these emotions, we slowly tread into the realms of "Acceptance and Peace," a stage where the realization of loss transforms into a tranquil understanding. The verses here speak of a farewell - not a final goodbye, but an acceptance of a different form of presence, a continuation of love beyond the physical realm. The final chapter, "Resilience and Healing," represents the dawn breaking on the horizon of our journey. It is a testament to the indomitable human spirit that, even in the face of unimaginable loss, finds the strength to heal and grow. These poems speak of hope and renewal, of finding light in the heart of darkness. "Verses from the Void: Poetry for the Mourning Soul" is more than a collection of poems; it is a compassionate companion for those navigating the winding path of grief. It is an acknowledgement of the pain, a celebration of the memories, and ultimately, a beacon of hope towards healing and reconciliation. It is my sincere hope that these verses bring solace to your mourning soul, reminding you that even in the darkest nights, the dawn awaits.